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The fresco is from the New Court House in Piazza dei Mercanti, Milan. The angel on the left holds a paper with the words "Soli Deo," one of the mottos used by Marshal Trivulzio, whose funerary chapel was designed by Bramantino.
This work shows, in the relationships between figures and landscape, the innovations that Bramantino brought to Lombard painting. His drive toward "cubist" abstraction is less intense, finding expression only in the base supporting the figures, with its unusual motif of stylised palm leaves and its elegant profile. The serene frontal composition is softened by the undulating rhythm that falls from the Madonna's hand that is holding the Child's, through the body of the Infant, to its conclusion in the heavy folds of the drapery. Lighted by a source in front, and set against a predominantly white sky, the figures show an unusually lively range of colours. The angels, seen in penumbra, are dressed in olive green and red, while the Madonna wears a pale blue mantle over her raspberry robe, and has an iridescent kerchief on her head.
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