In a report which he has prepared on the present picture, Dr. John Spike points out that the story of Daedalus and Icarus seems to have enjoyed a particular vogue among painters in the first half of the seventeenth century, being depicted by Carlo Saraceni (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples), Anthony van Dyck (National Gallery, Ottawa), Andrea Sacchi (Palazzo Rosso, Genoa) and (in a lost work in his prima maniera) by Guercino. It seems to have been particularly popular with Caravaggio's followers, being painted on at least three occasions by Orazio Riminaldi. Dr. Spike dates the present picture c.1635-40, comparing it with other works datable to the artist's Roman years such as the Concert in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj and The Repudiation of Hagar in the Palacio Real, Madrid, and points out that that it was only during the 1630s, when he was most faithful to the influence of Caravaggio, that Preti chose subjects from outside Holy Scripture at all regularly