The coat of arms itself represents the three bees of the Barberini family. Each shield is enclosed by a woman's head at the top and by the head of a satyr at the bottom. A papal tiara with crossed keys surmounts the shield. All shields look nearly identical, but – if examined one after another starting with the left-hand front plinth – they reveal dramatic changes in the expression on the female face. The coat of arms itself, flat on the first plinth, undergoes a noticeable deformation, progressively bulging up to the sixth shield and flattening again on the last two shields. Above the eighth shield, the female face is replaced by the head of a winged child or "putto". The allegory behind the coats of arms is universally interpreted as representing the various stages of childbirth. As Witkowski writes: