The artist was named by Mr. Everett Fahy after an Adoration of the Shepherds in the Church of Santa Lucia sul Prato, Florence, which is a copy of Domenico Ghirlandaio's altarpiece in the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinità; that painting, from which the Madonna in the present picture also derives, was unveiled on Christmas Day 1485. Mr. Fahy identifies as the work of the same hand a Madonna and Child at Leipzig and tondi of The Holy Family in the Museo Horne, Florence, and at Munich. The latter two had already suggested to Gigetta Dalli Regoli (Lorenzo di Credi, 1966, p.199) 'un artista non italiano, certo ben accolto agli inizi del secolo nell'ambito di Lorenzo [di Credi] e Piero di Cosimo'. Mr. Fahy now feels confident that the suggestion of a non-Italian origin for the artist, which he found plausible in 1976, is correct (private communication). While the picture was being restored at the Hamilton Kerr Institute in 1985 (a full report is available for consultation on request) an attribution to Pedro Berruguete was suggested on the basis of the initials on the foremost shepherd's foot, and it was found that 'there are demonstrable similarities in the underdrawing with previously published infrared photographs and reflectographs of paintings by Pedro Berruguete' (furthermore, Mr. Fahy, loc. cit., independently associated with the group a Madonna and Child at Berlin which had been attributed to Berruguete by Professor Roberto Longhi); however, Berruguete seems to have returned from Italy to Toledo by 1483 and Dr. Elisa Bermejo Martínez has informed us that, on the basis of a transparency, she does not believe the painting to be the work of a Spanish hand. Professor Nicole Dacos disagrees, however, suggesting that the artist may have been Castilian.

The surface of the panel shows several small burns caused by the flames of candles on the altar above which it was originally placed