Jacopo Bassano was among the most innovative painters at the end of the sixteenth century. This intimate portraitlike study in color is a textbook example of Bassano's celebrated naturalism and dazzlingly economic pastel technique. This characteristic drawing, depicting a frequent head type in his canvases, was preparatory for an onlooker on the right in the Miracle of Saint Peter Curing the Cripple (private collection), a connection that had been unnoticed prior to its acquisition by the Museum. Similar head types turn up in the altarpiece of the Glory of Paradise, painted by Jacopo around 1580 for the Church of the Capuchins in Bassano (Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa).