The Italian painter Fioroni is not particularly well known, but this painting from 1830 has undoubtedly great qualities in both a painterly and a psychological sense. The situation is that, after the meal, the portly owner of the hostelry is contributing to the guests’ entertainment with a merry song, accompanied on the lute by the man in the foreground. The host has the gathering in the palm of his hand. However, the next moment he throws it like a ball – in the shape of the moon – back, far into the night towards the distant St Peter’s Church. Only the two lovers in the centre, the beautiful young woman in the white dress and her attentive cavalier, are not carried away by his arts: While the others are following the host’s song and movements, the lovers have thoughts only for each other.
