This early engraving by Marcantonio is dated 1508 and thus predates his arrival in Rome around 1510, where he would join Raphael's workshop. It has traditionally been thought to be based on a design by Mantegna, but no drawings related to this composition are known today. For the final composition of the print, Marcantonio may have drawn on several other visual sources that he would have seen in Venice and Florence. The figure of Mars suggests his knowledge of Michelangelo's drawing of the Belvedere Torso and possibly of the cartoon for the Battle of Cascina. The figure of Venus echoes the female nudes of his own engraving known as 'The Dream of Raphael' (Bartsch 359), presumably of the same date, while Dürer's engraving Hercules at the Crossroads (see lot 8) provided a model for the central tree.
The present impression of the first state is a great rarity, and precedes several slightly later changes to the plate, such as the addition of Medusa's head to the shield, of a quiver of arrows at lower right and a flaming torch held by Venus, as well as alterations to the tree branches and the distant landscape.