The commission formed part of Piero's wider plan to create a family oratory between the 'Vergine Annunziata' chapel and the convent's library, in which the Armadio was intended to be displayed.

In January 1461 there is record of a payment to a Pietro del Massaio, painter, which was described as intent on "teaching to paint the armadio", probably in adding colour to the designs produced by Fra Angelico himself, who had died six years earlier.

All the later historic sources (Albertini, Billi, Anonimo Gaddiano) ascribe the entire work to Fra Angelico.

Vasari attributed the whole work to Fra Angelico, but argued it was produced in his youth, a conclusion also followed by all 19th-century art historians.

Modern art historians place it instead at the end of the artist's life, proposing collaborators for the non-autograph panels such as Domenico di Michelino (Berenson), the Master of Cell 2 (Pope-Hennessy[3]), Zanobi Strozzi and Benozzo Gozzoli (Salmi).