The work depicts a passage in the Gospel of Luke (2:41) in which the twelve-year-old Christ is discovered by his parents in the Temple of Jerusalem, debating the Holy Scriptures with the theologians, whom he astonishes with his wisdom.

He never completed this work, but probable lost preparatory drawings for it may have inspired Luini and Cima da Conegliano's versions of the scene.

Luini's version in particular also shows close proximity to Leonardo in the group of four doctors with faces bordering on caricature, which are derived from a famous series of studies by the master.

In fact, it is no coincidence that in the past the work was assigned to Leonardo, also due to the soft chiaroscuro enveloping the figures, which emerge from a dark background.

Compared to the master, however, Luini accentuated the vivacity of the colours, showing the influence of the Venetian school, with the bright pink robe of Christ and those of the doctors, in which echoes can also be caught of the bearded saints of Giovanni Bellini.