A seated male nude (recto); A standing putto holding up a book (verso)

First a pupil of Piazzetta and from 1745 the official director of his workshop in Venice, Giuseppe Angeli drew on both sides of this large sheet. While the seated nude appears as a typical academic study, the standing putto could have served in one of the artist's many religious compositions. A forceful draftsman, Angeli became professor of nude drawing at the Venetian Academy in 1756, a plausible date for the execution of the present drawing.