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The engraving depicts the interior of a ruined church or temple with figures, the central one kneeling before a tall candelabrum. The subject, although unclear, seems to represent a pagan temple given over to Christian worship.
This print is documented in a contract dated 24 October 1481 in which Bernardus de Prevedari (Bernardo Prevedari) was commissioned by Matheus de Fidelibus to engrave a design on paper by Bramante which was to be completed in two months. Bramante's name appears beneath the cadelabrum, though Prevedari's does not.
This is the largest engraving from a single plate to have been made in the fifteenth century.
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