Plate 12: Bertoldino whipping himself to kill flies, from "Bertoldo, Bertoldino, and Cacasenno"
1705–15
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 9 1/16 × 5 13/16 in. (23 × 14.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.535.12
Art Historical Context
In the early 18th century, Maria Crespi, a Bolognese Baroque artist, captured the whimsical chaos of Italian folk humor in his etching series *Bertoldo, Bertoldino, Cacasenno*. 12 depicts the hapless Bertoldino whipping himself in a frantic bid to swat flies—a hilarious mishap drawn from the popular 17th-century comic tales by Giulio Cesare Croce. These stories, blending slapstick with social satire, poked fun at peasant life and human folly, resonating across Europe as affordable printed entertainment. Crespi's etching masterfully renders the scene's dynamic energy through intricate line wor...
About the Artist
Giuseppe Maria Crespi · 1665–1747
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period whose innovative genre scenes and unorthodox approach to religious painting made him one of the most original artists of early eighteenth-century Bologna. Born in Bologna, he trained under Domenico Maria Canuti, Carlo Cignani, and in the tradition of the Carracci academy, but developed a markedly personal style tha...