In the painting, the Virgin Mary is sitting on a marble throne. The painting has a three-dimensional feel. Here, Giotto distances himself from the Byzantine style of painting which characterized art in those years. Indeed, the Virgin Mary is wearing the traditional red cap, but a few locks of hair are falling onto her shoulders. The gold engraved decorations are of particular relevance: some say this aspect was inspired by a mix of both Arabic writings and the French gothic style. Giotto’s early style is evident in this work, and can be linked to his frescos in Assisi, the Crucifix in Santa Maria Novella and the fragment in Borgo San Lorenzo. The date of its execution, therefore, cannot be far from the date of the frescos in Assisi. Many believe it was completed in the late-1200s.

'The cuspidated or toothed panel has been mutilated: it was cut on all four sides in the eighteenth century, so that it could be inserted in a baroque altar. Ghiberti was the first to mention a painting by Giotto in the church of San Giorgio: he was followed by other Renaissance historians and scholars.
It is now almost unanimously accepted as his work and placed chronologically alongside the Franciscan frescoes of Assisi. The Madonna sits on a Cosmatesque throne covered with a very rich cloth that allows us a glimpse of the traditional red cushion: her monumental posture is barely ruffled by a slight tilt of the head and the bend of knee pushing forward. She is clothed in the traditional colors — the red dress and the (now(blackened ) blue mantle — but she also wears a marforium (tight cap) that is bright red, a color not usual in the tradition. And the blessing Child, seated tile the mother in a rigid pose and wearing a costume of white tending to gray, is also covered by a red mantle'. Red also brightens the stoles of the beautiful angels behind the throne, as it does the ribbons in their hair. The vivid red prevails over the blue in this very lively, if not very rich, panel. Related to the better known and more famous Madonnas in Glory by Duccio and Cimabue, this panel exhibits the transition to a new figurative culture: the Madonna's figure now has "natural" proportions and her pose too is natural, while her face, shaped in accordance with classical canons (already seen in the figures on the higher tiers of the Assisi walls) has a unique, vivid expression. Her body is set off by deep drapery and is constructed by a precise chiaroscuro, though her sleeve and the costume of the child still show those sharp folds that one finds in the Assisi frescoes of the upper tier, and in the panels of the Santa Maria Novella Crucifix. Still, the panel is very refined in the use of Gothic cloth, and in the presence of the graceful little angels who look out from behind the throne. Again like the Crucifix, the panel exhibits a new style, confirming Giotto's new and powerful personality, surpassing the earlier and contemporary tradition, with his revolutionary ideas.' [3].