The votive painting was commissioned by the Brno townspeople as a thank you for the protection of the Virgin Mary during the Prussian siege of the town in 1742 from the painter Josef Tadeáš Rotter. The painting was then donated to the Augustinian Order, in whose collection it can still be found. A copy of the  painting is a fresco in the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Old Brno, which bears the inscription: ‘A copy of the painting by which the city of Brno, liberated from the Prussian-Saxon siege on 7 April 1742, through the councillors of Brno, presented the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Liberator as a token of gratitude in eternal memory’.