A lively banquet with numerous guests - a copy of a painting by Baldassarre Franceschini known as Volterrano

Burla della Botte del Piovano Arlotto copy by Volterrano painted with oil on canvas, depicting a lively banquet with numerous guests. It is a copy of the painting by Baldassarre Franceschini known as Volterrano (Volterra 1611–Florence 1698) in the church of San Cresci in Macioli near Vaglia (FI).

The copy is signed in red with the monogram E.T. in the lower left corner. 

The painting tells the story of Burla della Botte Piovano Arlotto, painted for Francesco Parrocchianiego: it is said that Piovano, invited to the table by a group of friends, was asked by the host to go down to the cellar and fetch a bottle of wine from the barrel because the food on the table was finished. Il Piovano, although more bored than by all the words of necessity to undertake this effort, was already elderly when the best young men sat at the table, and as a joker, he decided to make the best of a bad situation. Once he went out from the cellar to the tavern with a decanter in hand, and with a serious face, he addressed the owner himself, telling him to hurry up and go to the cellar himself because he had forgotten about the open barrel. The Volterrano painting captures the same scene, where the host, upon receiving a message from Piovano, presses a chair to jump into the cellar, despising himself, thinking he is mocking the clergyman. 

The painting, preserved in good condition in a gilded frame also from the 19th century, originates from Italy.

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