A pen and ink drawing of an opera singer in costume, standing with his head in profile to the left and his right hand curved up towards his face; with his left hand on his scimitar and his legs apart; wearing a plumed turban, a wide-skirted tunic and a cloak.

This is a caricature of the Italian castrato singer Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (1705-82), known as 'Farinelli', probably recording his appearance at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice in 1729-30, performing the roles of Arbace in Catone in Utica and Mirteo in Semiramide Riconosciuta.

Farinelli was the most famous castrato of all time. He trained in Naples, where he was funded by two rich lawyers, the Farina brothers (possibly the source for his stage name), and he was soon in great demand across Europe, performing in Rome, Vienna, Bologna and Munich in the 1720s. He sang in Venice, 1728-30 and 1733-34. He also performed in London, and in Spain where he cured Philip V's melancholy and rose to a high position at court. The several drawings of Farinelli in The Royal Collection (RCIN 812375, 907291-907293, 907297) were all probably made shortly before Marco Ricci's death on 21st January 1730, when Farinelli paid his second visit to Venice to sing at the Teatro S. Giovanni Grisostomo during the carnival of 1729-30.
 
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 similar drawing of this singer in costume in the Algarotti-Gellman Album: Croft-Murray no. 12. Farinelli is also represented in Anton Maria Zanetti's album of caricatures in the Fondazione Cini, Venice: inv. 36452, and inv. 36596. Consul Joseph Smith's album, in the Royal Collection, includes several caricatures of Farinelli: RCIN 812375, 907291-907293, 907297.

Opera was an important part of Venetian society and culture, and such caricatures were circulated among friends and collectors for light-hearted amusement.