
Considered to be one of the masterpieces of his youth, Hagenauer cast this bronze while a student at the Vienna Academy, where he studied between 1754 and 1759. The authorship and date is verified by an inscription found at the base of the stake: IOANNES HAGENAUER SALISBURGENSIS INVENIT ED FECIT 1756. This signature appears on several of Hagenauer's early works.