A parrot eating grapes on a fragment of a classical relief

This painting may be inspired by Pliny the Elder's account of Zeuxis and Parrhasios, in which the two artists compete to create the most lifelike image. Zeuxis paints grapes, which are so realistic they attract birds. In the seventeenth century, this ancient trope was often adopted by artists seeking to display their talents.

The uncannily life-like figures depicted in the illusionistic marble relief sculpture might also refer in this context to the paragone, or rivalry between painting and sculpture for mimetic superiority, a topic of debate among artists and art theorists during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.