VENETIAN PAINTER OF THE XVI-XVII CENTURY Young woman with cat and two men Oil on canvas, 48X71 cm Hostilised by ecclesiastical authorities, recall for example the words of Cardinal Paleotti in the chapter dedicated to 'ridiculous paintings' in his treatise of 1582, works of this tenor were part of a veritable 'genre'. Needless to say, the accusation was dictated by the hidden 'vicious' meaning of these images, the classical tradition of which was revived again in the Emilian and Lombard-Venetian spheres thanks to the theories of Lomazzo and Carracci's naturalism and attributable to a lost work by Michelino da Besozzo. Having said this, although not numerous, there are several paintings that have come down to us in which the taste for caricature of Leonardo's memory is combined with popular theatre and with sexual allusions that are highly exhibited. In this regard, the cat in the foreground evokes lust and the explicit gesture of the pussy proposed by the central character, which has obscene connotations, but of which there is evidence in Pompeian frescoes and Dante's Divine Comedy. With regard to the area of production of the canvas under examination, its Veneto genesis is evident, dictated by the female profile reminiscent of Bernardino Licinio, while the male figures reflect influences from Lombardy and Cremona, due to the accentuated naturalism. Reference bibliography: B. Meijer, Examples of the Figurative Comic in the Lombard Renaissance, in Arte Lombarda, vol. XVI, 1971, pp. 263; 264, figs. 3; 8 U. Ruggeri, Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia: Disegni Lombardi, Milan 1982, pp. 72-73. no. 56 F. Paliaga, in Rabisch, il grottesco nell'arte del Cinquecento, l'Accademia della Val di Blenio, Lomazzo e l'ambiente milanese, exhibition catalogue edited by G. Bora, Milan 1998, pp. 146-147, nn. 14-16 F. Porzio, Pitture ridicole. Scene di genere e cultura popolare, Milan 2008, ad vocem