The present drawing is preparatory for the head of the Saint in Angeli's painting of The Crucifixion with Saint Jerome Emiliani and Orphans in the Chiesa dell'Ospedaletto in Venice of 1748, R. Pallucchini, Giambattista Piazzetta, Il suo tempo, la sua scuola, Venice, 1983, no. 59, illustrated. A drawing in the Ambrosiana of the head of a man, in the reverse sense to that of the present drawing and the finished painting, might well be an earlier study for the same figure, U. Ruggeri, Disegni veneti del Settecento nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Venice, 1976, no. 1, illustrated.
Saint Jerome Emiliani founded the order of Somaschi which cared for orphaned children. He died of the plague in 1537 and is the patron Saint of orphans and abandoned children