In 1912, the Benois family considered selling the painting and requested an appraisal from the London art dealer Joseph Duveen, who gave an evaluation of 500,000 francs.

The art historian Bernard Berenson made disparaging comments about the painting, raising doubts about its authenticity:[5] One unhappy day I was called to see the 'Benois Madonna'.

I found myself confronted by a young woman with a bald forehead and puffed cheeks, a toothless smile, blear eyes, and a furrowed throat.

It was hard, but the effort freed me, and the indignation I felt gave me the resolution to proclaim my freedom.Despite these wrangles about attribution, however, the Benois Madonna was eventually sold to the Imperial Hermitage Museum in 1914 for a record amount.

[4] In Renaissance Florence, artistic portrayals of the Madonna often used Christian symbolism to suggest foreknowledge of the Crucifixion — for example, the goldfinch plucking Christ’s thorns from his crown.

Notwithstanding its solemn motif, the painting represents one of the "most joyous and youthful depiction of Mary in Renaissance art ... she seems to be speaking or laughing, playfully engaged with her child, her radiant vitality accentuated through Leonardo’s deliberate complications of posture and drapery".