[1] A masterpiece of the artist's youth, it is traditionally thought to have been commissioned by the Certosa di Pavia, though no documents survive to support or deny this.

The Madonna is depicted at half-length, seated with the Child in her arms, in front of a background of white roses: this is the typical Marian flower, whose iconographic relation to the Virgin was in use throughout the Middle Ages.

The attention devoted to the description of plants is linked to Lombard naturalism, whose origins can be found in the late Gothic art.

In fact, the face of the Madonna shows the unmistakable influence of Leonardo da Vinci, with a sweet nuance.

Even the Child is inspired by Leonardo's works, but none in particular (or perhaps the never painted Madonna of the Cat): the artist used a certain freedom in reworking its shape, arranging it diagonally, as if to compose an ideal arc that reconnects it to the figure of the mother within an oval.