The subject came from a lost play by Euripides, the tragedy Antiope. Ovid briefly referred to the story in which Jupiter turns himself into satyr in order to give twins to the fair Antiope. He is not explicit enough to flesh out the story and Von Aachen’s interpretation is an excuse to depict an amorous couple so typical of court art in Prague in the last years of the sixteenth century. Highly finished small paintings on copper were much prized at the Court and several artists patronised by the Emperor himself specialised in them including Roelant Savery (1576-1639) and Bartholomeus Spranger (q.v.).

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