The Art of Commedia: A Study in the Commedia dell'Arte, 1560-1620, with Special Reference to the Visual Records (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichende)

The Art of Commedia

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Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft

In Verbindung mit Norbert Bachleitner (Universität Wien), Dietrich Briesemeister (Friedrich Schiller-Universität Jena), Francis Claudon (Université Paris XII), Joachim Knape (Universität Tübingen), Klaus Ley (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), John A. McCarthy (Vanderbilt University), Alfred Noe (Universität Wien), Manfred Pfister (Freie Universität Berlin), Sven H. Rossel (Universität Wien)

herausgegeben von

Alberto Martino (Universität Wien)

Redaktion: Ernst Grabovszki Anschrift der Redaktion: Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Berggasse 11/5, A-1090 Wien

The Art of Commedia A Study in the Commedia dell’Arte 1560-1620 with Special Reference to the Visual Records

M A Katritzky

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006

Cover illustration: “Lodewyk Toeput, ‘Winter landscape with carnival procession’, oil on canvas, 84 x 134 cm. Courtesy Dorotheum, Wien” Cover design: Pier Post Le papier sur lequel le présent ouvrage est imprimé remplit les prescriptions de “ISO 9706:1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents - Prescriptions pour la permanence”. The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents Requirements for permanence”. Die Reihe „Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft“ wird ab dem Jahr 2005 gemeinsam von Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam – New York und dem Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin herausgegeben. Die Veröffentlichungen in deutscher Sprache erscheinen im Weidler Buchverlag, alle anderen bei Editions Rodopi. From 2005 onward, the series „Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft“ will appear as a joint publication by Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam – New York and Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin. The German editions will be published by Weidler Buchverlag, all other publications by Editions Rodopi. ISBN: 90-420-1798-8 (Bound) ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006 Printed in The Netherlands

To Martin

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Contents

Acknowledgements 11 Foreword 13 Introduction 17 i General introduction 17 ii The term commedia dell’arte 18 iii Documentary sources for the commedia dell’arte 20 iv Pictures and the commedia dell’arte 25 I The commedia dell’arte I.i The rise and spread of professional acting and commedia dell’arte troupes in sixteenth century Italy I.i.a Introduction 31 I.i.b Venetian amateurs and buffoni 34 I.i.c The early troupes 37 I.i.d Professionalism and improvisation 39 I.ii A case study in early patronage and geographic spread: the Munich wedding performance of 1568 I.ii.a Introduction 44 I.ii.b The Munich wedding of 1568 46 I.ii.c Ferdinand’s journey of 1565–6 59 I.ii.d Other influences on Bavaria 74 I.ii.e Rome 80 I.ii.f Summary 83 I.iii Stock types and players of the commedia dell’arte I.iii.a Introduction 83 I.iii.b The inamorata 85 I.iii.c Zanni and Pantalone 92 I.iii.d Harlequin 102 I.iii.e Some other roles 104

II

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Art-historical analysis: some case studies II.i The Recueil Fossard II.i.a General introduction II.i.b Some Recueil Fossard woodcuts II.i.c Ambrogio Brambilla II.i.d Ambrose I Francken II.ii Inspiration and imitation. The progressive stereotyping of shared artistic motifs: Antonio Tempesta and some Flemish carnival paintings II.ii.a Introduction II.ii.b Direct copies after Tempesta’s Februaries II.ii.c Jan I Bruegel II.ii.d Tempesta’s Februaries and Flemish revellers II.ii.e Louis de Caulery II.ii.f Tempesta and Sebastian Vrancx II.ii.g Vrancx and his circle II.ii.h Summary II.iii Sterling’s ‘Early paintings of the commedia dell’arte in France’ reconsidered II.iii.a Introduction II.iii.b The Bayeux painting II.iii.c Lucas van Valckenborch II.iii.d The Carnavalet painting II.iii.e Marten de Vos II.iii.f Harlequin disguised II.iii.g Lodewyk Toeput Theatrical interpretation: some case studies III.i Scenery, settings and stages III.i.a Introduction III.i.b Cleared space staging III.i.c Natural stages III.i.d Unadorned raised stages III.i.e Stages with curtain backdrops III.i.f Architecturally enhanced curtain stages III.i.g Perspective stages

107 109 114 117

120 122 123 124 126 129 132 137

139 140 142 150 155 161 165

177 179 180 180 181 182 182

III.ii

III.iii

III.iv

Zanni and Pantalone III.ii.a Introduction III.ii.b Venetian servants and masters III.ii.c Zanni costume III.ii.d Zanni and Pantalone in the Land of Cockayne III.ii.e Zanni and Pantalone as mountebanks’ assistants Some further comic types III.iii.a Some female types III.iii.b Male national types III.iii.c Buffoni and matachins III.iii.d Harlequin Composite, multiple and serial images III.iv.a Introduction III.iv.b Stock types: Brambilla and Minaggio III.iv.c Two composite prints compared III.iv.d Female roles in serial images

Conclusion Bibliography Principal collections cited Printed works Index Notes to plates Plates 1–340

187 188 189 192 195 199 213 220 226 241 244 251 256 259 265 267 301 348 349

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Acknowledgements

The Open University provides an exceptionally supportive, caring and productive academic environment, and for that I thank all my colleagues in the Department of Literature and Arts Faculty. My special thanks go to Peter Elmer, Gill Perry and David Mateer for reading sections of this volume in manuscript, to Clive Baldwin, Trish Cashen, Cathy Sack and Gerald Schmidt for advising on editorial and technical matters, and to Bob Owens for unfailing encouragement and practical wisdom. For financially supporting this research with scholarships, fellowships and awards, I am deeply grateful to the Directors, Trustees and staff of the following institutions: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, European Science Foundation, Gladys Kreble Delmas Foundation, Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Herzog August Library, Leverhulme Foundation, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, The Open University (Arts Faculty Research Fund), Society for Theatre Research (Kathleen Barker Award), University of London (Scouloudi Foundation, Institute for Historical Research), University of Southampton (Hartley Institute), Wimbledon School of Art. Above all in this respect, I am grateful to the late Barbara Wilkes, and the Trustees of the Wilkes Fellowship and of the Elizabeth Howe Fund, for founding and funding my position as Wilkes Research Fellow, in the Department of Literature of the Arts Faculty, The Open University, Milton Keynes. This study has benefited immeasurably from the outstanding research ethos and resources of St Catherine’s College and the University of Oxford. I thank the Master and Fellows of St Catherine’s College for their continuing great generosity in sharing these with me, during my years as a graduate student, and, since 2001, as a Research Associate of the College, R J W Evans and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly for supervising my doctoral thesis, and Richard Cooper and Michael Anderson for examining it. My research depends on the documentary and human resources of libraries, archives, museums, salerooms and collections. For their invaluable assistance, and for permission to consult and reproduce their materials, I thank Duke Albrecht of Bavaria and the past and present Librarians, Curators, Archivists and private collectors who have supported this study. Particular thanks to those in Amsterdam (Historisch Museum), Berlin (Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz), Copenhagen (Kongelige Bibliotek), Florence (Archivio di Stato, Biblioteca Nazionale), Landshut (Schloss Trausnitz), London (British Library, British Museum, Christies, Courtauld Institute, Sotheby’s, University College, Warburg Institute), Milton Keynes (The Open University Library), Munich (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), Nürnberg (Germanisches Nationalmuseum), Oxford (Ashmolean Museum, Bodleian, Corpus Christi College, English, History and Music Faculty Libraries, Sackler, St Catherine’s College, Taylorian), Sarasota (Ringling Museum), Stockholm (Nationalmuseum), Stuttgart (Württembergisches

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Landesbibliothek), Venice (Fondazione Cini, Marciana, Museo Correr), Weimar (Stiftung Weimarer Klassik), Wien (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek), Windsor (Royal Library), Wolfenbüttel (Herzog August Bibliothek). I have benefited from the generous intellectual support of numerous individuals, some in passing, others in many capacities over many years. My thanks and appreciation go to you all, and especially to Roger Ainsworth, Ines Aliverti, David Allen, Michael Anderson, Sydney Anglo, Marion Arnold, John Astington, Chris Balme, Fran Barasch, Hans-Peter Bayerdörfer, Jill Bepler, Margot Berthold, Sandra Billington, Julian Brooks, Pam Brown, Kathy Brush, Christopher Cairns, Alba Ceccarelli Pellegrino, Ulf Cederlof, Lois Chaber, Richard Cooper, Eileen Cottis, Gunilla Dahlberg, David Ekserdjian, Eva Engel, Rob Erenstein, Bob Evans, Bernd Evers, Anat Feinberg, Iain Fenlon, Siro Ferrone, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Tim Fitzpatrick, Thomas Fusenig, Michael Gebhardt, Mark Geller, David Gentilcore, Elizabeth Goldring, Lisbet Grandjean, Anthony Griffiths, Martine Grinberg, Marianne Grivel, Yvonne Hackenbroch, Marianne Hallar, Natsu Hattori, Tom Heck, Rob Henke, Monika Holl, Bent Holm, Colin Jones, Michiel Jonker, Sidney Jowers, Robert Jütte, Helena Kajander, Ros Kerr, Mary Klinger-Lindberg, Michael Knoche, Andreas Kotte, Manfred Krebernik, Ingeborg Krekler, Anne Laurence, Angelika Leik, Laura and Giulio Lepschy, Hilda Lietzmann, Horst Leuchtmann, Kurt Löcher, Sara Mamone, Brigitte Marschall, Jan McDonald, Margaret McGowan, Melissa McQuillan, Wolfgang Milde, Cesare Molinari, Ronnie Mulryne, Viktoria Musvik, Klaus Neiiendam, Tom Nichols, Ulrike Noë, Vivian Nutton, Irene Ogden, Helen Ostovich, Frank Peeters, Domenico Pietropaolo, Milan Pelc, Margaret Pelling, Sandra Pietrini, Hans Puchta, Konrad Renger, Kerstin Retemeyer, Martine de Rougement, Bärbel Rudin, Otto Schindler, Reinhart Schleier, Claude Schumacher, Virginia Scott, Antonio Scuderi, Laurence Senelick, Sieglinde Sepp, Margaret Shewring, Max Siller, Richard Shirley Smith, Andrea Somer-Mathis, George Speaight, Alexander Stillmark, Beverly Straube, Barbro Stribolt, Malgorzata Sugiera, Marianne Haraszti Takács, William Twining, Jane Tylus, Piermario Vescovo, Daniele Vianello, Brigitte Volk-Knüttel, Lyckle de Vries, Mara Wade, Mary Waldron, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Shearer West, Catherine Whistler, John White, Alexander Wied, David Wiles, Tim Wilson, John Woodhouse, Harald Zielske, Marino Zorzi. And I will not forget those from whom I was privileged to learn whom my thanks can no longer reach: Umberto Artioli, Geoffrey Ashton, Kathleen Barker, Dorothy Bednarowska, Clara Cooper, Howard Mayer Brown, Ernst Gombrich, Francis Haskell, Gunnel Kajander, Kathleen Lea, Monica Murray, David Trott. Otherwise unattributed translations are mine, as are all errors. Of which there would be very many more, were it not for the unstinting patience and professionalism of my editors, for which I record my appreciation to: Marieke Schilling (Amsterdam), Clare Butler (Milton Keynes), Sebastian Posth and Maria Baramova (Wolfenbüttel), Norbert Bachleitner, Ernst Grabovszki and Alberto Martino (University of Vienna).

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Foreword

Italian comedians and the characters they inspired profoundly inform and influence European drama and culture. An understanding of the commedia dell’arte and its iconography is essential for specialists, theatre practitioners, and scholars and students of European spectacle, festival, music, literature and art history from the early modern period onwards. Our knowledge of the commedia dell’arte is based on the identification and interpretation of relevant historical documents, visual as well as textual. This study, awarded a doctorate from Oxford University’s Faculty of History in 1995, seeks to contribute to the documentary basis on which the commedia dell’arte and its European diffusion are interpreted, by examining ways of researching commedia-related images in an interdisciplinary context. It was written in conjunction with some dozen articles published in widely scattered form during the decade 1987–97,1 in journals and conference proceedings specializing in art and theatre history, Italian, festival and renaissance studies and musicology. Through their illustrations, numerous pictures uncovered by these researches entered the mainstream of scholarly debate even before 1995.2 There have been exciting breakthroughs and significant developments in the field during the past decade. As a product of its time, many of this study’s assumptions and findings have been supplemented or superseded by subsequent findings on aspects of the commedia dell’arte, theatre iconography, and cultural interchanges between Italy, German-speaking Europe and Britain. It is published as a contribution to the base of images available to scholarship, and with the intention of furthering debate on issues surrounding the iconography of Italian comedians, and European itinerant performers and carnival and festival participants, in the earliest decades of the professional stage.3 1

2

3

See bibliography (Katritzky). Several of these articles develop themes peripheral to the commedia dell’arte. The plate captions to this study indicate the images included in my pre-1995 publications (for key to abbreviations, see bibliography, pp.281–2). The front matter of my 1995 thesis, required by Oxford DPhil regulations, is here replaced with the present foreword, the original bibliography and indexes with revised end matter, and the in-text references with footnotes, some reflecting developments postdating the completion of my doctoral research. These include my own ongoing enquiries into itinerant mountebanks and performers (see bibliography), which lead me to question some of the

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Aspects of the writings of the comici continue to be uncovered and researched, and a major focus of current scholarship is the relationship between the written works and improvised stage practice of the comici, both male and female. The documentation for the commedia dell’arte has a different emphasis to that for scripted theatre, and requires different techniques for its interpretation. This is firstly because, at least in its narrowest sense, the commedia dell’arte is an improvised form lacking playscripts, and its plot summaries or scenarios only rarely achieved publication; and secondly, because the commedia dell’arte generated surprisingly voluminous documentation, both textual and visual. The bibliography has been updated to include a selected overview of post-1995 literature directly concerned with iconographic issues. Apart from the realm of popular prints and portraiture, the Italian comici had a negligible impact on the pre1620 visual arts of their own country, despite creating early modern Europe’s most visually distinctive form of theatre. As such, the commedia underpinned an important category of genre painting in the Franco-Flemish regions, and provided a fertile source for frescoes, friendship album or alba amicorum illustrations and grotesque ornamentation in German-speaking Europe. Outside theatre-historical publications, overwhelmingly, only commedia-related images associated with artists within the mainstream of art-historical enquiry attract comment. Many remain unacknowledged by any discipline; some few have achieved a consensus of opinion; others are variously interpreted. The ongoing debate attracted by the best known early commedia-related images demonstrates the insecurely interpreted evidential base on which theatre iconography is grounded. Many thousands of images relate to the earliest half-century of the commedia dell’arte. Numerous pictures had to be excluded from the present study for reasons of space, or because they fell outside the specified period of 1560– 1620, or did not directly relate to its main strands of enquiry. For others, the expense, inaccessibility or unavailability of legible images prevented inclusion.4 This study and its plates are offered as an interim contribution to a debate whose textually and visually evidence-based enquiry is gaining momentum, concerning the very origins of modern mixed-gender professional acting. The conventions which became established in the written documentation concerning the commedia dell’arte and its stock roles are not precisely mirrored in the pictorial traditions evolved by commedia images, which were founded in the dual sources

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premises on which the commedia dell’arte and its iconographic record are traditionally defined and assessed. Otherwise unattributed translations are mine. Although the present whereabouts of many of the images reproduced here is unknown (PWU), every effort has been made to obtain good reproductions.

FOREWORD

of pictorial precedents and eyewitness observation of stage practice. Interpretation of the evidence concerning roles developed by Italian buffoni, charlatans and comici, their occurrence in carnival and festival masquerades and the commedia dell’arte, and their diffusion into European theatre and festival culture as a whole, involves a comparative approach that contextualizes the iconography within diverging textual and pictorial traditions. The commedia dell’arte proper has its origins in performing configurations in which the stage dominance of buffoni, in largely all-male professional alliances, is challenged, transmuted and eventually usurped, by women. Actresses gave the commedia dell’arte its defining nucleus, which is to be sought less in the servant–master duo promoted by traditional scholarship, than in the characteristic Zanni–Pantalone–Inamorata trio central to so many of its most important early images. The commedia’s strength and enduring appeal are grounded in its immense international influence, not least through its systematic promotion of women on the professional stage. From the start, the comici drew on and inspired other performing traditions, at every level from court festival to street mountebanks. Throughout Europe, amateur performers and masqueraders, emerging professional theatre, and itinerant troupes drew heavily on the commedia dell’arte for visual elements, and especially costume. The systematic base of identified and investigated images available to scholarship has gathered substantial momentum since 1995. Researchers are now in an increasingly informed position to assess the iconographic record: with respect to the activities of the early comici themselves, and from the wider perspective of the diverse manifestations of their cultural heritage, north of the Alps as well as within Italy itself. M A Katritzky The Open University, Milton Keynes 2005

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Introduction

i

General introduction

The focus of this study is the commedia dell’arte and its images in the period predating 1620, which, as the approximate date of two works of art of central importance to the commedia dell’arte, marks a watershed in the visual record. One, Fetti’s painting of a man with a mask, variously identified as Giovanni Gabrielli, Tristano Martinelli, or now, more generally, as Francesco Andreini, is the earliest to depict a commedia dell’arte actor in a portrait rather than performance context [plate 1].5 The other, Callot’s Balli di Sfessania suite of engravings, is the most artistically influential set of images relating to this theatre form ever produced [plates 2–5]. This enquiry aims to identify and interpret performance events in pictures, including many whose documentary value for theatre history may previously have been unrecognized or dismissed. Primarily dependent on their pictorial content, the documentary value of images is strongly affected by the extent to which they are art-historically classified and physically accessible. Effective interpretation of commedia-related visual evidence is immeasurably enhanced by reliable data concerning its place and date of production, artist and patron.

5

Giuseppe Fiocco, Venetian painting of the seicento and the settecento (Firenze: Pantheon & Paris: Pegasus, 1929), p.17; Pamela Askew, ‘Fetti’s “Portrait of an actor” reconsidered’, Burlington Magazine, 120 (1978), 59–65; Siro Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari: la commedia dell’arte in Europa tra cinque e seicento (Torino: Einaudi, 1993), plate 38; idem, ‘La parola e l’immagine: Lelio bandito e santo’, in Il valore del falso: errori, inganni, equivoci sulle scene europee in epoca barocca, ed. Silvia Carandini (Roma: Bulzoni, 1994), 105–19, p.118; Angelika Leik, Frühe Darstellungen der Commedia dell’arte. Eine Theaterform als Bildmotiv (Neuried: ars una, 1996), pp.231–2, 356–7; Sara Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo: la partita senza fine’, in Iconographie et arts du spectacle. Actes du Séminaire CNRS (G.D.R.712) (Paris, 1992), eds Jérôme de La Gorce and Catherine Monbeig Goguel (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996), 59–112, p.83; Stefano Mazzoni, ‘Genealogia e vicende della famiglia Andreini’, in: XIX convegno internazionale. Origini della commedia improvvisa o dell’arte, Roma 12–14 Ottobre 1995, Anagni 15 Ottobre 1995, eds M Chiabò and F Doglio (Roma: Torre d’Orfeo, 1996), 107–52, p.119.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

There is a vast literature concerning the commedia dell’arte, but accounts of the origins and early history of its stock types, costumes and performance practice are far from comprehensive. The highly selective approach taken to the early iconography by traditional scholarship largely excludes pictures not depicting commedia dell’arte stock types in recognizable performance situations, preferring to focus predominantly on on-stage depictions of actors. The art historian Charles Sterling published the first art-historical analysis of early commedia dell’arte pictures.6 His brief article heralded a new awareness among theatre historians that the artists of such pictures are influenced not only by what they see on stage, but by what their patron wishes them to depict, and by artistic conventions and precedents. A major aim of the present study is to extend Sterling’s methods to pictures previously excluded from such analysis, because of their peripheral subject matter or inaccessibility. Rather than considering only pictures with definite and obvious connections to the commedia dell’arte, this approach includes a wide range of pictures of possible relevance to the theme. Carnival scenes featuring stock comic types in non-stage settings, for example, can convey a great deal of information about late renaissance entertainers and their costumes, as can depictions of non-Italian or amateur actors. This approach has three main steps. These are firstly, the identification of a representative selection of relevant pictures, on the basis of a detailed understanding of the early history of the commedia dell’arte; secondly, their classification according to art-historical methods; thirdly, interpretation of their theatrical content.7 Each of the three stages of this approach groups the pictorial record differently. Relevant pictures forming coherent groups for art-historical analysis are rarely identical to the groups of pictures which lend themselves to coherent theatrical interpretation. This study aims to contribute to the provision of an overall framework integrating art and theatre history, in order to facilitate a more detailed understanding of the history of the commedia dell’arte in the opening decades of its existence, 1560–1620, by using early modern pictures as a documentary source.

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The term commedia dell’arte

Definition of the commedia dell’arte, beset with challenges and controversy, is made more elusive by the fluidity of its boundaries, and the complexity of its

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Charles Sterling, ‘Early paintings of the commedia dell’arte in France’, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.s.2 (1943), 11–32. As broadly reflected in the three sections of this study.

INTRODUCTION: THE TERM COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

continuing interchanges with other cultural phenomena. Its masks drew on a wide variety of sources, including mystery and mummers’ plays, carnival masks, street theatre and court entertainment, popular farces and commedia erudita. They have transcended the confines of the theatrical stage to play key roles in music, dance, art and literature. Every cultural manifestation featuring characters representing, or deriving from, its stock types, as well as the full range of theatrical practices offered by the very versatile early comici d’arte, are relevant to commedia studies. But it is evident that the term commedia dell’arte itself cannot accommodate them all without becoming virtually meaningless. There is an uneasy fit between modern usage of the term, which explicitly acknowledges its origins in the broad spectrum of performance activities staged by the early modern mixed-gender troupes who pioneered organized professional theatre, and its meaning when it was coined in the eighteenth century. For the London-based theatre critic Joseph Baretti and his contemporaries, the term defines a very specific type of acting. Baretti, himself one of the first to adopt the term, implicitly cites Goldoni and Riccoboni in his account of the ‘masked actors of the commedie dell’arte (a cant name for those burlesque plays substituted to the commedie antiche)’. He notes that it is built up around stock roles, each: originally intended as a kind of characteristical representative of some particular Italian district or town. Thus Pantalone was a Venetian merchant, Dottore a Bolognese physician, Spaviento a Neapolitan bragadocio, Pullicinella a wag of Apulia, Giangurgolo and Coviello two clowns of Calabria, Gelsomino a Roman beau, Beltrame a Milanese simpleton, Brighella a Ferrarese pimp, and Arlecchino a blundering servant of Bergamo. Each of these personages was clad in a peculiar dress; each had his peculiar mask; and each spoke the dialect of the place he represented. Besides these and a few other such personages, of which at least four were introduced in each play, there were the Amoroso’s or Innamorato’s; that is, some men and women who acted serious parts; with Smeraldina, Colombina, Spilletta and other females who played the parts of servetta’s, or waitingmaids. All these spoke Tuscan or Roman, and wore no masks. Not many of the compositions, in which these masked personages with the innamorato’s and servetta’s were introduced, are to be found printed, because they were seldom written. Their authors only wrote in a very compendious way the business of each scene in a progressive order; and sticking two copies of the scenario (so this kind of dramatic skeleton is called) in two lateral back parts of the stage before the entertainment began, each actor caught the subject of each scene with a glance whenever called forth by his cue, and either singly or colloquially spoke extempore to the subject.8

8

Joseph Baretti, An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy, with Observations on the Mistakes of Some Travellers, with Regard to that Country, 2 vols (London: Davies, Davis & Rymers, 1768), I, pp.172–4.

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Perhaps the earliest use of the term is in Goldoni’s play of 1750, Il Teatro Comico, in a scene featuring rehearsals of a play within a play critical of actors’ improvised embellishments to his playscripts, including those of the Medebach troupe, who staged this play’s first production, under his direction.9 Goldoni (1707–93), who was so critical of improvisation that some theatre historians identify his plays as a ‘death blow’ to the commedia dell’arte, also uses the term in his autobiography. Here too, he refers to the stereotypical performance type his contemporaries understood by the term, namely improvised Italian plays staged by mixed-gender professionals based on the use of distinctive masked and unmasked stock characters, and lazzi, or stage routines.10 These typical aspects, all taken very much for granted in the eighteenth century, were novel innovations that had to compete for attention on the sixteenth century stage. The two-century gap between the origins and naming of the commedia dell’arte gives the term inherent difficulties and ambiguities. It embraces a number of quite distinct and valid meanings, and there is no simple way of reconciling them, or of retracing its origins as a distinct performative entity. The early history of the commedia dell’arte is inseparable from the rise of professional mixedgender Italian troupes and the repertoires of these early comici as a whole.

iii

Documentary sources for the commedia dell’arte

The performing arts of the pre-photographic era, unlike the literary and fine arts, which can be directly studied via physical objects such as manuscripts, published books, paintings and sculpture, do not survive in any tangible form. After the curtain falls or the lights go out, only secondary documentation remains. The improvised performances of the commedia dell’arte are even more transitory than plays which survive as playscripts. Even so, traditionally, specialists for whom commedia performances are their actual object of study have turned to textual documentation.11 The most important written sources for the

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Placida, the prima donna of Il Teatro Comico, is given the line ‘Se facciamo le commedie dell’arte vogliamo star freschi’. Quoted by Cesare Molinari, who notes that the term is unknown on playbills before 1796 (La commedia dell’arte (Milano: Mondadori, 1985), p.67). ‘Sujets en canevas de pièces italiennes, que l’on appelle comédies de l’art’ (Carlo Goldoni, Mémoires de Goldoni, pour servir à l’histoire de sa vie et a celle de son théâtre, 3 vols (Paris: Duchesne, 1787), II, p.24). On the use of textual documents as historical evidence for non-text based performance, see Claire Sponsler, ‘Writing the unwritten: morris dance and the study of medieval theatre’, Theatre Survey, 38 (1997), 73–95.

