Jonathan Brown suggests that this and a red chalk study of adoring shepherds in the Uffizi (Z189F, Brown, fig. 36) are late drawings dating from after 1640. Chalk drawings of this period are rare. The elongated proportions of the figures with exaggeratedly long fingers can be compared with pen drawings of circa 1645-50 such as The Adoration of the Shepherds in The Metropolitan Museum (Brown, no. 33, fig. 60) and The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (Brown, no. 35, fig. 62) in The Pierpont Morgan Library.

The Holkham, Uffizi and Metropolitan drawings of the subject plus a further one in Berlin (Brown, no. 38, fig. 65) are not related to any known picture