I Pifferari

Wilkie's I Pifferari of 1827, depicting the itinerant Italian musicians who traveled to Rome each winter playing bagpipes before images of the Virgin, belongs to his Italian journey subjects that offered him new genre material beyond his Scottish and Spanish repertoire. The pifferari were a familiar sight in Rome's streets during Advent, and foreign artists in the city regularly depicted them as examples of Italian popular piety and musical tradition. Wilkie's treatment combines his characteristic observation of musician subjects with the Italian genre interest he developed during his continental travels.

Wilkie renders the Italian musicians with the warmer, broader palette he developed during his Continental travels. The atmospheric street setting and the careful rendering of the musicians' distinctive instruments and costumes demonstrate his adaptability to new subjects.