Probably completed by 1620, this painting was commissioned by the Marquis Giacomo Filippo Spada for the church of Santa Caterina Martire in Faenza. In 1632, it was transferred to the church of Santa Francesca Romana in Brisighella.
The composition draws inspiration from Titian’s famous but now-lost original for the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. The subject is the assassination of Pietro da Verona, a Dominican preacher and inquisitor, murdered in 1253 by order of Milanese Cathar heretics. Today the painting is housed at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna.
