Andrea Boscoli was a pupil of Santi di Tito, who stressed the importance of drawing from nature to many young artists at Florence’s Accademia del Disegno. After about 1601, however, Boscoli’s work began to show a revival of Mannerist elements such as elongated proportions, expressive pathos, and emphatic diagonals, all of which are evident in his Martyrdom of St. Andrew.

St. Andrew is said to have initially been a disciple of John the Baptist and then one of the first to follow Jesus. He preached as far as Scythia, but also throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and the Balkan region. Under the emperor Nero, Andrew is said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross in the city of Patras in Greece, probably in the 60s C.E. His relics, which consist of the small finger and part of the cranium, are kept in the Church of St. Andrew in Patras. Today, St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Greece, Russia, Romania, and the cities of Amalfi in Italy, and Luqa on Malta.