I Moccoletti

I Moccoletti is a pleasant etching and hand-colored gouache, finely engraved on copper and printed on laid paper. The artwork 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,b January 1907, p. 28, cit.).

The title is engraved on plate on the lower center; the print is numbered 14 on the lower right. The quality and the conditions of preservation of this original print are very good, except for some tiny stains on the lower margin.

This artwork represents an animated genre scene, with men and women, some in disguise, taking part in the so-called Festa dei Moccoletti in Rome, during the folkloric Roman Carnival. In the foreground, an elegant opened carriage and some gendarmes riding horses and trying to contain the crowd. The Festa dei Moccoletti used to be 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.

This original print is a folkloric and fun image narrating the carefreeness of life in Rome during the famous Carnival.