INTRODUCTION: DOCUMENTARY SOURCES FOR THE COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

commedia dell’arte are the scenarios, or plot outlines.12 The only published collection that predates 1700, Scala’s fifty scenarios of 1611, includes comic, pastoral, magical, allegorical and tragi-comic plots, and reflects a broad spectrum of theatrical activity, from tragedy to farce, originating in the sixteenth century. Royal, ducal, civic, ecclesiastical, legal and private archives in Italy and elsewhere offer rich collections of relevant manuscripts. These include official records concerning the licensing of performances and control of performers, censorship, legal disputes and contracts between actors, as well as theatrerelated passages in diaries, diplomatic dispatches, and other correspondence. Other significant written sources include literary works by performers, nonperformers, and critics, and the actors’ zibaldoni, or handbooks of reference material. Some intended for publication, others only for private use, zibaldoni may contain set prologues, speeches, usciti or pre-arranged exit cues, and lazzi, pre-rehearsed acrobatic or verbal comic set pieces and improvised routines designed for re-use in different plots, and capable of being lengthened or cut according to the response received from a particular audience. Actors’ published plays often draw heavily on material developed in improvised performances, and some of their prologues comment on performance practice. The documentary sources cited by studies of the commedia dell’arte, once overwhelmingly text-based, are increasingly reflecting the impact of visual records. Images known only through written documents include many noted in unillustrated modern art market catalogue entries. More intriguingly, they also include early modern references, such as one to ‘seis quadricos de Ganassa de figuras diferentes de ganasa y arliquines’, linked by a Madrid archival inventory entry of 1625 to a performance at a wedding in Guadalajara in 1582, by Naselli’s troupe.13 The iconography of the performing arts generally can be broadly divided into three categories. These are visual documents created directly in the course of preparing a specific production, such as designs for settings or cos-

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Vito Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte. Storia e testo, 6 vols (Firenze: Sansoni, 1957–61), II, pp.166–244, V, pp.213–380, reprints nine of Scala’s scenarios and gives cast lists and plot summaries for most of the important early scenarios; Thomas F Heck (Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature (New York & London: Garland, 1988), pp.14–45, 332–56) summarizes the main scenario collections, with an overview of the secondary literature and an alphabetical title index to 820 scenarios. Carmen Sanz Ayán and Bernardo José García García, ‘El “oficio de representar” en España y la influencia de la comedia dell’arte (1567–1587)’, Cuadernos de historia moderna, 16 (1995), 475–500, p.484. See also N D Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte” in sixteenth-century Spain’, Modern Language Review, 51 (1956), 359–68, p.361.

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tumes, which pre-date the actual specific performance or intended performance itself; secondly, those which post-date a specific identifiable performance; and thirdly, illustrations which cannot be related to a specific performance, such as portraits of actors in non-theatrical contexts, theatrical book illustrations and views of performing spaces. Unlike historians of art, theatre historians study pictures not as the primary object of their research, but as evidence that points to it. The present study is written from the perspective of theatre iconography. This highly problematic field, in effect the study of theatrically relevant images as historical documents, perches precariously across the disciplinary boundaries of modern academia.14 Theatre historians view the visual record as historical documents, a repository of evidence concerning the stage and its performers. For art historians, by contrast, the stage is a potential source of subjects for artists, who can draw on it to develop images based on iconographic conventions, often with little or no connection to contemporary performance. Theatre iconography recognises that visual images can be approached not only as aesthetic works of art in their own right, but also as historical documents which encode valuable evidence concerning past events. Its major challenge is to identify effective strategies for facilitating deconstruction of the artistic conventions of the images concerned sufficiently to enable their reading as evidence for the stage practice of their time. Investigations focusing on specific images or groups of images have contributed significantly to theatre history since its beginnings as an independent discipline. Aby Warburg’s 1895 study of images associated with the Florentine intermedi of 1589 pioneered the comparative use of theatrical images as extra-textual documentation, and has strong claims to being the first significant exercise in theatre iconography.15 Max Herrmann published one of the earliest monograph-length applications of art historical methods in the service of theatre historical concerns in 1914, and further contributions to the field soon followed.16 However, theoretical issues surrounding the iconography of the performing arts have only been foregrounded more recently. There were advancements in the 14

15

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On the use of images as historical evidence, see Francis Haskell, History and its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past (New Haven: Yale, 1993); Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing. The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence (London: Reaktion, 2001). Aby Warburg, ‘I costumi teatrali per gli intermezzi del 1589. I disegni di Bernardo Buontalenti e il libro di conti di Emilio de’ Cavalieri (1895)’ in Gesammelte Schriften, ed. Gertrud Bing, 2 vols (Leipzig & Berlin: Teubner, 1932), I, 259–300, 394–438. Max Herrmann, ‘Dramenillustrationen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts’, in idem, Forschungen zur deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (Berlin: Weidmann, 1914), 273–500; see also, for example, Oskar Fischel, ‘Art and the theatre – II’, Burlington Magazine, 66 (1935), 54–66.

INTRODUCTION: DOCUMENTARY SOURCES FOR THE COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

cataloguing of music iconography in the 1970s,17 and in engagement with methodological issues in the 1980s.18 This decade saw two publications which gave commedia-related iconography studies, in particular, a major impetus: Aliverti’s exemplary summary of the challenges of the field and Heck’s invaluable commedia dell’arte bibliography.19 Around 1990, Davidson reviewed early English theatre iconography, Aliverti and West redefined approaches to eighteenth century actors’ portraits, and Guardenti and Holm addressed aspects of seventeenth and eighteenth century commedia iconography.20 Since 1990, several major collaborative ventures have approached the visual record from a theatre-historical perspective. The proceedings of several theatre-iconographical conferences were published, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study Theatre Iconography Research Group 1994–95 was formed.21 Theatre iconography, more even 17

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Howard Mayer Brown and Joan Lascelle, Musical Iconography: A Manual for Cataloguing Musical Subjects in Western Art before 1800 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972); Imago Musicae: International Yearbook of Musical Iconography (ed. Tilman Seebass) was founded in 1984. Tadeusz Kowzan, ‘Iconographie-iconologie théâtrale: le signe iconique et son référent’, Diogenes, 130 (1985), 51–68; Theodore K Rabb and Jonathan Brown, ‘The evidence of art: images and meaning in history’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 17 (1986), 1–6; Sharon Fermor, ‘On the question of pictorial “evidence” for fifteenth-century dance technique’, Dance Research, 5 (1987), 18–32. Maria Ines Aliverti, ‘Per una iconografia della commedia dell’arte: a proposito di alcuni recenti studi’, Teatro e storia, 4 (1989), 71–88; Heck, Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide (reprinted 2000; a valuable update is provided by Philiep Bossier, ‘Bibliografia ragionata internazionale’, in: XIX convegno internazionale. Origini della commedia improvvisa o dell’arte, Roma 12–14 Ottobre 1995, Anagni 15 Ottobre 1995, eds M Chiabò and F Doglio (Roma: Torre d’Orfeo, 1996), 433–541). Clifford Davidson, Illustrations of the Stage and Acting in England to 1580 (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University for the Medieval Institute, ‘Early drama, art and music monograph series’, 16, 1991); Maria Ines Aliverti, Il ritratto d’attore nel settecento francese e inglese (Pisa: Ets, 1986); Shearer West, The Image of the Actor: Verbal and Visual Representation in the Age of Garrick and Kemble (London: Pinter, 1991); Renzo Guardenti, Gli Italiani a Parigi. La Comédie Italienne (1660–1697). Storia, pratica scenica, iconografia, 2 vols (Roma: Bulzoni, 1990); Bent Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser. Ikonografiske studier i François Fossards Cabinet (København: Gyldendal, 1991). Cesare Molinari, ‘Presentazione [Arti figurative e arti dello spettacolo]’, Biblioteca teatrale, 19/20 (1990), 1–4; Iconographie et arts du spectacle. Actes du Séminaire CNRS (G.D.R.712) (Paris, 1992), eds Jérôme de La Gorce and Catherine Monbeig Goguel (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996); Giovanna Botti, ‘Presentazione’, in ‘Immagini di teatro’, ed. G Botti, Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37 (1996), 13–17. The NIAS group published its conference proceedings in 1997 (‘Theatre and iconography’, eds Robert L Erenstein and Laurence Senelick, Theatre Research International, 22 (1997)) and a collaborative book in 1999

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than the study of theatre architecture, realia (such as costumes or props), scenography, or performance art, risks being lured into the treacherous Bermuda triangle at the conjunction of the academic disciplines of art history, theatre and literature. Bridging their histories – transmuting methodological differences from barriers to serious academic enquiry into positive strengths – remains a major challenge. Effective strategies are increasingly being identified and addressed, but still far from being resolved.22 This disciplinary frontier is central to an understanding of commedia-related images, because they are as profoundly shaped by iconographic and cultural influences as they are by the stage itself. Early modern artists looked not only to their subject, but habitually also to the cultural discourse surrounding it, in conjunction with earlier art, to inspire them. Their

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(Thomas F Heck, Robert Erenstein, M A Katritzky, Frank Peeters, A William Smith, Lyckle de Vries, Picturing Performance, the Iconography of the Performing Arts in Concept and Practice, ed. T F Heck (Rochester: University of Rochester, 1999), and extended its work through the European Science Foundation Theatre Iconography Network. Formed at my initiative, with the support of Erika Fischer-Lichte, and led by Cesare Molinari, the network’s proceedings were published in 2002 (European Theatre Iconography. Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Network. Mainz, 22–26 July 1998, Wassenaar 21–25 July 1999, Poggio a Caiano, 20–23 July 2000, ed. Christopher Balme, R L Erenstein, and Cesare Molinari (Roma: Bulzoni, 2002). Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo’; Cesare Molinari, ‘Sull’iconografia come fonte della storia del teatro’, Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37 (1996), 19–40; Ferdinando Taviani, ‘Immagini rivoltate’, Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37 (1996), 41–59; Christopher Balme, ‘Interpreting the pictorial record: theatre iconography and the referential dilemma’, Theatre Research International, 22 (1997), 190–201; Robert L Erenstein, ‘Theatre iconography: an introduction’, Theatre Research International, 22 (1997), 185–9; W M H Hummelen, ‘Doubtful images’, Theatre Research International, 22 (1997), 202–18; Juan Villegas, ‘The state of writing histories of theater’, Degrés (special issue: ‘La théâtrologie: questions de méthode, ed. Patrice Pavis’) 29 (2001), c1–c17; Renzo Guardenti, ‘The iconography of the commedia dell’arte: figurative recurrences and the organisation of the repertory’, in European Theatre Iconography, ed. Balme, Erenstein and Molinari, 197–206. Few would disagree with Harald Zielske that the ‘longstanding customary complaints concerning the absence of a scholarly basis for theatre iconography now hardly seem appropriate any more’ (‘Dokument oder Allegorie? Zu der Figurenserie “Les trois Pantalons” von Jacques Callot’, Maske und Kothurn, 48 (2002), 143–53, p.143). Even so, such key milestones as the first monograph devoted to the subject; its integration within a mainstream theatre studies undergraduate textbook, and even the ‘first bibliography and iconography of performance costume’ are only now being achieved, and the field is still far from solidly established. (Picturing Performance, ed. Heck; Christopher Balme, Einführung in die Theaterwissenschaft (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1999), pp.159–62; Sidney Jowers and John Cavanagh, Theatrical Costume, Masks, Make-Up, and Wigs: A Bibliography and Iconography (London & Romsey: Routledge & Motley, 2000), p.7.

INTRODUCTION: PICTURES AND THE COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

works reflect and inform, in ways that merit detailed interdisciplinary scrutiny, ongoing borrowings and interchanges between the visual arts, popular traditions, social attitudes, and performance practice.

iv

Pictures and the commedia dell’arte

The rich visual evidence relating to the early commedia dell’arte which survives in many images is receiving increasing recognition as a resource for the study of late renaissance theatre. But these largely undated and anonymous sources have to be interpreted with extreme caution. Even after their connection with the commedia dell’arte has been demonstrated, it is clear that such images cannot be accepted as factually accurate ‘snapshots’, or even compendia, of exactly what a particular artist saw on a specific occasion. Every pictorial record is – to a greater or lesser extent – affected by artistic precedents and traditions and commissioning pressures as well as direct visual input. Its individual components may be taken from one source, or conversely, they may be based on a selection combined from all or any of a wide variety of visual and literary sources. These influences may include real-life events or theatrical performances which the artist has seen, in the recent or more distant past, earlier sketches or pictures by the artist or by other artists, allegorical and popular sources, and the artist’s own imagination. One of the first writers on the commedia dell’arte to show a historian’s concern for the pictorial evidence was Luigi Riccoboni, better known by his stage name, ‘Lelio’. François Joullain, commissioned to illustrate Riccoboni’s Histoire du théâtre italien of 1730, produced a series of engravings depicting the comic actors as they were to be seen in Riccoboni’s own troupe on the Paris stage of his day. Such series were typical of the output of Parisian printers of the time, but Joullain’s eighteen engravings differed in that they also depicted some of the comedians’ counterparts of a century or more earlier. Thus, for example, Habit de pantalone moderne is paired with Habit de Pentalon ancien, based directly on the Pantalone in Jacques Callot’s series of engravings Les trois Pantalons of c.1618. Joullain’s much-copied studies provided the inspiration for that most influential nineteenth century series of commedia characters, the fifty portraits of stock roles of the commedia dell’arte and Comédie Italienne in Maurice Dudevant’s book Masques et bouffons, published in 1860 under the surname of his mother, George Sand. He lent these attractive coloured engravings a spurious historical authenticity by labelling them with dates. Their accuracy may be judged by the fact that Pantalone (1550) is none other than a re-

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vamped twin to Joullain’s Pentalon ancien, and thus ultimately based not on a model of 1550, but on Callot’s picture of c.1618.23 Lack of historical rigour notwithstanding, the enthusiasm of George Sand’s circle for the Italian comedians was influential in encouraging a new curiosity in the historical development of the commedia dell’arte. This grew alongside the increasing interest taken by painters, poets and performers in the commedia and its characters as a source for their art. Again and again, it was Maurice Sand’s comedians to which they looked. For example, a larger than life-size painted double of Sand’s Coviello (1550) dominates the main scene of Gino Severini’s Montegufoni commedia frescoes of 1921, the year too of Picasso’s The three musicians, masterpiece of a dazzling early twentieth century explosion of commedia-inspired characters rampaging across canvas, stage and paper. The increasing demand for scholarly information on the commedia at this time stimulated interest in its iconography. Rasi’s monumental dictionary of Italian actors, and catalogue of his distinguished personal collection of dramatic images, now part of Rome’s Biblioteca Teatrale il Burcado, pioneered a more scholarly approach to the visual material.24 The most important single iconographic discovery was a bound volume, containing sixteenth and seventeenth century engravings of commedia actors and performances, found by Agne Beijer in the reserve collections of the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, in the 1920s. Recognising that these prints, which include a section of the scattered and largely lost Recueil Fossard, offer a uniquely detailed picture of the early commedia dell’arte, he published them in 1928, with Pierre Louis Duchartre, already the author of a substantial milestone in the field of commedia dell’arte iconography. Duchartre’s La comédie italienne, published in several French and English

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Maurice Sand, Masques et Bouffons (comédie italienne): texte et dessins, 2 vols (Paris: Lévy, 1860). Sand’s initiative gave rise to a surprisingly persistent line of less artistically gifted followers (for a prolific late flowering of the genre, see Alessandro Cervellati, Storia delle maschere, illustrazioni dell’autore ricavate da incisioni, disegni, pitture e fotografie originali (Bologna: Poligrafici il resto del Carlino, 1954). On this theatre-iconographic strategy for overcoming the limitations of nineteenth century book technology, see M A Katritzky, ‘What did Vigil Raber’s stage really look like? Questions of authenticity and integrity in medieval theatre iconography’, in Vigil Raber, Zur 450. Wiederkehr seines Todesjahres. Akten des 4. Symposiums der Sterzinger Osterspiele (25.–27.3.2002), eds Michael Gebhardt and Max Siller (Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag, Schlern-Schriften 326, 2004), 85–116, p.86. Luigi Rasi, I comici italiani: biografia, bibliografia, iconografia, 2 vols (Firenze: Bocca & Paris: Klincksieck, 1897 & 1905); idem, Catalogo generale della raccolta drammatica italiana di Luigi Rasi (Firenze: Landi, 1912).

INTRODUCTION: PICTURES AND THE COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

editions during the 1920s, is as much maligned as it is highly illustrated, despite offering a less unrigorous approach to reproducing visual records than the cavalier borrowings of Sand’s pastiches.25 Rightly criticized for his disregard for art-historical issues and unscholarly theatrical evaluation of the pictorial record, Duchartre is, less fairly, not accorded due credit for bringing to the attention of a wide readership hundreds of commedia dell’arte-related images, many brought to light by his own tireless researches. McDowell’s unpublished doctoral thesis, although largely along theatre-historical lines, is based on an exhaustive ‘Catalogue raisonné of the iconographical material bearing on the commedia dell’arte’, listing some 500 works of art.26 But his pioneering analysis of pre-1650 images is considerably devalued by the extreme sparseness of its illustrations and references. The war years produced two exemplary publications.27 Gudlaugsson’s Komedianten bij Jan Steen en zijn tijdgenooten of 1945, republished in English translation four years after his death, deploys, with particular reference to the commedia dell’arte, a heightened sensitivity to the interpretation of later seventeenth century Dutch theatrical scenes, not as simple performance records but as complex iconological repositories. The importance of Sterling’s brief article of 1943 for the field cannot be overstated. Among the first investigations concerned either with interpreting commedia-related pictures on art-historical principles, or investigating the comici as the subject of art, it is a major focus of the present study. Sterling heralded a significant new awareness of the importance of pictures as primary documentary material for investigating the costumes, gestures, posture and physical repertoire of the early comedians.28

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Agne Beijer and Pierre Louis Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments des premières comédies italiennes qui on été représentées en France sous le règne de Henri III. Recueil, dit de Fossard, conservé au musée national de Stockholm (Paris: Duchartre & Buggenhoudt, 1928). Pierre Louis Duchartre, The Italian Comedy (New York: Dover, 1966) is a reprint of the 1929 revised translation of the 1924 French first edition, with a picture supplement reproducing Compositions de Rhetorique and Stockholm Recueil Fossard prints. John Huber McDowell, An Iconographical Study of the Early Commedia dell’Arte (1560– 1650) (University of Yale: Phil. Diss, 1937), 33 figures. My thanks to David Allen for making this available to me. S J Gudlaugsson, The Comedians in the Work of Jan Steen and his Contemporaries (Soest: Davaco, 1975); Sterling, ‘Early paintings’. Elena Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon et la commedia dell’arte dans la fête vénitienne au XVIe siècle’, in Les Fêtes de la renaissance III, ed. Jean Jacquot and Elie Konigson (Paris: CNRS, 1975), 253–66; Marianne Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog. Ikonografiske studier i

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Despite its focus on seventeenth and eighteenth century images, of greater significance to a study of the early images than the incomplete ‘standard’ iconographies of the commedia dell’arte of the 1960s is Hansen’s habilitation research, completed in manuscript only days before his premature death in 1968.29 Specialists owe Helmut Asper a major debt of gratitude for guiding the work to publication in 1984. Inevitably, the resulting monograph is a flawed hybrid, bearing the unavoidable marks of long-delayed posthumous publication, but its engagement with central issues makes it an indispensable classic. It provides an overview of the development and spread of iconographic conventions, touring troupes and other intercultural borrowings, and is methodologically groundbreaking in pointing a way forward to genuine interdisciplinarity, and away from the discipline-bound approaches which limit even the best older scholarship. Aliverti’s message follows a similar path. She identifies two independent traditions in the use of pictorial material relating to the commedia dell’arte. In

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commedia dell’arte (København: Akademisk, 1977); Ulrike Noë, Illustrationen zur Commedia dell’arte (Köln, Universität: Magisterarbeit, 1985); Ferdinando Taviani, ‘Un vivo contrasto: seminario su attrici e attori della commedia dell’arte’, Teatro e storia, 1 (1986), 25–75. Leik’s Frühe Darstellungen, an outstanding treatment of the then-known early modern visual record within its wider art-historical context, is concerned with the artistic impact and significance of the commedia dell’arte. Eckhard Leuschner’s authoritative overview of the depiction of face masks does not specifically focus on the theatre (Persona, Larva, Maske, ikonologische Studien zum 16. bis frühen 18. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt-a-M: Lang, 1997). Lynne Lawner’s and Thomas Kellein’s admirably illustrated surveys of commedia-related iconography, extending from its beginnings to modern derivatives, touch on early modern examples. The latter is the catalogue of one of several major exhibitions addressing or touching on significant aspects of commedia-related iconography, albeit largely post-1620 (Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon. Commedia dell’Arte and the Visual Arts (New York: Abrams, 1998); Kellein, Pierrot: Melancholie und Maske (München: Prestel, 1995); Jean Clair, ‘Picasso Trismegistus. Notes on the iconography of Harlequin’, in Picasso: The Italian Journey 1917–1924, eds Jean Clair and Odile Michel (London: Thames & Hudson, 1998), 15–30; The Great Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown, ed. Jean Clair (New Haven & London: Yale, 2004); Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, the Commedia dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture (New Haven & London: Yale & Gardiner Museum, 2001); Commedia dell’arte: Fest der Komödianten; keramische Kostbarkeiten aus den Museen der Welt, 3 vols, ed. Reinhard Jansen (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2001); Julian Brooks and Catherine Whistler, Graceful and True. Drawing in Florence c.1600 (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2003)). Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, 333–6; Daniel Ternois, ‘Représentations figurées des fêtes et de la commedia dell’arte’, in idem, L’Art de Jacques Callot (Paris: Nobele, 1962), 233–5; Günther Hansen, Formen der commedia dell’arte in Deutschland, ed. Helmut G Asper (Emsdetten: Lechte, 1984).

INTRODUCTION: PICTURES AND THE COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

the dominant one, such pictures are used to demonstrate the general characteristics, evolution and duration of specific stock types.30 The second approach analyses such pictures in iconographically related groups in order to date and attribute them, and to trace their artistic borrowings.31 The first technique is favoured by theatre historians, the second by art historians. Aliverti indicates that, independently and in their separate ways, the most recent work in each undermines the relative emphasis given to the three cornerstones of the commedia dell’arte as it is traditionally understood, that is, professionalism, the stock types and the traditional repertoire, and supports the presence of a far greater diversity of performance type and style than is allowed in long-accepted models. In order for further progress to be made in analysing the iconography, she feels that the two approaches should merge their insights, problems and aims into a single interdisciplinary line of enquiry.

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Aliverti, ‘Per una iconografia’ (with reference to Ferdinando Taviani’s publications). Ibid. (with reference to M A Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput: some pictures related to the commedia dell’arte’, Renaissance Studies, 1 (1987), 71–125; eadem, ‘Italian comedians in renaissance prints’, Print Quarterly, 4 (1987), 236–54; and articles on seventeenth and eighteenth century theatre iconography by F Siguret and Armando Fabio Ivaldi).

