Il Festino

Il Festino is a beautiful etching and hand-colored gouache, finely engraved on copper and printed on laid paper. The work, which presents a remarkable quality of strokes and brilliant colors, is unsigned, but it is part of the 20 plates engraved in 1820 by the Swedish artist Carl Gustaf Hjalmar Mörner (or umo?rner) during his stay in Rome, certainly influenced by the style and manner of the coeval folkloric prints made by Bartolomeo Pinelli (cfr. Hermanin F., Una collezione di stampe e disegni dell’antico carnevale romano , Bollettino d’Arte, Rome, year I, January 1907, p. 28, cit.).

The title is engraved on plate on the lower center, and the print is numbered 18 on the lower right. The quality and conditions of preservation of the print are very good, except for a tiny abrasion of the paper on the lower left margin.

This original artwork represents a celebration in the street during the famous Roman Carnival , with a crowd of people of any social extraction, some of them in disguise, walking. In the background, a large stage with the dressed-up noblemen attending the event.

The print is not only top-notch, engraved with a masterful draftsmanship and with bright colors, but also a folkloric and amusing image describing the carefreeness of life in Rome during the famous Carnival.