Among his earliest works are the Self-Portrait (1458) in the Widener Collection in Philadelphia, the Venus (the only surviving secular painting from the bonfire of vanities of 1497, under the influence of Savonarola’s preaching) and the youthful Annunciation (both in the Uffizi), which can give measure of his abilities and his derivations from the Verrocchio workshop and that of Leonardo; his formation was also greatly influenced by Leonardo himself, and some works (such as the Portrait of Ginevra dei Benci in the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna) have often oscillated in attribution between the two.
Not a great artist, and at times monotonous, especially in the repetition of the schemes of his Madonnas, he nonetheless knew how to infuse his paintings with a sense of composure, an expression of his seriousness and honesty of craft. Among his best-known works are the Madonna between St Julian and St Nicholas (now in the Louvre), executed c. 1503 for the church of Cestello; the Madonna and Four Saints in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Pistoia, paid for in 1510, and, roughly contemporary, the St Bartholomew on a pillar in Orsanmichele and the Adoration of the Shepherds for Santa Chiara (now in the Uffizi); in 1523 he signed the St Michael in the sacristy of Florence Cathedral. The enamelled colour and his distinctive particularism earned him Vasari’s praise; he is often found serving on commissions, such as that of 1491 for the examination of the design for the façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, that of 1498 for the dome, and that of 1504 for the placement of Michelangelo’s David.