The Vision of Saint Eustace, other scenes with tests of his faith beyond

Placidus, as Eustace was called before his conversion, was a Roman soldier in Emperor Trajan's army. While hunting a stag in the forest, a crucifix appeared between the animal's antlers and he heard the voice of Christ. Falling to his knees, Placidus vowed to convert to the Christian faith. Following his baptism that same night, he took the name Eustace. A series of trials followed to test his and his family's faith: when they left Rome by ship the captain kidnapped Eustace's wife Theopistis, Eustace lost all his wealth, his servants were stricken by the plague, and his children were abducted. The family was eventually reunited, but after refusing to worship the Roman gods, Emperor Hadrian condemned them to be burnt inside a bull-shaped bronze furnace.

Marten de Vos, the leading history painter in Antwerp in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, had a large and successful studio. He spent much of the 1550s traveling in Italy and presumably visited Rome, Florence and Venice, where, according to Carlo Ridolfi, he spent time working in the studio of Tintoretto. By 1558 he was back in Antwerp, where he was made a master in the guild of Saint Luke.