The study is preparatory for Baglione's altarpiece of the Martydom of Saint Agatha, now in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta, Malta. There are a number of changes between the compositional sketch and the finished work, but this is fairly typical for Baglione. A number of common details -- the action of binding the saint, the semi-recumbent figure at lower left -- point to the connection between the drawing and painting, and the painting is Baglione's only work with this subject.
Inscribed in pen and black ink in a later hand at lower center: Domenich.o.
Polakovits, Mathias, 1921-1987, former owner.