[1][2][3] The painting is believed to be a copy of a work by Felice Ficherelli that depicts the early Roman martyr, Saint Praxedis or Praxedes.

It is closely related to a work by Ficherelli from 1640 to 1645, now in the Collection Fergnani in Ferrara, and is generally assumed to be a copy of it (though see below for an alternative interpretation).

Vermeer's two early history paintings, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary and Diana and Her Companions, are dated by almost all art historians to 1654–6, although opinions differ as to which is earlier.

[11] However it was included in an exhibition of Vermeer's work held in Rome in 2012–13, curated by Wheelock, Liedtke, and Sandrina Bandera.

[13] Some art market commentators speculated that doubt about the attribution to Vermeer may have contributed to the relatively low price.

[14][15] From March 2015 it has been on display in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, labelled as "attributed to Johannes Vermeer".

He also noted similarities between the depiction of the saint's face and the figure in Vermeer's A Girl Asleep and argued that the painter's conversion to Catholicism could have given him an interest in the subject matter.

In 2014, Christie's suggested that this could reflect experimentation by Vermeer, a young artist modeling and adapting techniques in the original.