Art historians believe that the central panel is an autograph copy of the Madonna del Sacco.

It was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza for the chapel of Saint Michael in the Certosa di Pavia, a building symbolic of the Visconti-Sforza's patronage of the church and the arts.

He had already sent an agent to Florence in 1490 to find out about the artistic scene and converse with Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and Pietro Vannucci.

The knees of the Madonna and the bag on the left hand side of the central panel are lost, whilst little remains of the serpent at Michael's feet and the small dog at Raphael's feet.

Some 1950s photographs show a non-original pediment above the side panels, which has now been removed.