Romanelli was the most talented of Pietro da Cortona's students. Like his master, he enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini and his uncle, Pope Urban VIII. The exile of the Barberini to France in 1646 thus came as a terrible blow to Romanelli, who soon followed his patrons to Paris. Romanelli, who brought with him a classicized version of Cortona's Roman Baroque style, was enormously influential in France.

This canvas was painted during Romanelli's second stay in Paris (1655-1656), when he decorated the apartments of the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, at the Louvre.

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