The composition of the picture, opening out onto a landscape, is reminiscent of a type of portrait frequently used by Titian and his workshop. The position of the Madonna, whose lower body is mainly in the centre of the picture and whose upper body is turned to the left half, is a further example of Titian's unusual talent for composition - he was always finding new ways of developing long-established pictorial formulas.The large heavy figure in this picture can be compared to the sculptures of Sansovino and Michelangelo.