The main panel, Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels with St. Frediano and St. Augustine, is a sacra conversazione that contains flow between each figure to depict a coronation.

In 1437, Filippo Lippi was offered 40 florins to create an altarpiece at the Santo Spirito, dedicated to Saint Fridianus.

By the first of April in 1438, Domenico Veneziano wrote a letter to Piero de' Medici claiming the altarpiece as having not been finished yet.

In 1810, the painting was disassembled and brought back to France by Napoleonic troops to repress religious guilds.

Differently from previous works, Lippi painted the Virgin as standing, and made her the central point of the composition.

[6] Filippo Lippi made some alterations to the altarpiece as the process continued, as seen by the faint fabric seen to the right of the work.

The lack of gesso incisions suggests that he wanted to wait to see the full potential of the work as a whole.

The detachment draws the viewer back to the figures by covering the bottom of the posts with the two kneeling saints.

Instead it was given an opening to that resembled 15th century Flemish contemporary works and mimics Tribunale of the Mercanzie by Donatello.

[3] The work was originally accompanied by a predella, which was returned to Florence after the fall of Napoleon and is now housed in the Uffizi Gallery.

The original predella included three panels depicting St. Fridianus Changing the Course of the Serchio, Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin and Arrival of the Apostles, and St. Augustine's Vision of the Holy Spirit.

The scene depicted a story of the saint saving a neighboring town from the floods of the River Serchio.