It represents Konstantinos Kanaris (in front) and Andreas Pipinos at Chios, as they were sailing on board a fireboat towards the Ottoman flagship of admiral Nasuhzade Ali Pasha.

The Greek War of Independence stirred Romantic artists in Post-Napoleonic Europe, including Eugène Delacroix in his painting The Massacre at Chios (1824), musician Gioachino Rossini in his opera Le siège de Corinthe (1826) and many writers, such as Victor Hugo, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron (who died in Greece during the war).

Civiletti was apparently inspired by the recently published Scene Elleniche antica e nuova Grecia, written by Angelo Brofferio, which included a description of the burning of the Ottoman flagship off Chios.

For Civiletti, the topic may have resonated with the nationalistic fervor in Italy after its unification; in retrospect however, the individualistic firebrands could also be viewed as anarchist patriots.

Initially placed in the gardens of Villa Giulia in Palermo, it was later moved to its current location, where it is displayed, albeit in a vandalized state, in a small Neo-Moorish pavilion in the Giardino Inglese public park.