Popham advanced the attribution to Bedoli, the cousin of Parmigianino. Copies of this drawing are in the Accademia, Venice, The Musée Wicar, Lille (H. Pluchart, Musée Wicar Notice des Dessins, Lille, 1889, no. 309, as Parmigianino), The Victoria and Albert Museum (P. Ward-Jackson, Italian Drawings, Volume One: 14th-16th Century, London, 1979, no. 51) and the Uffizi. In addition there is an 18th Century etching after the drawing with an inscription 'franc. Parme. facit' in the British Museum (1851-3-8-908). The number of copies and the strong influence of Parmigianino may suggest that the composition derives from a prototype by the master. Whitfield suggested that the traditional attribution to Parmigianino should be maintained, on the basis of a comparison with two paintings in the Courtauld Institute and an English private collection dating from his Bolognese period of 1527-31, C. Whitfield, op. cit., figs. 12 and 20. Although clearly influenced by works by Parmigianino of that period, the exaggerated refinement of the figures, the static composition and the smooth handling of chalk in this drawing are closer to Mazzola Bedoli paintings such as the Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist datable to the early 1530s in an Italian private collection, H.R. Milstein, Paintings of Mazzola Bedoli, New York and London, 1978, fig. 4