The painting was commissioned by Tommaso Rangone, the “grand guardian” of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, from Tintoretto as part of a series of large canvases depicting Venice's acquisition of the body of Saint Mark.

In places, the work appears unfinished (e.g. the tiles of floor and the cornices are still visible through some clothing and figures).

The foreshortening is accentuated by the tiles, the wall tombs, and finally the rays of light that emerge from the crypt in the background.

[3] Like its companion piece, Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice, the composition exemplifies Tintoretto's preference for dramatic effects of perspective and light.

According to the art historian Thomas Nichols, "the linear logic of the emptied, boxlike perspective vistas is undermined by an irrational play of light and shade.