The work was executed, like Saints Andrew and Jerome, for the first Sala del Magistrato al Sale in the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi at Rialto, and was commissioned by the magistrates Giorgio Venier and Alvise Foscarini who, when they left their posts on 13 September 1551 and 1 May 1552, respectively, donated a votive painting for their office, as was the custom. The painting must have been painted between these dates. In the iconographically anticonformist and unusual composition, the female figure is bravely straddling a dragon, her pose communicating great virtuosity, recoiling as she extends towards her saviour, reflected in the shining armour. In his pensive attitude, Saint Louis to the extreme right constitutes a highly effective theatrical prop. The way in which the figure in the bulky episcopal surplice fringed with lilies pivots with punctilious elegance through his left foot allows us to perceive the stratification of Parmigianino-like suggestions mediated by a neo-Salvati current.