 Nero's face appears contorted in agony and although this depiction is not realistic, Hogarth meant it to heighten the fear for the audience.Just as his murdered mistress's finger pointed to Nero's destiny in "Cruelty in Perfection", in this print Nero's finger points to the boiled bones being prepared for display, indicating his ultimate fate.While the surgeons working on the body are observed by the mortar-boarded academics in the front row, the physicians, who can be identified by their wigs and canes, largely ignore the dissection and consult among themselves.