The exact meaning of this strange and wonderful allegory has as yet remained undeciphered.  It centers on the young boy, who appears to be the infant Hercules, at least on the basis of the large club he is holding.  Many of the other figures in the scene can also be identified, the figures of Prudence (holding her circumspect mirror) and Father time on the right, the figure of the god Pan and a philosopher (Democritus?) on the left.  Inscriptions on the painting give further clues.  The boy in the lower right of the composition leans on a volume of Polybius’ Histories.  He points to a line from the Latin poet Ovid’s Fasti (Book IV, verse 311): Conscia Mens Recti Famae Mendacia Risit  [Trans: Conscious of virtue, she laughed at the rum﷽oured lies].  This verse seems to be reinforced by the fig♒ure of Innocence (the young girl in white with the lamb) who is seated nearby.

On the other side of the composition are perhaps less savory characters.  The young boy is being offered the caduceus, a symbol of the arts by winged figure, but rather than Mercury as would be expected, it is a masked figure of an old man with demonic wings.  Similarly, other figures on the left are masked, including the god Pan, a good normally associated with negative activities.  Clearly the young boy is being exhorted to virtuous behavior and warned against deceit.  Perhaps the key to the puzzle is the book on which he rests his club, labeled Mazzarino, a꧙ltho🧜ugh it is at present unclear to what that might refer.

The ♈attribution of this work to the rare Lombard artist Francesco Corneliani was suggested by Franco Moro.  The present picture may be compared with the frescos of the Villa Serbelloni at Tremezzo, near Lake Como.