"Madonna and Child"

One art critic said "the grotesque decoration, athletic putti, and invented Roman coins or medals which comprise the exceptional background relate to Signorelli's antiquarian interests..."

Another critic described the painting as "great and profoundly original", and that "one not only gains intense satisfaction from the marvelous drawing of the gold decoration, with its intreccia of aggressive putti and scroll-work, but one realizes that the figures of the Madonna and Child maintain their due predominance by the unparalleled amplitude and simplicity of their forms". The color, too, with its suggestion of archaic and Byzantine originals"was in fact "one of the most daring and successful experiments in Italian art".