The painting shows five figures of women whose accompanying attributes identify them as personifications of the arts. In the centre of the composition, Painting is seated at an easel. She turns around to look at Poetry, the muse who inspires her. Sculpture sits in the foreground on the left, looking up at Painting with a gaze of admiration. Architecture and Music, on the other hand, have been relegated to the background. The Roman painter Batoni expresses the primacy of painting within the arts not only in the figural constellation, but also with his refined painting style, which enshrouds every brushstroke in a manner that could almost be termed classicist.