Domenico Maggiotto studied with Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754) in 1722 and remained in his master’s studio in Venice as an assistant until the latter’s death. At that time, Maggiotto continued to work in his late master’s recognizable style, concentrating upon genre subjects. Many of his paintings depict single figures with musical instruments or bubbles, in keeping with the genre scenes of the 17th-century North.

This drawing is after a mezzotint by Marco Pitteri (1703-1767) of a painting by Piazzetta. Maggiotto reduced the sculptural hardness of Pitteri’s interpretation by rendering the contour lines more voluptuous and reducing the amount of modeling in the face. The use of black and white chalk on blue paper invokes the traditional Venetian materials of drawing from the 16th century and points to this as a possible studio exercise. A similar copy after Piazzetta done on blue paper depicting a young man reading may be found in the Museo Correr in Venice.