Fearing she was a victim of infidelity, Procris followed her beloved Cephalus to a clearing in the woods, where he was resting during a hunting expedition. The young woman's jealousy led her to her death when Cephalus mistook her for wild game and shot her with an arrow.

Rubens chose to depict that story from Ovid's Metamorphosis in this preparatory sketch for a painting intended to decorate the Torre de la Parada. The definitive painting by Peeter Symons was often mistakenly thought to represent the story of Vertumnus and Pomona.

Rubens uses models taken from Renaissance art, including Michelangelo's sculpture of Lorenzo de Medici, on which he based the figure of Procris.