The present picture has long been untraced and was published by Berenson on the basis of a photograph sent to him in 1955. Giordana Canova, who also only knew the painting from the same photograph, dates it to the 1540s or 1550s; she points out its quasi-archaeological and deliberately profane character, the male torso having the muscularity of antique sculpture while Proserpine's classical costume is a creation of the theatrical taste of the 16th century