In 1951, the Edinburgh architect, Basil Spence, commissioned Graham Sutherland to design a vast tapestry, 65 feet by 44 feet, to hang behind the altar of the newly-built Coventry Cathedral. Its subject, 'Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph' was suggested by Spence and Sutherland created three full-size cartoons before the design was finally accepted. The bottom of the tapestry had proved a difficulty for the Anglican committee as the Roman Catholic Sutherland had introduced a pieta and this was eventually replaced by a single panel depicting the Crucifixion.

The present drawings are studies for the lower panel of the tapestry and were executed in 1954 when the Crucifixion panel had been agreed upon by the committee. By the third and final cartoon, Christ's the arms have been fully raised and the lower bar removed below His feet. The final design was ready by February 1958 but the tapestry took another three years to weave and was finally was consecrated on 25 May 1962.
(See R. Berthoud, Graham Sutherland A Biography, London, 1982, pp.201-222)