The scene shows the Christ the Redeemer procession organised in Antwerp in 1685 to commemorate the centenary of the assault on the city by Spanish troops under the command of Alessandro Farnese on 27 August 1585. This victory culminated one of the most important Spanish assaults during the Eighty Years War, since thereafter control of the Southern Netherlands returned to the Spanish Crown.

The scene is set in the Groenplaats in Antwerp where a temporary architectural monument has been set up. The tower of the Cathedral of Our Lady, constructed by Pieter Appelmans between 1521 and 1530, rises in the background.

There is another, slightly smaller copy of this scene, signed and dated 1687. Originally a part of the former Nabokov collection (St Petersburg), it has been housed in the Hermitage Museum since 1919 (inv. 4711) (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 306).