It depicts an encounter in Rome between the Renaissance artists Raphael and Michelangelo.

[1] [2] It was inspired by a passage in the biography of Raphael written by Quatremère de Quincy.

Raphael is shown at a makeshift easel drawing a peasant woman with her child and surrounded by a crowd of attentive students while Michelangelo is shown in the bottom left corner.

[3] Above them are Pope Julius II and Leonardo da Vinci.

[4] Vernet produced the work while he was director of the French Academy in Rome.