This drawing may be a study for Reni's Vergine col Bambino e S. Giovannino, oil, 1640-42, now in the Fondazione Longhi, Florence. The figure of the Christ Child holding a bird, as appears in the current drawing, is used again, albeit in a different pose, in Reni's Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, oil, 1640-42, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Mailbu. The subject is also possibly related to Simone Cantarini's (1612-1648) Madonna and Child with a Finch, etching (see Bartsch 18).
