As is customary in works by Willem van Leefdael (active between 1650 and 1685), to whom this has been attributed, the scene is framed by a with a complex composition, featuring garlands of flowers intertwined with conches, atlantes and cartouches. This weaver also created a series of works in the Spanish Royal Collections. One of them, Adonis Falls Into A Deep Sleep, based its composition on the same cartoon which was created by Jan Boeckhorst (1605-1668), a German painter who settled in Antwerp in 1626 where he plied his trade in the workshops of Peter Paul Rubens (1557-1640) and Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678). The only difference with the work in hand is the Latin inscription (MARS CORRIVALI SVO MORTEM PREPARAT) and its position.

As the text indicates, Mars, kitted out in armour and helmet—his attributes as the god of war—is preparing the death of his rival Adonis by means of a wild boar. In his Metamorphoses Ovid tells how Venus and Persephone had to share Adonis’ love in compliance with a verdict from the muse Calliope. However, the goddess of love convinced him not to go to meet the queen of the underworld. In revenge for the slight, Persephone denounced him to Mars—Venus’ lover—who, in a fit of jealousy, turned into a boar and killed Adonis with his tusks.