Jan Pynas moved to Amsterdam as a child, and there joined the circle of artists around the prominent history painter Pieter Lastman. Pynas may even have joined Lastman in giving instruction to the young Rembrandt in 1625. He travelled to Italy twice, and his elegant, monumental rendering of the Old Testament scene of the moral plight of Joseph reflects the art he studied there, including that of Annibale Carracci and Paolo Veronese.