Venetian school of the 18th century. Probably "IL MAGGIOTTO" (Venice, 1712/13 - 1794)."Lesson in Anatomy".Oil on canvas.Measurements: 62 x 74 cm; 79 x 91 cm (with frame).This is what could be a preliminary sketch or a version made by Maggiotto himself for the painting "Lesson in Drawing", another work by the Venetian painter himself, now in the Museo Civico Luigi Bailo (Treviso, Veneto). The painting in the Treviso museum was engraved by the engraver Antonio Capellan (Venice, 1740 - Rome, 1793), which indicates that the painting was already known at the time. This leads us to consider another possibility: that the present painting is a version by another artist, namely Giulia Lama (Venice, ca. 1685-90 - 1743), a pupil, like Domenico Fedeli, of the Escuola Nova de Venezia and of the painter Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Venice, 1683 - 1754). Although both artists have a particular technique, they are similar in style, a fact that has led to confusion regarding some of the attributions of their paintings. Nevertheless, if the Capellan print and the version in the Treviso museum are taken into account, the present work could be considered to be by Domenico Fedeli "Il Maggiotto".Domenico Fedeli attended Giovanni Battista Piazzetta's studio when he was only ten years old and his training with the master is essential to understanding his painting. In 1750 he joined a group of Venetian painters from Friuli and a year later joined the Collegio dei Pittori where he performed various administrative tasks. In 1756 he was appointed a member of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Venice, alongside great names in the history of art such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who was president of the Academy at the time. "Il Maggiotto devoted his entire life to painting, although he also carried out various public restorations, inspections and artistic reports. According to chroniclers, he never left Venice, where he died in 1794.Anatomy lessons have been a recurring theme in works of art, the most cited work on this subject being "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp", a painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt, executed in 1632.