The word Bamboccianti is here in plural and applies to a group of small paintings depicting scenes from everyday life. The genre was popular in Rome in the mid-17th century.
The word comes from “Il Bamboccio” which means “Large Baby”. That in turn, was the nickname of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer 1595-1642 who is either the originator of the style of painting or one of its strongest exponents in Rome
Pieter van Laer from Haarlem arrived in Rome in 1625 and soon got recognised for his special dutch flavour of painting that took all the exquisite technique of formal painting and applied to low-brow topic matters.
