The present drawing was first published by Dr. Stephen Pepper, who dates it to late in Agostino's career. He compares the figure of Neptune with that of Gabriel in the Annunciation at the Louvre, C. Legrand, Le dessin à Bologne 1580-1620, La réforme des trois Carracci, exhib. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1994, no. 35, illustrated. Dr. Babette Bohn confirms the attribution and dates the drawing to Agostino's Roman period, circa 1597-1600.
Roberto Ferretti compares the figure on the verso with a figure of an executioner in a drawing formerly in the Mariette and Ellesmere collections, sold at Sotheby's, 11 July 1972, lot 24, illustrated. The profile with the line of the nose continuing to the forehead,and the hatching are particularly close in both drawings.