Poelenburgh was a Roman Catholic and (like many Italianate painters) a native of Utrecht, the most Catholic of Dutch cities. He studied there with Abraham Bloemaert before travelling to Rome in 1617, where he remained until 1627. Poelenburgh enjoyed an international reputation during his lifetime: working for Cosimo II de’ Medici in Florence in 1620–21 and for Charles I in London off and on from 1637 to 1641. The rest of his career was spent in Utrecht, where he received important commissions from local aristocrats and from Prince Fredrick Henry of Orange. One of a pair of panels, late works by the artist depicting erotic scenes in landscape, one from the Old Testament (Lot and his Daughters, CW 143, 402598) and this one from mythology. The subject here may include the episode of Callisto, who is discovered by Diana to be pregnant and turned into a bear. If so the woman at the right hand end is Callisto seeking to cover her shame.