 Horne believed that the painting was commissioned soon after the purchase in 1477 of the Villa di Castello, a country house outside Florence, by Lorenzo and Giovanni, to decorate their new house, which they were rebuilding.This was the year after their father died at the age of 46, leaving the young boys wards of their cousin Lorenzo il Magnifico, of the senior branch of the Medici family and "de facto" ruler of Florence.There is no record of the original commission, and the painting is first mentioned by Vasari, who saw it, together with the "Primavera", at Castello, some time before the first edition of his "Lives" in 1550, probably by 1530–40.