A landscape with ruins evoking the city of Rome, where Saint Seraphia was buried in the second century A.D.

Saint Seraphia was a Christian virgin and martyr born in Antioch, Syria, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. She was persecuted fdor her beliefs and was twice saved from the martyrdom ordered by the Roman prefect, Berilus. Finally, she was whipped and decapitated. The scene depicted by Lorraine shows the moment when the saint is buried by Saint Sabine in her own tomb at the Piazza de Vincidiano in Rome.

The top of the sarcophagus bears the motto: SEPULTURA-S-SABIN. SEPELIRI. IVBET SANCTE SERAPE.

This work was sent to the landscape gallery at the Buen Retiro Palace of Felipe IV (1605-1665) and is a companion to Landscape with Moses saved from the waters of the Nile (P2253), The Archangel Raphael and Tobias (P2255) and Landscape with the Embarkation of Saint Paula Romana at Ostia (P2254), which are also in the Prado Museum Collection.