[3][4] The piece depicts an empty city square, a recurring motif in works by Chirico.

[5] It also features a locomotive in the background, another recurring motif also found in The Transformed Dream and Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure).

The statue at the center of the painting is meant to represent Ariadne,[2] who was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete.

The Soothsayer's Recompense is currently owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and was first shown there in 1954.

[8] It originally hung in the home of the Arensberg family, where it inspired Philip Guston to become a painter.