Susan Merriam notes that this early flower garland differs from those made after it (and other flower garlands in general) in its construction: van Balen's figures are painted on silver and inset into Brueghel's portion. Merriam describes the inset portion as "more like a cameo in an elaborate setting than a painting" and as having a trompe l'eoil effect that heightens the object's tactile quality. See Susan Merriam, Seventeenth Century Flemish Garland Paintings: Still Life, Vision, and the Devotional Image (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2012), 21-22.

Susan Merriam and Pamela Jones both cite a letter from Brueghel to Borromeo regarding the inclusion of the landscape in the background: "I will not fail to work hard on the little painting of the compartment of flowers in which, according to your Illustrious Lordship's orders, I will accomodate the Madonna within the landscape." (Archival Collection: Lettere deretti al Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Ambros, Ms. G198bis-inf:239) See Susan Merriam, Seventeenth Century Flemish Garland Paintings, 21-22 and Pamela M. Jones, Federico Borromeo and the Ambrosian: Art Patronage and Reform in Seventeenth-Century Milan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 84.