The traditional attribution of this drawing to Pietro da Cortona was accepted by Briganti but Vitzthum in his 1963 review suggested that it was by Ferri. Davis catalogued it as Ferri, and suggested that it might relate to lost paintings of the Labours of Hercules mentioned in a letter of 1670 to Lorenzo Magalotti. Two drawings of the Choice of Hercules and a study of Hercules and Cacus, at London and Rome respectively, may also relate to these two lost pictures, B.W. Davis, op. cit., p. 233, Sloane no. 5237-43, pl. 15 and p. 300, F.C. no. 125159, pl. 88. However, as Davis points out, the subject of this drawing is not a specific Labour of Hercules, but rather a celebration of his achievements, with animals symbolising eight of the twelve Labours at his feet