The painting also known as Madonna delle Grazie covers the background wall of the Veteran Church, and was included in a sumptuous carved and gilded wooden Baroque altar, destroyed together with other pictorial masterpieces during the renovation works of the building, occurred in the sixties. This artwork is mentioned in the report of the apostolic visit of Paolino Pace which took place on 17 February 1769: ''In Altari Majori venerantur Imagines pictae B.M.V., SS. Lucae and Stephani” Folio 45 and 46 of the Proceedings, conserved inside the Library of the Seminary). Parts were repainted in the 19th century and according to Ardito it was "barbarically retouched". Having lost its original inclusion due to the destruction of the wooden altar, the table lay in a total state of abandonment and neglect,and leaning against the church wall it could easily be stolen, while the not fit environment increased the deterioration of the wooden support and the fall of the pictorial film. Therefore it was properly removed and positioned in a protected place and an operation was carried out to conserve the pictorial surface, looking forward to an adequate restoration. This painting is older than the seventeenth-century altar, being discovered due to photographic documentation, wooden carving work from a local workshop, whereas the panel has no reference to the regional artistic experience. This can be hypothesized being the altar built during a second phase, perhaps to embellish the painting further. This is confirmed by the addition, at the top of the table, of wooden elements which take the arched shape back to the rectangular one, elements of which some parts remain to highlight the additional operation, due to the diversity of the wood and the coarse decoration. Stylistic reasons lead us to set the panel during the first half of the 16th century. We can also assume that the work was commissioned by the Confraternity of S. Maria, established in the Veterana, following the important event that elevated the church to a place of indulgence with the Bull of Paul III dated 5 March 1542. The hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that in the pontifical document, among the days of indulgence granted, the feast of Santo Stefano is found ,along with the saint’s presence in the painted scene. The divine event, presented with calm composure, creates a serene atmosphere of contemplation, so much that the drama of the crucifixion, barely mentioned, is absorbed by the sweetness of the whole. A considered geometric composition coordinates each represented. element. The primary geometric reference is the circle given by the arch of the panel above and by the movement of the clouds below. The body of Mary is contained in this perfect geometric figure with the womb of the Woman in the exact centre and with the delicate conjunction of her hand with the foot of the Son. The heads of the saints are placed along the horizontal diameter and with the head of the Virgin make up a triangle within the circle, but the suspended celestial perfection falls back to earth with the bodies of Stephen and Luke. A vertical axis, which starts from the crown, descends connecting the hands of the Child, the center of the circle and the vertical wood of the cross. This axis balances the symmetrical correspondence between the lateral sectors and indicates a proceeding from the heavenly plane to the earthly plane, linking the action of the praying confreres kneeling on the ground to the divine event. The compositional rigor is underlined by some figurative details: the palm of St. Stephen and the pen of St. Luke follow the circumference, one book maintains the verticality of the rigid tunic, the other adapts to the diagonal of the drapery and the raised arm. The harmony is even more enhanced by the color applied with delicate hues, by the controlled gestures and the serene expressions of the faces; particularly intense is the gaze of the Virgin who with sweetness captures the observer. The executiono of the technique and the described compositional characteristics lead us to recognize in the work the refined culture of the sixteenth century that shaped the Renaissance poetics, proceeding in the design of the work with a classic sense of porpotion through which every emotional impulse was canceled to connect this celestial vision to an intellectual and contemplative beauty.