The rediscovery of this very rare watercolour by Ippolito Caffi shows us a little-known episode of the preparations immediately preceding the departure of the ‘Barberi’ horses in Piazza del Popolo in Rome.

The race was part of the celebrations of the Carnival of Papal Rome: a group of ten to twelve horses without a jockey ran along the Corso from Piazza del Popolo (the mossa) to Piazza Venezia (the ripresa).

The event has been depicted by countless painters: from Géricault to Horace Vernet from Roger to Bartolomeo Pinelli and immortalized by the pens of many illustrious writers: from Goethe to Hans Christian Andersen from Zola to Dumas in a famous chapter of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’.

All the Roman people flocked and crowded along the edges of the Corso, while the wealthy foreigners who arrived in Rome for the occasion rented balconies or windows of the patrician buildings that overlooked the street. A special semi-circular stand was set up in Piazza del Popolo in front of the obelisk.

While the various phases of the race have been widely described and depicted, this sheet by Caffi is a complete novelty, most likely part of a series of watercolours of which this gallery had two other examples, in the same technique and dimensions (the mossa and the corsa). Here is shown one of the moments preceding the start: a carriage is depicted carrying Swiss guards dressed in their work costumes, who have evidently just helped clearing the street from carriages and people. In the foreground it can be seen part of the stands already crowded with cheering spectators while in the background we can glimpse the carriages trotting towards the square. Some figures in the foreground on a carriage and on foot are to be identified as the race judges ready for the starting operations.

Just outlined on the right in pencil are two gendarmes.

It remains incredible how masterfully and immediately Ippolito Caffi managed to make us participate in the energy and anticipation of this extraordinary event that was the Roman Carnival.