A bearded figure sits reading an open book that rests on his knee, supported by his right hand; his head leaning on his left hand. Another figure holding a scroll stands behind.

As noted by Popham and Wilde, the drawing corresponds with a fresco in the Parish church in Lestans, painted by Pomponio Almateo, a pupil of Giovanni Antonio Pordenone (The Italian drawings of the XV and XVI centuries at Windsor Castle, p.301). Guiseppe Fiocco gave the drawing to Almateo, an attribution that was supported by Hans and Erica Tietze (The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, no. 29). Popham and Wilde reject this attribution. They suggest the fresco was designed by Pordenone and that the present drawing may be either Pordenone's original study for the fresco, a copy after Pordenone's original drawing, or a later copy after the completed fresco.

The upper corners of the sheet have been clipped, a common feature in drawings that were in England in the late seventeenth century. It is not known whether this was the favoured mounting style of one unidentified collector, or a more general fashion.