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I

The commedia dell’arte

I.i

The rise and spread of professional acting and commedia dell’arte troupes in sixteenth century Italy

I.i.a

Introduction

The diversity of the commedia dell’arte has contributed to the controversy surrounding its origins. Its dominant defining feature has been variously identified as its commercialism, improvisation, professionalism, the use of face masks and characteristic stock types, the introduction of actresses, and the formation of troupes. Once fully developed, the commedia dell’arte was the product of teamwork by professional actors and actresses associated in travelling troupes who themselves provided the dialogues for performances improvised around scenarios involving certain stock characters, situations and lazzi. They favoured impressive stock costumes but minimal settings, scenery and props, and grafted popular elements such as masks, dialect, mime, acrobatics, and musical entertainment on to plots taken from commedia erudita (fully scripted plays in the vernacular), while rejecting its five-act structure, Aristotelian unities and didactic message in favour of audience entertainment and participation. In this way, group-developed ‘flexible performances’ with unprecedented wideness of audience appeal were achieved.32 The prologue to La Strega by Grazzini (‘Il Lasca’), first published only in 1582 but written in mid-century, features a dialogue that sums up the changing audience expectations which increasingly favoured commedia dell’arte over erudite drama.33 An understanding of the sources and performative contexts of

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Tim Fitzpatrick, The Relationship of Oral and Literate Performance Processes in the Commedia dell’Arte: Beyond the Improvisation/Memorisation Divide (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Mellen, 1995), p.48. ‘Prologo. – […] non sai tu che le commedie sono immagini di virtù, esempio di costumi e specchio di vita. / Argomento. – Tu sei alla antica e tieni del Baroncio sconciamente: oggidì non si va più a veder recitar le commedie per impa / rare a vivere, ma per piacere, per

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

its stock roles, especially the visually distinctive male stock roles, is fundamental to the identification and interpretation of commedia-related images. Tomaso Garzoni’s La piazza universale is the most comprehensive overview of contemporary attitudes to performers, and of the various contexts in which commediarelated roles occurred – and hence in which their costumes may have been depicted – in mid-1580s Venice. Although its importance in this context is universally recognized, its full potential is not. La piazza divides organized labour into 155 occupational categories, of every social class, each discussed in a separate ‘Discorso’. Of the many concerned with or relevant to performers, four are typically cited by theatre historians: those on acrobats and dancers, professional actors, charlatans, and buffoni (professional comic or acrobatic entertainers).34 The significant overlap between the commedia-related stage roles cited in these ‘Discorsi’ emphasizes the interdependence of Garzoni’s performing ‘professions’.35 As well as explicit allusions to the stage, these accounts give invaluable insights into the genuine occupational groups on which various stock roles drew. Writing at a time when stage costume was still developing the stereotypic stock outfits that, by the opening decades of the seventeenth century, were losing all relevance to contemporary clothes, Garzoni links several non-performing professionals to their stage equivalents. The stock stage lawyer, Dottore Gratiano da Bologna, and a stage physician, Mastro Grillo, are invoked in the warnings against unqualified practitioners with which he ends his discussions of lawyers and medical doctors, in his deeply critical discussion of diviners, and with regard to spice-merchants.36

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spasso, per diletto, per passare malinconia e per rallegrarsi. / Prologo. – Si potrebbe anche mandare a chiamare i Zanni. / Argomento. – Piacerebbe anche forse più lui e le sue commedie giocose, piacevoli, che queste nostre dotte, savie e severe. / Prologo. – Il poeta vuole introdurre buon costumi, e pigliare la gravità e lo insegnare per suo oggetto principale, che così richiede l’arte. / Argomento. – Che arte o non arte? che ci avete stracco con questa vostra arte ! l’arte vera è il piacere e ’l dilettare’ (Antonfrancesco Grazzini, La Strega, édition critique avec introduction et notes, ed. Michel Plaisance (Abbeville: Paillart, 1976), pp.55–6). Tomaso Garzoni, La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo, ed. Giovanni Battista Bronzini (Firenze: Olschki, 1996): Discorsi XLV (De’ saltatori, e ballarini, e di tutte le sorti di tripudianti, et de’ cursori); CIII (‘De’ comici, e tragedi, così auttori, come recitatori, cioè degli histrioni’); CIV (‘De’ formatori di spettacoli in genere, et de’ ceretani, o ciurmatori massime’); CXIX (‘De’ buffoni, o mimi, o histrioni’). Ibid., CIII & CIV: Burattino, Zani; CIII & CXIX: Magnifico, Spagnuolo; XLV, CIV & CXIX: Grillo; CIII, CIV & CXIX: Gratiano da Bologna. Ibid., V (‘De’ dottori di legge civile’), p.138; XVII (‘De’ medici fisici’, pp.212–13); VIII (‘De’ formatori de’ pronostichi’), p.157; LXXXIX (‘De’ speciari, overo aromatarii’), p.811.

I.I.A PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: INTRODUCTION

Garzoni’s discussion of pimps and bawds notes that during the Venetian carnival, they specially favoured disguising themselves as Zanni or Magnifico; and he alludes to Vittoria, Flaminia, Isabella and other renowned stage inamoratas, as well as historical and contemporary figures, in his treatment of lovers.37 His 114th ‘Discorso’ offers an account of the facchini, peasants who left their native Bergamo and the alpine regions beyond, to seek work as Venetian porters. Describing in detail their characteristic lazy gestures, gross posture, ignorant attitude, baboonlike gait and impenetrable dialect, Garzoni explicitly notes that their costume and traits served as a blueprint for the zanni who represented them on the commedia stage.38 Garzoni’s moralizing attitude too, is of relevance to interpretation of the pictorial record. La piazza is the indisputable culmination of a voluminous sixteenth century literature on the professions, contrasting their various aims and achievements, and engaging in the theme of vocations honoured and betrayed. Its authors drew on and fed into the textual and iconographic traditions of the Dance of Death and northern ‘Narrenliteratur’, notably Sebastian Brandt’s Ship of Fools and its derivatives. Garzoni, no less than others in this tradition, took a far from neutral stance to the professions he describes. Concerning performers and their audiences, he explicitly condemns the pleasures of the ‘piazza’ at the metaphorical and literal centre of his discourse – eating, drinking, window shopping, gossiping, and above all making, listening to, or watching music, dance, or other performative spectacle – as fundamentally sinful activities. For him, indulging in these worldly diversions on a full-time basis is, of all the ‘professions’ he defines, ‘the most vicious and detestable’.39 In a much-quoted passage, he singles out for warm individual praise one male and four female comici: Fabio, the ‘gracious’ Isabella Andreini, Vincenza Armani, Lidia and the ‘divine’ Vittoria Piisimi.40 He hints that virtuous histrioni are exceptional, and makes it clear that, for him, the modern acting profession is perverted by profani comici, who scandalize their audiences.41

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Ibid., LXXV (‘De’ ruffiani, et delle ruffiane’), p.741; LXXXIV (‘De’ mascherari …’), pp.790–1; XCVI (‘De’ galanti, o innamorati, o pennacchini, et de’ puttanieri’), p.855. He also records, amongst Venetian carnival costumes popular with both men and women: matachin, gypsy and charlatan outfits, and costumes of the commedia dell’arte masked servant and master roles Pedrolino, Burattino and Gratian da Bologna (Discorsi LXXV, p.741 & LXXXIV, p.790). Ibid., CXIV (‘De’ fachini …’), p.976. Ibid., CXVII (‘Degli otiosi di piazza …’), p.987. Ibid., CIII, pp.901–2. Ibid., CIII, p.902.

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If he differentiated between acrobatic dancers, comici, charlatans and buffoni by dedicating them separate ‘Discorsi’, he was also well aware of their extremely close links. Actors stand shoulder to shoulder with charlatans and buffoni, whose accounts are entirely undiluted by individual praise, in a warning to his readers.42 From Garzoni’s account it is clear that, together with carnival masks, the main contexts in which commedia-related roles occurred in late sixteenth century Venice are performances by acrobatic dancers, actors, charlatans and buffoni. This is entirely compatible with the now widely accepted view that the Italian professional stage was pioneered by mountebanks (itinerant charlatans who used theatrical means to market medical or pseudo-medical products and services), and buffoni. These latter were professional comic performers who played solo, or banded together in predominantly male duos or troupes, to offer a repertoire relying heavily on mime, acrobatic dance and visual humour, important elements on the commedia stage. Less clear, and much disputed, is the extent to which, as the sixteenth century progressed, not just comici, but also charlatans and buffoni, staged performances that fall within the definition of the commedia dell’arte.43

I.i.b

Venetian amateurs and buffoni

In Lea’s view, ‘almost all the material of the Commedia dell’arte might be reviewed in terms of its debt to the Commedia erudita’.44 Her closely argued theory that the commedia dell’arte arose out of professional imitation of Italian renaissance amateurs such as Cherea, Cimador, Menato, and especially Angelo Beolco (‘Ruzante’) and Andrea Calmo has attracted much support. Lea postulates that the first stable troupes of professional actors, motivated both by financial gain and by a sense of the theatrical, travestied the commedia erudita and carnival entertainments of learned amateur renaissance playwrights, which in turn imitated Plautus and Terence and plundered such sources as Boccaccio. Commedia dell’arte elements developed, and gained ascendance in the reper-

42

43

44

34

Ibid., CXIX, p.997: ‘tre sorte di persone si dice communemente haver rubato tutto il buon tempo, cioè comedianti, buffoni, et ceretani, i quali tutti eran paragonati dal Fasela al nodo gordiano’. On charlatan, mountebank and toothdrawer performances and iconography, see Katritzky, ‘Vigil Raber’s stage’ and bibliography (Katritzky). Kathleen M Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, a Study in the Commedia dell’Arte 1560–1620, with Special Reference to the English Stage, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1934), I, p.182.

I.I.B PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: BUFFONI

toires of the professionals, only gradually, and borrowed from a wide variety of sources over several decades. They favoured fast-moving action, crowd-pleasing presentation and popular entertainment over the amateurs’ wordy dialogues and their improvisation drew on material that came to hand. This included classical comedy, court festivals, folklore and carnival, the set pieces of charlatans and travelling entertainers, contemporary Italian comedy and pastoral, novelle and romantic poems, and incorporated similar stock situations, lazzi, collapsible speeches, acrobatic routines and dances into different plots. The terminology of this period records the constant struggle of early comici to dissociate themselves from the stigma attached to buffoni, street players and mountebanks. This was both a matter of pride, and also a tactic against ecclesiastical criticism and censorship, which severely restricted entertainments outside the carnival period. The comico and forestiero of the dialogue prologue to Scala’s fully scripted comedy Il Finto Marito, of 1619, discuss the dispute between those who dismissed the performances of the professionals as zanata, and their defenders, who would elevate them to the status of commedie.45 In La Supplica of 1634, written to gain respect for the acting profession, and to raise public estimation of the plays of the comici so that they were seen to equal the productions of educated amateurs rather than the crude zanata of the street buffoni, Nicolò Barbieri (‘Beltrame’), is even more explicit.46 The numerous theatrical episodes described in the voluminous diaries of the Venetian Marin Sanudo, which span the period c.1499–1533, give a lively indication of the range and circumstances of entertainments, both professional and amateur, available in Venice at that time.47 Sanudo’s diary stops short of the period in which the commedia dell’arte came to the fore by several decades. But by its very comprehensiveness, it gives valuable indications of the early interactions between Venetian professional buffoni and amateur performers, and of mechanisms by which the amateur stage advanced towards professionalism

45

46

47

Carmine Jannaco, ‘Stesura e tendenze letterarie della commedia improvvisa in due prologhi di Flaminio Scala’, Studi secenteschi, 1 (1960), 195–207. Nicolò Barbieri, La supplica, discorso famigliare a quelli che trattano de’ comici (Venetia, 1634), ed. Ferdinando Taviani (Milano: Il Polifilo, 1971), p.24: ‘il buffone è realmente buffone, ma il comico che rappresenta la parte ridicola, finge il buffone, e perciò porta la maschera al viso, o barba rimessa, o tintura alla faccia, per mostrar d’esser un’altra persona’. Some 55 of which are published, some in translation, by Lea (Italian Popular Comedy, II, pp.474–8). See also Daniele Vianello, ‘Tra inferno e paradiso: il ‘limbo’ dei buffoni’, Biblioteca teatrale, 49–51 (1999), 13–80.

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

in the early sixteenth century. Sanudo records processions, masquerades, recitations, pastorals, tragedies and comedies, organized by amateur companies, particularly the Eterni, Ortolani, Triumphanti, and those of Cherea and Ruzante, both during the carnival season and at private functions such as weddings and banquets. He also notes singing, dancing, acrobatics and clowning by professional buffoni, notably Domenego Tajacalze and Zan Polo. By the second decade of the sixteenth century, Sanudo is recording definite interaction between amateur entertainers and professional players. He notes that in April 1513 the Eterni enlivened their procession by engaging Zan Polo, whom he elsewhere describes as a ‘buffon’ skilled at jumping, dancing and singing. First recorded by Sanudo as performing ‘in piaza’ as early as 1504, several diary entries point to the success of Zan Polo’s collaborations with amateurs. In February 1515 he provided intermedi involving singing and dancing to a performance of Plautus’s Miles Gloriosus. In 1522, Zan Polo played the buffone at a festival organized by another amateur company, the Triumphanti, and, with other buffoni, provided the intermedi for Niccolò Machiavelli’s Mandragola, performed by Cherea’s company. At a banquet given by the Doge in 1523, ‘Zuan Polo buffon stravestito vene con do altri, et cantò una canzon in laude dil Doxe’. In February 1524 Zan Polo was one of several primi buffoni for a masquerade organized by the Ortolani. In May 1532 he performed at two banquets in Treviso with a company of at least four other buffoni, and by 1533 he had been joined by a son, in what may represent an early professional troupe.48 On 3 February 1530, Sanudo watched a ‘comedia a la Bergamasca’. He identifies the authors as Andrea Razer and Zuan Maria, and the players as including a woman (‘la Michiela’), and a vulgar bravo. Perhaps this Bergamasque comedy was similar

48

36

This or another son of Zan Polo is named by Sanudo as Cimador in 1526, and recorded by Aretino (I ragionamenti, 1584, pp.67–8) as in turn playing all four parts of a one-man playlet featuring a Zanni-type porter, an old master, his young wife, and their elderly maid. See Kenneth Richards and Laura Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte. A Documentary History (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), pp.24–5 (translation); Vianello, ‘Tra inferno e paradiso’, pp.25–6; Robert Henke, Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell’Arte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp.61–2. Although Zan Polo’s dates are incompatible with Lea’s suggestion that he may be identical with the buffone Benedetto Cantinella, whose troupe played with much success in Rome in the 1540s, the dates of his son are not (Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, pp.248–51). Maria Magni notes an edition of Due canzonette nuove di un amante con la risposta dell’amata in lingua venetiana whose frontispiece depicts the actor Piero Cantinella (‘Il Tipo dello Zanni nella Commedia dell’arte in Italia nei secoli XVI e XVII’, Bergomvm, Bollettino della Civica Biblioteca, 20 (1926), 111–38, 163–84, p.171).

I.I.C PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: THE EARLY TROUPES

to the ‘buffoni alla veniziana e alla bergamasca, e contadini alla pavana’ seen at a Ferrarese court banquet by Messisbugo in 1529.49 Whether or not these performances are direct forerunners of the commedia dell’arte, Sanudo’s diaries point to increasingly successful collaboration between amateur and professional players, collaboration that was instrumental in stimulating the rise of the first long-term professional acting troupes.

I.i.c

The early troupes

The activities of a few possibly long-term itinerant professional troupes are indicated in records predating 1540. In 1538, the troupe of ‘Mutio, italiano de la Comedia’ acted in Spain, and that of Pierre de la Oultre performed farces and moralities in France.50 By the 1540s, some players were signing legal contracts to form professional troupes and tour with their plays. Three Parisian contracts record the activities of Giovanni-Antonio Romano (‘Valfeniere’), whose troupe of six Italian ‘joueurs’ took on three French players during a French tour of 1544.51 In 1545, identified as a date of almost mythical proportions for the commedia dell’arte, the Paduan ‘Maphio ditto Zanini’ and seven other men contracted to form a ‘fraternal company’ at the end of Lent, for the purpose of touring until the following carnival season with their commedie for financial gain.52 In 1546 and 1549, Maphio del Re reformed his company, again for the purpose of offering ‘comediis’, and in 1546 Benedetto Cantinella received payment for performing a comedy with his company.53 In this year also, anonymous troupes were recorded in Geneva and Norwich. Calvinist Geneva refused the application for a licence of ‘aulcungs joueurs des antiques et puissance de Hercules […] jouer de bonne grâce la bataille des

49

50

51

52

53

Cristoforo da Messisbugo, banchetti composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale, ed. Fernando Bandini (Venezia: Neri Pozza, 1960), p.50. John V Falconieri, ‘Historia de la commedia dell’arte en España’, Revista de Literatura, 11 (1957), 3–37 and 12 (1958), 69–90, p.11; Armand Baschet, Les comédiens italiens a la cour de France sous Charles IX, Henri III, Henri IV et Louis XIII d’après les lettres royales, la correspondance originale des comédiens, les registres de la trésorerie de l’épargne et autres documents (Paris: Plon, 1882), pp.3–4. Raymond Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne en France au XVIe siècle’, Revue de littérature comparée, 24 (1950), 5–24, p.11. Ester Cocco, ‘Una compagnia comica nella prima metà del secolo XVI’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 65 (1915), 55–70; Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.66, 70. Cocco, ‘Una compagnia comica’, pp.60–1; Emilio Re, ‘Commedianti a Roma nel secolo XVI’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 63 (1914), 291–300, p.293.

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Mores et puissance de Harodes et aultres antiques héros’, but in Norwich ‘certen Spanyards & Ytalyans […] dawnsyd antycks & played dyvrse other feets’.54 In 1588, Bourgeville de Bras recalled the visit to Caen, in May 1549, of ‘jongleurs dicts batteleurs, Italiens, lesquels faisoyent choses admirables en agilitez de corps’.55 Rabelais leaves no doubt over his displeasure and boredom at the ‘longueur & mines Bergamasques assez fades, […] l’inuention bien froide, & argument triuial’ of a comedy he saw in 1549 at a Roman banquet, to which the demented fooling of a company of ‘Matachins nouueaux’ was infinitely preferable.56 This mention of Bergamasques indicates a possible connection with lazzi of the type the professional actors of the commedia dell’arte were to make their own. In 1549 too, five Venetian ‘spilleuten’, and their interpreter Anthonien of Bolzano, performed in Nördlingen, before travelling on to Nürnberg, where their petition to show scenes from an old Roman history of Hercules, evidently the ‘Labours of Hercules’, was turned down.57 Itinerancy is a consistent feature of professional troupes, and amateurs too are known to have ventured abroad on occasion. In 1552, Calvete de Estrella records that Italian academicians performed a sumptuous comedy by Ariosto at Valladolid in 1548.58 On 27 September of that year, a company of Italian actors and actresses, thought to have been amateurs, performed Bibbiena’s La Calandria in Lyon before the French king and queen, Henri II and Caterina de’ Medici.59 This gesture by the Florentine nation made a great impression. Brantôme suggests that before this time the entertainment available to French audiences consisted largely of buffooneries and farces.60 In 1554, Firenzuola’s Lucidi was played before the French king by Italian amateurs.61

54

55

56

57

58 59 60

61

38

E K Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923), I, p.246; Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.352. Recherches et antiquitez de la province de Neustrie (1833, p.214, quoted in Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, pp.11–12). François Rabelais, La Sciomachie & festins faits a Rome au Palais de mon seigneur reuerendissime Cardinal du Bellay, pour l’heureuse naissance de mon seigneur d’Orleans (Lyon: Sebastien Gryph, 1549), p.26. Karl Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler am bayrischen Hofe’, Jahrbuch für Münchener Geschichte, 1 (1887), 193–312, p.225. Quoted by Falconieri (‘Commedia dell’arte en España’, pp.11–12). Baschet, Les comédiens italiens, pp.6–10. ‘Car paradvant on ne parloit que des farceurs, des connardz de Rouan, des joueurs de la Basoche, et autres sortes de badins et joueurs de badinages, farces, mommeries et sotteries’, quoted by Alessandro D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 3 vols (Torino: Loescher, 1891), II, p.456). Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, p.11.

I.I.D PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: PROFESSIONALISM

Discussion of the repertoire and performance technique of early troupes such as Maphio’s is largely based on speculation, as the only substantial surviving documents concerning them are legal contracts primarily concerned with financial and organizational aspects. Most of Maphio’s players were qualified in professions unrelated to entertainment and acting. Stephanus was a stonemason, Maestro Zuanne and Girolamo Bragati of Padua were ropemakers, Simon was a soldier and Checo, who played the women’s parts, a smith, although Francesco, perhaps Checo’s brother, is described as a lira player.62 A much later contract, of 1581, specifically records that Ganassa’s troupe added two local musicians to their numbers while in Spain, to play the guitar and sing in the Castilian manner.63 The more successful early troupes built up wide repertoires capable of offering full-length scripted comedies, pastorals and melodramas by playwrights, improvised plays, and intermedi, bufonarie and mumarie based on music and mime. This broad appeal is also suggested by the pictorial record, which depicts the early comici in a rich diversity both of performance types and places.

I.i.d

Professionalism and improvisation

Readings of Sanudo’s theatrical episodes and Garzoni’s La piazza underlie many models of professional theatrical development. The most widely accepted models were long dominated by a theory (let us call it the consecutive model), that, although nominally superseded, still largely informs them. According to this, charlatans and buffoni remained peripheral to the business of staging full-length commedia dell’arte plays. During the course of the sixteenth century, the ability to attract and train the most sought after professional actors was progressively appropriated by the Gelosi, Confidenti and other well-known named and documented mixed-gender troupes, whose performance arena of choice was the indoor stanze. They fused elements from the scripted commedia erudita of the amateur court stage and the popular tradition of professional street entertainers, and benefited from a lively negotiation between the traditions of this all-male stage heritage and the new expectations and demands generated by the introduction and increasing popularity of actresses. Thus, they developed what this theory identifies as the three cornerstones of the commedia dell’arte proper: its

62 63

Cocco, ‘Una compagnia comica’, pp.57, 60–1, 65–70. ‘Servir de tañer con nuestras guitarras y cantar las tonadas á nuestro uso castellano’ (Falconieri, ‘Commedia dell’arte en España’, p.26). See also Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte”’, p.362.

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

year-round professionalism, distinctive stock roles, and repertoire based on improvisational techniques and lazzi, retaining a virtual monopoly on deploying them in full-length plays. An alternative model, which I propose to call the permeable pyramid model, is gaining ground. According to this, buffoni and charlatans continued to coexist and develop alongside the new mixed-gender acting troupes, in overlapping spheres of theatrical activity that drew heavily on each others’ repertoires and personnel. Here, street performers and comici represent, so to speak, the base and peak of a pyramidal continuum, rather than discrete phases that more or less chronologically succeeded each other as the main focus for the professional performance of plays. The development and staging of commedia dell’arte plays is not the sole preserve of the celebrated named troupes, or even of those troupes who made their living primarily not by selling goods but by taking a fee for their performances. And neither did these troupes confine their performative activities to traditionally defined commedia dell’arte. This model recognises that buffoni and mountebank troupes, some of which opened their ranks to women performers, continued to take an active part in developing, staging and diffusing the Italian professional theatre alongside the comici, in plays as well as shorter routines. These professionals interacted with and drew on a large pool of amateur talent, which continued to stage and people the plays of the learned academies, schools, convents and monasteries, and also with mystery plays, carnival masquerades and other festival-based private, church, court, guild, municipal and parish spectacles. Together, the amateurs and lower ranks of professionals offered a broad base of activities and performing skills, throughout the period in which the great named troupes campaigned to establish the concept of yearround professionalism for actors, with themselves at the pinnacle of theatrical achievement. Individual performers of every level of competence, not just the odd exceptional outstanding performer, moved between these spheres according to their ability, and the opportunities that arose during the different stages of their professional life. Perhaps there are elements of national pride in the older Italian (and Italianist) scholarship’s defence of the comici/ buffoni split underpinning the consecutive model of commedia dell’arte development. But the permeable pyramid model is gaining ground. Supporters of the consecutive model of professional theatrical development point to a certain category of publication as a significant contribution to their model’s evidential basis. In this, comici sharply differentiate their activities from those of the buffoni and charlatans, aligning themselves not with mercenary, often illiterate, professionals, but with playwrights, and elite, educated amateur

40

I.I.D PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: PROFESSIONALISM

stage practitioners. Those who incline towards the permeable pyramid model see such publications as being motivated less by the wish to accurately reflect existing hierarchies than by the desire of certain ambitious comici to protect their own interests. They promoted their status as stage celebrities, and used their writings as a strategic two-pronged defence against church opposition to continuous theatrical activity, both as the means to elevate their activities to the relatively respected social status of art, and as powerful counter-attacks in an ongoing propaganda war. Very much in the way that sedentary physicians had already been going into print for some time to warn their readers against the medical activities of itinerant quacks, the comici now too used their publications to distance their professional identities from those of these same mountebanks. They aimed to further exclude their marketplace rivals from respected membership of their shared profession, by establishing – and dominating – a more rigid moral and economic hierarchy of stage practitioners. From around 1570, the comici enjoyed enormous success. Grazzini, perhaps writing at around this time, describes how other performers began to be ousted by the professionals.64 Medieval European drama was firmly controlled by the church, which sanctioned amateur guild and school performances primarily determined by seasonal factors. The carnival season remained the most popular playing period for the professionals, when the nobility often had difficulty in persuading their favourite troupes to serve them.65 However, a year-round living as a performer could only be secured at the cost of breaking through the strictly defined chronological limits of the church-tolerated ‘festival-based’ pattern. The immense popularity of the comici allowed them to do this, and to continue to perform outside the sanctioned playing season, at court, in private houses, in the stanze they rented for semi-public performances, and in the new

64

65

‘Tutti i comici nostri Fiorentini / son per questa cagione addolorati […] / ma il popol poi veggendo manifesto / l’onor de’ Zanni in fino al cielo alzato, / senza più altro intendere o sapere, / altre commedie non vuol più vedere. […] / onde assai più di lor fieno i Gelosi / nei secoli avvenir sempre famosi’ (Le Rime Burlesche edite e inedite di Antonfrancesco Grazzini detto il Lasca, ed. Carlo Verzone (Firenze: Sansoni, 1882), pp.430–1). Letters from Canigiani to the Duke of Florence relate the difficulties experienced by Alfonso d’Este in luring Gelosi players back from the Venice carnival season of 1576 to provide entertainment at two family weddings. Letters to Alfonso d’Este from Pedrolino and Vittoria Piisimi apologize that the Confidenti cannot play at Vincenzo Gonzaga’s wedding to Margherita Farnese in 1581, as they will be at the Venice carnival (Angelo Solerti and Domenico Lanza, ‘Il teatro ferrarese nella seconda metà del secolo XVI’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 18 (1891), 148–85, pp.165, 168; D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, pp.479–80).

