This is related to the signed picture of comparable size in the J.P. Getty Museum, Malibu, A.W. Lowenthal, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, Doornspijk, 1986, no. A-44, pl. 58, colour pl. XI. Lowenthal dates the picture to circa 1606-10, and suggests it may have been a pendant to Jupiter and Danaë in the Louvre, Lowenthal, op.cit., 1986, no. A-45, pl. 59. The drawing differs from the picture in minor details, such as the depiction of Diana rather than a god to the right of Saturn, and the form of the frieze of the canopy above the bed. Lowenthal lists two related sheets: a study for the figures at the upper right at Leiden and a drawing of Venus in the Forge of Vulcan at St. Louis, Lowenthal, op.cit., 1986, pls. 60-1. A comparable picture of the same subject, with the composition reversed, dated 1601 is in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, Lowenthal, op.cit., 1986, no. A-18, pl. 28. A preparatory study for the picture is at Florence, Lowenthal, op.cit., 1986, pl. 28. The coupled figures of Mars and Venus have almost been entirely excised in the Uffizi drawing, a more drastic censorship than that imposed on the present study. Lowenthal notes that Wtewael was inspired by earlier depictions of the subject in the prints of Goltzius and Spranger of the 1580s, W.L. Strauss, Hendrick Goltzius 1558 - 1617; The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, New York, 1977, nos. 216 and 262. The figure of Saturn would seem to have been inspired by Goltzius' chiaroscuro woodcut of Saturn. Wtewael made a number of highly finished drawings very similar in composition and often of comparable scale, to pictures and these may have been intended as presentation drawings to prospective patrons, Lowenthal, op.cit., 1986, nos. A-4, 17, 18, 21, 29 and 38, pls. 5-6, 26, 28-9, 32-4, 41-2, 52-3. This drawing probably served a similar purpose. Anne Lowenthal has seen the original and confirmed the attribution. In her publication on the Getty picture, she describes the subject with its other depictions throughout the centuries and gives a detailed account of the objects shown in Wtewael's composition.