The scene is the interior of the Sala del Collegio in the Doges' Palace, Venice. Doge Leonardo Donato (1536-1612) is seated centrally, with councillors ranged around. The Doge extends his right hand to the British diplomat, Sir Henry Wotton, who is seated on his right.

There exist a number of pictures of approximately this composition showing the Doge giving audience to an ambassador in the Sala del Collegio; the type was no doubt utilized for souvenir pictures, with each containing a portrait of a different ambassador. The subject here might be supposed to be Wotton conveying official congratulations to the Doge on his election, or perhaps on a debate on some matter of foreign policy. Wotton was knighted by James I and went to Venice as ambassador in 1604. Wotton does not claim to be represented but it is obviously him; it was customary for ambassadors to keep their hats on during audiences. This is one of the least impressive treatments of the composition; its detail is poor and misleading. The doorway shown on the left is in reality a chimneypiece and the sixteenth-century clock on the right-hand wall is omitted. It is unclear why green curtains have been drawn over the pictures on the walls, which included Veronese's Thanksgiving for the Victory of Lepanto. There may be a historical explanation for the closed curtains or it may merely indicate the painter's inability to do justice to them. The two statues in niches on either side of the painting are quite innaccurate and bear no relation to the grisaille paintings of Sts Giustina and Sebastian by Veronese that were actually in situ.

This was one of four portraits of Doges which were hung in Wotton's dining room at Eton and bequeathed to Charles I in 1637. Wotton's will describes: 'four pictures at large of those Dukes of Venice, in whose time I was there employed with their names written on the back side, which hang in my ordinary Dining-room, done after the life by Eduardo Fialetto.' Wotton's pictures were acquired in Venice for the sake of their subjects, and many have doubtful authorship. Although attributed to Fialetti in Wotton's will, it now seems most unlikely that Fialetti was the painter of this work.