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theatres being built for them.66 This activity, interpreted as dangerous erosion of the church’s power over dramatic activity, attracted vehement opposition. In 1565, Cardinal (later San Carlo) Borromeo condemned fortune telling, begging, and acting, and decreed the banishment of ‘histriones et mimos, coeterosque circulatores (professional actors and itinerant street entertainers)’ from his territory, views evidently shared in the highest ecclesiastical circles.67 Borromeo’s plans to drive actors out of his territories proved more difficult to implement than he had anticipated, as he wrote in a letter of July 1578, describing the professionals’ comedies as pernicious and lascivious, to Cardinal Gabriello Paleotti of Bologna, who that same year had condemned this theatrical innovation.68 Those innovations which were to become the most typical characteristics of the commedia dell’arte – the introduction of women on to the stage, acting for financial gain, and the use of improvisation – are singled out for particular condemnation by theologians. The illiteracy of some actors, and the need to communicate the same plot-lines effectively to audiences of different social levels and nationalities, were certainly factors in the professionals’ growing reliance on improvisation. But the role played by the increasingly repressive ecclesiastical censorship of the 1560s and 70s cannot be discounted.69

66

67

68

69

42

Barbieri, whose own acting career started in 1596 as an itinerant mountebank’s assistant, is quite clear that the prime motivation of the professionals was economic: ‘noi recitiamo per guadagnarsi il vivere, non avendo altr’oggetto che ne inviti che la sola necessità’ (La supplica, pp.120–1). De histrionibus, Cingaris, Tabernis meritoriis et aleatoribus, in La commedia dell’arte e la societa’ barocca. La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Ferdinando Taviani (Roma: Bulzoni, 1969), p.11. ‘Con l’occasione di una comedia fattasi in Roma, assai disonesta, nel quale fu detto, erano alcuni dei cardinali, Sua Santità [Gregory XIII, who succeeded Pius V in 1572] ha proibito non se ne faccia più e proibito li comedianti, etiam nelle case private, ne’ collegi e seminari’ (letter of January 1574, written during the Roman carnival, from monsignor Carniglia to Borromeo, quoted in Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Storia del teatro popolare romano (Roma: Colombo, 1958), p.64). ‘Più perniciose ai costumi ed alle anime, che non sono quelli seminarii di tanti mali, i balli, le feste e simili spettacoli, perché le parole, atti e gesti disonesti e lascivi che intervengono in simili commedie come sono più latenti’; ‘queste commedie, da pochi anni in qua introdotte’ (La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Taviani, pp.23, 39). As Paleotti wrote in 1578, the comici: ‘sempre vi aggiungono parole o motti che non sono scritti, anzi non mettono essi in iscritto se non il sommario o l’argomento, e il resto fanno tutto all’improvviso, e il volerli poi condannare per quelli ha del difficile. Di poi fanno atti e movimenti lascivissimi e inonestissimi che non si scrivono, introducono femmine publiche e piene di ogni inverecondia, fanno nascere all’improvviso’ (La fascinazione del teatro, ed.

I.I.D PROFESSIONAL ACTING AND TROUPES: PROFESSIONALISM

In the 1550s, Piccolomini, a member of the Intronati academy, planned to compose about 500 stock scenes and speeches which could be used in more than one play, but abandoned this work when his notebook, containing rough drafts of three hundred, was stolen. Recognized as a significant link between commedia erudita and the commedia dell’arte, the project may perhaps be regarded as a forerunner of the zibaldone, the commonplace book in which comici noted material on which they drew for their improvised speeches.70 By the 1580s, professional improvisation was accepted as a familiar stock-in-trade of the comici as far afield as England. In 1581, Thomas Alfield, referring to the acting technique of Anthony Munday, deliberately chose to ‘omite to declare howe this scholler new come out of Italy did play extempore’.71 A year later, George Whetstone remarked on: ‘certayne Comedians of Rauenna […] who are not tide to a written deuice, as our English Players are, but hauing certayne groundes or principles of their owne, will, Extempore, make a pleasaunt showe of other mens fantasies [… and …] patched a Comedie together’.72 In 1568, when Munich courtiers staged the masked Italian comedy which the professional singer Massimo Troiano described as ‘una Comedia all’improuiso alla Italiana’, an extremely rare expression before the 1620s, the commedia dell’arte, and its improvisatory techniques, were still largely confined to Italy itself.73

70

71

72

73

Taviani, 39–40). On improvisation, see Max J Wolff, ‘Die Commedia dell’arte’, Germanisches Romanisches Monatsschrift, 20/21 (1933), 307–18; Kathleen McGill, ‘Women and performance: the development of improvisation by the sixteenth-century commedia dell’arte’, Theatre Journal, 43 (1991), 59–69; Michael Anderson, ‘The law of writ and the liberty’, Theatre Research International, 20 (1995), 189–99; Fitzpatrick, Oral and Literate Performance Processes; Henke, Performance and Literature. Daniele Seragnoli, ‘La struttura del personaggio nel teatro del Cinquecento: il progetto di Alessandro Piccolomini’, Biblioteca teatrale, 6/7 (1973), 54–64, p.59. Thomas Alfield, A true reporte of the death & martyrdome of M Campion Iesuite and preiste, & M Sherwin, & M Bryan preistes, at Tiborne the first of December 1581 (London, 1582), f.E1r. George Whetstone, An Heptameron of Ciuill Discourses. Containing: The Christmasse Exercise of sundrie well Courted Gentlemen and Gentlewomen (London: Richard Iones, 1582), ff.Rii.r, Riii.v. Massimo Troiano, Dialoghi di Massimo Troiano: Ne’ quali si narrano le cose piu notabili fatte nelle Nozze dello Illustriss. & Eccell. Prencipe Gvglielmo VI. Conte Palatino del Reno, e Duca di Bauiera; e dell’Illustriss. & Eccell. Madama Renata di Loreno […] (Venetia: Zaltieri, 1569), f.146v. This second, bilingual edition of Troiano’s festival book, with Italian versos and Catalan rectos, is here cited as Dialoghi.

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I.ii

A case study in early patronage and geographic spread: the Munich wedding performance of 1568

I.ii.a

Introduction

The way in which the commedia dell’arte first reached much of Europe is uncomplicated. From the 1570s onwards, it was introduced to foreign courts by travelling troupes of professional Italian actors, whose members, activities and travels are, at least in part, documented. Such troupes reached Spain by 1574,74 the Netherlands by 1576,75 and England by 1578.76 From as early as 1571, prestigious named troupes regularly visited France, which accorded them, and particularly their actresses, great success, and has been identified as ‘the true home of the commedia dell’arte outside of Italy’.77 In France in March 1571, Lord Buckhurst enjoyed ‘a Comedie of Italians that for the good mirth and handling therof deserved singular comendacion’, and in May Charles-Henry de Clermont saw the Gelosi troupe perform for the French king at Nogent-le-Roi.78 In October, Ganassa’s troupe petitioned to perform ‘tragedies et commedies’ in Paris, and in December ‘des Italiens joueurs de comedie’ performed at Lyon.79 In March 1572, the French king rewarded the Florentine Soldino’s troupe of eleven players for ‘comédies e plaisants jeux’ and ‘commedies et saults’, and the ten-strong troupe of the Venetian ‘Anthoine Marie, commedien italien’ for ‘joué plusieurs commedies devant Sa Majesté’.80 In June, the Earl of Lincoln saw ‘an Italian playe, and dyvars vautars and leapers of dyvars sortes, wearie exelent’, and a ‘pastyme showed him by Italians players’, at the French court, which also paid ‘Albert Ganasse, joueur de commedies’

74 75

76 77

78 79 80

44

Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte”’, p.359. Willem Schrickx, ‘Commedia dell’arte Players in Antwerp in 1576: Drusiano and Tristano Martinelli’, Theatre Research International, 1 (1976), 79–86. On the fourteen-month visit to Antwerp in 1576–7 of a troupe of eight men and three women, including Tristano Martinelli, creator of the role of Harlequin, led by his brother Drusiano, see also pp.103ff. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.356. Baschet, Les comédiens italiens, pp.14ff.; Allardyce Nicoll, The World of Harlequin, a Critical Study of the Commedia dell’Arte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), p.175. Baschet, Les comédiens italiens, pp.16ff. Ibid., pp. 24–5. This latter troupe ‘jouent encore ordinairement’, i.e. they gave public as well as private performances. Ibid., pp.35–7.

I.II.A PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: INTRODUCTION

and his troupe for ‘plusieurs commedies quilz ont representées par diverses fois devant sa dicte Majesté’.81 Some idea of the size of these early foreign and domestic audiences is given by the fact that, on their return to Italy, the Gelosi company complained that the stanze in Genoa could only seat 150.82 The way in which the commedia dell’arte reached Bavaria is less clear. Records including several festival books suggest that, less than a decade after the first definite records of professional commedia dell’arte performances in Italy itself, it was an established and popular feature at the Bavarian court.83 When Crown Prince Wilhelm of Bavaria married Princess Renée of Lorraine in Munich in February 1568, it contributed to the festivities in three contexts. Some of its costumes were used in masquerades; the commedia’s stock comic pair, the Venetian Magnifico and his servant Zanni, entertained together on several occasions as masked clowns; and on 8 March 1568 there was a full-length play. Massimo Troiano’s account of this play is generally acknowledged to be ‘an early (so far the earliest known) description of an improvised Italian comedy, or CdA-style entertainment’.84 Its

81 82 83

84

Ibid., pp.41–2. D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.499. Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fursten unnd Herren / Herren Wilhalmen / Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein / Hertzogen inn Obern und Nidern Bairen / etc. Und derselben geliebsten Gemahel / der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin / Frewlein ‘Renata’ […] (München: Adam Berg, 1568); Heinrich Wirre, Ordentliche Beschreybung der Fürstlichen Hochzeyt […] (Augsburg: Philipp Ulhart, 1568); Troiano, Dialoghi. This last (in the bilingual edition of 1569, and Troiano’s Italian only first edition of 1568), records the festival in the form of a dialogue between two fictitious characters, Marinio and Fortunio. Horst Leuchtmann reprints the Italian verso sides of Dialoghi, but replaces the Catalan of its recto sides with a modern German translation. (Die Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568. Massimo Troiano: Dialoge italienisch/ deutsch (München: Katzbichler, 1980). Leuchtmann’s extensive footnotes and bibliography detail a wealth of related archival material. Further sources include a manuscript version of Wirre’s festival book commissioned by Emperor Maximilian II (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BStB cod.germ.1957), an informal account of the public festivities of 24 February to 2 March 1568 (BStB cod.germ.929, ff.56r–61v, extract quoted below, p.49), documentation concerning the ecclesiastical arrangements for 1–3 February (BStB cod.germ.2614, ff.29r–35r), a manuscript version of tournament rules for 24 February quoted in the festival books (Munich, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, BHStAGHA KA 593/I, ff.239r–240v), and a commemorative roll commissioned by Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol (noted as being at Schloss Ambras by Elisabeth Scheicher, Höfische Feste, Ausstellung Kunsthistorisches Museum Schloß Ambras 2. Mai – 30. September 1984 (Innsbruck: Rauchdruck, 1984), pp.8, 19). See also plate 25. Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.146v–153r, quoted at the end of this section (and edition of 1568, pp.183–8); Heck, Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide, p.37.

45

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

precedence is challenged by a German travel diary whose description of a Florentine play of the commedia dell’arte type predates Troiano’s by over two years.85 The diary offers new evidence regarding the rise of the commedia dell’arte and its central character Zanni in Italy, and links a range of commedia-related entertainments at court festivals in Florence and Ferrara, and elsewhere in Italy, during the period 1565–66, to those at the 1568 Munich wedding.

I.ii.b

The Munich wedding of 1568

The 1568 Munich wedding rivalled the great Italian court festivals in the splendour of its festivities, the fullness of its documentation, and the lavishness of its cost.86 Important factors in evaluating the published festival books, and their contrasting treatment of the wedding’s commedia-related entertainments, are their authors’ motives for writing their accounts, and the personal biases they brought to them.87 The difficulty of ‘drawing a line between factual reportage and fanciful embroidery’ in festival books has long been acknowledged, and the Munich wedding clearly demonstrates how such accounts, despite following well-recognized conventions, reflect the interests of their authors and patrons.88 Heinrich Wirre emphasizes the contribution to the festivities of his patron, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. Massimo Troiano’s extensive Italian language account reflects his particular interest in musical events. In contrast to Hans Wagner, whose official ac-

85

86 87

88

46

Known to theatre historians through extensive citations of a manuscript officially missing from the Munich state archives since at least 1959 (BHStA FüSa T.XXVI, ff.1–84: partially published by M v Freyberg, Sammlung historischer Schriften und Urkunden, geschöpft aus Handschriften, 5 vols (Stuttgart & Tübingen: Cotta, 1834), IV, 277–362; cited by Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, pp.234–5; D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.470; Adolf Sandberger, Beiträge zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle unter Orlando di Lasso in drei Büchern, 2 vols [I & IIIi only published] (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Haertel, 1894–5), III.i, 1895, pp.349–54. The diary survives in a second, slightly longer version in Munich’s Geheimes Haus Archiv: BHStAGHA KA 924, ff.33r–121v, here cited as Diary. It is cited in I Gonzaga e l’Impero: Itinerari dello spettacolo. Con una selezione di materiali dall’Archivio informatico Herla (1560-1630), eds Umberto Artioli and Cristina Grazioli (Firenze: La lettere, 2005, in preparation), and an edition is in preparation by Hilda Lietzmann. Munich, BHStA HZR 13(1568), f.180r: 125,604 florins. Troiano, Dialoghi (and first, 1568, edition); Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung; Wirre, Ordentliche Beschreybung. Mary Ann Fruth, ‘Research with French festival books: an introduction’, Theatre Studies, 18 (1971), 7–12, p.8; Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘Festival books in Europe from Renaissance to Rococo’, The Seventeenth Century, 3 (1988), 181–201, p.196.

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING

count concentrates on chivalrous preoccupations, Troiano gives only minimal coverage to the associated tournaments. As a highly ambitious recently appointed courtier, Troiano was concerned to exploit the propaganda element of such festival accounts for personal advancement, with regard to his employer, Duke Albrecht IV, his fellow musicians, and their leader, Orlando di Lasso.89 These biases colour Troiano’s glowing description of his own and Lasso’s skills as comic actors, their consummate mastery of the difficult art of improvisation (cultivated at court as well as by professional actors), and the great success of their performance. All three festival chroniclers note the Italian comedians in the final group of a costumed running at the ring of 24 February.90 Wirre describes them as ‘lewd […]

89

90

See Leuchtmann, Orlando di Lasso. Born c.1531 at Mons in Hainaut, in French-speaking Flanders, Lasso (also known as Orlandus Lassus) entered the service of a Mantuan general, Ferrante Gonzaga, in 1544, and travelled with him, via Fontainebleau, to Mantua, then Palermo, in 1545, Milan (1547–9), Naples (1549–51) and Rome (1551). Family illness brought him back to Flanders in 1554. Following a possible visit to England and France, and two years in Antwerp, in 1557 he accepted a position as a tenor at the Bavarian court orchestra, which he led from 1563 until his death in 1594. Two of the six mounted knights featured in the thirteenth (Troiano) or fourteenth (Wagner) group of this costumed tournament masquerade were Eitelfriedrich and Karl II von Hohenzollern. Their father Karl I (1516–76), as the Spanish envoy, was an honoured guest, invited to take part in the ceremonial dances and masquerades, seated near to the head of high table at the wedding banquets, and permitted the exceptional distinction of eating with his head covered (Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.52v, 57v–8v, 74v, 89v, 93v). His sons were among the young noblemen chosen to wait at high table. Eitelfriedrich (1545-1605) was one of four carvers, Karl II (1547–1606), who had probably been at the Munich court since at least November 1565, when a Zollern Duke accompanied Ferdinand to Italy, was Albrecht’s trusted personal cup-bearer (Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.59v, 137v; Munich, BHStAGHA KA 924, f.1r). With the groom Prince Wilhelm, and his brother Ferdinand, Eitelfriedrich and Karl II, who respectively lost and won their rounds of the contest, paraded on richly covered horses, in a party of six, all costumed in moorish fashion (‘Morischer gestalt’), in cloth of gold and silver, with feather bushes on their ceremonial helmets, accompanied by seconds, pages and trumpeters in matching costumes (Troiano, Dialoghi, f.88v; Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, f.43r, f.41v). Three decades later, letters of September and October 1598 to Eitelfriedrich from Karl II, who was to lead a group dressed in commedia-related costumes at the 1598 Hechingen wedding of Eitelfriedrich’s son Johann Georg, assure him that he is having his masquerade and tournament costumes designed and made in Munich. That of Zan Fritada was to be worn in Hechingen by Frobenius Truchseß, both Maximilian of Bavaria’s official representative at the 1598 wedding, and one of six maternal cousins, including Karl II himself, among the twelve members of Karl II’s commedia-inspired group (see below, pp.96ff). It seems probable that the impetus for all this group’s costumes was Karl II himself, drawing, to whatever extent, on his Munich experiences, and notably the 1565 journey to Italy with Ferdinand, and the 1568 wedding.

47

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Magnifici, each wearing a wide blue beret on his head’.91 According to Troiano, they were six zanni in Bergamasque clothes, accompanied by a Venetian Magnifico, and their antics stole the show.92 Wagner records: zum sechtzehenden / etliche in langen roten Röcken / wie die Magnifici zugehn pflegen / hetten braite blawe Paret auff / neben inen loffen vier Zani auff Bergamatisch geklaidet93

sixteenth came several in long red cloaks such as those worn by Magnifici, in big blue skullcaps, beside them ran four zanni dressed in the Bergamasque fashion.

Wagner notes that the group included the tournament’s Mantenadores, the groom’s uncle, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, and his chamberlain, Giulio de Rivo. They had also led the opening masked procession, entering on a triumphal wagon, in long red damask robes, red caps and full-face masks complete with long grey wigs and false beards, surrounded by five music-playing goddesses or muses. This triumphal wagon was led by four riders, described by Troiano as: quattro giudici mascarati, uestiti tutti da uecchi, con giubbe longhe, di scarlato, a due a due, con quattro lanze in mano, a cauallo a quattro bianchissimi caualli; in torno al carro erano quattro palafrenieri, uestiti di rosso94

four masked leaders, dressed completely as vecchi, with long scarlet coats, two by two, with four spears in their hands, on horseback on four of the whitest horses. Alongside the carriage went four footmen, dressed in red.

The wagons depicted in the richly illustrated festival books of Wagner and Wirre show how close the costumes of these riders and footmen are to those of the commedia dell’arte servant–master pair [plates 18–19]. This is supported by Wagner’s text, which describes them as: vier auff weissen Hispanischen Pferden / in langen roten Scharlachen Röcken / in langen haaren und grawen Bärten / mit Venetianischen roten Hüetlen / wie die Magnifici […] Neben dem Wagen sein vier in rot Atlasen Röcklein und Hüetlein / und Morischen Schönparten gangen95 91

92

93 94 95

48

four [Patrini] on white Spanish horses in long red scarlet cloaks, with long hair and grey beards, with red Venetian caps, like Magnifici […] next to the wagon went four in red satin jackets and caps, and Moorish masks

Wirre, Ordentliche Beschreybung, f.40v: ‘Nit anderst wurdend Sy gnandt do / Wie ich wol hort Magnifico. / Blawe paret gar groß und brait / Ain yeder auff seim haupt hat trait’. ‘sei zanni uestiti alla bergamasca, & uno magnifico, alla Venetiana: e tante cose ridiculose fecero, che per mirarle non posi piu cura alle altre sontuose mascarate, che dapoi giunsero’ (Troiano, Dialoghi, f.88v). Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte Beschreibung, f.41v. Troiano, Dialoghi, f.85v. Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, f.40v. Another of Nicholas Solis’ prints for this volume, depicting a court dance by torchlight, features two zanni in the right-hand

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING

The concluding group was perhaps drawn from those surrounding this first wagon. It is clear from passages in Wirre’s account, such as one describing a dwarf in armour who jumped out of a pie to greet the noble guests at one of the wedding banquets, that Archduke Ferdinand brought entertainers with him to Munich.96 If his tournament group provided the zanni and Magnifici who entertained at table, then, because they spoke Italian, it seems more likely that they were members of a professional Italian troupe engaged by Ferdinand for the Munich wedding rather than Innsbruck courtiers performing as amateurs. An eyewitness account in private correspondence, perhaps by Anna Reitmorin, gives considerable detail where the ground is familiar. Its failure to identify the costumes of the initial group as commedia dell’arte types, and complete omission of the concluding group, support the possibility that Magnifico and Zanni were still very much a novelty in Munich in 1568.97 Wagner and Wirre’s prints of these

96

97

middle ground. In some hand-coloured impressions, the right-hand one wears a brown cloak, and both are dressed in white, with faun beards and, like the torch-bearing women, pale flesh-coloured face masks. The print following this, of a tournament, features a bagpiper and trumpeter to the left, leading nine men in zanni-like costume. Wirre, Ordentliche Beschreybung, f.54v: ‘Von Schaw Essen muß ich sagen. / Ain Pasteten ward da gebacht / Ain lebendigen Zwerg drein gmacht. / Inn ain Küriß muß ich sagen / Hinauff für die Fürsten tragen / Wie man Sy nun hat auffgethon / Hat sich der Zwerg wol sehen lon. / Gantz mundter frölich gsund und frisch / Auß der Pasteten auff den Tisch. / Gegangen und mit Reuerentz / Sich gegen allen Fürsten bhentz. / Erzaigt wie sich dann hat gebirt / Wiewol mans gleich nit glauben wirt. / Da leyt mir warlich wenig an / Dann ich es wol beweysen kan. / Darmit man mich besser verstand / So hat in Ertzhertzog Ferdinand. / Mit jr Durchleücht bracht auß Tyrol’. Munich, BStB cod.germ.929, f.56r: ‘Auff dem 24 february Anno 1568 ist das Rennen zum Ringl auff dem platz zue minchen gehaltten worden. Unnd sind erstlich auff die pan khomen Beide Ertzhertzörgen von Osterreich Ferdinand unnd Karl gebrued Inn langen Rott samattinen Röckhen, darundter weyss fuetter mit zipfelein. Ire Ertzhertzoge heübl auffhabent, Seind inn ainem khostlichen Triumphwagen gefaren. Darinn sind 4 weyss pferdt mit rotten zeugen gangen. Deren pfert yedes ain auffgemachte person inn gestalt ainer Iunckhfrauen bey dem biss an d. handt gefüert. Aller dings wie man die gattinin malet. Seind hinder Beiden fürsten sondere Session gewest, aine hoch die ander nider. Darinn sind gesessen Inn seyden fliegenden khlaydern, ettlich die haben geigt pfiffen unnd lautten geschlagen. Vor dem Wagen sind geritten vier herren inn langen roth scharlachen manttlen mit weyss attles durch auss underzogen. Sonst haben sy weyss attles wames unnd weys zart hosen (die gesehen haben als ob der bloss leyb herauss scheine) angehebt, dryber rott Carmasin attlesen leybröckhl ire rotte scharlach heubl unnd lange weysse har, wie man die altten malt mit in sind geloffen vier mannen inn lautter weyss mitt gefalttetten Rott Charmasinen attlesen altt frenckhischen Röckhlein Rotte heubl auffhabent ist gar zierlich unnd lustig zue sechen gewest’.

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

disguisings are the only depictions of commedia-related costumes directly and exclusively of the Munich wedding. Any direct connection between the festivities of 1568 and the frescoes at Castle Trausnitz, Landshut, the summer residence of the Bavarian court, can be ruled out. Quite apart from the fact that a billet-doux on wall 25E of the stair frescoes is addressed to Filomena, a name not found in Troiano’s cast list for the 1568 performance, construction of the castle’s Italian wing, where they were painted, only started in 1575, seven years after the Munich wedding [plates 20– 23].98 There are two separate series relating to the commedia dell’arte. One, a sixteen-scene series painted on canvas before being mounted on to the ceiling frieze of Prince Wilhelm’s private bedroom, was completely destroyed by fire in 1961 [plates 22–23]. The other series is of continuous scenes featuring almost life-size characters, painted in true fresco directly on to the thirty walls of a spiral staircase now known as the ‘Narrentreppe’, or Fool’s Staircase [plates 20–21]. Undoubtedly the earliest extensive painted iconographic records of the commedia dell’arte, they are still frequently linked with Troiano’s account of

98

50

On the Landshut frescoes, see Karl Trautmann, ‘Italienische Komödianten in Landshut’, Niederbayerische Monatsschrift, 3 (1914), 82–7, p.86 (describes the frescoes as ‘heavily damaged and ruined by overpainting’); Artur Kutscher, Die Comédia dell Arte und Deutschland (Emsdetten: Lechte, Die Schaubühne, 43, 1955); Günter Schöne, ‘Die Commedia dell’arte – Bilder auf Burg Trausnitz in Bayern’, Maske und Kothurn, 5 (1959), 74–7, 179–81; Margot Berthold, ‘Das Feuer verschonte die Narren: Burg Trausnitz, ein bayerischer Schauplatz der Commedia dell’arte’, Die Kunst und das schöne Heim, 5 (1962), 182–7; Franz Rauhut, ‘La commedia dell’arte italiana in Baviera: teatro, pittura, musica, scultura’, in Studi sul teatro veneto fra rinascimento ed età barocca, ed. Maria Teresa Muraro (Firenze: Olschki, 1971), 241–71, pp.254–61; Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.51–64; Lucia Corrain, ‘La commedia dell’ arte nelle corti tedesche’, in Venezia e la Germania (Milano: Electa, 1986), 159–70; Laura Falavolti, Attore. Alle origini di un mestiere (Roma: Lavoro, 1988); Herbert Brunner and Elmar D Schmid, Landshut Burg Trausnitz (München: Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, 1988), p.63; Kellein, Pierrot, pp.18–19; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen (see esp. pp.40–78, 251); Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon, pp.48–9, 106; Vianello, ‘Tra inferno e paradiso’, pp.27–8 (and idem doctoral thesis, ‘La scala dei buffoni. Ricerche e contributi su buffoni e vita teatrale tra Italia e Baviera nel XVI secolo’, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 2001, restricted access, not seen); Philiep Bossier, ‘Ambasciatore della risa’, la commedia dell’arte nel secondo cinquecento (1545–1590) (Firenze: Cesati, 2004), pp.72–6. Much reproduced copies are by Rudolph Gehring (lithographs of the ceiling frieze, published in 1884) and Max Hailer (watercolours of the stair frescoes, dated 1841 and destroyed, as was a 3-D model of the staircase based on them, in WWII; see also plate 21a).

