The composition, which shows the three Theological Virtues, was probably made with a painted composition in mind, though no such work survives. As Pérez Sánchez has argued, the style indicates a date around 1550-60, when the artist was still working in Genoa. Cambiaso treated the subject again at the end of his career in one of the frescoes in the choir of the Escorial, though the design of his latter composition is radically different from that of the present sheet.

Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.228