Nineteen figures appear in a frieze-like array across this long, squat canvas. The various fashions of hair and costume suggest specific personalities from a range of periods and cultures. At the pinnacle of the composition, enthroned on a dais at the centre between two Etruscan columns, is an allegorical figure dressed à l’antique holding up a tablet to the left on which the inscription LEV is legible. Referring to the Levites, the Old Testament book of the Law, it defines the theme that binds the various figures presented here as justice. At the front left of the dais stand a lawyer in a black robe and, behind him on the second step, a judge in a red robe with a deep white collar, confirming the theme of justice and the law. Opposite them, a second female figure, again allegorical, walks down from the third step cradling a golden sceptre in her right arm and propping a large golden bowl against her hip with her left hand. The bowl appears to carry metallic loops, perhaps of a chain, that spill out and hang over the edge, and may serve as a reminder of the binding authority of the law. Two putti on the front steps appear to study a book and a scroll, referring to the text of the law.