While the depiction of this subject on a large canvas was painted between 1938 and 1939, its constituent elements were worked out by Sassu in various studies, in sanguine or pencil, during his period in prison between 1937 and 1938. In the work presented here we find the compositional rhythm and balance between the parts that the artist so admired in Poussin’s compositions, which Sassu had an opportunity to study at the Louvre in 1934-35. The adoption of a horizontal format, where the color appears more classically composed, could be seen to arise from the artist’s intention to give the historical scene a deliberately narrative structure.