The scene is set in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence with Ammanati's Neptune fountain filling the middle distance. The son of F.W. Topham, F.W.W. Topham painted many Italian subjects of which several show figures grouped round a fountain. The Winged Pensioners of Assisi (RA 1874; Sotheby's Belgravia, 20 March 1979, lot 125) and A Judgement of Paris (RA 1895) are examples. Topham studied with his father and under Gleyre in Paris, and was a frequent exhibition at the RA, Suffolk Street, the Grosvenor and elsewhere. His most famous work is probably Rescued from the Plague (1898) in the Guildhall Art Gallery.