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING

1568.99 Friedrich Sustris, Italian-born son of the Flemish artist Lambert Sustris, oversaw the construction and decoration of the new ‘Italian’ wing at Trausnitz, and the wall and ceiling frescoes, including those of the ‘Narrentreppe’ staircase, were painted c.1577–80 to his detailed designs.100 The team of artists under his direction included his brother-in-law Alessandro Paduano, who painted the staircase frescoes, Antonio Ponzano and Carlo Pallago, but also German artists such as Hans Thonauer, Sustris’ future son-in-law Hans Krummper, and

99

100

Counterparts of the Landshut frescoes north of the Alps include two partially preserved grotesque ceiling friezes painted on wood, incorporating commedia motifs. One of c.1600 is in situ at Castle Tausendlust, Hitzendorf (Graz/Steiermark); the other, from a Nürnberg patrician’s house, of which fragments are on display at the Stadtmuseum, perhaps dates to around 1617 (Carsten-Peter Warncke, Die ornamentale Groteske in Deutschland 1500– 1650, 2 vols (Berlin: Volker Spiess, Quellen und Schriften zur bildenden Kunst, 6, 1979), I, pp.64–5, figs.348–67). Italian counterparts include two late sixteenth century grotesque friezes uncovered during restoration work in Mantua’s Palazzi Berla and Aldegatti in the late 1990s. Some of the scenes with commedia dell’arte motifs, in various states of preservation, are perhaps inspired by the prints of Ambrogio Brambilla. Umberto Artioli, whom I thank for showing me the Palazzo Berla frescoes, first recognized their theatrehistorical significance (‘A Palazzo Berla, la casa delle maschere’, Quadrante padano: cultura, arte, storia e attualità, 19 (1998), 47–50; ‘La commedia dell’arte: le grottesche di Palazzo Berla’, Prima fila. Mensile di teatro e di spettacolo dal vivo, 52 (1999), 20–5). The audience looking down from the painted windows and balustrades above the stage of Sabbioneta’s 1590 Teatro all’Antica includes a figure variously identified as Zanni, Pantalone or Magnifico, and grotesque frescoes (c.1555–63) of a Palladian villa at Poiana Maggiore, and of c.1563 at the Villa Moneta, at Belfiore, near Verona, include isolated small-scale commedia dell’arte figures (Stanley V Longman, ‘A renaissance anomaly: a commedia dell’arte troupe in residence at the court theatre at Sabbioneta’, Theatre Symposium, 1 (1993), 57–65, p.59; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.40, 96–8, 103, 243–8). Karl Trautmann, ‘Herzog Wilhelm V. von Bayern als Kunstfreund’, in Lesebuch zur Geschichte Bayerns, ed. Otto Kronseder (München: Oldenbourg, 1906), 173–90, pp.178–9, 184; Georg Lill, Hans Fugger (1531–1598) und die Kunst (Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1908); Berndt Baader, Der bayerische Renaissancehof Herzog Wilhelms V. (1568–1579) (Leipzig & Strassburg: Heitz, 1943), p.291, cites a letter from Sustris, 24.10.1579: ‘Alessandro a fatto in bonissime la camera di vestra eccelma et bozato tutte le istorie secondo li disegni che li lasiato mentre io veni a monacho’; Brigitte Volk-Knüttel, ‘Der Maler Alessandro Paduano: die “rechte Hand” von Friedrich Sustris’, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3rd ser. 49 (1998), 47–92, see esp. pp.54–5. Volk-Knüttel (pp.47–55) establishes that Sustris, who worked under the direction of Vasari for the 1565 Medici wedding, married Alessandro’s sister Brigida Paduano in Florence in 1562. The older literature often erroneously conflates Paduano with Alessandro Scalzi of Rome, an artist who briefly joined Sustris in Augsburg, after he was brought to Germany by the Fugger family c.1568. In 1573, Sustris, Antonio Ponzano and Carlo Pallago entered Bavarian court employment, where they were joined by Paduano c.1576.

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Christoph Schwarz, a follower of Hans Mielich. A manuscript inventory of 1761 even suggests that Schwarz signed the commedia dell’arte ceiling frieze. Inscriptions its author would have been able to decipher on the original ceiling frieze, although they are not legible on the surviving photographs, named its artist as Schwarz, and dated it to 1576.101 This corresponds to the date given by some later writers, to whom the inscription might still have been accessible, although they do not note it.102 The staircase, finished around the time of the death of Duke Albrecht in 1579, when Wilhelm moved from Landshut back to Munich to succeed him, within a few years became generally known as the ‘Narrnstieg (Fool’s Staircase)’.103 Relevant to assessing the significance of the Landshut frescoes is Wilhelm’s soubriquet ‘der Fromme (the pious)’, earned through an extreme religious melancholia. This led him to abdicate as soon as his son Maximilian was mature enough to rule, in 1597, in order to retire to nearly three decades of reclusive contemplation at Schleissheim. A marked change in mood from secular to religious preoccupations affected the Bavarian court from around the mid-1570s.104 By 1582, only three years after he succeeded his father and when still a relatively young man, Wilhelm notes: ich nitt wie ettwan andre meines gleich zu Jägen, geselschafftt, Spilen, Turnieren, Dantzen, und was dgleich Khurzweil, lust hab […] (nach glegenhait Meiner Malincolisch nattur).105

101

102 103 104

105

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unlike others of my type, I take no pleasure in hunting, socializing, gambling, tournaments, dances or suchlike diversions […] because of my melancholy temperament.

Munich, BHStA HR I Fasz.279/17a, ff.1, 5–6: ‘Beschreibung deren in dem Churfürstlichen Residenz-Schlos zu Trausnitz ob Landtshut verhandenen Gemählden und Plafonds, dan Fresco Gemahlten Zimmern, wie solche Anno 1761 befunden worden seind. […] In dem daranstossenden Schlafzimmer: in der Oberdecke, welche ao. 1576 von Christoph Schwarz und seinen Scholaren gemahlen worden […] an denen Ramen deren vorbeschribenen fillungen, ist die ganze Bourlesque, von dem Pantalone, Arlequino, Columbina, und Scaramuzio in kleinen figuren recht schon und sinnreich gemahlen. Und die 4. Wände dieses Zimmers bestehen in lauter Ornamenten und grotesquen, dan darunter vermischten Amorinnen, in fresco gemahlen […] Die sogenante Narren Stiegen. An deren Wanden dieser Stiegen von oben biß zu deren Ende nächst der Turnitz, ist die ganze welsche Bourlesque von dem Pantalone in grossen figuren fresco an die Mauer gemahlen.’ Trautmann, ‘Italienische Komödianten’, p.247. Munich, BHStA HZR 30(1584) f.374v. Adolf Sandberger, ‘Roland Lassus’ Beziehungen zur italienischen Literatur’, Altbayerische Monatsschrift, 1 (1899), 65–97, p.95; idem, Orlando di Lasso und die geistigen Strömungen seiner Zeit (München: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1926), pp.25–8. Munich, BHStA FüSa 418/II f.260v.

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING

The two cycles of Landshut commedia dell’arte frescoes do not simply celebrate Prince Wilhelm’s love of Italian comedy, or unclouded memories of a light-hearted episode towards the end of his wedding celebrations. Commissioned in the 1570s, they require assessment in the context of their symbolic significance within a complex programme of frescoes for Landshut’s Italian wing, and Wilhelm’s mature attitude to religion, music, theatre and art, repression of carnival zanni, and sponsorship of Jesuit theatre. A second iconographic group traditionally linked to the 1568 wedding consists of jewelled pendants, with commedia motifs [plate 24]. The debate surrounding these so-called ‘gondola jewels’ is further enriched by their discussion in relation to an elaborate jewelled automaton featuring commedia figures.106 This automaton and two gondola jewels were preserved in Vienna’s Hofmuseum, as former treasures of the fifth and fifteenth chests of the Ambras Castle collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, until 1919, when the Ambras gondola jewels, now in Florence (Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti), were ‘repatriated’ to Italy.107 Related to a third gondola jewel at Waddesdon Manor, two more in New York private collections (now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano and the Metropolitan Museum), and a sixth in France, they achieved their prominent standing in early commedia iconography through an attribution to Giovanni Battista Scolari, and a dating to c.1570.108 Active at the Bavarian court from 1567 to 1583 as both goldsmith and comic performer, Scolari took the major part of Zanni to Lasso’s Magnifico, in the 1568 commedia dell’arte performance.109 A dated portrait of 1589 in a Munich private collection, in which a daughter of Wilhelm V, the fifteen-year-old Maria Anna, is depicted wearing a gondola pendant closely resembling the one now in France, has been cited in support of the association

106

107

108

109

Hilda Lietzmann, ‘Die Geschichte zweier Automaten. Ein weiterer Beitrag zum Werk des Valentin Drausch’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 57 (1994), 390–402. Julius von Schlosser, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1908), pp.55, 65–6, 74, figs.34, 59. Yvonne Hackenbroch, ‘Jewels by Giovanni Battista Scolari’, The Connoisseur, 159 (1965), 200–5. In a private communication (24.9.1992), Hackenbroch questions the authenticity of these last two: ‘the “Gondola Jewel” I had published (fig.379) is now in the Metropolitan Museum, but turns out not to be old. The other, formerly in the Cluny … may possibly also not be old’. For a reproduction of this last, now in the Musée National de la Renaissance, Chateau d’Ecouen, see: Paola Venturelli, ‘Un pendente a forma di gondola: alcune osservazioni’, Critica d’arte. Rivista trimestrale dell’Università Internazionale dell’arte di Firenze, 62 (1999), 54–61, p.58. Troiano, Dialoghi, f.147v; Hackenbroch, ‘Jewels’, p.204.

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with Munich, but a later dating.110 Commedia dell’arte gondola jewels are inventoried as being in the possession of Maria Anna’s aunt and future mother-in-law, Wilhelm’s sister Maria, in 1577 and 1589.111 This group of jewels has also been attributed to Milanese workmanship of around 1590, and linked to the Gelosi’s performances at the 1589 Medici wedding.112 In January 1579, Wilhelm’s uncle, Ferdinand of Tyrol, led a small incognito group, including Wilhelm’s younger brother Ferdinand of Bavaria, to Italy, where their carnival celebrations culminated in several greatly appreciated performances in Venice, by the greatest of all early commedia troupes, the Gelosi.113 This journey has been invoked with reference to an automaton commissioned in 1582 by Wilhelm V and his brother as a present for their uncle, from the Strasbourg goldsmith Valentin Drausch, then based at Wilhelm’s country seat, Landshut. Drausch may already have been involved in the commissioning and production of jewels featuring the two central commedia dell’arte characters, Zanni and Magnifico, for Wilhelm V, from two Augsburg goldsmiths during the 1570s.114 Rather than representing a widespread fashion, the gondola jewels are more likely to have originated from the workshop of one court, possibly even drawing on specific performers. However, despite their evident connections to Bavaria, like the Trausnitz frescoes they sufficiently post-date the Munich wedding performance of 1568 to disqualify it as their main compositional inspiration. In addition to the full-length play, and the zanni and Magnifico at the running at the ring of 24 February, the festival books note at least two further appearances of the comic Zanni–master duo during the 1568 celebrations. During a banquet on the wedding day itself, 22 February 1568, a Magnifico and Zanni entered, and had

110

111

112 113

114

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Bernd Roeck, Johannes Erichsen et al, ‘Maximilian und seine Geschwister’, in Um Glauben und Reich. Kurfürst Maximilian I, ed. Hubert Glaser, 2 vols (München: Hirmer, 1980), II/2, 132–147, p.135; Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, ‘Un gioiello di Maria Anna di Baviera’, Antichità Viva, 24–25 (1985–6), p.199. By Hackenbroch, ‘Jewels’, p.204. Maria of Bavaria (1551–1608) married her maternal uncle, Archduke Karl of Styria, in 1571. In 1600, Maria Anna (1574–1616) married their son, Ferdinand II (1578–1637), at the court of Bavaria 1588–95. See also plate 25. Venturelli, ‘Un pendente’. Recorded in Ferdinand of Bavaria’s travel diary of 1579, quoted below (pp.94–5), and published in a modern edition by Peter Diemer, ‘Vergnügungsfahrt mit Hindernissen, Erzherzog Ferdinands Reise nach Venedig, Ferrara und Mantua im Frühjahr 1579’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 66 (1984), 249–314. Lietzmann, ‘Die Geschichte zweier Automaten’, p.393; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.99– 100 n.265. Perhaps also relevant in this context is a previously unnoted Bavarian court payment of 26 florins to Drausch in c.1574 (Munich, BHStA FüSa 418/I, f.30v).

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING

the noble company in fits of laughter for a good while.115 A Jesuit drama on Friday 27 February was followed by a banquet at which the ridiculous behaviour of three commedia dell’arte masks made the whole audience laugh.116 The full-length commedia play, performed towards the very end of the festivities, on Monday 8 March (five days after Ash Wednesday), is not noted by Wirre. Wagner allows it three lines, merely noting in passing that an amusing and diverting comedy was staged, in the Italian language, after which everyone went to bed.117 The final dialogue of Troiano’s account, the second of the third book, includes a detailed description of the preparation, contents, presentation, and reception of this impromptu comedy.118 Troiano and Orlando di Lasso together ‘invented the plot, and between them composed the speeches’, and acted several of its main parts.119 The prologue, given by Troiano in the guise of a Neapolitan peasant, was followed by an unspecified five-voice madrigal composed by Lasso. In the first act Troiano, now as the nobleman Polidoro, takes leave of his mistress Camilla. She is joined by another admirer, the Venetian merchant Pantalone, played by Lasso. Accompanying himself on the lute, he sings ‘How fortunate is he who travels this road without sighing’, in a comic serenade typical of the early commedia dell’arte [plates 24, 48]. Pantalone’s former servant, Zanni, finds him and volunteers to help him win Camilla, but she falls for Zanni instead. The second act, in which Camilla is wooed by both Pantalone, disguised as Zanni, and a Spanish captain, Troiano’s third character, is preceded and followed by musical interludes.120 In the third act, Polidoro returns. There is much interchange with Pantalone, Zanni and the Spaniard, including a comic battle, a favourite commedia dell’arte lazzi. Polidoro rejects Camilla in Zanni’s favour. The comedy, distinguished by an abundance of music, and of the acrobatic horseplay which was a trademark of the commedia dell’arte, concludes with Italian dancing to celebrate Zanni’s wedding.

115

116

117

118 119 120

Troiano, Dialoghi, f.68v: ‘ui nenne [sic: venne] un Magnifico & un Zanne, che per bona pezza intertennero in gran risa li sublimi personaggi’. ‘Alla fine uenne un magnifico alla Venetiana, con due Zanni, che non solo cui l’intendeua smascellare dalle risa faceuano, ma anco quelli che parola non intendeuano, a ueder gli atti e gratia, accompagnate, con le uaghe, e ridicolose parole’ (ibid., f.122v). Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte Beschreibung, f.65r: ‘Welsche Comedj. Nach welchem ain lustige und kurtzweilige Comedj / in Italianischer sprach gehalten worden ist / Und darnach hat sich jederman zu rhue gethon’. Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.148v–152v, quoted at the end of this section (see below, pp.56–8). Ibid., f.148v (see below, p.56). Ibid., f.149v, quoted at the end of this section (p.57). The villota alla Padoana ‘Chi passa per questa strada e non sospira beato sè’, published in Venice in 1557, features in a serenata of 1560 by Alessandro Striggio (Leuchtmann, Die Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568, p.415).

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Troiano’s account offers unprecedented detail for such an early date. He demonstrates conclusively that the necessary masks, costumes, props, scenery and experienced actors were all on hand to satisfy, at a day’s notice, Prince Wilhelm’s whim for an impromptu commedia dell’arte performance at his wedding, and thus that by early 1568, this type of entertainment had an established tradition at the Bavarian court. Yet there is a continuing lack of evidence concerning this tradition, and its origins. This Italian comedy of 1568 was performed outside Italy, and involved an all-male cast of courtiers, rather than one of the mixedgender itinerant troupes of professional actors commonly associated with commedia dell’arte performances. To some, the appearance of commedia masks at a German festival as early as the 1560s seems no more unusual than their presence in the 1580s, by which time they were common all over Europe. They interpret the influence of the Italian comedy, and the Italian stage in general, on early modern German festivals, as being purely literary.121 Despite such reservations, there are quantifiable Italian influences on the appearance of the commedia dell’arte masks at the Munich festival. Here, the focus is on one aspect of this question, through detailed examination of a document recording such influences, the 1565–6 travel diary of Ferdinand of Bavaria. Note 118 Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.146v–152v: ‘ FOR[tunio …] la sera dopo cena si fece una Comedia all’improuiso alla Italiana, in presenza di tutte le serenissime Dame, quantunque le piu che ui erano non intendeuano, cio che di uisaino li recitanti, pure il uero uirtuosissimo Orlando Lasso fece tanto bene e con tanta gratia il Magnifico Venetiano, e similmente il suo Zanne, che con gli atti a tutti fecero smascellare delle risa. MAR [inio] Come è possibile che Orlando habbia fatto il Venetiano se lui è fiamengo? FOR. Taci che ancora il Zanne, fa tanto agratiato, e saputo, che par che sia stato allo studio cinqua[n]ta anni alla ualle di Bergamo. E non solo è prattico della fauella Italiana, ma anco de la Franzese, e della Tedesca tanto quanto de la sua propria. MAR. Siatemi cortese à dirmi il suggetto di quella? FOR. Vn giorno auanti che si rappresentasse uenne in fantasia all’Illustris. Duca Guglielmo di Bauiera, di sentir una comedia il di segue[n]te, & fece chiamare Orlando Lasso, ch’ad ogni cosa lo conoscea atto, & le comandò con gran preghiere, e non potendo uenir meno e benigno signore, trouò per sorte Massimo Troiano, nel la auanti camera della Illustrissima Sposa che staua ragionando delle cose di Spagna co[n] il Signor Lodouico Vuelsero, il quale era stato per Ambasciatore dell’Illustrissimo Alberto quinto Duca di Bauiera alla Maestà di Spagna à conuitarlo per le nozze, e disse tutto quello che era passato con il Signor Duca Guglielmo, e cosi trouato il suggetto, e tra ambidue composero le parole, e la comedia fu questa, in primo usci a fare il prologo un uillano alla cauaiola, tanto goffamennte uestito che parea l’ambasciatore delle risa. MAR. Ditemi quanti personaggi furono? FOR. Dieci, e la

121

56

Paule Guiomar, ‘Les influences italiennes dans les fêtes princières en Allemagne aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles’, in Le théâtre italien et l’Europe (XVIIe – XVIIIe siècles) Actes du 2e Congrès International Paris–Fontainebleau, 14–17 octobre 1982, eds Christian Bec and Irène Mamczarz, (Firenze: Olschki, 1985), 143–57, pp.147, 153, 157.

I.II.B PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: THE MUNICH WEDDING comedia fu di tre atti. MAR. Hauria molto a caro di sapere il nome di tutti i recitanti? FOR. L’eccellente Orlando Lasso, fece il Magnifico sotto il nome di messer Pantalone di bisognosi, messer Giouan Battista Scolari, di Trento, fu il Zanne, Massimo Troiano fece tre personaggi, l’uno fu il prologo uestito da goffo uillano, l’altro l’innamorato sotto il nome di Polidoro, e l’altro lo Spagnuolo disperato chiamato Don Diego de Mendoza, il seruitore di Polidoro fu Don Carlo Liuizzano, il seruitor del Spagnuolo fu Giorgio d’Ori da Trento, la Cortegiana innamorata di Polidoro chiamata Camilla fu il Marchese di Malaspina e la sua serua Ercule terzo, & un seruo franzese; hor per tornare alli atti della comedia, dopo che fu detto il prologo, Orlando Lasso fece cantare uno suo dolcissimo Madrigale a cinque uoci, & in questo mezo, Massimo Troiano che hauea fatto il uillano, si sgombrò delle ueste rustiche, e si uesti tutto di uelluto cremesino, e con larghi passamani d’oro, alto e basso; e con uno capotto di uelluto negro fodrato di bellissimi Zebellini, & usci nella scena col suo seruitore, lodando la fortuna, e gloriandosi che nel regno amoroso uiuea lieto e contento; quando ecco il Franzese seruitor di Fabritio suo fratello inuiato da la uilla, e li presentò una littera piena di malissime noue, la quale Polidoro la lesse ad alta noce; finita la littera con un gran sospiro fece chiamar la sua cara Camilla, e dopo che le hebbe detto la forza, & il bisogno della sua partita, baciandola prese combiato, e si parti. Da l’altra parte de la scena usci Orlando Lasso uestito da Magnifico con uno giubbone di raso cremesino, con calze di scarlato fatte alla Venetiana, & una uesta nera lunga insino a’piedi, e con una maschera che in uederla forzaua le genti a ridere; con un liuto alle mani sonando e cantando , Chi passa per questa strada e non sospira beato sè; e dopò che l’hebbe replicato due uolte; lassò il lauto e cominciò a lamentarsi dell’amore, & a dire, o pouero Pantalon, che per questa strada non puol passare senza mandar sospiri all’aria, e lagrime al suolo de la terra, tutti a chi piu poteua, incominciarono a mostrare i denti delle risa; & infino che Pantalone fu in scena non si facea altro che ridere; e tanto piu Marinio mio, che subito che Pantalone hebbe finito un lungo ragionamento, che fece hor solo sospirando, & hora con la Camilla lamentandosi dell’amore, uscì il Zanne che hanea molti anni che non hauea uisto, il suo Pantalone, e non conoscendolo, caminando spenzaratamente, dette uno grande urtone al pouero Pantalone; & contrastando l’uno contra l’altro, alla fine si conoscerono, & iui per la grande allegrezza, il Zanne pigliò in spalla il suo patrone, e uoltizandolo a guisa di rota di molino, lo portò per tutto il solaro della scena, e lo medesimo fece Pantalone al Zanne; & alla fine ambidue andarouo per terra; e dopoi alzati che furono, fecero un ridicoloso ragionamento in ricordo delle cose antiche, e Zanne adimandò al patrone, come staua la sua patrona moglie di Pantalone, e li diede noua che era gia morta; e subito si misero ad urlar; come a lupi, il Zanne spargea lagrime pensando a maccaroni, e raffioli che per lo adietro gli hauea fatto mangiare; pure lassarono il pianto e ritornarono in allegrezza, messer Pantalone si accordò col Zanne, che fusse andato a portar pollastri alla sua amata Camilla, e Zanne li promette di parlar per lui, e fece tutto il contrario, e cosi el Pantalone si partì da la scena, & il Zanne tutto pauroso andò a casa di Camilla, e lei si innamora di Zanne, e lo fece intrare in casa; (e questo non è di marauiglia, che spesse uolte le donne lassano il buono, & al peggior si appigliano; ) e qui si fece una dolcissima musica, con cinque uiole d’arco, & altre tante uoci, hor pensate se questo fu atto ridicoloso o nò, che per dio ui giuro che a quante comedie io sono stato, risi mai tanto di core quanto in questa. MAR. Certo è da considerar che ella fu di gran passa tempo e sollazzo, passate pure auanti, ch’io mirabilmente la gusto. FOR. Nel secondo usci Pantalone marauigliandosi che Zanne hauea tardato tanto, a darle la risposta, & in questo comparse il Zanne, con una littera di Camilla, la qual dicea, che se uole ua il frutto dell’amor suo, che si strauestisse di quella manera che Zanne li dicea; e con questa allegrezza si partirono, & andarono a mutarsi di drappi. e qui uscì lo Spagnuolo col cor sommerso nel pelago della rabia detta gelosia; & iui narra al suo seruitore quante grandezze e prodezze hauea fatto, e quanti a cento a cento con le sue mani hauea inuiati alla barca di Caronte; & hora una uil donna l’hauea priuato del suo ualoroso core, & al fin forzato dall’amore andò a trouare la sua cara Camilla, e la prega che lo uoglia fare intrare in

