Giulio Briganti points out that this drawing is typical of Cortona's late draughtsmanship and connects it with a picture of the same subject, albeit of slightly different composition, attributed to Cortona's pupil Lazzaro Baldi, now in the Museo Capitolare in Velletri, Italy.
Walther Vitzthum (op. cit., 1967, pp. 115-6) noted that a sketch by Cortona of the same composition is in an album of drawings by Cortona and Cirro Ferri in a private collection in New York (folio 52).
A close parallel to the present drawing is also found in a drawing from Holkham Hall, sold at Christie's, 2 July 1991, lot 31, illustrated. The figure of Christ on clouds with putti is exactly the same in both the Ferretti and Holkham drawings and in the altarpiece to which the latter relates. This picture, in Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, Rome, was left unfinished on Cortona's death in 1669 and completed by his pupil Giovanni Ventura Borghesi after 1674. The Ferretti and Holkham drawings must date from the same late period in Cortona's career, the latter probably having been executed before the former: in the latter, Christ points toward Saint Jerome on the left while in the former the same gesture is less pronounced.
The attribution was kindly confirmed by Dr. Jörg Merz.