Held (loc. cit, 1946) once considered the painting to have been begun by Panneels and retouched by Rubens, but in a letter dated 10 June 1972 he revised his opinion stating that he believed it to have been painted by Rubens c. 1630 after his return from England. Judging by the elaborate inscription on the print, he thinks Rubens may have given the painting to Panneels as a reward for taking charge of the studio during his absence abroad.

A related drawing in Princeton was published as Rubens by Ludwig Burchard and Roger d'Hulst in Rubens Drawings, 1963, no. 84. Held (ibid., 1946) called it Panneels but later thought it to be by an unidentifiable pupil, while Michael Jaffé (Rubens as a draughtsman, book review, The Burlington Magazine, CVII, no. 748, July 1965, p. 379) attributed it to van Dyck. Held believes the Princeton drawing may recall an original drawing by Rubens now lost.
A related composition in the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania, is considered by Held (loc. cit., 1980) to be a studio repetition known from the present slightly curtailed version (meaning that the present picture has been cut down at the left edge).

Jean-Pierre de Bruyn publishes this picture as the work of Erasmus Quellinus, probably painted c. 1630-5 while in Rubens' workshop, and compares it stylistically to the artist's Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges