The painting shows the moments following the competition when Apollo furiously berates Midas, one of the contest's judges, for favoring the flute-playing ability of Marsyas over himself.

[6][7][8][9][10] The canvas is Jordaens' interpretation of an earlier painting by Peter Paul Rubens entitled Apollo and Marsyas.

Jordaens' painting of the Rubens canvas was then copied by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, the Spanish Baroque painter and son-in-law of Diego Velázquez, the royal painter for King Philip IV of Spain.

As chamberlain of the palace, Velázquez was responsible for acquisition, management and distribution of royal collections of paintings, tapestries, and sculpture which allowed him to decorate the Pieza Principal chambers of the Royal Alcázar of Madrid with Mazo's copy of the original Jordaens painting.

[11][12][13][14][15] In 2014 the Museo del Prado loaned the painting, along with nine other works from its collection by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Frans Francken the Younger and others, to the Museo Carlos de Amberes for the period of one year.