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The girl emerges from the shadows in the background, with no other spatial detail except for the edge of the table, bottom left, and a cushion decorated with a tassel. Her gaze is lost in the distance and her noble, regular features are enhanced by a soft light that highlights her delicate complexion, soft pink cheeks and full red lips which, together with the white and yellow-red robes that drape over and yet uncover her at the same time, give her an air of suspended, seductive charm. In her hands she clasps a number of brushes and a sheet of paper on which some faint drawings in red pencil can be made out, symbols that allude to her role as a figure of the art of painting, and also correspond to the criterion of Ripa's Iconologia.
Martinelli is influenced here by the works of Artemisia Gentileschi and Simon Vouet, through whom he probably encountered naturalism in the style of Caravaggio.
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