The text comes from Canto V of Dante's Inferno: Francesca, betrothed to the deformed Gioncotto Malatesta, fell in love with his younger brother Paolo. One day inspired by a romance concerning Lancelot, they embraced. Caught in flagrante delicto, they were stabbed to death by Giancotto Malatesta. They were then condemened to be for ever swept along on the wind in the second circle of Hell.
Following the fashion set by Flaxman in England whose illustrations for the Divina Commedia were published in 1807, Giani drew many compositions after the poem. Prompted by the request of his friend, G.C. Machiavelli in a letter of 12 April 1805, Giani started work on several compositions which are now in the Gabinetto Nazionale, Rome, some of which were exhibited in Faenza, Palazzo Milzetti, L'età neoclassica a Faenza, 1780-1820, 1979, no. 120.
A drawing with the murderer appearing on the right is in the Ratjen Collection, Vaduz, P. Dreyer, Stiftung Ratjen, Italienische Zeichnungen des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts, exhib. cat., Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, 1977, no. 115, illustrated.