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA casa; la Camilla co[n] losingheuole parole li caua dalle mani una collana d’oro, e li promette di dormir con lui la notte seguente, e con questa speranza si partì tutto contento, & uscì il Pantalone uestito con li drappi di Zanne, e Zanne con quelli del Pantalon, e si intertennero cosi un gran pezzo con imparare al magnifico Zanne come douea dire, per potere intrare in casa di Camilla, alla fine tutti due intrarono, e qui si fece una musica di quattro uoci con due liuti, un clauicimbalo, un pifaro, & un basso de uiola d’arco. Nel terzo & ultimo atto, torna da la uilla il Polidoro, che manteneua la Camilla, e uà in casa, e troua il Pantalon uestito, con habiti grossi, & adimandò a Camilla chi era quello, egli rispose ch’era un facchino, dal quale uoleua far portare un forciero di robba che tenea di sore Doralice, di santo Cataldo; Polidoro lo crede e dice al facchino che la douesse pottar subito, che l’haria ben pagato; il pouero Pantalone che per esser uecchio e non uso al mestiero, contrastò un pezzo, & alla fine disse che non lo uoleua portare, e che era gentilhuomo tanto quanto il Polidoro; e Polidoro sdegnato di questo pigliò un bastone, e tante ne gli diede (al suon delle grassose risa, che faceano gli ascoltanti), ch’io credo, che lui piu di me se ne deue ricordare; fuggendo il male arriuato Pantalone, Polidoro torna, & entra in casa in colera con la Camilla, e Zanne che hauea udito le bastonate trouò a forte un sacco e ui si pose dentro, e la serua di Camilla lo ligò ben forte, & in mezo della scena lo pose, come se fusse morto, & in questo uenne lo Spagnuolo che era giu[n]ta l’hora che l’haue detto la Camila, & andò a batter la porta, e la serua li rispose, e le disse, che Polidoro era ritornato dalla uilla, lo Spagnuolo adirato de la noua, si parte dalla porta di Camilla, e con uno focosissimo sospiro alzò gli occhi al cielo e disse; ahi amargo de mi, & intoppa nel sacco doue staua dentro il misero Zanne, e lui & il suo seruitore cascarono in terra uno sopra l’altro, & alzatosi co[n] grandissima ira, dislegò il sacco, e cacciò fuora il Zanne, e con un bastone le conciò molto ben le ossa fuggendo il Zanne, lo Spagnuolo, & il suo seruitore di dietro dandole si partirono de la scena, & uscì Polidoro, col suo seruitore, e la Camilla con la sua serua, discendole che si risoluesse di maritarsi, che lui per alcuni degni rispetti non la uolea piu tenere; e dopo di hauerlo negato piu uolte. si risolse di fare tutto quello che Polidoro li comandaua; e cosi fu d’accordo di torre il Zanne per suo ligitimo Sposo, tra questo ragionare, usci Pantalone tutto armato d’arme bianche, senza fibiarle, & il Zanne con due arcobugi in spalla, & otto pugnali nella centura, & una targa & una spada in mano, e con uno elmo tutto ruginoso in testa; li quali andauano cercando, quello che le hauea dato le bastonate; e dopo che hebbero fatto molti colpi, con liquali si dauano a credere, che con quelli ammazzariano i loro inimici, in questo la Camilla diede animo à Polidoro ch’andasse a parlare con Pantalone, del che accortosi il uecchio, lo mostrò a Zanne, & il Zanne tutto impaurito tremando fece atto al patrone che debba essere il primo, a dare l’assalto, & il Pantalone dicea il medesimo a Zanne, e Polidoro accortosi della tema, che l’uno e l’altro tenea, lo chiamò per nome, e disse, o signor Pantalone, & esso rispose, a ser Spagnuolo, hora mi chiami signore ah? e posero mano alle spade, & il Zanne non sapea a qual’arme porre mano, e con questo fecero una ridicolosa scaramuzza, la quale durò un pezzo alla fine Camilla tenne il Pantalone, e la serua il Zanne, e cosi fecero pace, fu data la Camilla per moglie al Zanne, e per honore di queste nozze, fecero un ballo alla Italiana, e Massimo da parte di Orlando fece la scusa che se la ditta comedia non fu quale in uero quelli serenissimi Prencipi meritauano, che gli hauesse per scusati, che la fretta l’hauea causato, e con ogni debita riuerenza, diede la bona notte. MAR. Certo in udire il suggetto di questa diletteuole opera, non posso se non giudicare, ch’ella fu molto ridicolosa, e di grandissima sodisfattione.’122

122

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See also first edition of Troiano’s account (1568, pp.183–8, in Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, pp.79–83) and English translations (Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, pp.7–11; Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, pp.48–52).

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

I.ii.c

Ferdinand’s journey of 1565–6

On 20 November 1565, over two years before Wilhelm’s wedding, his younger brother Ferdinand led a party from Munich to Florence.123 Travelling by horse, sledge, boat and carriage, they re-entered Munich on the afternoon of 2 February 1566.124 Ferdinand arrived in Florence in December 1565 to represent his parents, Albrecht and Anna of Bavaria, at the wedding of Anna’s sister, Johanna of Austria, to Duke Francesco de’ Medici, and also visited two further sisters of Anna and Johanna. They were Eleanor, who had married Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in 1561, and Barbara, who married the widowed ruling duke, Alfonso II d’Este, in Ferrara on 5 December 1565. The marriage contracts of Barbara and Johanna were finalized in 1564, the year Maximilian II succeeded his father Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor. Johanna and Barbara received identical dowries, half contributed by their brother Emperor Maximilian II, and the remainder equally by their brothers Archdukes Karl of Styria and Ferdinand of Tyrol.125 Originally a double wedding was planned, in Trent. The precedence issue between the houses of Medici and Este (resolved in 1569) threatened the proceedings to such an extent that the Emperor decreed that the two weddings should take place separately, in the home states of the two grooms.126 The brides left Innsbruck in November 1565, and travelled together as far as Mantua. Johanna, whose marriage was one of more than usually cynical political expediency, made her formal entry into Florence on 16 December 1565. Her only role was to produce heirs to reinforce Medici dynastic claims and ambitions; Bianca Cappello, the mistress Francesco was to marry in 1579, a year after the death of

123

124 125

126

The party included dukes Leostain and Zollern, the latter almost certainly Karl II von Hohenzollern, who was to organize a commmedia dell’arte-inspired masquerade at the 1598 ‘Hechingen’ wedding of his nephew, see below, pp.96ff. On Ferdinand (1550–1608), see Max Lossen, ‘Die Ehe des Herzogs Ferdinand von Bayern mit Maria Pettenpeck’, Jahrbuch für Münchener Geschichte, 1 (1887), 328–56. Diary, f.120v; plates 25–6. Heinrich Modern, ‘Das Schreibzeug einer Erzherzogin aus der Renaissancezeit’, Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, 1 (1898), 177–181, p.179; Karl Vocelka, Habsburgische Hochzeiten 1550–1600. Kulturgeschichtliche Studien zum manieristischen repräsentationsfest (Wien: Böhlau, 1976), p.126. Cecily Booth, Cosimo I Duke of Florence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp.231–3, 216; Vocelka, Habsburgische Hochzeiten, p.13. Several lengthy passages in Ferdinand’s travel diary note the persistent attempts of a Ferrarese courtier to persuade the prestigious foreign party to stop off in Ferrara on their way to Florence, and attend the wedding festivities of the d’Este rather than those of the Medici (Diary, ff.43r–v, 48r–49r, 70r–v).

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his thirty-year-old wife, was well established in Florence by 1565.127 The politically motivated union of 1565 was marked by extravagant festivities, which cost the groom’s father, Duke Cosimo, in the region of 60,000 ducats, and have been recognized as a turning point in Italian festivals.128 Thorough historical researches enabled their organizer Vincenzo Borghini to devise a series of events which became the accepted model for such festivities. Their published accounts stabilized both the form in which they were celebrated and the form in which they were recorded, in festival books that became ‘not so much a report of the festival but simply another aspect of it’.129 An exchange of correspondence between Albrecht and his brother-in-law, Maximilian II, illuminates Albrecht’s decision to let his fifteen-year-old second son Ferdinand, rather than his heir Wilhelm, represent him at this important event, as well as his choice of accompanying courtiers.130 In a letter dated as late as 1 November 1565, Maximilian, perhaps not unmotivated by the fact that he was hosting no less than three separate cavalcades of Florentines who had journeyed to Vienna in October to greet Johanna, indicated a desire to accommodate the wish of the groom’s father, Duke Cosimo, that Albrecht’s two eldest sons should attend the Medici wedding.131 Albrecht’s reply of 19 November 1565, a day before Ferdinand’s party left for Florence, notes in characteristically blunt Bavarian manner the impossibility of providing a fitting retinue for his heir at such short notice. He had already contributed a large contingent of noblemen to the bridal retinue, and was surprised that his sons had not been invited to join the imperial party. Maximilian’s reply of 27 November 1565 expresses warm approval of Albrecht’s decision to send Ferdinand.132 Any misgivings concerning the expense of the enterprise which may have influenced Albrecht’s decision not to send his heir were well founded. The Bavarian court accounts record the cost of this journey at 6509 florins.133

127

128 129 130 131

132 133

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Leo Schrade, ‘Les fêtes du mariage de Francesco dei Medici et de Bianca Cappello’, Les fêtes de la renaissance, ed. Jean Jacquot, 3 vols (Paris: CNRS, 1956–75), I, 107–31; Fabrizio Winspeare, Isabella Orsini e la corte medicea del suo tempo (Firenze: Olschki, 1961), p.69. Vocelka, Habsburgische Hochzeiten, pp.12–14. Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘Festival books’, p.197. Freyberg, Schriften, IV, pp.146–50. Il carteggio di Giorgio Vasari, eds Karl Frey and Herman-Walther Frey, 2 vols (München, 1923 & 1930), II, p.210. Freyberg, Schriften, IV, pp.147–8. Munich, BHStA HZR 11(1566), f.146v.

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

The diary and associated papers relating to this journey provide sources for several key events associated with Italian renaissance festivals. These include Johanna’s royal entry into Florence, two performances of La Cofanaria and its intermedi (including the famous one recorded in several Italian festival books, for which it provides a further source), a Ferrarese running at the quintain, and a Mantuan comedy with intermedi in honour of Eleanor, Barbara and Johanna, the three Habsburg sisters of Ferdinand’s mother who married Italian dukes.134 These accounts bear witness to the effective way in which the Florentines emphasized the power, wealth and cultural superiority of their ruling dynasty to visitors through the sumptuous festivities associated with the Medici wedding festival of 1565, whose intermedi were the most spectacular theatrical event witnessed by the Bavarians. It has been suggested that Ferdinand was motivated to write his diaries not by a spontaneous desire to record his experiences, but by the wish of his father, Duke Albrecht, to discipline a worldly and unruly second son through compulsory written exercises.135 The mature style of the diary, exhibited in, for example, the confident musical taste and dry humour of certain passages, rules out the possibility that it is the unaided work of the fifteen-year-old Ferdinand. Unlike the diary of his 1579 journey to Venice, it is written in the third person, and although the Prince may have played some part in its composition, it surely reflects considerable input from a trusted and cultured courtier close to Duke Albrecht. The evidence points to Hanns Jacob Fugger (1516–1575), chief counsellor of the exchequer to Albrecht, who appointed him to the senior role of Ferdinand’s steward on this journey, and whose son had the office of Ferdinand’s cupbearer. Fugger’s entourage included a scribe, and it was a scribe in the employment of the Fuggers who received payment for writing out the diary.136 Furthermore, Fugger seems to have been the only Bavarian courtier present at some of the events described. As befits a document recording the experiences of a son of Duke Albrecht, whose court orchestra, under the leadership of Orlando di Lasso, became the 134

135 136

On Johanna’s entry and the Florentine intermedi, see M A Katritzky, ‘The Florentine Entrata of Joanna of Austria, and other entrate described in a German diary’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 59 (1996), 148–73; eadem, ‘A German description of the Florentine intermedi of 1565’, Italian Studies, 52 (1997), 63–93. The description of the Mantuan intermedi is quoted below (p.70). Diemer, ‘Vergnügungsfahrt’, pp.262–3. Munich, BHStAGHA, KA 924, f.6r; BHStA HZR 11(1566), f. 294r. Troiano, who turned to Fugger for financial support in publishing his festival account, describes him as the ‘core & anima, dell’Illustrissimo Duca Alberto’ (Dialoghi, f.22v; BHStAGHA KA 608/XIII, ff.1–2: letter from Venice, 6.11.1568 from Troiano to Fugger).

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most renowned in Europe at that time, a substantial and informed focus of interest is on events in which music played a major part. The diary’s accounts of courtly and popular diversions offer a vivid picture of the role played by music and spectacle in northern Italian court and urban life at the time of Ferdinand’s visit, and substantiate the evidence of contemporary iconographic records indicating that commedia-related costumes were a popular feature of both private and public Italian carnival celebrations.137 It describes a performance of the commedia dell’arte type which predates the Munich wedding performance of 1568 by over two years, and gives a comprehensive overview of north Italian princely and popular diversions experienced by members of the Bavarian court in the crucial period immediately preceding 1568. These afford valuable insights into the influence of specific Italian entertainments, at public carnival celebrations, court festivals and elsewhere, on the commedia-related entertainments of the Munich wedding. They prove the Bavarian court’s familiarity with the performances of entertainers related to the commedia dell’arte. During this journey they witnessed acrobats and the two characters at the heart of the Italian comedy, Zanni and Magnifico, in the same three contexts in which they were to feature at Prince Wilhelm’s wedding: a complete performance, the otherwise unaccompanied comic servant–master duo, and separate masquerade costumes. The diary’s references to acrobats are especially relevant to the early commedia dell’arte. Acrobatic skills feature strongly in some of the earliest troupes of professional touring entertainers. A combination of dancing, musical, acrobatic and acting skills is routinely reflected in the iconographic record. The terms ‘Geyger (fiddler)’, ‘Springer (acrobat)’ and ‘Instrumentist (musician)’ often indicated multi-talented performers with a range of skills. Small professional troupes, variously described as ‘comedianten’, ‘spilleuten’ and ‘certen strange players’, continued to tour north of the Alps throughout the 1560s and ’70s, offering a wide range of entertainments for which insufficient documentation is available to establish conclusively whether they involved the participation of stock commedia dell’arte characters.138 The stage names of some of the salaried acrobats at Wilhelm’s Landshut court are suggestive of the commedia dell’arte, a link confirmed by the chance survival of his handwritten command of 29 September 1573 to his steward Christoff von Rainsdorff. In this, he sends for his servant Alexander Visconnten, two of his court ‘springer’, elsewhere identified as Caspar Venturino and ‘Zani

137 138

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See, for example, plates 16, 27–36. Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, pp.211, 222; Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.357.

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

springer’, his leopard keeper Bärtl and leopard, and Baptista the goldsmith (the Zanni of the wedding performance of 1568).139 The note instructs Rainsdorff to ensure that they bring: ‘not only their things, but also the zanni costumes, masks, their wind instruments, fiddles, and suchlike, that they require for their acrobatics and other activities’.140 The suggestion is that these salaried Landshut court acrobats routinely staged masked commedia dell’arte type performances. The following year, Lasso was sent to Italy to find and engage new players, both male and female. His travelling companions included Venturino, who entertained them with numerous diversions, including nightly self-composed oneman playlets starring the central commedia trio, ‘il magnifico, Zannj, Franceschina’, and thus demonstrating his ability to play women’s parts.141 Ferdinand’s diary records acrobats in Trent, Bologna and Florence, each time before a private audience. On 29 November, while Ferdinand and his retinue were resting in Trent, several acrobats requested permission to demonstrate their skills. The diarist’s description suggests that these acrobats, evidently a mixed-gender professional troupe, may have been buffoni whose repertoire included improvised plays: Umb 4 Uhr zue Triendt ein khommen. Alda M. gnr. herr mit denen vom Adl Jm Neuen Schloß Jnn die Obern schönen Zimmer glosiert worden. […] Nach dem Nachtmal haben sich etlich Springer lassen anzaigen, die wir auff den andern tag b[e]schiden. Sie aber begert denselben Abendt nur ain muster jrer kunst zue sehen. Welches M. gn.er herr bewilligt. Darauff sich Jre 4 Nemblich drej Jung Manspersonen und ain diernlin von 11

139

140

141

At 4 o’clock arrived at Triendt, where my gracious master and the nobility were accommodated in the beautiful upper rooms of the new castle […] After the evening meal, several acrobats let themselves be announced whom we wished to put off until the next day. But they requested to show at least a sample of their skills that same evening, which my noble Lord granted. Whereupon four of them, that is to say three

A list of sacked Bavarian courtiers of 20 February 1575 records four acrobats: ‘Spring. [Gasparino] Venturin, Johan Mario [of Rome], Alexand. [Barbeta], Silvester [of Treviso]’ (Munich, BHStA FüSa 364/II, f.160v). It seems that both Venturino’s Florentine wife, and Johan Mario’s Flemish wife also had performing skills. In November 1573, an otherwise unidentified Bavarian court ‘Springer’ was murdered. Munich, BHStA FüSa 772n, f.1r: ‘[nit allain Ire sachen sondern auch die /deleted] Zanj Claider, schönpärt, Jre [pfeiffen / deleted] Geigen und annders, so sy zum sprinngen unnd sonnst zu Jrem thuen gebrauchen’. Letter to Wilhelm of 16 February 1574 sent from ‘two miles before prichs [Brixen/ Bressanone]’ by Lasso, whose group was away from Munich 12 February to 4 May 1564 (Sandberger, Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle, pp.253–4; Leuchtmann, Orlando di Lasso, II (Briefe), p.70). These performances are reminiscent of the one-man play described by Aretino in 1584 noted above (p.36).

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA Jnn 12 Jarn sehen lassen, dermassen das Ich nit glaub dergleichen Je gesehen worden. Dieweil sie aber furgeben, sie wölln auff Wien zueziehen, zue der Kay. Mt. so acht Jch sie werden auff den Reichstag auch khommen. Allda sie sich auch werden sehen lassen, derwegen Jch dester minder daruon melden thue. […] Nach dem morgenmal, haben die vorgemelten springer wider Jr kunst erzaigt, und sich bej ainer stund sehen lassen.142

young men and a little girl of eleven or twelve years, performed such that I do not believe that anything like it has ever been seen. But because they gave us to understand that they wished to travel to Vienna, to his Majesty the Emperor, so I assume that they will also come to the ‘Reichstag’. Because they will perform there as well, I report less of them here. […] After breakfast, the aforementioned acrobats again showed their skills, and performed for an hour.

On 11 December, after a morning banquet in a private house in Bologna, the host, Camillo Fantuzzi ‘let several be called who vaulted with great agility on the horse, and danced’. Acrobats also followed a commedia-related play and banquet in the house of Paulo Giordano Orsini, on 30 December: ‘after the evening meal the aforesaid S. Paul let his acrobat, who is very good, be seen, who performed fine acrobatics. After which the dancing started’.143 The diarist also reveals previous familiarity with the repertoire of ‘gaugkler’, or acrobatic street performers, perhaps gained from visits to Bavaria of touring Italian troupes, in his description of the matachin, or armed acrobatic moresco dance, with which, according to Grazzini’s account,144 exotically costumed furies ended the fourth intermedio of La Cofanaria: 145 Zum 3ten Act sein etlich Kriegsleuth mit ainem fenderich auch under dem Erdtrich herauff khommen, dann die scena ist ettwas erhocht gwest, unnd die fallen darnach gmacht, das sie sich fein auff, unnd glatt wider zue gethan. Dise Kriegsleuth haben erstens auch ain Music gehalten /f.90v / mit singen, Pusaunen, Zinkh, unnd grossen

142

143

144

145

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For the third act, several soldiers with a standard bearer also ascended from below the earth’s surface, as this scena was somewhat raised, and the traps constructed in such a way that they opened easily and closed smoothly again afterwards. These soldiers firstly also made music with singing, trombones, cornetti, and large flutes.

Diary, ff.42v–43r. On this troupe, see also Otto G Schindler, ‘Zan Tabarino, “Spielmann des Kaisers”. Italienische Komödianten des cinquecento zwischen den Höfen von Wien und Paris’, Römische Historische Mitteilungen, 43 (2001), 411–544, p.422. Diary, ff.69r: ‘hat […] lassen etlich khommen, die gar hurtig auffs Roßs gesprungen, und gedantzt haben’, 94r: ‘Nach dem Nachtmal hat gedachter S. Paul sein springer der seer guet ist, lassen sehen, der hat schone spring than. Nach welchem man hat anfahen zue tantzen’. Antonfrancesco Grazzini (= Il Lasca), ‘Descrizione degl’Intermedii’ (seperately paginated appendix to playtext), in La Cofanaria, comedia di Francesco d’Ambra con gl’Intermedij di Giouan Batista Cini (Firenze, 1566), p.11: ‘vna nuoua, e strauagante Moresca’. Diary, ff.90r–v. Paulo Giordano Orsini, husband of Francesco de’ Medici’s (1541–87) sister Isabella (1542–76), is named in full on f.83v (see also plate 25).

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY fleütten. Nachmaln sein Ire 4 mit plossen wehrn zuesamen tretten, und ain gefecht gmacht, wie die gaugkler pflegen zuethuen, das sie hin und wider gesprungen, und hinden und vornen ain ander an die wehrn gschlag. Inn welchem Ir ainer ain Trumbl geriert, Unnd Lerm an geschlagen, seind sie zue baiden seitten wider darvon geloffen. Und sich hinweckh gethan.

Following this, four of them came together with drawn weapons, and fenced in the manner of street performers, that is, they sprang to and fro, and clashed weapons with each other in front and behind. After which one of them took a drum, striking it noisily, and they ran away again to both sides and left the stage.

It is not clear whether the Trent mixed gender troupe also presented improvised plays or whether Orsini’s acrobat had also taken part in the commedia dell’arte performance. But these accounts do indicate that some acrobats were single performers attached to a particular nobleman, while others travelled in large independent troupes with ambitious itineraries and repertoires, and relied, at least for part of their income, on the patronage of visiting dignitaries such as Ferdinand and his party. Zanni and Magnifico, who joined forces to become the central masked servant–master pair of the commedia dell’arte, are noted in Florence, Verona and Ferrara. Magnifici feature without zanni in a Florentine mascara. On the evening of 26 December 1565, after the Medici and their private guests had enjoyed the performance and intermedi of La Cofanaria and a late supper:146 alls dann ist man erst wider zum Tantz darein khommen, so vast auff der Teutschen Uhr umb ains nach mittnacht gwest. Alda sein erstlich der Allt hertzog mit 3 oder 4 seiner Camerer Inn ainer Costlichen Mascara vonn guld[en] stuckh unnd samet khommen. Und nach Im der Printz, unnser gner herr, und dess Printzen Camerer ainer, Inn Weibs klaidern auff Venedigisch angethan. Unnd jede ain mag[nifi] co Venediger mit Ir gehabt, Inn seinem langen klaidt vonn samet. Nachmaln ist Don Luis auch selb 8 od[er] 10, inn ainer sondern Mascara vonn seiden und samat khommen, aber kainer wie der ander angethan gwest. Inn dem hat sich der allt hertzog außgedreet. Unnd ainem seiner Camerer, so darzue bestellt gwest, sein klaidt angelegt. Und hat er sich mit anndern 4 Cämerling[e] Inn

146

they only came in again to dance at almost one past midnight German time. They were, firstly, the old Duke [Cosimo] with three or four of his valets in a precious Mascara of gold cloth and velvet, and after them the Prince [Ferdinand], our gracious master, and one of the Prince’s valets, dressed in women’s clothes of the Venetian fashion, and each had a Venetian Magnifico with them, in their long cloaks of velvet. After this came Don Luis with eight or ten, in a special mascara of silk and velvet, but not one dressed like the other. Meanwhile the old Duke had disrobed, and one of his valets, there for that purpose, helped him into his clothes, and with another four valets, he came to the dance disguised in taffeta clothes, such that he was not recognized.

Diary, f.92r.

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA daffetin klaidern verklaidt. Und zum Tantz khommen, das man In nit khendt hat. Unnd sein allso die Mascara alle, ohne die Venedische Weiber, so sich zeitlich wider außgethan, bis zue endt deß Tantz pliben, welcher erst zue Morgens auff der Teutsch[en] Uhr nach 7 ain endt gnommen.

And thus all the Mascara, except for the Venetian women who had soon re-dressed, stayed to the end of the dance, which ended only after seven in the morning German time.

The possibility that Italian masquerade costumes seen by Ferdinand in 1565–66 influenced those of his brother’s wedding is one explanation for the comparable use of the Magnifico costume during the 1568 Munich wedding festivities. A dated print of 1588 may illustrate a later use of commedia-related costumes in a Munich court masquerade [plate 30].147 The entry for 4 December 1565 describes a Magnifico and Zanni performing as an unaccompanied stage duo at the White Horse Inn, Verona, where Ferdinand and his party lodged as common paying guests: So sein auch allerlay Musicj khommen, gleichwol nix sonders furtreffenlichs, allain ist under andern auff 4 diß zu Abents ain Venediger mit sein Knecht /f.50r/ Zane khommen, dabej der Zima und all and schlaffen gen. Dan wer sie gehort, vermaint, man khindts nit Pesser noch werckhlich[er] gedenkh[en]. 148

All sorts of musicians came here, albeit nothing especially good, except that among others at 4 on this evening a Venetian came with his servant Zanni, by which time Zima and the others had gone to bed, but those who heard them thought they could not have imagined it better or more realistic.

Evidently professionals, the diarist’s emphasis suggests that the main appeal of this pair was not physical but verbal, and thus that their presentation was not just acrobatic but some form of rudimentary play. No doubt surprised by the lack of recognition accorded to his status in Verona, then under Venetian jurisdiction, on his journey to Florence, the Prince and his party avoided the city on the way

147

148

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On this print and related images, see Georg Poensgen, ‘Ein nächtliches Zechgelage des Jodocus a Winghe’, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 59 (1925/26), 324–30; K G Boon, ed, Le siècle de Bruegel, la peinture en Belgique au XVIe siècle (Bruxelles: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, 1963), p.168, cat.240; Konrad Renger, ‘Joos van Winghes “Nachtbancket met een Mascarade” und verwandte Darstellungen’, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 14 (1972), 161–93; Martha Wolff in John Oliver Hand et al, The age of Bruegel: Netherlandish drawings in the sixteenth century (Washington: NGA & Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp.308–10. Diary, ff.49v–50r.

