This picture was at one time attributed to Domenico Ghirlandajo; and
Signor Frizzoni now attributes it to Granacci. But, says Sir Edward
Poynter, "the beauty of the figures, the nobility of the heads, and
the fine qualities of drawing and modelling stamp it as the work of
the great master himself." "In my judgment," says Symonds (_Life of
Michelangelo Buonarroti_, i. 65), "this is the most beautiful of the
easel pictures attributed to Michelangelo.... Florentine painters had
been wont to place attendant angels at both sides of their enthroned
Madonnas. But their angels were winged and clothed like acolytes;
the Madonna was seated on a rich throne or under a canopy, with
altar-candles, wreaths of roses, flowering lilies. It is characteristic
of Michelangelo to adopt a conventional motive, and to treat it with
brusque originality. In this picture there are no accessories to the
figures, and the attendant angels are Tuscan lads half draped in
succinct tunics. The types have not been chosen with regard to ideal
loveliness or dignity, but accurately studied from living models. This
is very obvious in the heads of Christ and St. John. The two adolescent
genii on the right hand possess a high degree of natural grace. Yet
even here what strikes one most is the charm of their attitude, the
lovely interlacing of their arms and breasts, the lithe alertness of
the one lad contrasted with the thoughtful leaning languor of his
comrade. Only perhaps in some drawings of combined male figures made
by Ingres, for his picture of the 'Golden Age,' have lines of equal
dignity and simple beauty been developed."