[2] Although the man's fur-lined robe and cappuccio and the boy's elegant doublet and cap indicate a noble heritage,[3] and despite the traditional assumption that the subjects are grandfather and grandson, their identities are unknown.

While the composition is thematically related to portraiture from the Netherlands, by the mid-15th century the motif of a portrait in an interior with a landscape seen in the distance was common in Italy.

Ghirlandaio has presented the portrait in a naturalistic and sympathetic fashion, at variance with physiognomic theory of the era, which maintained a connection between external appearances and internal truths.

[5] In the words of art historian Bernard Berenson, "There is no more human picture in the entire range of Quattrocento painting, whether in or out of Italy.

"[6] The painting's provenance is uncertain until 1880, when it entered the Louvre, and then only after it was rejected by the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin out of concern for its condition.