The Virgin is kneeling, her head tilted to the right, and looking down to the Christ Child, whom she supports with her left hand while holding a bunch of roses in her right. The Christ Child is seen from the back, standing on his left foot and twisting to look up to the left. Saint Joseph, in the shadow over the Virgin's right shoulder, offers him an apple. In the upper right are two heads of angels. The symbols of apples and roses recur frequently in 'Madonnas' and 'Holy Families' by Procaccini; the apple usually refers to Christ's role as the Second Adam, while the roses are either symbols of the Passion or attributes of the Virgin herself. There are two paintings with a closely related but not identical composition, one at Dresden and the other a small canvas in the National Museum in Poznan. These confirm that the composition would naturally have been wider, however the edges of this panel have been cut down. The traditional attribution of the painting to Giulio Cesare Procaccini is quite clearly correct; it is qualitatively among the best of his works, and the artist's Emilian sources, especially Correggio and Parmigiano, are clearly evident. A third version of the painting exists in the Art Institute, Chicago. It has no Saint Joseph and is probably from Procaccini's workshop.