[1] This painting depicts a popular iconographic religious scene of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus close to her chest.

Crivelli’s Lenti Madonna is artistically decorated with biblical symbols that were common for the time it was created.

[2] A few common but important objects of symbolism would include: the hanging apples and pickle surroundings Mary’s head, the lone fly, and the European Goldfinch that Baby Jesus is holding in his hands.

[2] Even though the painting is small in size, it has a lot of details within the fabrics and textures, which have resulted in a hyper-realistic style that can be traced back to Flemish art.

[1] Small and intended for private devotion, it was probably the work seen by Orsini around 1790 in Pier Giovanni Lenti's house in Ascoli Piceno with a "K" in its signature rather than the more usual "C" - the alternative candidate is the Ancona Madonna (probably c. 1480), but that is signed "CAROLI" not "KAROLI".

[3] The Duveen Brothers acquired it in 1927, ceding it to Jules S. Bache, before finally passing to its present collection.

[2] Baby Jesus is seated on the cushion, clutching a little goldfinch in his hands, a symbol of his future Passion.

Behind Mary is a lavender curtain that is identified as a cloth of Honor, which is being held up by red laces with gold aglets.

During this time period of the Renaissance, 1480s, the introduction of turbans were used to identify individuals who were from the Eastern Mediterranean lands (not from Western Europe, categorized as “others”).

This would include: the cloth of honor, the yellow textured silk, Mary’s gold and blue garment, her long and expressive hands, the hanging fruit and fly, the engraved parapet, and the landscape that can be viewed from beyond the centered figures.

[citation needed] The large apples and pickle symbolize major key elements of the religious story of the Garden of Eden.

At a young age, Crivelli was able to fool Cimabue—Crivelli worked in his studio in his early active years—more than once into trying to brush the flies off his paintings until realizing they were all tricks.

[8] This concept stemmed from a post-biblical legend that during Jesus’s Crucifixion, a goldfinch landed on him as he was nailed to the cross, and began to pluck out the thorns from his crown.

[6] This symbolizes his full acceptance of his destiny with open arms, as he doesn’t allow the bird to move or escape his grasp.