This hand-painted poster by Carmelo Chines, pasted with overlaid handwritten details of the performance, advertised a puppet show in Taormina, Sicily, in about 1920. It is illustrated with a scene from Guido of the Holy Cross, a story invented by Catanese puppeteers in the late 19th century without any basis in Mediaeval or Renaissance literary sources, concerning Guido, a strong knight who kills monsters and dragons, and loves Asimira, a Saracen princess. Her father the Emperor Roget of Costantinople, imprisons and tortures him for several years in the Tower of the Secret. Having eventually escaped, like Edmond Dantés in Dumas's Count of Montecristo, he kills Roget, finds the princess and is reunited with his sons Leondoro and Assuero. At the end of his life he became a monk and saint, and performed many miracles.

The episode depicted on the poster is one of his miracles - Luisa and her child Eugenio being saved by the lion Guido of the Holy Cross. Luisa and his son Eugenio are imprisoned and condemned to death by King Arobante of Calcutta. The good lion of Guido (similar to the pig of Saint Anthony) saves them, killing Arobante (depicted here wearing his crown), and his general Archiro. Immediately after the miracle, all the people of Calcutta became faithful Christians.

This traditional type of Sicilian puppetry known as Opera dei Pupi developed in Italy during the 19th century and was typically full of exciting action, recreating battles between Christians and Saracens, or telling the stories of Italian poems or the lives of saints. It was played by wooden marionettes of two types, from Palermo and Catania, suspended on iron rods. Palermo puppets were about 90cms tall, weighed less than 15 kilos and had bendable knee joints, while Catanian puppets could be as tall as 140cms, weigh 35 kilos, had stiff knees and fixed swords, and were operated by perfomers stading above the stage on a bridge concealed by he proscenium arch.