On account of its fine artistic quality, this drawing has been attributed to the great baroque master Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, and it is indeed reminiscent of his painted self-portraits in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. However, there is some doubt as to whether Bernini in actual fact was the artist. Nevertheless, there is less doubt as to its having been made on the basis of a self-portrait. This can clearly be seen in the intense look, as though the figure portrayed is looking at himself in a mirror.
