Although trained as a goldsmith, Francia primarily worked as a painter in and around his hometown of Bologna. Depictions of the Virgin and child with saints are predominant among his major surviving works. St. Barbara is shown with a martyr's palm and a model of the tower in which her pagan father imprisoned her, while St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order, wears his black and white habit and holds a lily and a book. When Francia painted the present panel, he was influenced by the luminous style of his contemporary Perugino, another artist represented in Morgan's study.
The Virgin and Child with S. Dominic at her right and Saint Barbara at her left. St. Barbara is holding an arrow and a tower. S. Dominic holds a lily and a book. He wears the religious garb of the Domenican order.
The lily may signify St. Dominic's purity while the tower represents St. Barbara's martyrdom, her incarceration by her father.