The soft handling of chalk and the type, influenced by Correggio, suggests that this dates from the 1580s. Comparable drawings from this period are the Youth carrying a Boy on his Shoulders in the Uffizi and the Study of a Man holding a Flute at Chatsworth, A. Emiliani (ed.), Bologna 1584, Gli esordi dei Carracci egli affreschi di Palazzo Fava, Bologna, 1984, nos. 91R-92R, both illustrated. An alternative attribution to Pietro Faccini has been suggested