Related to Bouchardon's project for the unexecuted tomb for Cardinal de Fleury. After the Cardinal de Fleury's death in 1742 a competition was organized between Lemoyne and Bouchardon. The commission eventually went to the former, though both artists presented their projects at the respective Salons of 1743 and 1745.
The figure of the Cardinal praying is that of the Cardinal Cienfuegos whom Bouchardon saw when in Rome. The same figure is already found on a preliminary project for the same monument formerly in the Mariette collection and sold at Christie's, King Street, 4 July 1995, lot 131.