The main iconographic themes in the funerary chapel of Agostino Chigi was resurrection and ascension of the soul to heaven.

A young assistant sculptor, Raffaello da Montelupo recorded in his autobiography that he completed the statue around 1523/24.

Between 1652 and 1656 Gian Lorenzo Bernini restored the chapel, and created two new statues (Habakkuk and the Angel, Daniel and the Lion) to fill the remaining empty niches.

The surroundings are carefully detailed especially the tangled roots and plants below the prophet's feet and the part of the tree which grows up behind.

John Shearman thought that it was most likely planned for one of the two niches by the entrance which means that its present position is probably correct.