Turner's mid-career painting provides an excellent example of the artist's fixation on both natural and human phenomena. Many consider Turner the first artist to legitimize landscape painting as a serious genre. Turner creates a stunning landscape with the Bay of Baiae in the background, framed by gently rolling mountains. A pair of intricately detailed trees rise up dramatically in the foreground and draw attention away from the two figures in the bottom right corner. The rolling peaks of the mountains align with the dramatic shadowing. The shadows create a triangular shape leading the eye to the bay in the background.

This painting portrays a Roman myth in which Sibyl asks the Roman god Apollo to grant her a longer life. He promises to give her many years as the number of grains of sand she can hold in her hands. Unfortunately, Sibyl forgets to add any stipulation for eternal youth and quickly regrets her request for an extended life when her youth fades rapidly.

The colors used by Turner, along with the crumbling cityscape in the background, create the sense of decay and aging. The golden light cast over the entire scene evokes a sense of the impending sunset and nighttime. Turner's commentary on aging and decay comes as a response to the futile effort made by Romantic art to preserve and idolize political and cultural figures and ideals. Many political figures sought to immortalize themselves in stone and on canvas. These attempts to last forever often proved as ineffective and disastrous as Sibyl's deal with Apollo.