This work reflects the relief style of the great Florentine sculptor Donatello, whose approach to statuary is glimpsed in the terra-cotta Madonna and Child of c. 1425. In both marble and bronze, Donatello had devised ways of using very low, flat relief to suggest figures in a deep space. The able and intelligent follower of Donatello who produced this small image has suggested an architectural setting receding into space behind the Madonna and Child.
The figures appear in a close-up view on a balcony or parapet. The child stands on the ledge in a lively pose that combines a forward shift of his weight with a twist backward to cling to his mother. With delicate modulations of his wax model, the sculptor varied the textures of crumpled cloth, fine fringe, and feathery hair, set against powerful architecture. The gestures of the Madonna's and Child's hands, paralleling each other with choreographic grace, recall those of Donatello's statues at the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. Here the figures seem to reach out in greeting toward acclaiming worshippers. One scholar has named the composition "The Madonna of Welcome."