Watermark: none visible through lining.
Formerly attributed to Perino del Vaga, 1500/1501-1547.
Drawing is one of six designs for the borders of the first page of the Christmas Matins of the Roman Missal engraved by Theodor Galle (1571-1631) and published by the Plantin-Moretus Press in 1613.
Inscribed at lower right, in brown ink, "P D V".
Perino, del Vaga, 1500 or 1501-1547, Formerly attributed to.
Mayor, William, 1826-1892, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 183:5.
Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 141, no. 303, repr.