Antonio Maria Zanetti (the younger)

[2] Most importantly, he became a protégé of his homonymous older cousin Antonio Maria Zanetti and developed into a distinguished scholar of the antiquities and an art connoisseur.

Beginning in the early 1720s, Zanetti collaborated with his elder cousin on the edition of a two-volume work illustrating the classical sculpture conserved in the Venetian public collections.

These were primarily from the Public Statuary but also included five statues in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, the four horses of St Mark's Basilica, and the lions of the Arsenal.

[4] During this time, Zanetti was also tasked by Lorenzo Tiepolo, the state librarian, with compiling a complete two-volume catalogue with detailed descriptions of the 224 statues belonging to the Public Statuary, located within the Marciana Library.

With respect to the previous 'catalogues', printed inventories, the new catalogues followed modern guidelines and constituted a considerable development in providing readers with bibliographical material.