[1] The work had initially been commissioned by the Fraternita dei laici of Arezzo to Giorgio Vasari, as an altarpiece for the fraternity's chapel in Santa Maria della Pieve.

It was accompanied by a cusp representing God the Father Blessing, now at the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art, in Arezzo.

Some are recognizable as wealthy people, like the rich gentlewomen bejeweled and praying, others as from the lower classes, such as the woman with the child who receives alms from a young gentleman just on the edge of the stage.

The children are very expressive and caught in realistic moments, like the one who disturbs a woman by carelessly leafing through the prayer book she holds in her hand, or the one kneeling next to his mother who smiles distracted by the sound of the hurdy-gurdy.

[4][5] The composition of the Madonna del Popolo is more free than some works by the artist from previous years, such as the Deposition in the Cathedral of Perugia.