The scene, based on Luke 2: 46–7, shows Christ as a 12-year- old boy in the temple in Jerusalem, surrounded by doctors. According to the scripture, he asked questions and 'all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers'. As the rest of the doctors consult their books, a portly figure on the right holds up a magnifying glass. Facial similarity to other surviving portraits (for example that of c.1704–6 in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) suggests that this is a self-portrait of the artist. Ricci arrived in London during the winter of 1711, returning to Italy in 1716. This painting may be a preparatory sketch produced during that time for a larger composition, perhaps the decorations for the Duke of Portland's chapel at Bulstrode House (now destroyed) or for St Paul's Cathedral.

Here Ricci is following in the tradition of fifteenth-century artists including themselves as bystanders in religious scenes. Traditionally such images showed the artist looking out, serving as an intermediary between the viewer's immediate present and the historic scene being portrayed. Here, however, the artist shows himself in profile, removing any sense of invitation to the viewer.

Ricci appears to have included himself in another religious scene in the Royal Collection, The Magdalen Anointing Christ's Feet (RCIN 405742), along with his nephew and artistic collaborator, Marco Ricci

Text adapted from Portrait of the Artist, London, 2016