The subject of this painting is taken from the 16th-century allegorical English epic poem 'The Faerie Queene' by Edmund Spenser, written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I. Belphoebe, the virgin huntress, was one of the personifications of Queen Elizabeth. Her sister Amoret represented the virtue of married love. The painting is set in a classical landscape and depicts the birth of the two sisters. Their mother, 'faire Chrysogonee', was discovered asleep by two of the goddess Venus's nymphs just after she 'Unawares had borne two babes, as faire as springing day'. The nymphs agreed not to wake her up but each removed a baby and 'with them carried, to be fostered'.

Inscribed on the back with the name of the artist and the title.