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A doge, standing in a palace doorway, is confronted by a petitioner; a lady in black, who, kneeling on the pavement, holds her young daughter before her. A halberdier, guarding the entrance, glances at the kneeling figure. Behind, in the shadows at the right, is an elderly woman with bowed head and clasped hands. The doge's retinue includes his page, who carries the trailing robe, and several attendants discernible in the sunlit interior beyond the portal. The artist's distinctively rich palette, said to have been inspired by the Venetian "Seicento," is evinced in the sumptuous gold brocades, crimson velvet and white ermine of the doge's attire, the variegated marbles of the architecture, and the gilding of the picture frame at the left.Another version of the subject, also entitled "Petition to a Doge," dated 1862, is reproduced in Clarence Cook, "Art and Artists of Our Time," New York, 1888, 2: 91. In this work the halberdier has been replaced by a large greyhound.