The painted ceiling is the work of the Robert Streater, (or Streeter), serjeant-painter to Charles II; executed in Streater’s studio in Whitehall, London in 1668–1669 before being transported to Oxford by barge and put up by London joiner John Wilkins at a charge of over £210. It comprises 32 separate panels, showing 'Truth descending upon the Arts and Sciences to expel Ignorance from the University'. Streater’s composition was adapted to Wren’s conception of the building as a Roman theatre, open to the sky. The theatres of antiquity are said to have been protected from the sun and rain by a large awning supported by a network of cords. The timber cords extending across the Sheldonian Theatre’s ceiling are gilded and in high relief, and from them, putti (cherubs) are rolling back a vast crimson awning to reveal the triumph of the Arts and Sciences over Envy, Rapine, and 'brutish scoffing Ignorance'.