A set of allegorical painted panels in the style of classical red figure vase painting, depicting The Farnese Hercules, Inspiration: Bellorophon and Pegasus before Athena, Apollo and Hermes, Geography: Ancient geographers with a globe and a map, Astronomy: Ancient astronomers with a telescope and an armillary sphere, The Visual Arts: Artists drawing after statues of The Three Graces and Antinoüs, Music: A shepherd piping, and other scenes

The fashion for such Library pictures was no doubt inspired by the Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton, his Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipolentiary of the Court of Naples, published in 1767. Sir William Hamilton (d. 1802) assembled his remarkable collection of antique red vases during his years as King George III's Envoy Extraordinary to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1764-1801). The illustrations and explanatory text were published with an introduction by the French scholar Pierre François Hugues, baron d'Hancarville. Hamilton's collection of vases is now in the British Museum.

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), the Director of the Royal Academy of Paintings in Naples, was amongst the first to produce works inspired by Hamilton's trove. His invention of prints and borders executed in the Etruscan style, copied from Sir William Hamilton's vases and adapted to small rooms and cabinets was noted by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham (d.1842). In a letter written from Rome in April 1796, he continued 'You can scarce imagine how successful and new such ornaments appear' (Tatham archive, Victoria and Albert Museum, no. D1479-1551, 1898). The precise technical aspects of the 'Tischbein' process are unkown, but presumably allowed for the production of larger scene representations of subjects included in d'Hancarville's publication.