The item had been donated to the brotherhood by Philippe de Mézières (or Filippo Maser), chancellor of the Kingdom of Cyprus and Jerusalem in 1369, and soon became the object of veneration in the city.

All survive today, aside from that by Perugino, and were donated to the Gallerie dell'Accademia in 1820 after the fall of the Venetian Republic and Napoleonic suppressions.

The painting shows the miracle of the healing of a madman through the relic of the Holy Cross, held by the Patriarch of Grado Francesco Querini, which took place in the Palazzo a San Silvestro on the Canal Grande, near the Rialto Bridge.

The miraculous event is relegated to a wide loggia in the upper left corner: most of the canvas is occupied by a veduta with a great number of characters and naturalistic items.

Like the current version (dating from 1591) it had a double row of shops at the sides and, at the top, a movable boardwalk needed to allow the passage of the taller vessels.