This important work is a modello for a fresco in the Palaçio Real depicting an Allegory of the Spanish Monarchy dispensing gifts, wherein Ferdinand VI is depicted as Apollo the Sun God either remunerating the Arts or bestowing the gifts of the Arts to his country. The work probably dates to around or just after 1753, and was painted around the same time as a similar modello depicting an Allegory of Peace and Justice, now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (see Matthiesen and Stair Sainty Matthiesen, Paintings, London and New York 1996, no. 9, pp. 38-40. The frescoes were begun shortly after the artist assumed his duties as First Painter to the King were part of a grand redecoration sceme for the New Royal Palace. Encapsulated in these elegant complex compositions, are the most salient themes of Ferdinand VI's monarchy whose reign as a just and peaceful king presiding over a prosperous realm fostered a ‘renaissance’ of the arts. This idea of Ferdinand as the architect of prosperity within his kingdom was emphasised throughout the complex iconographical program for the New Royal Palace, which was written in 1748 by Father Martin Sarmiento.