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 style is rather that of a flat relief in stone than of a painting; and though we may feel something of Ghirlandajo's influence, the spirit of Donatello and Luca della Robbia are more apparent.

That it was the work of an inexperienced painter is shown by the failure to indicate pictorial planes.