Her first was completed when she was seventeen and around the time she was raped by one of her father's students; this particular painting was done when she was approaching sixty years old and is her last known dated work.

[1] The story derives from the biblical book of Daniel, in which a virtuous woman is set upon by two lustful older men.

They surprise her while she is bathing and demand that she submit to their lewd intentions, threatening to publicly accuse her if she does not.

The theme was commonly used in art from the 16th century and was often used as an opportunity to portray the nude female form.

[4] By 1945 it was in the Azzolini collection as a work by Elisabetta Sirani, from which it was left to the Italian nation and designated for the regional gallery in Bologna.