Drawings by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio are rare, and only a handful of drawings have been firmly attributed to the artist. While determining a firm chronology for his style as a draughtsman is difficult, this wis likely to be an early work by the artist, datable to the first decade of the 16th century. With fine penwork applied with regular hatching and crosshatching, this small drawing is typical of the artist’s draughtsmanship, which ultimately derives from the example of his father Domenico’s drawings. The present sheet also displays the particular influence of the pen drawings of Fra Bartolommeo, to whom it was once attributed. Indeed, the drawing is derived from a pen and ink study of the Virgin and Child by Fra Bartolommeo in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, which in turn was used for the figure of the Virgin in two early paintings by Fra Bartolommeo; an Annunciation in the Cathedral at Volterra, dated 1497, and a Holy Family, painted at around the same time, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.