This drawing is connected with Correggio's last great fresco The Assumption of the Virgin of 1523-30 in the Duomo, Parma. This is a study for the ephebi sitting on the wall at the base of the south-facing side of the octagon. This presumably dates from a late stage of the artist's thinking, and the boys' attitudes correspond extremely closely to the fresco in its finished form. The major differences concern the omission of extraneous details, such as the apostles below and the candelabrum which the ephebe on the far right tends. The only significant change of pose is highly characteristic of Correggio's prediliction for teasing visual obscurities: in the fresco the far right ephebe's right arm conceals his face. The exact purpose of the architectural studies on the verso, which are certainly autograph, has not been satisfactorily explained.

The technique of this drawing is closest to the study at Lisbon for the same project, A. E. Popham, Correggio's Drawings, Oxford, 1957, no. 61, pl. LXXIIIC