Emil Hannover, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Constantin Hansen no. 314.

In a letter dated 21 August 1854, Constantin Hansen writes to P. C. Skovgaard (in Danish): “My Morras players will soon be finished”.

Constantin Hansen was born in Rome in 1804. He is named after his godmother – Mozart's widow Constance. As an adult, Constantin Hansen first visited Rome in 1835. His stay in Italy came to last almost 10 years. One of the first motifs he dealt with, and which he returned to several times, was of the area around ​​Piazza della Bocca della Verità with the round Temple of Vesta and the Fountain of the Tritons. The National Gallery of Denmark owns “The Temple of Vesta with its Surroundings”, 1836–37 (Inv. No. KMS1072, see reproduction).

Constantin Hansen added scenes from everyday Roman life to his paintings, be it peasants taking a break next to their ox carts, a mother playing with her child, monks in conversation and men playing bocce, or as in the present painting, three Romans playing the popular morra game while placed closely together by the powerful pillars of the temple.

“Morra” is an Italian game that can be played in different ways, most forms can be played with two, three, or more players. In the most popular version, all players throw out a single hand, each showing zero to five fingers, and call out loud their guess at what the sum of all fingers shown will be. If one player guesses the sum, that player earns one point. The first player to reach three points wins the game.

Provenance: Attorney General Albertsen (1901).