The painting portrays the return to Naples of Ferdinand I of Bourbon which took place on June 17, 1815 after about ten years of exile in Palermo, due to the domination of the Napoleonids.

The facade of the Royal Palace dominates the scene with the Bourbon flag waving on the clock, while the festive court watches from the balconies the military parade that accompanies the king's entrance into Largo di Palazzo. On the ground floor of the monumental building we note the absence of the statues that currently adorn it. In fact, these were placed only in the Savoy period, in 1889, inside the niches created by Luigi Vanvitelli in the mid-18th century when, for static reasons, the architect alternately walled up the arches of what was originally a continuous portico.

The first floor is dominated by the crowds who have come to watch the event, lined up behind the king's guard, with the officers carrying myrtle branches on the bayonets.

In the background of the work you can admire the still erigenda Foresteria Borbonica (seat of the Prefecture since 1861), while on the left you can see the shapes of a monumental ephemeral scenographic structure embellished with a fountain and with the statue of Ferdinand I as an ancient Roman, by Antonio Canova, currently at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.