The painting, shown in the Venice Biennale of 1952, the "Realism Biennale," where it was purchased by the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, presents one of Sassu’s constantly recurring themes: the dialectic between the depiction of contemporary reality and the rendition of myth in terms of the current moment. The artist himself recalls: "I painted The Marthyrs of Piazzale Loreto in August 1944, immediately after having seen the mockery which the Republic of Salò scum made of the bodies of our brothers. And yet in me, in the ardor and eagerness that excited me, in the effort to express what I had seen, there was a great peace and not hate, but an immense sadness for this fight of brother against brother. From those bleeding, inert bodies rose an admonition: peace, peace."