Как пишет Ридольфи (1648), эта картина, заказанная в память Пьетро Каппелло, издавна "считалась одним из самых прекрасных и изысканных произведений художника".

К тому времени Джованни уже достиг старости - ему было около 75 лет. Однако его исключительная способность к творческому обновлению, определявшаяся глубоко осознанным пониманием пути эволюции искусства, ни на мгновение не угасала и не ослабевала. Соприкоснувшись с живописными открытиями Джорджоне, он усвоил их, заставив совершенно органично служить выразительным возможностям собственного изобразительного языка. Композиционное построение и архитектоника картины существенно не отличаются от алтаря Сан Джоббе: апсида, словно ниша, вобравшая в себя группу Мадонны с Младенцем на троне и святых, расположенных по сторонам от нее. Следовательно, и здесь картина, с пространственной точки зрения, становится продолжением алтаря, в котором она находится. В то же время фрагменты пейзажа по краям композиции, в соответствии с приёмом, заимствованным у Альвизе Виварини, применившим его в ныне разрушенном алтарном образе Баттути из Беллуно, вносят в нее свет, обволакивающий и словно растворяющий формы. Тональный колорит создает новую гармонию широких планов и смягченных пластических форм, ощущение теплоты атмосферы.

Giovanni Bellini painted many works in his lifetime, however this altarpiece may be perhaps one of his best examples of his work. The altarpiece incorporates Bellini's skill in landscape, architecture, and his ability to create realistic figures without diminishing their religious aura. The colors of the altarpiece possess a dreamlike quality that enhances the richness and importance of each figure. Every detail from the shadows beneath each figures eyes to the large architectural embellishments have been paid specific attention. One can almost feel the carvings of the decorative molding in the wood. Bellinin is noted for his treatment of light and illumination. The figures appear to be glowing and it is as if the viewer can feel the light as it radiates from the painting. The entire central narrative is centered within an elaborate Romanesque arch and a glimpse of the splendor of nature can be seen. (Bellinin was noted for his skill in painting landscapes.) Perhaps this was done in order to pay homage to the baby Jesus' father the creator of all things good. This altarpiece has withstood the test of time and remains today in the tiny church of San Zaccaria nestled in Venice for the world to see the marvelous talent of Giovanni Bellini.

композиция:
Child blesses those that stand beneath Him.
The compositional and architectural structure of the canvas is not fundamentally very different from the San Giobbe Altarpiece: a niche-like apse surrounding the group of the enthroned Madonna and the saints who are positioned at Her sides.
Here too, from a spatial point of view, the painting becomes a continuation of the altar on which it is placed.
But at the same time the landscape appearing from the sides, according to an idea taken from Alvise Vivarini who had experimented it in the Battuti Altarpiece at Belluno (now destroyed), pour forth into the air a light that softens the forms.
The tonal colour gains the upper hand, creating a new harmony of broad planes, softened forms, and a warm sense of the air.
When one enters the little church of San Zaccaria in Venice and stands before the picture, immediately notices that his approach to color was very different.
Not that the picture is particularly bright or shining. It is rather the mellowness and richness of the colors that impress one before one even begins to look at what the picture represents.
Even the photograph conveys something of the warm and gilded atmosphere which fills the niche in which the Virgin sits enthroned, with the infant Jesus lifting His little hands to bless the worshippers before the altar.
An angel at the foot of the altar softly plays the violin, while the saints stand quietly at either side of the throne:

St Peter with his key and book,

St Catherine with the palm of martyrdom and the broken wheel,

St Lucy and St Jerome, the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, and whom Bellini therefore represented as reading a book.

Many Madonnas with saints have been painted before and after, in Italy and elsewhere, but few were ever conceived with such dignity and repose.
In the Byzantine tradition, the picture of the Virgin used to be rigidly flanked by images of the saints, Bellini knew how to bring life into this simple symmetrical arrangement without upsetting its order.
He also knew how to turn the traditional figures of the Virgin and saints into real and living beings without divesting them of their holy character and dignity.
He did not even sacrifice the variety and individuality of real life - as Perugino had done to some extent.
St Catherine with her dreamy smile, and St Jerome, the old scholar engrossed in his book, are real enough in their own ways, although they, too, no less than Perugino's figures, seem to belong to another more serene and beautiful world, a world transfused with that warm and supernatural light that fills the picture.