Although he spent most of his adult life living in Paris, the painter and graphic artist Konstanty Brandel often visited his native Poland and continued to consider himself a Polish artist. His work may be described as Symbolist and has much in common with that of figures such as Odilon Redon and Gustave Doré, although Hieronymus Bosch, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Francisco de Goya have also been cited as possible influences.

Brandel’s imagery often includes architecture, particularly Gothic cathedrals fantastically interpreted, with exaggerated and highly improbable structures, scale and perspective. This image appears to be taken from a viewpoint high up in the transept of a cathedral, looking down on the crossing.