The Madonna with the infants Christ and St. John – one of the most popular subjects of the Italian Renaissance – frequently appears in the work of Perugino. However, what makes this painting unusual for Perugino is its asymmetrical composition and a narrative moment that integrates the figures into a little pictorial plot. In this respect, it represents a departure from the painter’s traditional images of the Madonna, which tend to conceive of the figures in a static and ceremonial way, and suggests the possible participation of the young Raphael. Raphael worked in Perugino’s workshop toward the end of the 1490s and already at that time exerted a deep and lasting influence on his teacher.