The subject of the Adoration of the Christ Child was very popular in Florence for private devotional pictures, especially in the form of the tondo or round painting. Fra Bartolommeo referred to a cartoon by his colleague Lorenzo di Credi for this composition that the latter had drawn for a tondo now in New York. After his apprenticeship, Fra Bartolommeo was probably active in Credi's workshop for a time as an independent artist and had access to his sketches. The inspiration for the motif of the infant St John being held by an angel is likely to have come from Leonardo's 'Virgin of the Rocks'.