The painting conforms to the standard Florentine renaissance image of the Virgin and Child.  As with all Puligo’s work of this type, the influence of Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531) is overwhelming, both in the composition and in the adoption of the latter’s characteristic ‘sfumato’. The picture is very freely painted and much of the rapidly executed underdrawing is visible especially in the face and hands of the infant St. John the Baptist on the left.  The small bunch of flowers held by the Christ child is not identifiable as the flowers themselves are too vaguely depicted.

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