The work is taken from the homonymous fresco by the Bolognese painter Guido Reni (1575-1642) made in 1614 on the ceiling of the Casino Pallavicini Rospigliosi in Rome, decorated with reliefs of Roman sarcophagi of the II and III centuries, linked to the theme of death and love, built on the ruins of the Baths of Constantine by the powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese, protector of Caravaggio and great collector, nephew of Pope Paul V who resided in the nearby Quirinale.

The fresco by this extraordinary Bolognese artist, whose 380th anniversary of his death occurs, working in Rome in the decoration of the Vatican palaces, in the Marches, in Mantua and in Naples, is considered one of the masterpieces of Roman Classicism of the Baroque era.

The Varennese version is an interesting transposition of the 19th century made as a fake tapestry on canvas of imposing dimensions, over 3 meters in length, in total correspondence, in the subject and in the arrangement of the characters, to the original.

The mythological characters depict, as evidenced by the Conservator of the museum Anna Ranzi , Apollo driving the golden chariot of the sun, pulled by four horses that hover in the air, preceded by Aurora chasing away the darkness, flanked by a putto with a burning flame that lights up the scene and represents twilight, while the Hours dance around the Sun.

The subject derives from similar compositions conceived by Raphael, but revisited in a Bolognese key by Reni. These mythological themes are also appreciated and re-proposed during Neoclassicism and during the nineteenth century, as evidenced by this late nineteenth-century version.

The work, relocated for this occasion in the entrance hall of the villa's staircase , was located in another room not visible to the public.