[1][full citation needed] According to Vasari's testimony in his Lives, the work remained at the Santa Trinita until 1471, when it was replaced by the Trinitá of Alesso Baldovinetti and transferred to a side chapel of the church, since it was less respected than the newer Renaissance paintings.

With the reconsideration of "primitive" Italian art, the painting passed to the Florentine Galleria dell'Accademia in 1810 and then on to the Uffizi in 1919.

The painting displays Byzantine iconography much like the Hodegetria archetype (in Greek, the name means "pointing the way"), because the Virgin is indicating toward the Baby Jesus.

The throne is depicted from an innovative frontal view, with a large gap at the center and seen in perspective, which gives it a sense of three dimensions unusual for the time.

In a striking composition, the throne creates a stage with the wide opening in its base through which four prophets are depicted in half bust view.

The first, with the text "Creavit Dominus Novum super terram foemina circundavit viro" is Jeremiah, followed by Abraham toward the center ("In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes") and David ("De fructu ventris tuo ponam super sedem tuam"), and finally Isaiah at right ("Ecce virgo concipet et pariet").

[2] Below, at the sides of the throne, Jeremiah and Isaiah gaze up towards the child as if to confirm the prophecies written in their documents on the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus.

The arrangement of the four prophets has a precise doctrinal explanation: the patriarchs toward the center represent that human rational capacity, that inquires in the mystery of the Incarnation.

The heads of the angels are alternately inclined inwards or outwards, avoiding a completely profile representation, which was then reserved only for secondary or negative figures.

The angels closely resemble those in the Maestà of Cimabue in the frescoes of the Basilica inferiore di San Francesco d'Assisi [it].

The red and blue colors of their clothes indicate their substance, according to Renaissance thought: a fusion of fire and air.

The golden highlights from Damascening suggest the fluid touch of light on the Madonna's mantle and the clothing of Jesus.

For example, the Madonna has a cut at the level of her nostril that slips into the fin of her nose or accents her smile, a detail missing from early Cimabue.

In that, Cimabue seems to recreate features of his earlier work, which made him famous but now make him seem outdated compared to his contemporaries.

Although there are not documents to attest to a specific date, the work is placed by recent critics in the mature phase of Cimabue, between c. 1290 and 1300, on the basis of stylistic details.

This transition is seen in the frescoes of Basilica superiore di San Francesco d'Assisi [it] of c. 1288–1292, where the figures have a size not seen in Cimabue's previous works.