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Piero was favoured by some of the smaller city-states like Urbino and Rimini in central Italy. For Sigismondo Malatesta, the lord of Rimini, he painted this devotional subject in the family's church known as the Tempio Malatestiano. This building was completely remodeled by one of the great architects and theoreticians of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti, who almost certainly had contact with Piero during the years their careers overlapped in Rimini, Urbino, and Rome. This fresco has suffered severely over time and can only be read in its basic outline. The young prince is kneeling in profile before his patron saint, the old bearded Sigismund, whose placement is not strictly frontal, as might be expected. St Sigismund bears a resemblance to the recently deceased Holy Roman Emperor by that name, which may add another layer of meaning to this work.
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