Rubens was an educated artist who sometimes took on unusual subjects. In this oil sketch, an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphosis is depicted. The goddess Minerva has entrusted three sisters with a basket containing a child. But they must not open the basket. Rubens focuses on their reactions when they raise the lid anyway and discover that the child has snake legs. The crow (on the fountain) tells about it and they are punished with madness.