A drawing of the Virgin holding the Christ Child, who is standing in a basin of water; the infant Baptist to the left. A copy of a lost drawing by Parmigianino, a small study towards a composition of the Adoration of the Shepherds (in which the Virgin bathes Christ, as here), the most developed study of which is in the Uffizi (inv. 747-E). 

This is one of 24 drawings at Windsor from a single album that was in the collection of William Gibson in the seventeenth century (RCIN 933317); the drawings in that album were RCINs 990540, 990542-3, 990551-7, 990569-77, 990585-8, 990591. All these appear to be copies after Parmigianino drawings in the collection of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), and the copies must have been made by one of the artists in Arundel’s circle, such as Lucas Vorsterman or Hendrick van der Borcht. Eight of the compositions were etched by Nicholas Lanier among his 'Prove prime fatti a l'acqua forte da N. Lanier a l'eta sua giovenile di sessanta otto Anni 1656' (see A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain, 1998, no. 55, and British Museum, inv. W,2.127), and it is possible that Lanier himself either made or owned these drawings.