These angels (its companion hangs adjacent) hold symbols of the Passion - the events associated with Christ's suffering and death. This angel carries the tablet inscribed "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, which was placed on the cross, above Christ's head. The paintings probably belonged to a series of seven angels carrying the seven symbols of Christ's Passion, most likely painted for a church or other ecclesiastical building.From 1612 to 1627 Vouet worked in Rome, mainly on religious commissions, many of them still to be seen in churches there. After he returned to Paris, his idealized Italianate style came to dominate French painting.