Originally in the Florentine church of San Francesco in Via de' Macci, the panel entered the Medici collections in 1685 through Grand Prince Ferdinando and then reached the Uffizi in 1785. It is called "Madonna of the Harpies" due to the monstrous creatures on the pedestal thought to be harpies by Vasari, but which more likely are the locusts described in the Book of Revelations, to which this painting refers.