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Gambling and parlour games had gradually become the essential occupations of the aristocrats of Venice, who were slowing exhausting the fortunes amassed by their ancestors.
This easy life bred less serious painters.
Pietro Longhi immortalised each episode of such life in a large number of small pictures that are charming and delicate records of the customs of his day, among the nobility and the ordinary people.
The most important of his paintings is "Il Ridotto".
"Il Ridotto" shows the vestibule of the chief gaming house in Venice at a time when Casanova went there in search of adventure.
In front of the table of the money-changer can be seen the men and women gamblers, wearing three-cornered hats, their faces covered with white or -- not so frequently -- black masks that could be worn from the first Sunday in October till Lent, then again during the greater part of Spring.
It was understood that this accessory assured absolute anonymity for all concerned.
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