He does not seem to have felt the conflict between the old religious ideal and the new pursuit of worldly beauty as Botticelli felt it.

Yet he chose the competition of these two ideals as the subject of this picture.
The Knight, clothed in bright armour and gay raiment, bearing no relation at all to the clothes worn in 1500, rests upon his shield beneath the slight shade of a very slender tree.

In his dream there appear to him two figures, both of whom claim his knightly allegiance for life: one, a young and lovely girl in a bright coloured dress with flowers in her hair, tempts him to embrace a life of mirth, of Jest and youthful Jollity, Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles.
The other resembles the same poet's Pensive Nun, devout and pure, Sober, steadfast, and demure.
She holds sword and book, symbols of stern action and wise accomplishment.

Which the knight will choose we are not told, perhaps because Raphael himself never had to make the choice.

He was too gifted and too fond of work to be tempted from it by anything whatever.