The ricotta seller (Gioncataro)

The drawing represents a seller of ricotta cheese. The name gioncataro, handwritten by the artist underneath the figure, has its origin in the Italian word giunco (reed), as the cheese was sold in baskets made from interlaced reeds, like the one carried by the young man in Pinelli’s drawing. The image was translated into print and included in Pinelli’s Nuova raccolta di cinquanta motivi pittoreschi e costumi di Roma, a collection of etchings published in 1810. Another watercolor for the same series, representing a butcher pulling an ox (Macellaro), was on the art market a few decades ago (M. Marini, Bartolomeo Pinelli 1781-1835 e il suo tempo, exhib. cat., Rome, Galleria Rondanini, 1983, no. 27, ill.).