It is, to begin with, the only finished easel picture that exists from his brush.

It is also his one work in oils, for he afterwards despised that medium as being fit "only for children".

The frame is contemporary and was made for it, the whole being commissioned by Angelo Doni, a wealthy connoisseur whose portrait by Raphael we shall see in the Pitti, and who, according to Vasari, did his best to get it cheaper than his bargain, and had in the end to pay dearer.

The period of the picture is about 1503, while the great David was in progress, when the painter was twenty-eight.

That it is masterly and superb there can be no doubt, but, like so much of Michelangelo's work, it suffers from its author's greatness.