This large panel depicts the Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia della Signoria in Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. It is a well-known city view and the topography is described here with clinical specificity, from the architectural details to the sharp line of afternoon shadow bisecting the Piazza. Florentine workshops creating pictures with hardstones in this period (such as that of the Montelatici family) often worked from photographic images to produce cityscapes, portraits and reproductions of popular nineteenth-century paintings. The heraldic shields lining the upper façade of the building include coats of arms. Bright, white shell is used for some of the shields into which are inserted meticulously cut rosso de pyrenees (the cross) and rosso di Francia (the Fleur De Lys); a dark grey gabbro shield is emblazoned with yellow albarese limestone (the crossed keys).

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.