Madonna and Child with St. Julian and St. Nicholas

Madonna and Child with St. Julian and St. Nicholas, in the Louvre, is a sacra conversazione painted around 1494 for a specific Florentine patronage context—the saints Julian and Nicholas suggest a commission from someone named for those saints or with special devotion to them. Lorenzo di Credi's placement of the sacred figures within a precisely rendered architectural setting demonstrates the Verrocchio workshop's training in both painting and sculpture—the architectural frame has the quality of a carved niche. The Louvre acquired this work as part of its comprehensive collection of Italian Renaissance painting.

The architecture framing the Madonna is painted with precise linear perspective derived from the Verrocchio workshop's practice, its pilasters and entablature rendered with the detailing of actual stonework. The figures of Julian and Nicholas stand in contrapposto, their positions suggesting the sculptural influence of the workshop training both Credi and Leonardo received.