I Moccoletti

I Moccoletti is a pleasant etching and hand-colored gouache, finely engraved on copper and printed on laid paper. The work 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; the print is numbered 15 on the lower right. The quality and the conditions of preservation of this original print are very good. On the lower margin, there is a light fold of the paper that does not invalidate the reading of the work.

This artwork represents a moment in the famous Roman Carnival, in particular the so-called Festa dei Moccoletti , celebrated in Via del Corso in the evening of the Fat Tuesday , with the collective game in which people had to keep their candles lighted-up (in Roman dialect moccoletto ) whilst trying to blow those of the other participants. In the work, many characters appear, men and women, disguised or in costumes of the time, a few of which holding in their hands some lanterns or lighted candles. In the foreground, a splendid carriage pulled by two white horses.

The print, apart from the pleasantness of the strokes and colors, is a folkloristic and fun image that tells what the life in Rome in the XIX century was like.