Follower of Domenico Ghirlandaio (Florence 1448/49-1494)

For most of the 20th century, this stately work was thought to have been painted by the brother-in-law and pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sebastiano Mainardi, an attribution supported by Van Marle (op. cit., 1931), Valentiner (op. cit., 1932), Fredericksen and Zeri (op. cit., 1972), among others. In 1976, Everett Fahy rejected this attribution, suggesting that it may have been painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio's younger brother, Benedetto (op. cit.). Fahy based his attribution on similarities between this work and the Nativity in the John G. Johnson Collection in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (op. cit.), which had previously been given to Benedetto by Berenson. More recently, Christopher Lloyd (op. cit.) challenged this notion, observing that neither the present work nor the Philadelphia panel are stylistically close enough to the artist's only signed work (the Adoration of the Shepherds in the church of Notre Dame, Aigueperse, Auvergne).

An unusual feature in the present tondo is the inclusion of Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata from a Seraph in the background, in this context, an allusion to Christ's death on the Cross. The large goldfinch that perches behind the Virgin serves a similarly symbolic purpose, as according to legend, the bird obtained its distinctive red spot when it plucked at Christ's crown of thorns on the road to Calvary and was stained by his blood.