The Virgin, seated in an interior, holds The Child on a linen cloth in her lap. The Child fingers a rosary of transparent and gold beads. In the foreground is a low table on which sits a covered glass of red wine and a metal dish containing grapes, pomegranates, half a walnut, cherries and other fruit. Behind them, St Joseph, dressed in black, grey and red, reads from a scroll. The inscription on the scroll is almost entirely effaced, but may be reconstructed as a Latin text of the first six lines of the Magnificat (Luke I, 46-51). The wine and grapes are references to the Eucharist, while the walnut and other fruit probably also have symbolic significance. This is one of at least nine versions of the same composition, the original of which is attributed to Joos van Cleve and is in the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H. There the Virgin and Child have haloes, Joseph wears a straw hat and the still life, architecture and landscape are quite different. Various elements in this painting recur in other works attributed to Joos van Cleve or to his workshop, including the figures of the Virgin and Child (which reappear in the large Adoration of the Kings at Dresden), the covered glass of wine, and the Child playing with a rosary. The repetition of compositions and reuse of figures and motifs seem to have been standard procedures in the workshop of Joos van Cleve, and this work, which is not of very impressive quality, was probably executed in that workshop. As there are noticeable stylistic differences between the figure of St Joseph and the figures of the Virgin and Child, suggesting that it could well be the work of at least two assistants produced under the direction of Joos.