This work is probably a study for the ceiling, now destroyed, of the large oval room in the Hôtel de Langeac in Paris (Thomas Jefferson stayed there when in Paris as Ambassador of the new United States from 1785).  This subject originates from the ceiling by Charles de La Fosse in the Salon d’Apollon at Versailles (1681). Berthélémy simplifies it by reducing the number of characters.   The picture displays all the « baroque » inspiration of the painter’s early years.