Rubens combines various subjects in this work. The figure of Saint Joseph sleeping in a landscape alongside a grazing donkey, and the Virgin Mary sitting on a boulder with her son refer to the rest on the Flight from Egypt, but the artist also added various images of saints to the left of the main group. These include Saint George and the dragon, and Saint Catherine, whose factions are those of Helène Fourment, the painter's second wife. Her pose is quite similar to the one in The Garden of Lover (P1690). On the right, some angels play with a lamb, symbolizing the sacrifice of Christ, while another angel hushes them in the presence of the Christ Child.

The idyllic sense of the scene and its setting in a garden space relates the work to the artist's mature phase. The use of Italian architecture and the affected poses of some of the figures are also characteristic of that last period.

This is probably the painting that appears in the collection of the Marquis of El Carpio in 1688 and later passed to Carlos II. It has been listed in the Royal Collection since 1700.