Both adults in the present scene derive indirectly from Michelangelo's Original Sin, probably through the medium of Raimondi's print (Venus) and Caraglio's engraving of 1527 ('satyr'). Correggio thoroughly reworked all his models and endowed them with an intensive erotic expression. No wonder that his masterpiece aroused interest among artists for over two centuries. It is iconography derives from the Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, as interpreted in the
light of ancient writers, probably by Mario Equicola, Federico Gonzaga's secretary.