Despite its small size, this sacra conversazione is a composition of studied equilibrium. The centre is dominated by a fragment of landscape against which a slender processional cross stands out. This cross ideally separates the Madonna and Child from the two saints, John and Catherine of Alexandria, who is identified by the wheel of her martyrdom. The attribution to Giorgione is not shared by all scholars, some of whom attribute it to Sebastiano del Piombo, while others have posited a collaboration between the maestro and a student.