A pen and ink drawing of a female opera singer, standing in profile to the left with her right hand beneath her breast: wearing a plumed headdress with a long veil, and a hooped skirt. Inscribed, verso, lower left corner: J S.

This is a caricature of Vittoria Tesi Tramontini, represented early in her career, after her debut on the Venetian stage in L'amor di figlia at the Teatro San Angelo, October 1718. Zanetti represented 'La Moretta' on several occasions, from her debut until 1742. His caricatures emphasise her African descent. Her ability as a contralto meant that, early in her career, she performed in several male roles. There is another caricature of Vittoria in the Royal Collection: RCIN 907412.

This drawing belongs to an album of operatic caricatures mainly by Marco Ricci and Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder, an intact album from the library of Joseph Smith. Zanetti and another Venetian collector, Francesco Algarotti, owned similar albums, with many of the caricatures copied or traced, with identifying inscriptions. Zanetti's album is now in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, and Algarotti's belongs to Albert Gellman and is in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. There is a version of this drawing in the Algarotti-Gellman Album: Croft-Murray no. 37. She is also represented in Zanetti's album of caricatures in the Fondazione Cini: inv. 36421.

Opera was an important part of Venetian society and culture, and such caricatures were circulated among friends and collectors for light-hearted amusement. Joseph Smith was a keen opera lover who was married to the English opera singer Catherine Tofts and kept a box at the Teatro San Grisostomo in Venice. He collected operatic caricatures of the singers and performers of the day as well as artists and other well-known characters by Marco Ricci and others, and had them bound into this album. The drawings were shared and circulated among the three collectors and their circle as light-hearted amusement, but the artistic caricature was also a long established practice in Italian art.