On the recto, a drawing of a youth, half-length, seated facing right; he holds an open book in his left hand, and a staff in his right. The right arm is a separate study, with the shoulder beginning as if in the middle of the youth's torso. Popham (in P&W 1949) suggested that, if the old attribution was right, that this might be a study for one of the allegorical figures in the angles of the vaulting of the Casino of Pius IV in the Vatican, though it does not correspond closely with any of those figures.

The attribution to Barocci was not widely accepted. F. Antal (review of P&W, in Burlington Magazine, 1951, p. 32) suggested Bernardino Poccetti. H. Olsen (FB, 1962, p.292) rejected the attribution to Barocci without suggesting an alternative. J. Shearman (recorded in Blunt (Misc) 1971, p.50) suggested Bronzino.

On the verso, a drawing of the Madonna and Child in pen and ink with wash and white heightening, revealed when the drawing was lifted from its mount in 1999. This drawing seems to confirm Popham's attribution of the recto to Barocci, as an early sheet.
Inscribed verso, lower left, in the hand of William Gibson, F. Bar:^tio / 1.3. [the numbers cut].