Outside of Rome and Florence, no painter was as decisive in the formulation of painting's classical language as Corregio. His youth, before his stay in Rome in 1518 and 1519, cannot be understood without Mantegna and Leonardo da Vinci, whose influence can be seen in the present work, painted in Parma between 1515 and 1517. The classical appearance of the Virgin's sandals comes from Mantegna, while Leonardo is the source of the setting in a cavern, as well as the exactitude in the treatment of the plants, and the sfumato.

This work was listed in the 1746 inventory of the La Granja Palace among the paintings belonging to Queen Isabel de Farnesio.