Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus

This group of gods on the clouds illustrates a frequently depicted sentence by Terence: Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus - Without Ceres (bread) and Bacchus (wine) Venus freezes. In the painting there is an unusual reversal of distances between sky and earth, other examples of which can be found in Guido Reni's and Giovanni Lanfranco's paintings which Poelenburgh would have seen in Rome.