Greuze spent time in Italy between 1755 and 1757, and when he returned to Paris, this was the one drawing from his Roman sojourn that he exhibited at the Salon of 1757. The rather sordid subject, which is set in an appropriately ramshackle courtyard, is the betting game of morra, in which two competitors display a certain number of fingers from their right hands while guessing out loud the total number of fingers that will be presented by both players.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
French; 1725–1805
The Game of Morra, 1756
Pen and brown ink and wash with gray wash over graphite
2017.109
This lively compositional drawing with many figures, done by Jean-Baptiste Greuze when he was studying in Rome in 1756, shows The Game of Morra. It's a betting game in which two contestants display a certain number of fingers from their right hand while guessing out loud the total number of fingers that will be presented by both players. It's an early variant of rock, paper, scissors, but a much more violent one.