The recto is a preparatory study for the lost picture of circa 1657-60, formerly in the collection of the Duc d'Orléans, C. Stryienski, La Galerie du Régent Phillipe, Duc d'Orléans, Paris, 1913, no. 319. The picture is recorded in an engraving in reverse, O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, Rome, 1966, II, p. 370, III, fig 573. The study of Saint Joseph holding the Christ Child on the verso is a preparatory study for the painting sold at Sotheby's, 12 December 1973, lot 110, illustrated. A drawing with a comparable use of paper washed light red, dating from Giordano's first visit to Rome in the early 1650s is in the British Museum, N. Turner, Italian Baroque Drawings, London, 1980, no. 64, illustrated