The scene here unfolds in the foreground, which is occupied by a large rocky outcrop and trees and on the right opens onto a luminous landscape enclosed by mountains in the background. The spatial transition between the dark foreground and luminous background is still somewhat awkward. In the figures the brushwork is smooth and uniform, giving the nudes a pearly appearance, whereas in the landscape elements, especially the rocks, it is more sweeping and expressive.

Compositionally, the work is consonant with the new naturalistic trends in Italianate landscape painting espoused by some of the Flemish and Dutch painters established in Italy in the first third of the seventeenth century.

Van Poelenburch`s oeuvre displays hardly any stylistic evolution from outset to finish and this, coupled with the fact that he rarely dated his works, makes it very difficult to establish a timeline. Salerno (1977) considers the present painting to be a very late work, executed in about 1635, around the same time as Forest with Nymphs bathing (Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMSsp 359). Sluijter-Seijffert (1984) initially ascribed it to the early years of the painter`s Roman sojourn, but now dates it towards 1624, during his last years in Rome, on account of stylistic and iconographic similarities with other works from this period, such as The Finding of Moses (Florence, Palazzo Pitti). It is quite possible that this composition was used as a model by Dirck van der Lisse (1607-1669), one of Van Poelenburch`s followers, for Landscape with dancing Satyrs (Florence, Palazzo Pitti, inv. 1200). This picture was among the Museo del Prado paintings selected to be reproduced in the collection of lithographs of pictures belonging to King Ferdinand VII, Colección litográfica de los cuadros del rey de España el señor Fernando VII.

Diana bathing with her Nymphs is listed among the paintings saved from the fire at the Alcázar in Madrid in 1734. As with Landscape with Shepherds near Roman Ruins (P2130), it is misidentified in the Museum catalogues as a work by the artist on the same theme in the Isabella Farnese collection. However, there are two different works: the coppers which belonged to Isabella are marked with their own number and the fleur-de-lis indicating their provenance from the queen`s collection (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 310).