The painting was begun in 1534 for the funerary chapel of Francesco Tagliaferri[1] in Parma, but remained incomplete on Parmigianino's death in 1540.

[2] The painting depicts the Virgin Mary seated on a high pedestal in luxurious robes, holding a large baby Jesus on her lap.

In the lower right-hand corner of the painting is an enigmatic scene, with a row of marble columns and the emaciated figure of St. Jerome.

[3]Parmigianino has distorted nature for his own artistic purposes, creating a typical Mannerist figura serpentinata.

[4] Her slender hands and long fingers have also led the Italian medical scientist Vito Franco of the University of Palermo to diagnose that Parmigianino's model had the genetic disorder Marfan syndrome affecting her connective tissue.