Pulcinella als schoolmeester 1719

Filippo Vasconi created this print, ‘Pulcinella als schoolmeester’, during the height of the Enlightenment in the early 18th century. It depicts Pulcinella, a stock character in Italian puppetry that’s often sly, witty, and rebellious. Here, Pulcinella is comically teaching a group of children and even a donkey in a chaotic, ramshackle setting. Vasconi was working in Rome, a city steeped in artistic tradition and Papal patronage, but this image seems to critique traditional institutions of learning and social hierarchies. Notice the satire aimed at education and authority. The print could be interpreted as reflecting the changing social attitudes of the Enlightenment, which prized reason and individualism over traditional authority. To fully understand its context, we might look to contemporary political satires and popular theater of the time. Art such as this, then, reminds us that its meaning is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.