How does Madonna della Scodella elucidate its Description and style?
The painting depicts an episode in the infancy of Jesus narrated in apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: while returning to Palestine after the Flight into Egypt and during a break in the shade of a date palm, the Sacred Family were fed thanks to the tree, which, folding extraordinarily, offered its fruits to the travelers. 
The Virgin is represented in the act of collecting the fruits, with a bowl of water miraculously appearing to quench Jesus' thirst. From this the traditional name of the work is derived. The title with which it is known also signified the importance that Correggio wished to place, as with his Madonna of the Basket on the simple object of the bowl.This iconography was not often used in Italian artistic production. It was, however, more frequent to the North, as displayed by the works of Albrecht Altdorfer and Lucas Cranach.The protagonist role of Joseph was a response to the needs of the Fraternity that commissioned the painting. The image is constructed on a diagonal line, that opens on the left with the bowl of silver and follows the intertwining of hands by the Virgin, Baby Jesus, and Joseph. The pose of Jesus, in a calculated contrapposto, allows him to act as a link between the represented scene and the real world of the observer, to whom he turns a knowing gaze.
On high, a glory of angels frees itself in an animated spiral that recalls the Correggio's frescoes for his Assumption of the Virgin in the Parma duomo.
Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew duomo Palestine Cranach Assumption of the Virgin Albrecht Altdorfer Jesus Virgin Lucas Cranach Madonna of the Basket contrapposto Sacred Family apocryphal Flight into Egypt