[1] It was commissioned from Andrea del Verrocchio in 1474 as an altarpiece for the oratory of the Madonna di Piazza (the "Virgin of the Square").

It was painted in two parts, with heavy involvement from Verrochio's studio assistants, particularly Lorenzo di Credi.

18th century local historians attributed the work to Leonardo da Vinci, based on a note made by the artist on a folio now in the Uffizi which records that in the month of "...bre" 1478 he began "two Virgin Maries", one of which is usually identified as the Garofano Madonna.

Today Leonardo, twenty-two in 1474, is thought to have had no involvement in the painting of the Piazza Madonna beyond one compartment of the predella which corresponds to an autograph drawing of a head of the Virgin by him - that panel is now in the Louvre and the drawing is no.

Credi's St Donatus and the Tax Collector (Worcester Art Museum) is identified as one of them,[4] whilst Perugino's Birth of the Virgin Mary and Miracle of the Snow are both also sometimes thought to have been part of this predella