The canvas, the first work to be signed and dated 1588, “does not fail to reflect an early preoccupation with classical and grand composition (one can see in this work a possibly indirect derivation from the composition of the Madonna of Ca’ Pesaro). But compared to Titian’s Olympian and distant sublimity, or Correggio’s poignant sweetness (Malvasia interpreted it in terms of Correggio), a close-up, proximate tone prevails here, like that of a country feast combining the aristocratic and the popular – with the Madonna, a blooming, good-natured Bolognese who would certainly not have displeased Crespi; the lively Child, with such soft skin; the angels playing the mandola; the saints, so human they can be recognised, earthily, in the portraits of the Bargellini family; and, finally, the sun behind the Two Towers, a familiar, everyday sight”.