Born in Naples in 1703, and a pupil of Solimena, Giaquinto by the 1740s was the leading painter of the Roman Rococo school. Later he worked in Spain and established himself as Europe’s foremost fresco painter after Giambattista Tiepolo. This is one of six studies he made for a fresco in the dome of a church. The light and airy composition has been painted in short, rapid brushstrokes.