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The painting has been truncated at all sides sometime between 1747 and 1769. The losses in the lower zone are most considerable: here the allegorical figures are shorn of their lower parts, and the landscape with a tower construction in the background seems brusquely interrupted.
In the painting, Christ appears among the clouds in the act of hurling punitive bolts of lightning on three figures of women who cling to each other fearfully below. They represent allegories of Lust (the young, partially nude figure to the left), Avarice (the elderly woman clinging possessively to her bag in the centre), and Pride (the woman clad in showy dress, jewels, and feathered headdress to the right). The Virgin, kneeling at Christ's feet, implores pity for the sinners. The surrounding angels echo her plea.
Formerly the painting was attributed to Dosso Dossi. Recently the painting was given to Scarsellino on stylistic ground.
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