This picture is sold with a photocopy of a certificate by Dr. Ludwig Burchard, dated 25 April 1928, as the work of Rubens and datable c.1618. We are grateful to Professor Julius Held for confirming the attribution, judging from a photograph and X-radiographs. The latter seem to reveal that the present picture was painted over another composition. A copy is recorded in the Residenzmuseum, Munich (on panel, 74.5 x 59.5cm.; 1924 catalogue no.323), and another was in the possession of the Berlin dealer Gaston von Mallmann before 1928 (panel, 78 x 64cm.); a drawn copy is in the Louvre (inv. no.20389)