Monastic founders and saints were frequently portrayed in Mexican art. This is a likeness of Saint William of Aquitaine, the French Count of Poitiers, a contemporary of Saint Bernard in the 1100s. The Count renounced a military career in order to found a monastic society that later merged with the Augustinians in 1256. William is thus portrayed in an Augustinian habit with a discarded military helmet and earthly crown at his feet. In the composition, the earthly and aristocratic life to which he gestures is contrasted with the life of the church, which will yield a heavenly crown seen in the upper left. The Latin phrase at the bottom of the painting reads, "You have a transitory crown now but will have an eternal one in heaven." Herrera was himself an Augustinian friar and may have painted this for one of the Augustinian monasteries.

The image in this painting is a depiction of the statue that was located in the Discalced (Unshod) Carmelite convent of Saint Joseph, presumably in Mexico City. The boat, with its floral decorations, is much like one of the canoas enfloradas of the Xochimilco waterways south of Mexico City. Depictions of cult images were an important subcategory of Mexican-Colonial art, which included images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Our lady of Cortijo. Frey Miguel was an Augustinian monk believed to have been born in the Canary Islands. He came to Mexico City in 1719. His long and prolific career focused on ecclesiastical portraiture. He joined Ibarra and Cabrera in forming the short-lived Mexico City Academy in 1753.