Boeckhorst left his native Münster to settle in Antwerp circa 1626, where he entered Rubens' workshop and may have been a pupil of Jacob Jordaens. He travelled to Italy twice. He also designed book illustrations for the Plantin publishing house in Antwerp.
The composition of the present lot is possibly inspired by Rubens' picture of the same subject in the John & Marble Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida (M. Jaffé, Rubens, Catalogo completo, Milan, 1989, no. 266, illustrated), or Lucas Vorsterman's engraving after the painting