From a noble family, Agnes was martyred in the 3rd century for refusing to marry the son of a Roman prefect. The saint, wedded to Christ, appears accompanied by the mystical lamb, a symbol of the Messiah. By means of an the dramatic staging and the ecstatic face of the saint, the painter brings out the link between the two protagonists and symbolizes the saint's communion with the divinity. Stanzione was a leading exponent of the Neapolitan painting of the mid 17th century, with its fusion of naturalism and a classicism indebted to the influence of Caravaggio and Guido Reni.