The work is part of a series of fourteen octagons with stories taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses painted by Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto (1518-1594), for the Venetian banker Vettore Pisani in 1541, intended to decorate the ceiling of his bedroom in the Pisani Palace of San Paterniano. In 1658, the Pisani heirs sold the series to Duke Francesco I d'Este, who had it inserted into the wooden ceiling of the second ceremonial room of the Ducal Palace of Modena. The octagons are one of the first great works of the young Robusti. The remaining panels depict the stories of Jupiter and Europa, Mercury puts Argus to sleep, Priapus and Lotis, Semele incinerated by Jupiter, Deucalion and Pyrrha, The race of Hippomenes, The slaughter of the children of Niobe, Vulcan, Minerva and Cupid, Apollo and Daphne, The goddess Latona, Orpheus implores Pluto, Pyramus and Thisbe, The Judgment of Midas.