In 2019, culture writer Kelly Grovier described it as a portrait of Pluto and Proserpina, the Roman gods of the underworld. He interprets the small globe on the weather vane at the very top of the painting as representing the then recently discovered dwarf planet Pluto, the pitchfork wielding farmer as the guardian of the gates of hell, and points to the woman's cameo brooch, containing a classical a representation the mythological goddess, and the dangling strand of hair by the woman's right ear as representing the ravishing in the goddess' myth.