This relief modelled in clay depicts the martyrdom of sa female saint attached to a column. The saint can probably be recognised as Saint Bibiana, a Roman virgin martyr saint who died for her faith in the fourth century. According to legend, she was tied to a pillar and whipped to death.
The scene was represented on several occasions in the 17th century, most famously by Pietro da Cortona in a fresco painted in the church of Santa Bibiana in Rome between 1624 and 1626. His pupil Ciro Ferri reinterpreted his master's composition in a drwaing concerved in Princeton University Art Museum (Museum number: x1945-70). A copy of this drawing, possibly made by one of Ciro Ferri's pupil is also concerved in the Musee thes Beaux in Lille (inv. Pl. 228).
Between 1673 and 1686, on the request of grand duke of Tuscany Cosimo III, Ciro Ferri and the sculptor Ercole Ferrata created a small teached drawing and sculpture to a a group of young artists from Florence. It is likely that this relief was made in this context, after Ciro Ferri's drawing, by one of the Florentine sculptors.