Il Cavadenti (‘The Tooth Puller'). Rome, ca. 1835

Broadsheet 440x610 mm, engraving 310x420 mm. Some scattered foxing. Well preserved and with wide margins.

The print, drawn and engraved by Achille Pinelli, shows the arrival of the Cavadenti (the Tooth Puller) on a carriage in Piazza Montecitorio, Rome, awaited by a large crowd. The front scene is very detailed, while the background of the scene is only sketched. The print is very interesting for its particular artistic style, as well as a testimony of the Roman life in the first half of the 19^th century.

Achille Pinelli, son of the better-known engraver and draughtsman Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781-1835) and of Mariangela Gatti, followed in his father's footsteps, but with a reworking that went beyond his father's rhetoric and pomposity, towards a simpler style somewhere between anecdote and satire. Pinelli is best known for his watercolors, drawings and etchings dedicated to the churches and palaces of the city of Rome, depicting episodes from the daily life of the commoners and bourgeoisie. His more than 200 watercolors (1825-1835), most of which are preserved in the Museo di Roma, depict processions of condemned prisoners, street vendors, monks, nuns, policemen, the bourgeoisie, children's games, beggars, etc. that animate the populous city (cf. Museo di Roma, Nota biografica: Achille Pinelli; see also M.E. Tittoni, ed., La Roma di Achille Pinelli. Acquerelli 1832-1835, Rome, 2008).

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