This drawing probably dates from the 1650s as the physical type and the landscape setting recall pictures such as Mercury and Argus of circa 1650-5 at Oberlin and Saint John the Baptist in the Desert in Sant'Anastasia, Rome of the same period, see the exhibition catalogue Pier Francesco Mola, Milan, 1989, nos. I.15 and I.17, illustrated. The composition of the Baptist pointing to Christ may have been inspired by Annibale Carracci's picture of 1601-2 formerly in the Chigi Collection, Rome