Historical Miscellany

Courtesan and Blind Cupid by Pietro Bertelli

(Flap print with liftable skirt)

Venice was famed for its legions of elaborately clad and coiffed courtesans. Foreign visitors marveled at their opulent jewels and abundant application of cosmetics, while civic authorities decried the courtesans’ deliberately misleading resemblance to “honest women.” Capitalizing on their titillating popularity, Pietro Bertelli published a series of prints of courtesans, each with a flap that lifted to reveal, below a seemingly innocent exterior, a glimpse of the carnal pleasures for which Venice was notorious. Here, the flap is the skirt, which can be raised to display the courtesan’s undergarments and chopines (the platform shoes that Venetian ladies wore to keep their feet dry).