Wide view of Venice: Piazza San Marco - Riva degli Schiavoni
Francesco Bertelli: 
"Cochalino Innamorato" (Cochalino in Love) - Il Carnevale Italiano Mascherato - etching (1642)
Francesco Bertelli: "Cochalino Innamorato" (Cochalino in Love)
Il Carnevale Italiano Mascherato - etching (1642)

Cochalino Innamorato

(Cochalino in Love)

There is really no info about the story of this mask. But it looks, from a little analysis of what is said about him in the various versions of this etching, that:

  • Cochalino seems to be this old guy who uses a mask to pretend to have a better look, so he can be accepted by the lady he loves
  • The poor guy has got a hunchback, and dresses like a monk
  • The lute he plays is kind of strange looking: it has two set of heads with 6 tuning keys each: low and high octave?
  • This lute looks a lot like the colascione.
    Cochalino ... colascione ... sort of a word pun?

“Cochalino Innamorato qual,
Sfoga l'Ardor suo col
Canto verso la sua Diva”

“Cochalino in Love who,
lets out his Ardor with
Singing towards his Diva”

Cochalino becomes a little more daring in
another version of the same image, offering money for a kiss:

“Colonna voi donarve un bel zecchin
Se quado mi ve fago un repeton
Abbandone delongo quel balcon
c'vegni a dar un baso a Coccalin”

“Colonna I will give you one nice Gold Coin
If when it comes I may repeat my song
Leave soon that balcony
and come and give a kiss to Coccalin”


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