This is a preparatory modello for one of the series of fifty-six large canvases illustrating the life of Saint Bruno and other episodes in the history of the Carthusian order which Carducho painted between 1626 and 1632 for the Carthusian monastery of El Paular, near Segovia. Saint Hugh dreamt that heavenly spirits built a temple and houses at Chartreuse in his diocese, to which stars guided them. Saint Bruno followed this omen by founding his monastery there.