The authorship of this interesting painting has not been verified as yet. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez has argued that the elongated heads and wide foreheads of the models are akin to the followers of Dirk Bouts (1415-1475) active in the late 15^th and early 16^th century in the area of Louvain. They are also reminiscent of certain works by Albert van Ouwater (documented in 1467) and even by Justus van Gent (documented in 1460-1475).

The painting is believed to tell the story of the education of the Virgin Mary and companions at the Temple, a highly popular subject in the Middle Ages which disappeared however with the Reformation. This story, similarly to the birth of the Virgin, is taken from the New Testament apocrypha and was included by the Italian Dominican Jacobus de Voragine in The Golden Legend. According to the chronicle by the scholarly friar, Mary was taken to the Temple by her parents, St Joachim and St Anne, to be consecrated to God. Other maidens were also there under the care of the priests. The weak point of this theory lies in the fact that Mary is mentioned as being three years old, far from the age of the five young women depicted here, absorbed in their prayer books.