The date of this Royal Collection portrait has not yet been established with certainty. It was perhaps painted to record the Princess's appearance at an entertainment in The Hague early in 1655, where she appeared 'very well dressed, like an Amazon'. The reference to the Amazon refers to the brightly coloured feathered cape for which the Tupimabá people of sixteenth and seventeenth century Brazil were famous. Such feathered mantles appealed to Europeans for their cultural context and for their technical craftsmanship. 

Over her white satin bodice Mary, Princess of Orange wears a feathered cloak. She carries a riding switch and wears an elaborately feathered and jewelled turban. In the seventeenth century such cloaks were worn by Indians living in the North-East of Brazil, which was a Dutch colony between 1630-54, ruled by Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen. The feathers were probably imported into The Netherlands and made up into cloaks in Europe.

The quality of the paintnig suggests that this is not the primary version. Another version by Hanneman, now in the Mauritshuis, was produced as a posthumous portrait in 1664, apparently for Princess Mary's son. Other versions are known.