[1] It depicts the Roman mythological figure Flora, the goddess of springtime and flowers, a popular subject among Renaissance artists.

She wears the costume of an ancient Roman,[4] with a white stola embroidered in gold and with a blue palla thrown over one shoulder.

[5] The attribution of Flora to Melzi is based on close similarities between the painting and other works by the artist, especially Vertumnus and Pomona at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

[3] Adolfo Venturi wrote how the "same seductive, tender feminine charms, and the same Hellenic spirit recur in the Columbina" as in Vertumnus and Pomona.

[11] Rodman Henry likewise noted this similarity, though argued there was no evidence Melzi was an artist and so the paintings couldn't be attributed to him.

[2] In 2019, the painting underwent a conservation treatment performed by Maria Vyacheslavovna Shulepova (Мария Вячеславовна Шулепова) of the State Hermitage Museum.