Carnival Scene In 17th-century Rome (piazza Navona) Michelangelo Cerquozzi (rome 1602 –1660)

Carnival scene in 17th-century Rome (in Piazza Navona)
Michelangelo Cerquozzi (Rome 1602 – Rome 1660) workshop

Roman school of bamboccianti (mid-17th century)

Oil on canvas
74 x 96 cm. - Framed 88 x 110 cm.

Set in a large square crowded with people in fancy dress and costumes, the painting depicts a jubilant scene during the Carnival celebrations in 17th century Rome, and is therefore a very interesting record of the customs of the time.

The painting is set in Piazza Navona, and the detail on the right of the famous Fountain of the Four Rivers designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is clearly recognisable, dominated by the sixteen-metre-high Agonal Obelisk, originally located in the Circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia.

A city event with ancient origins - inspired by the Saturnalia of the ancient Romans, in which slaves were elevated to the rank of masters, subverting the ordinary social order - Carnival, starting from the 16th century, became one of the main celebrations of papal Rome, and one of the richest and most unbridled in Europe, becoming more popular and renowned than the Venetian carnival during the Renaissance.

Not simply a festival, but an integral part of the city's culture: as in ancient times, the Roman oligarchies also granted the population, especially the lower classes, a period dedicated to fun. The entire citizenry participated, the lower classes mingled with the powerful, and could even publicly mock them; protected by the guaranteed anonymity of the masks, a sort of levelling of all social divisions was achieved and the authorities and aristocracy were even publicly derided.

People in masks paraded, disguised as characters from the Commedia dell'Arte, especially in the Roman style.

And so it was that Via Lata (now Via del Corso), Piazza Colonna and Piazza Venezia became the places dedicated to the unfolding of the festival, allowing the people (and also the masked gentlemen) to take possession of the officiality of the festival.

Among the various painters who depicted carnival scenes, a special place is held by the Roman Michelangelo Cerquozzi (Rome 1602 - 1660), to whose workshop we can easily trace our work.

Active mainly in Rome, Cerquozzi became known for his affiliation with the Roman Caravaggisti movement - known as the ‘Bamboccianti school’ - a pictorial movement to which Flemish, Dutch and Italian painters adhered, who favoured simple themes with popular scenes drawn from the daily life of Rome at the time.

And the Carnival, which lent itself perfectly to a narrative iconography of the people, was therefore a typical subject of the ‘bambocciata’: in Cerquozzi's production there are several works with a carnival theme, preserved in various museums and collections, as well as many other authors belonging to the current, for example Jan Miel (see Carnival in Rome, 1653, Madrid Museo del Prado), Johannes Lingelbach (see Carnival in Rome, 1650/1651 Kunsthistorisches Museum).


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is sold complete with a beautiful antique frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and an iconographic description.

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