According to legend, Proserpine, daughter of the grain goddess Ceres, was collecting irises, roses, violets, hyacinths and daffodils in the meadow with her friends, when Pluto, the king of the underworld, noticed her, inflamed with love. He drove her away in a chariot, forced her to abyss in front of them, and Proserpina was carried away to the underworld. Pluto was forced to let her go, but gave her a taste of a pomegranate seed so that she would not forget the kingdom of death and return to it. Since then, Proserpine spends half a year in the kingdom of the dead and half in the kingdom of the living.
The painting was inspired by the sculpture by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.