The drawing bears an attribution to the fifteenth-century Venetian master Sebastiano del Piombo on the verso and was noted as "Cavedone (Sebastiano del Piombo?)" when it entered the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in 1961. It appears to be by a Florentine master of the early seventeenth-century, harking back to cinquecento prototypes.
Inscribed at upper right in pen and gray ink, "485"; on verso at lower center in pen and black ink, "Del. Piombo", at lower right in black chalk, "547"; at lower left, center, and right in graphite (?), "[effaced]"; at lower right in graphite (?), "W5-(?)"; on fragments of old mount in pencil, "Sebastiano del Piombo / (zugeschreiben).; Cavedone / A-S.; 5". Unidentified collector's stamp on verso. Stamped on fragment of old mount, "32a ['a' in superscript and underlined]".
Watermark: Crossed arrows, centered on chain lines. Attributed by H. P. Kraus to Cavedone (Sebastiano del Piombo). Acquired as Italian school.
Sebastiano, del Piombo, 1485-1547, Formerly attributed to.
Kraus, Hans Peter, 1907-1988, former owner.