Claude moved to Rome as a youth and worked there for the rest of his life. This is a study for a painting depicting the myth of Acis and Galatea, as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The cyclops Polyphemus was infatuated with the sea-nymph Galatea, but he was spurned by her in favour of the youth Acis. Here Polyphemus sits with his flocks in the distance, playing his pipes and singing the praises of Galatea.