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

back, even though the local officials had, for the purpose of welcoming him, already made major preparations for a comedy in his honour.149 In Ferrara, Ferdinand was the guest of Alfonso II and his new wife Barbara, at the Castello Estense. On several occasions, Alfonso arranged for Ferdinand and members of his party to go into Ferrara to join the zanni street revels. On the evening of his arrival, 12 January 1566, Alfonso asked Ferdinand: ob er wöll spiln, Tantzen, oder sonst was anfachen, Vnnd alls Jr gn. geantwurt sie khinde nit wol spiln, so khindt sie das dantzen auch nit wol, sie wöll aber gern zuesechen, welches Jr gn. gfellig sey anzurichten […] damit aber unnser gner. herr sech was alhie der brauch wer, so hett er Inn der Statt außgeschickht und erfarn, das man an ain Ortt ain fesst hielt, und dantzet. Allso het er klaider verordnet, wie hie gebruechig wer und die Zane giengen. Wollt er und der Don Alfonso mit Ir g. geen. Und sie mocht auch ain od. zwen darzue nemen. Wolten sie sich Inn ainer Camer anthuen. Und auff ain Gotschj an dasselb Ort farn, und sehen wie man dantzet, und was fur Maskaren hinein khomen. Allso hat unnser gner. herr den Hofmaister und sein Son den Schenckhen mit gnomen. Und haben sie fünff Sacktrager klaider anglegt. Und schonpart furgethan, und hindten durch ain gehaime Thür hinauß gangen und zum fesst gefarn. Allda bis Inn zwo stundt zue gesehen wie allerlay Momereyen von Weib und Man hinein khomen, unnd gedantzt haben. Unnd ist wol zue sehen gewest 3 klaine und 2 grosse Sacktrager Inn Schiffer hosen und leinratge Päckl, sampt Mäntln von grobem tuech und kemetfeger huetlen daruber mit ainander daher ziehen. Alls sie nun wider anhaimbs khommen, so vast umb 9 Uhr Inn die nacht gewest. 150

149

150

if he wished to play, dance or engage in any such activity, and when his grace replied that he could not play well, neither could he dance well, but he would be glad to look on at whatever the Dukes might be kind enough to arrange for him … and so that our gracious master could see what the custom was in these parts, he arranged for enquiries to be made in the city, and ascertained that there would be a festival at a particular place, and dancing, so he called for costumes, such as were the custom here, and as worn by the zanni. He and Don Alfonso wanted to accompany his grace, and they could take one or two more with them, they should dress themselves in a room, and drive to that same place in a carriage, and see how they dance, and what sort of masked people go there, so his grace took the Steward, and his son the cup-bearer, and they put on five dockers’ costumes, and donned face masks, and left at the back through a secret exit, and rode to the festival, where they watched for two hours as all manner of mummers, both women and men, came there and danced and thus three short and two tall porters in sailors’ trousers and linen sacks, with coats of coarse material, and chimneysweeps’ caps on top could be seen making their way there together. And when they returned home, it was almost 9 at night.

‘ain grosse Preparation gemacht Ir g. stattlich entgegen zue ziehen, dieselb auch zu vereren, und Ir ain Comedj zuehalten’ (Diary, f.111v). Diary, ff.105r–v.

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The ‘Mascara da zanni’ was evidently a success. Despite rain and snow and other attractions (including a showy quintana with a tournament and sword dancing), the Bavarians returned for at least four further visits, each time masked and disguised in zanni costumes provided by Alfonso. On 13 January: Auf dem Abent umb 4 Uhre, ist der herzog mit unserm gn. Herrn, unnd merthail desselben Junckherrn sampt dem Don Alfonso Inn der Mascaren da Zane wider außgefarn. Inn der Statt herumbzusehen was für faßnacht Butzen Inn der Statt umbher ziehen, und alls sie wider haimb khommen, so gar baldt geschehen, dann es den gantzen tag ungewitter gwest, geregnet und geschnien, haben sie sich außgethan […] Den 14ten Januarii […] auff den Abent haben sie sich wieder vermumbt, und Inn der Statt umbgeritten wie gebrüechig bis zum Nachtmal. […] Den 15ten […] Auff den Abent ist der Herzog selb zue unnserm gn. Herrn khommen, […] Nachmaln sein sie Inn der Statt bej ainer halben stundt umb und alßbaldt wider haimb geritten […] Den 16ten Januarij […] mit dem Hertzogen Inn der Mascara auff ain fesst geritten. Alda sehen Tantzen. Von welchem sie wider anhaimbs zogen. 151

In the evening at 4 o’clock the Duke, with our gracious master and several of his young noblemen, together with Don Alfonso, again drove out to the Mascaren da Zane, in order to look around the town and see what sort of carnival masks were parading around the town, and when they came home again, which happened quickly enough, as the weather was bad all day, raining and snowing, they changed back into their clothes. [14th]: In the evening, they again disguised themselves and rode around the town as was the custom, until supper. [15th]: In the evening the Duke himself went to our gracious master … then they went into the town for half an hour, and soon rode back’. [16th]: [Ferdinand] rode with the Duke to a festival at the Mascara, where they saw dancing, after which they went home again.

It has been suggested that these zanni, known to scholars through a letter of 1566 to the Medici from their Ferrarese correspondent, Bernardo Canigiani, are part of a professional troupe engaged by the Ferrarese court.152 My examination of Canigiani’s correspondence appears to confirm the impression given by Ferdinand’s diary, that they were not professionals, but locals and members of the court in zanni costume who took to the streets to join in with traditional carnival festivities. Canigiani’s letters establish the Ferrarese carnival as a period 151

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Diary, ff.106r–107v. Numerous pictures may illustrate comparable late sixteenth century zanni street revels [e.g. plates 27, 31–2]. Archivio di Stato Florence, ASF MdP 2889, f.169r (dated 18.1.1565 = 1566: Sabato ci arrivo il Principe di Bauiera per il ritorno di cortj, a mezo giorno et ci s’è trattenuto à forza di Zannj et di pallate di neue pur di mano di facchinj et nó di getildonne […] Duc hav sono arrivò la di v. e. t. d. 15 et subito trouaj il S.or Dó Franco stracco ancora comé mè della uegli di hiersera, pur era già in Zanatosi, il quale con ua Hylarita grandissa). See also Solerti and Lanza, ‘Il teatro ferrarese’, pp.155–6.

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

of licensed revelry and masquerade which lasted from St Stephen’s Day (26 December) to Shrove Tuesday, during which typical disguise in all strata of society was the wearing of heavy cloaks, or the costume of porters or zanni.153 Although nothing comparable is recorded at the Munich wedding of 1568, by the 1580s Duke Wilhelm was making repeated strenuous efforts to restrict the more exuberant excesses of this practice in decrees. Several dated January and February 1583 offer detailed insights into late renaissance carnival practice, and the extent to which Munich carnival customs had become Italianized.154 Of particular relevance to the commedia dell’arte are Wilhelm’s observations concerning the excesses of the zanni, and his consequent restrictions of zanni clothing to the nobility, the ban on cross-dressing and ecclesiastical costume, and the restrictions on the wearing of masks in private houses. Late renaissance carnival iconography has many examples of mummers bearing torches or lanterns, as outlined in these decrees, and also of mummers behaving in the sort of uproarious and socially unacceptable ways they tried to limit.155 Like Alfonso d’Este, Guglielmo Gonzaga was an early and enthusiastic supporter of professional commedia dell’arte troupes. A letter of 1568 notes his patronage of the companies of Pantalone, probably Giulio Pasquati of Padua, and Zan Ganassa, the famous troupe leader Giovanni Alberto Naselli.156 Ferdinand had to be content with music and dancing during his visit to Mantua, unlike Johanna and Barbara, whose stay at the Gonzaga court from 26 to 29 November 1565 had additionally been enlivened with a hunt and a comedy.157 This was embellished with intermedi which honour Eleanor, Barbara and Johanna, the three Habsburg sisters who married the Dukes of Mantua, Ferrara

153

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155

156 157

Florence, ASF MdP 2889, f.169r–v. The exact starting date for pre-Lenten carnival celebrations varies regionally from as early as December, until after 6 January, the festival of the Three Kings, although the main day of celebration is typically Shrove Tuesday and the end-date always Ash Wednesday. The length of Lent is fixed at forty days, so depending on when Easter falls, between its earliest and latest possible dates of 23 March and 24 April, Ash Wednesday falls between 3 February and 10 March, and the carnival period is correspondingly shorter or longer. Munich, BHStA FüSa 772n, ff.8–9. Updated 1584, 1586 and 1588, when a further attempt was made to ban such carnival practice altogether in Munich (FüSa 772m; FüSa 772n). See, for example, plates 32–6. Only rarely, as in plate 36, are mummers depicted in church costume. D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.455 Diary, ff.56v–57r. Johanna’s reception at Mantua, some two weeks before the visit of Ferdinand, is described on a fold which appears not to have been part of Ferdinand’s original diary (ff.59–62).

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and Florence, in a way which (unlike the complicated symbolism of the Florentine intermedi) could be easily understood even by foreigners: ain schone Comedi gehalten. Zwischen dern Acten erstlich der fluss Mintz genandt so durch Mantua laufft, sampt dem fluss Pa so zue ferrar fur rent unnd der fluss Arno so durch florentz rent, nach ainander herfür khommen und ain jeder schone Reimen von seiner hertzogin gsungen. Nachmaln ist der Gott Jupiter vom Himel und der Gott Pluto vom der hellen, und der Gott Nepthunnus vom Mör khommen. Und haben den 3 schwestern Ire Reich presentiert. Zum 3[ten] sein 4 Moren und 4 Morinen herfur khommen, so auff Ir art gedantzt und gesprungen. Und hat die Comedj bis inn die dritt stundt nach mitnacht gwerth. Nach welcher jederman schlaff[en] gangen. 158

a lovely comedy was performed. Between the acts firstly the river called Mincio, which flows through Mantua, together with the River Po, which flows past Ferrara, and the River Arno, which flows through Florence came forward one after the other, and each sang lovely verses about his duchess. After this the God Jupiter came from heaven, and the God Pluto from hell, and the God Neptune from the sea, and presented the three sisters with their kingdoms. Thirdly, 4 moors and 4 mooresses came forward and danced and tumbled in their manner [i.e. performed a moresco]. And the comedy lasted until the third hour after midnight. After this everyone went to bed.

Leone de’ Sommi, actor and author of one of the earliest treatises on the theatre per se, perhaps written during the 1570s, promoted commedia dell’arte troupes by staging their performances in a public hall he was licensed to open in Mantua in 1567. By 1565, he may already have led the troupe of Jewish actors based at the court of Mantua since around 1521, and it is possible that he directed these intermedi.159 The diary notes four occasions in Florence on which Ferdinand accompanied members of the Medici family to comedies. Those of 21 and 27 December, held at unspecified locations in the town, are not described, possibly because 158

159

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Diary, f. 61v. A copy of this section of the diary includes this passage in virtually identical form (Munich, BHStA KÄA 4577, ff.165r–167r: ‘Verzaichnis baider kuniginen Barbara und Johanna einritt zue Mantua’). On de’ Sommi, see Karl Trautmann, ‘Italienische Juden als Schauspieler am Hofe zu Mantua (1579–1587), Aufführungen der Gelosi in Venedig (1579)’, Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte, 13 (1885), 418–20; D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, pp.398ff.; David Kaufmann, ‘Leone de Sommi Portaleone (1527–92), dramatist and founder of a synagogue at Mantua’, Jewish Quarterly Review, 10 (1898), 445–61, p.450; Leone de’ Sommi, Quattro Dialoghi in Materia di Rappresentazioni Sceniche, ed. Ferruccio Marotti (Milano: Polifilo, 1968); Robert L Erenstein, De Herder en de Hoveling (Academisch Proefschrift), (Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1978), pp.167–76; Claudia Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte a Mantova tra cinque e seicento (Firenze: Le Lettere, 1999), pp.182–3.

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

his diarist was not invited.160 The entry for 26 December, concerning an impressive five-act comedi sponsored by the Medici, with a prologue, and an intermedio between each act, provides a significant non-Italian documentary source for the performance of Francesco d’Ambra’s La Cofanaria held in the Palazzo Vecchio’s Hall of the Five Hundred, known through extensive Italian sources.161 The playwright Giovan Battista Cini provided six intermedi based on Apuleius’ account of the story of Psyche and Cupid, whose significance was all but lost on the Bavarian chronicler, as shown by his unsuccessful attempts to identify the mythological figures. Psyche first appears only in the fifth intermedio, which shows her punishment and rehabilitation by Venus: Zum 4[ten] Act hat sich das Erdtrich groß auff gethan. Und feur herauß geben, und gemacht gwest wie die Hell. Sein Ire 4 gehlingen herauß gesprungen, mit ainem auffschüßling, der Inn Rott hosen und wammes gar glatt angethan gwest. Und ain weil allso gestanden. Inn dem haben sich 4 Löcher auffgethan Inn der Erden. Und hat man aim Jeden ain halb Thier herauff geraicht, das ain hat gsehen wie ain storgk, das ander wie ain Rapp, das dritt wie ain Eyl, das viert wie ain Adler. Und seind vornen an der brust zue kneiflet gwesen, alßbaldt haben sie dieselbige knöpfflen auffgethan, seind es geigen und scabell darunder gwest. Hab[en] sie sich Nider gesetzt, und anfahen zue geigen, darein Inen der knab Im Rotten klaid, mit plodertem haar, so gar ain guette stimm ghabt, gesungen. Unnd alls sollichs außgwest, ist ain verguldte Barckhen auß der helln herauff gefarn, mit ainem scheffman, darein sie gesessen, und wider hinunder gfarn.162

For the fourth act the earth opened right up. It spewed out fire, and was made like Hell. Out of which suddenly sprang four who guarded another dressed in very tight red hose and jacket. They stood there for a while. Meanwhile four holes opened up in the earth, and a half animal was pushed up out of each. One looked like a stork, the second like a raven, the third like an owl, the fourth like an eagle, and in front, on their chests, there were closed fastenings. Forthwith they opened these same little buttons, and there were fiddles and scabelle beneath. They sat down and started to fiddle, to which the boy in the red clothes with the powdered hair, who had a very good voice, sang. When this had finished, a gilded barque rode up out of the hell, with a sailor, in which they sat down and rode back down again.

This intermedio was distinguished by a moving performance of ‘Psyche’s Lament’ (Striggio’s demanding soprano solo-voice madrigal Fuggi, speme mia), accompanied by a lira and four trombones off-stage and four on-stage string instruments. Much of the music Striggio composed for the Medici was quite

160 161 162

Diary, ff.82v, 92v. Diary, ff.88v–92r; see Katritzky, ‘The Florentine intermedi of 1565’. Diary, f. 90v.

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literally musica reservata, composed for, and reserved for, a small circle of patrons.163 Even so, the music for Fuggi, speme mia achieved influence far beyond the narrow Medici circles for which it was composed.164 There are stylistic similarities between ‘Psyche’s lament’ and Lasso’s eight-voice motet Spectaculum of 1573, and Striggio’s composition was possibly recycled in altogether humbler circumstances as late as 1650.165 The part of Psyche was sung by the fourteen-year-old Giulio Caccini, brought from Rome in order to take part in the intermedi in November 1565, by Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, who stressed his wish that for the part of Psyche ‘la voce fusse naturale non falsetto’.166 He became one of the most innovative musicians of his time in Florence, staying until his death in 1618, working closely (but not always harmoniously) with leading composers such as Striggio, Vincenzo Galilei and Jacopo Peri, and building up a reputation for excellence as a composer, solo singer and choirmaster.167 Caccini contributed to all the important Medici wedding entertainments, including those for Francesco’s second marriage, to Bianca Cappello, in 1579, and, significantly for the commedia dell’arte, that of 1589. Caccini’s lament foreshadows those of the great early seventeenth century commedia prima donnas who made stage laments a central part of their repertoire, and Grazzini records its impact.168 Even more telling is the warmly positive endorsement of Caccini’s vocal, if not visual, success by the musically discerning Bavarian diarist, who was far from indiscriminate in his praise. His description of Psyche’s impact, uncoloured by any need to flatter the Medici or their courtiers, underlines the inadequacies of an all-male cast.

163

164

165

166 167

168

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Warren Kirkendale, The Court Musicians in Florence during the Principate of the Medici (Firenze: Olschki, 1993), pp.68–99. Howard Mayer Brown, ‘Psyche’s lament. Some music for the Medici wedding in 1565’, in Words and Music: The Scholar’s View, ed. Laurence Berman (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Department of Music, 1972), 1–27. Wolfgang Osthoff, Theatergesang und darstellende Musik in der italienischen Renaissance (15. und 16. Jahrhundert), 2 vols (Tutzing: Schneider, 1969), I, pp.354–5. Robert Bargrave incorporated a composition entitled Fuggi, fuggi into his Masque for fower persons, written for the planned Constantinople wedding celebrations of an english couple (cancelled before the piece was performed): Michael Tilmouth, ‘Music on the travels of an English merchant: Robert Bargrave (1628–61)’, Music and Letters, 53 (1972), 143–59, p.149. Kirkendale, The Court Musicians, p.121. Howard Mayer Brown, ‘The geography of Florentine monody: Caccini at home and abroad’, Early Music, 9 (1981), 147–68. ‘Ella poi cantò con tanta grazia, che si vide trarre à piu d’uno le lagrime da gl’occhii’ (Grazzini, Descrizione degl’Intermedii, p.12).

I.II.C PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: FERDINAND’S JOURNEY

The diarist is more at ease with the fourth Florentine play seen by the Bavarians, a comedy held at twenty-three hours Italian time on 30 December, in the private house of Paolo Giordano Orsini: Nach sollichem ist man wider Inn der Statt spaciern zogen, und umb 23 das ist auff Teutsch zwischen 3 und 4 Uhr zum Paul Jordan Inn sein hauß khommen /f.94r/ alda man ain Kurtzweilige Comedj gehalten. Nach wellicher man das nachtmal daselbs eingnommen. Unnd obwol dise Comedj an der Kostlichait oder den Jntermedys der andern gar nit gleich ist gewest, wie dan an der Zuerichtung auch nit, So ist sie dannocht vil kurtzweiliger und lächerlich gewest, weder die Im Palatz. Dan die materi ist gewest von zwen Jung gsellen, so gebuelt haben, und von zwaien Venedigern mit Irn Zane so auch der metzen Knecht haben sein wolln, unnd gar guet bossen gerissen haben, bis es zue letzt mit baiden Jungen heurat abgeben, und die alten zwen auff der hochzeit auff Venedigisch gedantzt haben. Nach volendung der Comedj ist man zum nachtmal gangen. 169

After this they again walked around the town, and at 23 hrs, that is between 3 and 4 o’clock German time, went to Paolo Giordano’s house, where an entertaining comedy was held, after which supper was eaten there. And although this comedy could not at all compare with the other in terms of its expense or intermedi, or in terms of its presentation, it was nevertheless much more entertaining and amusing than that in the Palace. Its subject was two bachelors, who were courting, and two Venetians with their zanni, who also wished to serve the prostitutes, and played very good tricks, until it ended with the marriages of the two young men, and the two old men danced a Venetian dance at the wedding. When the comedy was finished, they went to the evening meal.

This synopsis is that of a typical commedia dell’arte scenario. Two young inamoratos succeed in marrying inamoratas of dubious virtue, but only after the usual complications, involving two zanni who show off their tricks by playing off their ageing Venetian masters against the girls. It may be some regular comedy ‘improved’ with song and dance interludes, either amateur or professional. But its slight plot, the slickness of the zanni routines, and the wedding dance of the two old Venetians indicate professional improvisation. Although the diary’s description of the Florentine plot is short, some comparison with the Munich performance of 1568 is possible. The Florentine play is based around eight parts: two Zanni–Magnifico pairs and two pairs of lovers. The Munich play has only one of each of these pairs, but introduces six further characters: a prologue, a servant for the inamorato, and the French servant of

169

Diary, ff.93v–94r. Twenty-three hours Italian time was one hour before the Italian twentyfour hour clock started, generally at or around sunset (Michael Talbot, ‘Ore Italiane: The reckoning of the time of day in pre-Napoleonic Italy’, Italian Studies, 40 (1985), 51–62).

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his absent brother, a maid for the inamorata, and a Spanish captain and his servant. In Florence, the lovers are paired off with each other; in Munich, Camilla is left to marry Zanni. A similar occasion of around this time, also featuring entertainers in commedia costume, may be depicted in a print after Stradanus, a Medici-employed Flemish artist who was a prominent member of the Florentine art historian and artist Giorgio Vasari’s artistic team for the 1565 Florentine wedding [plate 29]. Here the seated diners are entertained by three masked players in the right background, a dottore and fan-bearing courtesan flanking a masked zanni. The diary’s description of this Florentine play offers the clearest documentation of the content of pre-1568 commedia dell’arte performances. Clearly, it is not itself the source for the Munich plot. But it can hardly be coincidental that two years after Ferdinand witnessed an impromptu Italian comedy at a Medici wedding festival, Wilhelm made a last-minute request for a similar entertainment at his wedding. Ferdinand’s evident enjoyment of zanni comedies may well have stimulated the Bavarian court’s interest, the adoption of zanni costumes as a popular Bavarian carnival disguise, and perhaps even his older brother’s desire to enjoy the Italian comedy at his own wedding.

I.ii.d

Other influences on Bavaria

Valuable as the evidence in Ferdinand’s diary is, it is only one of a complex group of relevant influences. Previously suggested reasons for the appearance of the commedia dell’arte at the court of Munich in 1568 focus on three possibilities. First, unspecified influences from the Italian and especially Venetian or Neapolitan stage have been suggested.170 The second hypothesis is that it was introduced as it was to be in France, England, and Spain in the following decade, namely by visiting troupes. The third area which has received attention is the two ‘directors’ of the full-length Munich play of 1568, the court musicians Massimo Troiano and Orlando di Lasso. The first of these possibilities is too vague to be helpful. The second, that Wilhelm’s father invited a Venetian troupe to perform at his son’s wedding, and that it was only as a result of the death of one of their number in a duel that Munich courtiers took over some of the roles, is contradicted by the evidence.171 Concerning the third possibility, Troiano’s name features in the court accounts from the beginning of 1568, only weeks 170 171

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Guiomar, ‘Les influences italiennes’, pp.146–7, 153, 157. Suggested by Hackenbroch (‘Jewels’, p.204).

I.II.D PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: OTHER INFLUENCES ON BAVARIA

before Wilhelm’s wedding, and it seems unlikely that he had been in Munich long enough to have played any significant role in establishing the commedia dell’arte tradition there. A promising and ambitious tenor from Naples, he fled Bavaria following his part in the murder of a fellow court musician, the Roman violinist Giovanni Battista Tibertinus, on 25 April 1570. Honoured for his festival account, this felony cut short a distinguished career as a composer, writer, lutenist and actor as well as singer.172 The most popular theory is that Lasso brought the Italian comedy to Munich from Naples, where he associated with amateur actors during his stay from 1549 to 1551, and which inspired him to compose moresche, some featuring commedia dell’arte characters using Neapolitan dialect.173 There are two problems with this view. By 1556, when Lasso arrived in Munich, there are only the sparsest documentary hints concerning the commedia dell’arte and its stock characters. And overwhelmingly, these relate not to Naples but to Rome, where Lasso was from 1551–54. Sandberger identifies the texts of Lasso’s moresche as dramatic dialogues inspired by the professional repertoire of Neapolitan street performers, and his musical settings as refined re-workings of their coarser popular versions, suitable for court audiences. He makes strong links between such pieces and stage comedies, and suggests a connection between some of Lasso’s dialogues and echoes, and the commedia dell’arte, as does Farahat. Her reconstruction of the accompanying music to the performance of 1568 adds no less than eight named pieces from Lasso’s Libro di Villanelle of 1581 to the music specified by Troiano. For her, ‘it seems compelling that some of this music was likely written for, or at least performed at, the commedia dell’arte entertainment

172

173

Munich, BHStA HZR 13 (1568), f.267; BHStA HR I Fasz.462/107; BHStA HR I Fasz.466/ 397 (Wilhelm’s Italian letter of 27 April 1570 to Alfonso d’Este, and German letter to Emperor Maximilian, requesting the arrest of Troiano). Troiano, Dialoghi, f.4v: ‘non molto hà che in Germania ne’ seruiggi dell’illustrissimo Duca di Bauiera mi ritrouo’; Robert Eitner, ‘Massimo Trojano als Flüchtling’, Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte, 23 (1891), 1– 4; idem, Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten, 10 vols (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Haertel, 1900–1904), IX (1903), pp.459–60; Leuchtmann, Die Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568, pp.428–64. Sandberger, Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle, I, pp.90–5; idem, ‘Roland Lassus’ Beziehungen’, pp.67–8; Nino Pirrotta, ‘Tragédie et comédie dans la Camerata Fiorentina’, in Musique et Poésie au XVIe siécle, Paris 30 Juin – 4 Juillet 1953 (Paris: CNRS, 1954), 287–97, p.291; Günter Schöne, ‘Les Fêtes de la Renaissance à la cour de Bavière’, in Le Lieu Thèâtral à la Renaissance, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris: CNRS, 1964), 171–82, p.175; Liselotte de Ridder, Der Anteil der Commedia dell’arte an der Entstehungs- und Entwicklungsgeschichte der komischen Oper (Köln: Universität, Phil.Diss, 1971), pp.56–7.

