This previously unknown drawing is a characteristic example of Parmigianino's late manner, and must date from his second Parmesan period (1530-40). The present study is a larger and more finished development of a drawing at Budapest, A. E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino, New Haven and London, 1971, no. 28, pl. 416.

A number of drawings by Parmigianino dating from this period, after his return to his native Parma, reveal a similar taste for amorous subject matter: it certainly appealed to patrons such as the Cavaliere Baiardo, for whom he painted his Cupid; now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna