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This oval piece, with its exceptional pictorial quality, was painted for Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinando II de' Medici. The Grand Duchess was a great admirer of the painter and owned more than thirty of his works, which she continued to purchase after his death.
The iconographic subject of the naked child, resting on a red velvet blanket in the foreground is taken from the ancient statues of Eros sleeping and of Hermaphrodite, a subject interpreted here in a religious context. St Elisabeth, shown behind her child, is looking to the heavens, while Zechariah is immersed in reading a holy text. Their positions allude to the story of the Baptist and his dramatic end, foreshadowed from the time of his birth. The blood red velvet evokes the beheading of John, while the rush cross with phylactery and the inscription, "ecce agnus dei" are symbols of his role as the precursor of Christ.
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