Pinocchio postcard illustrated by Rocco Forgione
Reverse
This postcard above and the one below arrived recently with
a letter and a couple of other cards from my friend who lives in Italy. I thought these Pinocchio themed cards
and stamps were charming. Rocco
Forgione did the artwork on the card above. Both cards are part of a commemoration set of postcards and
stamps featuring Pinocchio.
For many people, especially those in the United States, it
is easy to associate Pinocchio with the Walt Disney 1940 movie and character;
however, the story was originally written in 1883 by the Italian author, Carlo
Lorenzini, who wrote under the name Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio is a cultural icon in Italy and remains even today
as one of the most popular characters found in children’s literature.
Pinocchio was the impish, rascally boy puppet created by the
woodcarver, Geppetto. He wanted to become a real boy. In the original story Pinocchio’s bad behavior was meant to
be a warning and the first ending to the story published in 1881 was to be
tragic. A later version from 1883
changed the ending.
The most notable feature of Pinocchio is his nose that grows
longer when he lies. Mention of
the nose only appears a couple of times in the story but demonstrates the power
of the Blue Fairy over Pinochhio when he is disobedient. In one case Pinocchio weeps over
his deformed nose and the fairy has woodpeckers peck it back to a normal
size. Perhaps to show that
repentance is sometimes painful.
Pinocchio postcard ilustrated by Luca Stella
Reverse
The second postcard was illustrated by Luca Stella and has a
more stylized cartoon style of Pinochhio as a postman. The stamp has a 1940 picture of
Pinochhio on a tricycle and was issued in 2015. Collodi wrote a series of story books for use in elementary
schools that may explain, in part, the use of the alphabet blocks around the
edge. On both cards he is shown
with his nose disobediently long even though the moral of the story is to be
good, work, and study.
Carlo Collodi was born 1826 in Florence, Italy and died 1890
in Florence. His early writings
were political in nature and published in periodicals. He helped found the satirical newspaper
Il Lampione in 1853 and in 1854 he published a second newspaper, Lo
scaramuccia, in English, The Controversy. It wasn’t until 1875 that he entered the field of
children’s literature.
As always, thank you to my friend for sharing these charming postcards.
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