Il Carnevale di Roma (Carnival in Rome) c. 1829

Friedrich Nerly made this print called 'Carnival in Rome'. This is no sanitized, tourist-friendly image of Italian culture, but a teeming, unruly street scene. It depicts a moment during the Roman Carnival, a pre-Lenten festival when the normal rules of social conduct were suspended. Looking closely, we see people in elaborate costumes throwing confetti, setting off fireworks, and generally engaging in boisterous, chaotic revelry. The Roman Carnival had deep roots in the city's history, dating back to ancient festivals like the Saturnalia. By the 18th and 19th centuries, it had become a major public event, drawing crowds from all over Europe. Yet, while ostensibly a moment of collective joy and release, the Carnival also served as a safety valve for social tensions. By allowing people to temporarily invert the social order, the authorities hoped to prevent more serious forms of unrest. To understand the image better, we would need to research its place in a wider tradition of carnival imagery. The politics of popular culture are something we can reconstruct through careful, historical analysis.