As Rearick points out, this is a study for the figure at the lower left of The Martyrdom of Saint Justina of circa 1575 in the Basilica di Santa Giustina, Padua, T. Pignatti, Veronese, Venice, 1976, I, no.182, II, fig. 469. This drawing dates after the modello for the altarpiece formerly at Chatsworth and now at Malibu, for in that sheet a dog, rather than a youth, looks up from the base of the stairs towards the Saint. Rearick suggests that the youth may have been substituted on the suggestion of the patron, who may have found the dog's prominent position in the composition was inappropriate.

Professor Richard Cocke has kindly confirmed the attribution