The large plaque shows a personification of the Arts as a woman seated in an architectural setting adorned by large vases. A putto leaning on her lap seems to draw her attention to Nature depicted as a statue of Diana of Ephesus, and, in the sky, an hourglass and a serpent biting its tail, symbols of Time and Eternity. Numerous trophies alluding to the Arts lie in the foreground, while the principal figure, draped in vivid colours, leans upon a painting wherein two putti enact Pliny's story of the discovery of painting by tracing the shadow thrown by an antique lamp.
