Paul Barolsky argues that the "Doni Tondo" is a ""devotional image […] more than an example of style, symbolism, iconography"". Barolsky bases much of his thesis on the language used by Giorgio Vasari in his work "Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times". His support for the idea of devotion comes from Christ being presented in the painting like a gift, which he links to the painting's patron due to a perceived pun on the Italian word for "gift," ""donare,"" and the patron's name, Doni (meaning literally, in Italian, 'gifts'). Furthering the Christ-as-gift metaphor, Mary's holding of Christ in the painting is seen to reference the elevating of the host during mass.