A scarce print of the Carnival Games at Testaccio in the 16th century

Monogrammist ITF.

La Festa di Testaccio fatta in Roma.
Rome: Hendrik van Schoel, c.1607. 340 x 455mm, with wide margins.

Original publication lines erased.

A recording of the bizarre carnival games held on the Mount Testaccio in Rome, probably the exceptional one of 1545. In a central arena knights are slaughtering bulls, while carts are rolled down the hill to the right to add to the confusion. In each cart is a pig, which were prizes for the first man to catch them.
The plate was cut by an engraver known only by his initials, I.T.F. (active in Rome c. 1550), and first published by Vincenzo Luchino in 1558. In 1602 it was republished by Giovanni Orlandi with his imprint lower right. This example, published only a few years later, has both earlier imprints erased.

See the Metropolitan Museum of Art 41.72(3.71) for the first state.
Stock ID : 18875