Having received his first teachings from his father, the genre painter Antonio Rotta, Giulio Silvio made his debut at the age of thirteen with a watercolour depicting Head of a Veteran. In 1878 he won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris for  the painting Costumi popolari veneziani. The entire first phase of his activity is linked to genre themes, deriving from his father Antonio. After 1887, likely after a personal illness, his thematic became sensitive to aspects of social realism. Examples of this change are the painting I Forzati (prison laborers), which was displayed at the International Exposition of Venice, receiving a golden medal at the Fine Arts Exposition in Budapest and now on display in Budapest, at the Szepmuveszeti Museum. In 1895, at the first Biennale of Venice, the painting Nosocomio (Asylum) won an award. The canvas was re-exhibited in 1900 in Paris. Meanwhile, the worsening of Rotta's illness, diminished his output