Maarten van Heemskerck, a Netherlandish artist who stayed several years in Rome (1532–36), became widely known throughout Europe from the nearly six hundred prints made after his designs. The present sheet is an exceptionally fine example of his draftsmanship, with a daring diagonal composition in which the figures are in full motion. They reveal his admiration for classical sculpture and paintings by Michelangelo and Giulio Romano. A praying man, confronted by the temptations of worldliness (symbolized by the globe) and by the Seven Deadly Sins (represented on the scalloped edge of the rug), is protected from Satan's burning arrows by the female personification of faith. Van Heemskerck may have developed the unusual subject in collaboration with the printmaker and religious philosopher Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert (1522–1590), who engraved the design for publication.