Pieter Meulener was born in Antwerp in 1602. He was taught by his father, the painter Jan de Meuleneer, who had joined the guild in 1598 - though  it is not clear what he painted. Later on he possibly also studied with the well-known battle painter Sebastiaen Vrancx. In 1631 - the year he probably also married Maria Hendrickx - Pieter became wine master in the guild of St Luke. As no early works by Meulener are known (his earliest dated painting dates from 1642), it is widely assumed he continued assisting his father for quite some time. In the 1640’s however he acquired quite a reputation as a painter of battles and landscapes, often combining the two, as in the present painting. It appears he sometimes collaborated with other artists, such as David II Teniers, providing the staffage in their landscapes.

Paintings of battle scenes became very popular in the first half of the seventeenth century in both the Southern and the Northern Low Countries. As was often the case, this small-size cabinet painting on copper is not a depiction of an actual battle, but a purely imaginary scene, set in a typical Flemish country landscape, showing the church spire of a small village in the background.