Bartolomeo Pinelli

Through hundreds of published etchings Bartolomeo Pinelli depicted the daily activities and unique costumes of Italy’s peasant and working classes, including the people of his native district of Trastevere in Rome. His prints, often humorous, were popular souvenirs for tourists. In this restaurant scene, Pinelli pokes fun at the attire of his tourist clients with an array of fashionable hats adorning the walls. The artist himself sits at the head of the table on the left, accompanied by his two pet mastiffs. This drawing shows the simple linear style that Pinelli used in all of his etchings and illustrations, easily legible and appealing both to fans of Neoclassical art and to less sophisticated viewers.