Derived from the solidification of atmospheric moisture cooled by the winds, it was often juxtaposed with the precious materials painted by Maso, as naked men collect them against the backdrop of a rugged, shimmering mountain, climbed with ropes and baskets by other prospectors.

The bizarre posture of the figures, with one hand tied behind their backs, seems to evoke the chains of Prometheus, celebrated in the ceiling of the studiolo and recalled in Natural History precisely with regard to man's passion for gems.

The crowded and colourful scene in the foreground, where one of the nudes offers stones to exotically clad characters, calls to mind literature on the Indies, in particular Garcia da Orta, from which the motif takes its inspiration.

The oriental composition seems to have been elaborated by Maso on the basis of his own drawing (Rennes, Musée des beaux-arts), itself inspired by an engraving by Luke of Leiden, in circulation in Florence since the beginning of the century.

In the case of the oval of the Fall of Icarus in the lower band, intended to decorate one of the doors of the cupboards in which Francesco's collection of rarities was kept, the choice of the motif is part of a complex system of correspondences between the iconographic programme and the objects kept in the studiolo.