This sculpted group portrays an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses. After Cassiopeia recklessly claims to be more beautiful than the Nereids, her daughter, the lovely princess Andromeda, is offered up as prey to a sea monster to atone for these words. The hero Perseus flies to her rescue, saving her and killing the monster. He is depicted here freeing her from her chains before marrying her.

Joseph Chinard, a sculptor from Lyon, created this work for a competition organised in 1786 by the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome, where he stayed a few years to refine his skills. Participants had to model a group from terracotta featuring two figures illustrating a subject selected at random by a jury, within a given time limit. Chinard won the prize with this creation, ahead of German artist Gottfried Schadow. The rules of the competition stated that his work had to remain in the Academy's collections, but a few years later he obtained the right to create copies for those who wished to commission them. He then created this second version, which includes certain variations and sits on a circular plinth which is itself very finely sculpted. A marble version of the scene, which was never completed, can also be found in the museum's collections.