Annual Explosion of Rowdy

Much of the comic spirit of Bernini’s plays derives from the fact that many of them were written to

provide entertainment for the Carnivals.  The notorious carnival season was  the annual explosion of rowdy and at times scandalously licentious celebration preceding lent.

Few spoke out against what today would probably be considered the most morally offensive of the public “entertainments” of the traditional Roman Carnival, the races of naked Jews and hunchbacks.  These represented categories of persons whom were considered “freaks” of nature who deserved to be ridiculed and pelted with rotten food as they ran down the Corso.

The Jews also provided the occasion to serve up another more gruesome form of entertainment: an elderly frail Jew was forced into a barrel whose interior was covered with exposed nails, and then the barrel was pushed down Monte Testaccio to the cheering crowds of Romans, especially the nobility.  The crowds eagerly awaited to see in what miserable condition the poor victim exited from the barrel at the foot of the hill. Bloodied and lacerated to be sure, but dead or alive?

Bernini, His Life and His Rome by Franco Mormando p. 116

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Read more about how the Jewish people played a role in the Carnival read The Haaretz blog.
Here also at the Jewish Virtual Library.
Also the how the Mardi Gras has a Jewish connection is found on Forward.
Read carnival history on Wiki.