The Virgin, depicted sitting on the ground, belongs to the "Virgin of Humility" type: humility and obedience were counted among Mary's chief virtues. In Mary's pose and the monumental treatment of the shapes of her body there are distinct echoes of Michelangelo's famous Doni Tondo that became a source of inspiration for many Florentine artists, including Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1503-1577) who worked at the Medici court. This, however, is a modern attribution (from 1994). At the time when the New Hermitage opened, this painting (which had entered the museum in 1846 as part of the collection of the diplomat Dmitry Tatishchev) was believed to be the work of the Parmesan artist Parmigianino. Tatishchev bequeathed all his art treasures - paintings, sculpture, arms and mosaics - to Emperor Nicholas I.