Pintoricchio was amongst the most celebrated Perugian artists of his day. His reputation was enhanced not only by the frescoes he executed in the Sistine Chapel alongside Pietro Perugino for Pope Sextus IV, but by his subsequent decorative schemes for Popes Innocent VIII and Alexander VI, whose private apartments in the Vatican Pintoricchio completed circa 1495. His reputation as one of the foremost exponents of grotesque decoration, combining classical motifs with traditional forms, recommended him above the leading artists of Siena to Francesco Piccolomini, later Pope Pius III, who was decorating the Cathedral library in Siena to commemorate the illustrious life of his uncle, Aenaes, Pope Pius II.

The present work, which was probably executed circa 1502-10, around the time of Pintoricchio's work for Piccolomini, can be compared with The Holy Family in the Pinacoteca, Siena, considered by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to be contemporary in execution to his work on the library (J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, etc., 1914, V, p. 410). With their profusion of rich detail and harmonious coloring, they attest to Pintoricchio's probable early training in the florishing miniaturist schools of Perugia. Both reflect this master's delight in minute detail and lavish representation of ornament as well as his liking for repetitive gesture and sweeping decorative line. The sweet expressions of his figures and the warmth of tone and tranquility of atmosphere which characterize these works reflect the continued influence of both Perugino and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo on Pintoricchio throughout his life.

We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy for confirming the attribution