Attesting the wit and wide cultural referecing of the young Jusepe de Ribera during his early stay in Rome Rome, this sheet is characterized by a swift execution and abundant use of wash. The style and subject matter of this sheet suggest it was made from life. The figure's type and lack of setting, only referenced by the shadow cast on the ground by the standing man, connects the Achenbach sheet to a study with 'a man wearing a cape' in a private collection and a 'woman carrying a child' in the Abell� collection, Madrid (Finaldi 2017, no. 103 and148). Following an earlier proposal from Jonathan Brown, Gabriele Finaldi dated the drawing to the mid 1630s and linked the studies on this sheet with Zanni or Scarpino, a character from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte usually characterized by a hat, loose clothes, and a stick that he is waiving in his right hand. Advancing a much earlier dating, to ca. 1611, Viviana Farina (2014) related the studies on this sheet to Annibale Carracci's celebrated painting of the Bean Eater (1583-85, Galleria Colonna, Rome) and, more generally, to the academic and grotesque graphic outputs produced by the Carraccis, circulating in Rome and Emilia at the beginning of the century. An earlier dating to the mid-1610s seems more appropriate, also considering elements of style and technique. (Furio Rinaldi, 2020).