The Dictation Lesson (in italian: Il dettato) is a painting of italian verismo painter Demetrio Cosola.

The painting is housed in Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.

[1][2] It is a symbolic representation of the establishment of public education in the Kingdom of Italy immediately after unification, and the opening of schools to women, both as pupils and teachers.

[3][2] Cosola painted other two smaller versions of The Dictation Lesson (both oil on canvas): one dated 1890 without the teacher, ad a second one with a nun instead, titled The Kindergarten.

[3] This article about a nineteenth-century painting is a stub.