An artist sits at his easel before a canvas in his studio; under the stairwell are two assistants or pupils who are grinding colours; light enters the studio through a lead-paned window at left; a lute hangs on the wall and two sculptures are displayed on a shelf. The inscription below reads: Pictor Appeleâ pingas licet arte tabellam / Qua modo pictores, et modo fallit aves, / Livor edax sed enim, nifi te fortuna bearit, / Auferet ingenio pramia digna tuo". (Though you a painter, paint a painting with Apelles’ art which now fools painters, and now the birds. Yet, gnawing envy, unless fortune bless you, will take away the prizes worthy of your ingenium).