Lauri trained under his father, Balthasar Lawers - who was known as Balthasar Lauri in Italy - and with his brother-in-law, Angelo Caroselli. His activity as a painter is recorded from around 1650, and by 1654 he was a member of the Academy of Saint Luke, becoming president in 1685-6 at the height of his career.

Lauri worked with many prominent landscape artists, painting the figures in compositions by, amongst others, Claude Lorraine, Viviano Codazzi and Filippo Gagliardi. The effect of his close collaboration with Gaspar Dughet, dating from their work together on the decoration of the Gallery of Alexander VII in the Quirinal Palace in Rome where they painted the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel (see L. Salerno, ibid, p.684), can be seen in the present work which, while absorbing some of Dughet's compositional features, is handled with the subtlety of tone, lightness and elegance that characterizes Lauri's mythological paintings.