After the death of Jan van den Hoecke in 1651, Teniers became the keeper of the outstanding collection amassed by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Leopold spent a vast fortune on the work of contemporary Dutch masters, such as Frans Snyders, Daniel Seghers and Pieter Thijs, as well as acquiring works from the Italian Renaissance previously in the collections of other great art patrons such as Charles I and the Venetian Bartolomeo della Nave. In the 1660s 243 of these paintings were chosen for inclusion in the Theatrum Pictorium, a catalogue of his most prized works. For this book Teniers personally prepared small models in oil of each of the chosen pieces to be used by the engravers. The present painting is one of these models, sadly the whereabouts of Palma's portrait from which it was taken is unknown.