Kneeling at the left, with his left arm around the lamb, young Saint John raises his eyes to the nude Christ Child standing at his side. The scene is presented in a heart-shaped cartouche. This is a preparatory drawing for the painting at the Hermitage, which Wethey considers a late work, painted in Granada around 1660-1667. Evidently, it is based on Reni’s Bolognese prints of drawings by Carracci, which Murillo used for his Children of the Shell (Text from Pérez Sánchez, A. E.: Catálogo de dibujos españoles siglos XV-XVII, 1972, p. 51).