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in Munich in 1568’. She concludes that ‘some of the music used by comedians, and perhaps much of it, was of the sort to be found in Lasso’s collection of villanelle, published in 1581 […] we should begin looking in the large villanellavillanesca repertoire from 1537 and after, for other music appropriate to commedia dell’arte entertainments’.174 Although it is clear from their dialect that the comic characters featured in some of Lasso’s moresche are of Neapolitan inspiration, there is no reason to suppose that they necessarily date to Lasso’s years in Naples.175 Sandberger considers it very possible that Lasso first experienced moresche at the Gonzaga court, during his time in Mantua, in the early 1540s,176 but identifies Lasso’s own moresche as being of undoubtedly Neapolitan origins.177 The association of moresche with commedia characters is emphasised in Callot’s Balli di Sfessania engravings [plates 2–5], and the high theatrical content of the moresco, and its evident close links with the early history of intermedi, underline the relevance of Lasso’s moresche to the early history of the commedia dell’arte.178 The Munich wedding performance of 1568 starts with a Neapolitan farce, and Lasso is known to have borrowed from Neapolitan poets, notably Luigi Tansillo and Antonio Minturno.179 His moresche, villanelle, todesche and paduane draw on the commedia dell’arte, and the type of improvised Italian street theatre which preceded it.180 Lasso’s involvement is of unquestionable importance, but Troiano’s account shows that Lasso must have kept closely in touch with the enormous strides made by the comic Italian stage between mid-century and 1568, and was capable of playing both its central comic roles in the vernacular. As well as the part of Pantalone, in which he received great acclaim in 1568, Lasso could play that

174

175

176 177 178

179 180

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Sandberger, ‘Roland Lassus’ Beziehungen’, pp.71, 77–8, 94; Martha Farahat, ‘Villanescas of the virtuosi: Lasso and the commedia dell’arte’, Performance Practice Review 3 (1990), 121–37, p.136. Pace Ridder, Entwicklungsgeschichte der komischen Oper, p.56. On this point, see also Sandberger, Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle, I, p.95. Sandberger, Orlando di Lasso, p.17 and n.21. Idem, ‘Roland Lassus’ Beziehungen’, p.82. Ibid., pp.75–7. The present study has identified a significant body of late renaissance pictures in which commedia dell’arte characters are depicted in more or less close proximity to matachins, or armed moresco dancers, indicating that some sort of collaboration between commedia dell’arte troupes and troupes of professional dancers may not have been uncommon (section III.iii.c, pp.220ff). Ibid., pp.82–3. Ibid., pp.71–8.

I.II.D PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: OTHER INFLUENCES ON BAVARIA

of Zanni ‘as sympathetically and knowledgeably as if he had studied the part for fifty years in the valleys of Bergamo’.181 It is hardly plausible that Lasso, solely from influences received in Naples nearly two decades previously, singlehandedly developed key commedia dell’arte routines in independent parallel with the professional troupes beginning to make their mark by the late 1560s. Lasso’s early Italian years, long cited as the sole source of his comic acting skills, represent just one of many factors in a complex equation. Direct influences on Lasso himself since leaving Naples in 1551, and almost certainly also since his arrival in Munich in 1556, surely shaped the performing skills he called on in 1568. Two factors need to be evaluated if a balanced picture is to be built up of the influences which may have played a part in establishing the commedia dell’arte in Munich by the late 1560s. These are cultural exchanges between Italy and Bavaria at the time, and the participants of the 1568 play. Massimo Troiano’s account notes the participation of a number of unnamed singers and instrumentalists, including five string players, and identifies seven actors.182 They include at least five courtiers, four of them members of the Munich court orchestra. Carlo Livizzano was, like Troiano, a tenor who joined the choir led by Lasso only around the beginning of 1568. So he is, for the same reason as Troiano, an unlikely source for the commedia dell’arte at the Munich court.183 Troiano also names the Marchese di Malaspina. Probably still beardless, as he played the female role of the courtesan Camilla, he was perhaps one of the young noblemen who served as pageboys, frequently referred to but hardly ever individually named in the Munich court records.184 Also named are two Italians from Trent. Concerning one of them, Giorgio d’Ori, nothing is known. The other was the court goldsmith Giovanni Battista Scolari, whose involvement in this performance has been linked to several so-called gondola pendants, as noted above [plate 24]. Like Troiano and Livizzano, Scolari moved with Prince Wilhelm to the court he set up in Landshut after his marriage. In March 1568, he played the part of Zanni to Lasso’s Pantalone. He received payment for lodging Wilhelm’s moors, and together with Wilhelm’s court acrobats, performed in the musical commedia dell’arte entertainments in the 1570s which, I would suggest, are a

181 182 183 184

Troiano, Dialoghi, f.147v (quoted above, p.56). Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.147v, 148v (quoted above, pp.56–7). Troiano, Dialoghi, f.42v. A kinsman, Marchese Octavio di Malaspina, was with the Gonzagas at Prince Ferdinand’s entry into Mantua on 19 January 1566, and hunted to hawks and hounds with him at Villa Francha two days later (Diary, ff.109v–110r, 111r).

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major inspiration for the Landshut ceiling frieze [plates 22–3].185 But none of the surviving documents linking him to the Italian comedy predate 1568, and his role, if any, in introducing this type of theatre to Munich, is unknown. The seventh actor, Ercole Terzio, who played the parts of a maid and a servant, was the son of Lucio Terzio, the oldest of six surviving members of a group of violinists from Bergamo, employed as chamber musicians at the Munich court since around 1560.186 This group almost certainly provided the five string players involved in the performance of 1568. In 1568, Ercole seems to have been a teenager who had been in Munich since early childhood, and thus could hardly have learnt to act in Italy. His Bergamo relatives are the most obvious source for his acting skills, in which case they could also have provided a focus for commedia dell’arte activities in Munich, and a means by which Lasso kept in touch with the latest developments on the Italian comic stage. Archival records such as the Munich court accounts, and an undated letter in Italian from Cerbonio Besutio to Duke Wilhelm, detailing his expenses for a journey to visit his family in Bergamo, document this group of musicians.187 They build up a picture of the Bergamo violinists as a stable, identifiable, closely interrelated group of secular Italian performers who settled in Munich permanently around 1560, but maintained lifelong contacts with Italy. They dominated a fluctuating, semi-autonomous group of court chamber musicians, around eight in 1568, until the great reorganization of 1594.188 The possibility that the regular professional duties of

185

186

187

188

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Munich, BHStA FüSa 418/1, f.30v (c.1574) payment in respect of the little male and female Moors to: ‘Baptista da Scolari von wegen daß clainen Mohrn und Mherin’; BHStA KÄA 4579, f.197v–8r (letter of 18 May 1583). Eitner, Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker, IX (1903), p.382; Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.7 n.2; Munich, BHStA HR I Fasz 465/358 (official papers of Ercole Terzio); BHStA HZR 13(1568), f.265r; Sandberger, Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle, III; M A Katritzky, ‘Orlando di Lasso and the commedia dell’arte’, in Orlando di Lasso in der Musikgeschichte. Bericht über das Symposion der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, München, 4.–6. Juli 1994, ed. Bernhold Schmid (München: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Abhandlungen Neue Folge, Heft 111, 1996), 133–155, pp.144ff. Munich, BHStAGHA KA 1712 D5 (unfoliated, filed with letters of 1579, the year of Besutio’s death); BHStAGHA KÄA 4579, ff.52r, 218r (letters of Hieronymus Morari, February 1562, 13 February c.1590); BHStA HZR 16(1571), f.230; HZR 17(1572), f.270; HZR 25(1579), f.295; HZR 33(1587), f.366v; HZR 36(1590), f.448v. Munich, BHStAGHA KA 1712 E IV34: ‘Verzaichnis deren personen welchen abgedankht werden solle’ lists numerous musicians, including Orlando di Lasso (d.1594) and his son Ernst, as well as Ercole Terzio and Matthias Besutio (both reinstated in 1595, Besutio as a butler).

I.II.D PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: OTHER INFLUENCES ON BAVARIA

the Munich court chamber musicians included acting as well as music making receives support from their close kinship with Ercole Terzio. The Bergamo violinists offer a previously unrecognized factor in the search to identify the performers who contributed towards establishing the commedia dell’arte in Munich. Lasso may have seen the Milanese acrobat known to have performed for the Habsburgs during the time of his visit to Prague in 1562.189 Wilhelm made no visits to Italy in the years immediately preceding 1568, and Lasso only one, to Venice and Ferrara in May 1567. This followed the visit to Munich and Augsburg, for several weeks until 5 March 1567, of the Medici court musician Alessandro Striggio.190 Striggio’s musical skills, and compositions for the 1565 Florentine wedding festival, including the musical settings for three of the six intermedi performed on 26 December 1565, sufficiently impressed the Bavarians that a madrigal and motet were commissioned from him for Wilhelm’s wedding. Both Il cicalamento delle donne al bucato et la caccia, a comic musical divertimento published by Striggio in Venice in 1567, and the Munich wedding comedy of 1568 have been associated with the earliest phase of the madrigal comedy, and some degree of cross-influence between Striggio and Lasso in 1567 seems likely.191 North of the Alps, mid-sixteenth-century theatrical activity was dominated by the seasonal amateur offerings of the schools and guilds. However, travelling players are also recorded in Bavaria between 1556 and 1568. It is possible that members of the Bavarian court saw the six-strong Venetian troupes led by Anthonien of Bolzano or Bartholome of Venice, known to have performed in Nördlingen in 1549 and 1559, or Johann of Mantua and his four companions, who played there in 1560.192 These or other Italian companies may have stopped off in Munich, but of the many visiting players noted in the court accounts for these years, only very few are likely to be of Italian origin, such as rope dancers in 1561 and 1566, and, in 1565, an acrobat who had performed for the emperor.193 Players were sometimes brought to court festivals by high-ranking visitors, as was perhaps the Zanni–Magnifico group that featured at least three times at Wilhelm’s wedding. 189

190

191

192 193

Johannes Meissner, Die Englischen Comoedianten zur Zeit Shakespeares in Oesterreich (Wien: Konegen, 1884), p.20: ‘Springer Von Mailannt’. Munich, BHStA HZR 12(1567), f.304; David Butchart, ‘A musical journey of 1567: Alessandro Striggio in Vienna, Munich, Paris and London’, Music and Letters, 63 (1982), 1–16. Laurie Detenbeck, ‘Dramatised madrigals and the commedia dell’arte tradition’, in The Science of Buffoonery: Theory and History of the Commedia dell’Arte, ed. Domenico Pietropaolo (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1989), 59–68. Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, pp.225–6. Munich, BHStA HZR 6(1561), f.355v; HZR 10(1565), f.326r; HZR 11(1566), f.280v.

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I.ii.e

Rome

Perhaps directly related to the commedia performance of 30 December 1565 described in Ferdinand’s diary is an undated poem by the Florentine poet Anton Francesco Grazzini (‘Il Lasca’). His best known poem referring to commedia masks, Di Zanni e di Magnifichi, was published as one of his ‘Canti Carnascialeschi’ in 1559. 194 The title In lode di Zanni, e del Magnifico Commediai, included in a list of September 1566 that Grazzini (1503–84) made of the titles of his own writings, may refer to another poem, A.M. Giovambatista Altoviti in lode di zanni.195 In this, Grazzini celebrates the continuing ‘sweet and delightful’ presence of the ‘magnificent’ troupe of the renowned [Benedetto] Cantinella in Florence, praises the lively improvisation of the old master–servant duo played by Cantinella and his Zanni, and makes a pointed comparison with the boring lengthy speeches of scripted drama. By his indication that this company, possibly even the one that acted before Prince Ferdinand on 30 December 1565,196 prefers to remain in Florence, and will return to Rome only if the pope becomes less negative towards them, Grazzini reinforces numerous documents suggesting that Cantinella’s regular base was Rome.197 Paolo Giordano Orsini, at whose Florentine house the comedy of 30 December 1565 was presented, was a Roman nobleman.198 As Duke of Bracciano and Marchese dell’Anguillara, he was a kinsman of some sort to the Roman poet Giovan’Andrea Anguillara (1517–72), at the Medici court in the early 1560s, and closely linked to the very beginnings of the professional zanni comedies. Vasari’s biography of the artist Battista Franco (1498–1561), published in 1568, includes a detailed account of a Roman acting troupe of around mid-century,

194 195 196

197 198

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Grazzini, Le Rime Burlesche, pp.207–9. Ibid., pp.cxix-cxxiv, 521–4. Internal evidence points to a dating to early 1566. A mention of Varchi (1502–65) suggests that he had recently died (Grazzini, Le Rime Burlesche, pp.cxxii, 523: ‘Varchi, che ne dica male’). It is likely that the pope referred to towards the poem’s end is the anti-theatrical Pius V, who promoted the Florentine churchman Altoviti to high office weeks after his election in January 1566 (news of which reached Ferdinand on 9 January 1566, in Bologna. Diary, f.103r). If so, then its reference to ‘questo verno’ dates this long capitolo quite precisely to early 1566. See Re (‘Commedianti a Roma’, pp.298–9); but also Henke, for whom it was ‘probably written before 1552’ (Performance and Literature, p.75). On Cantinella, see also below, p.93. A cousin, Troilo Orsini, the only ambassador sent by the Bavarian ruling family’s Italian relatives to Wilhelm’s wedding, represented Paolo Giordano’s brother-in-law, Francesco de’ Medici (Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.10v, 52v, 57v, 96–97v, 143v) [plate 25].

I.II.E PATRONAGE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD: ROME

which, while still amateur, is a clear forerunner of the professional comedians. Consisting mainly of painters and sculptors, and led by Giovan’Andrea Anguillara, the troupe was financially dependent not on a rich patron or private funds, but on its own takings. Its entrance fee was an important factor: it changed venues from the great room of Santo Apostolo in the Palazzo Colonna to the less expensive church of S. Biagio in the strada Giulia in order to ensure commercial success for its venture. Vasari writes of this company: Mentre adunque che attendeva Battista a disegnare in Roma, Messer Giovann’Andrea dall’Anguillara, uomo in alcuna sorte di poesie veramente raro, avea fatto una compagnia di diversi begl’ingegni e facea fare nella maggior sala di Santo Apostolo una ricchissima scena et apparato per recitare comedie di diversi autori a gentiluomini, signori e gran personaggi, et aveva fatti fare gradi per diverse sorti di spettatori, e p[er] i cardinali et altri gran prelati, accommodate alcune stanze donde p[er] gelosie potevano senza esser veduti, vedere et udire. E p[er] ché nella detta compagnia erano pittori, architetti, scultori et uomini che avevano a recitare e fare altri ufficii, a Battista et all’Amannato fu dato cura, essendo fatti di quella brigata, di far la scena et alcune storie et ornamenti di pitture, le quali condusse Battista, con alcune statue che fece l’Amannato, tanto bene, che ne fu sommamente lodato. Ma p[er]ché la molta spesa in q[ue]l luogo sup[er]ava l’entrata, furono forzati M[esser] Giovann’Andrea e gl’altri levare la p[ro]spettiva e gl’altri ornamenti di Santo Apostolo e condurgli in strada Giulia nel tempio nuovo di S. Biagio, dove avendo Battista di nuovo accommodato ogni cosa, si recitarono molte comedie con incredibile sodisfazione del popolo e cortigiani di Roma, e di qui poi ebbono origine i comedianti che vanno attorno chiamati i Zanni. 199

199

While Battista was drawing in Rome, Messer Giovann’Andrea dall’Anguillara, a man truly distinguished in all types of poetry, founded a society of assorted talents and let the large hall of Santo Apostolo be fitted out with rich decoration and scenery in order to present comedies by different authors to the nobility, gentlemen and great men, and had seating constructed for spectators of every rank, and arranged several stanze for Cardinals and other great prelates, from which, behind screens, they could see and hear without being seen. The society was made up of artists, sculptors, architects and those who could act the comedies or render other services, and Battista and Amanato, as members of this company, were given the task of producing the scenery and any related pictures and painted decorations, all of which Battista, with several statues made by Amanato, arranged so well that he was highly praised. But because the high outgoings at this venue exceeded the takings, M. Giovan’Andrea and the others were forced to remove their scenery and decorations from Santo Apostolo, and take them to the new church of S. Biagio in the strada Giulia, where, Battista having set everything up again, they presented many comedies, to the incredible satisfaction of the people and nobility of Rome, and to them may be traced the origins of the comedians who became known as the zanni.

Giorgio Vasari, ‘Vita di Battista Franco pittore Viniziano’, in Giorgio Vasari, le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori [1568], eds P Pergola, L Grassi, G Previtali,

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Orsini and Anguillara played important roles in the early development of the Italian comedy, although any connection between their actors is not clear. But it is perhaps significant that a publication of 1585, which laments the death of Simone da Bologna, the great Gelosi company’s Zanni, mentions Anguillara, while in 1587, two years after Paolo Giordano Orsini’s death, the Gelosi’s Dottor Gratiano dedicated a publication to Orsini’s teenage son Virginio.200 In identifying the Roman nobleman Paolo Giordano Orsini as an early patron of the comici, Ferdinand’s diary also adds to the growing body of evidence which suggests that Rome could have played a more important part in Zanni’s assimilation on to the professional stage than has previously been recognized. It is amply clear that Zanni as a type, his personality, costume and earliest players, originate in the Veneto.201 Yet emphasis on Venice and Naples has undoubtedly obscured the role of Rome in the development of the commedia dell’arte as a stage form, and specifically the adoption of the Zanni–Magnifico partnership as the comic focus for full-length plays. This is particularly significant for the Munich wedding performance of 1568. Its most talented and illustrious player, Orlando di Lasso, visited Venice only once before 1568, in May 1567. But in 1551, aged about twenty-one, Lasso moved from Naples to Rome. He stayed there for three years around the very time that players in Rome, described by Vasari, Grazzini and Du Bellay, were developing the earliest recorded entertainments relating to the commedia dell’arte.202 Indeed, Lasso’s first Roman patron was the exiled Archbishop of Florence, Antonio Altoviti, to whose kinsman Grazzini dedicated his poem in praise of Benedetto Cantinella’s troupe.

200

201

202

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(Novara: Istituto Geografico de Agostini, 1967), VI, 411–39, pp.427–8. A possible terminus post quem for these activites is offered by a document of 1554 cited by Re (‘Commedianti a Roma’, pp.295–6), referring to an inhabitant of ‘strada Giulia, per il vicolo dove se faceva le comedie’. Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, 219–26, p.220: Il Lachrimoso Lamento […] à pianzer la morte di Zan Panza di Pegora, alias Simon Comico Geloso (Venice, 1585); ibid, II, 11– 19, p.12: Le cento e qvindici conclvsioni in ottaua Rima del plusquamperfetto Dottor Gratiano Partesana da Francolin Comico Geloso (1587). Magni, ‘Il tipo dello Zanni’, p.116; Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’; for Françoise Decroisette, ‘il ne fait plus aucun doute, à présent, que l’apparition de la commedia all’improvviso est étroitement liée à l’activité des “bouffons” vénitiens’ (‘Le zanni ou la métaphore de l’opprimé dans la commedia dell’arte’, in Figures théâtrales du peuple, ed. Elie Konigson (Paris: CNRS, 1985), 75–90, p.75). Vasari, ‘Vita di Battista Franco’, pp.427–8, quoted above; Re, ‘Commedianti a Roma’; Francesca Bonanni, ‘Alla ricerca di Benedetto Cantinella, comico del cinquecento’, Rivista italiana di drammaturgia, 5 (1980), 129–37.

I.III.A STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: INTRODUCTION

I.ii.f

Summary

Ferdinand’s diary does not settle the question of whether or not the commedia dell’arte existed in its complete form before 1568. But it is rich in evidence regarding the spread of zanni, and the Zanni–Magnifico partnership, in northern Italy in the mid-1560s. This evidence supports the view that all year round professional theatre originated in a fusion between the skills of the professional buffone, carnival street improvisers and the amateur stage, which first successfully came together in Italy, in the tricks of the commedia dell’arte Zanni. It confirms that, less than a decade after Grazzini and Du Bellay admired Romebased Magnifici and zanni, these central masks of the Italian comedy were commonplace at the comic stages, public carnival festivities and private masked balls of the very North Italian courts with which the Bavarian ruling famly had the closest ties. The diary also confirms that the real-life inspiration for Zanni’s personality and costume was mid-sixteenth century Bergamasque peasants adjusting to the lifestyle of Venetian servants and porters. A further source for zanni costume is identified, in the loose trouser suit of the late renaissance sailor. New perspectives are opened up on accepted views concerning the origins of Zanni as a stage character, and the spread of the commedia dell’arte across the Alps in the 1560s, and a clear link is provided between Italian zanni entertainments of the mid-1560s and the so-called ‘first’ commedia dell’arte performance. Lasso, Troiano and the other performers involved in the 1568 comedy, and cultural exchanges between Bavaria and Italy in the years immediately preceding it, notably those recorded in Ferdinand’s travel diary of 1565–6, are all relevant to assessment of how the Italian comedy reached Bavaria. This question cannot be answered by invocation of some vague unquantifiable osmosis from the comic Venetian or Neapolitan stage, but only in the context of an evidence-based investigation of the performers and events of the commedia dell’arte’s earliest years as an independent stage form.

I.iii

Stock types and players of the commedia dell’arte

I.iii.a

Introduction

To a large extent, the professional players took their characters from the pool of characters classified as comic by Antonio Sebastiano Minturno in 1564.203 They varied the mix to appeal to their audiences, and were also influenced by the popu203

‘Introduce il Comico in atto & in parole caualieri, dottori, medici, mercatanti, lauoratori, servi, parasiti, meretrici, ruffiani, uecchi, giouani, madri di famiglia, fanciulle, & altre

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lar characters of the peasant stage, the routines of professional buffoni, and carnival masks. Minturno’s characters are the stock favourites of the fully scripted comedies of his time, inspired by the rediscovered classical comedies. We recognize them in the early cast lists, such as that of the Munich performance of 1568, or Garzoni’s summary of the typical roles in a travelling troupe, as being the old masters Magnifico and Graziano, their menservants Zanni and Burattino, a bawd, an inamorato, a Spaniard, Pedant and Signora.204 Such lists are a valuable source of information concerning the development of the commedia dell’arte characters, although few predating 1600 are this complete or reliable. Pellicer’s notorious mention of Harlequin, Pantalone and dottore, in Spain in 1574, has been exposed as nothing more than an anachronistic generalization, rather than a specific cast list for a particular troupe, let alone proof of the existence of the Harlequin role by the year 1574.205 Similar ‘loose translations’ abound in the older literature.206 It became usual for professional actors to create an individual stage persona by whose name they often became known. This would be their most popular role, and, depending on audience reception, one which they might play regularly over a period of years, decades, or even their whole working life. Francesco Andreini (1548–1624), for example, played the part of an inamorato before creating the role of Capitano Spavento dal Vall’Inferno, while his wife Isabella (1562–1604) stayed with the role of the inamorata Isabella throughout her acting career. Their

204

205

206

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simili persone d’etâ, di sesso, di fortuna, di stato, di natione, di costumi, e di uita differenti’ (Antonio Minturno, L’Arte Poetica del Sig. Antonio Mintvrno, nella qvale si contengono i precetti Heroici, Tragici, Comici, Satyrici, e d’ogni altra Poesia (Venetia: Valuassori, 1564), p.117). Troiano, Dialoghi, ff.147v–148v (quoted above, see pp.56–8); Garzoni, La piazza universale: Discorso CIII, p.903. Otto Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, ein kulturgeschichtliches Problem (Berlin: Duncker, 1904), pp.228–9; Lea , Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.82; Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte”’, p.362; María del Valle Ojeda Calvo, ‘Nuevas aportaciones al estudio de la “commedia dell’arte” en España: el “zibaldone” de Stefanello Bottarga’, Criticón, 63 (1995), 119–38, p.133. Baschet, for example, repeatedly misidentifies actors as Harlequins in Gelosi cast lists (Simone de Bologna in Venice in 1574, and Ludovico de Bologna in Florence in 1578. Les comédiens italiens, pp.59, 83, 77); D’Ancona describes Simone da Bologna as ‘secondo Zanni o Arlecchino’ (Origini del teatro italiano, II, 468); Allardyce Nicoll, with reference to Porcacchi’s Gelosi cast list of 1574, writes that ‘the part of Arlecchino was enacted by Simone da Bologna’ (Masks, Mimes and Miracles, Studies in Popular Theatre (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1931), p.305); Baader misidentifies as Harlequins at the Munich wedding of 1568, six unidentified zanni and Battista Scolari’s Zanni (Der bayerische Renaissancehof, pp.44, 46–7, 252).

I.III.B STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: THE INAMORATA

son Giovan Battista (c.1576–1654) made his name as the inamorato Lelio, but also played the part of the Magnifico in later life. His great rival Pier Maria Cecchini, who created the Zanni variant Fritellino, also played the parts of the dottore, Magnifico, and Pipe, an elderly Florentine.

I.iii.b

The inamorata

If we isolate from the repertoires of the early troupes and buffoni the elements which can specifically be associated with the commedia dell’arte, two parts, those of the zanni and the inamorata, or romantic stage heroine, stand out. The servants and peasants who inspired stage zanni feature large in Minturno’s list of comic characters.207 For contemporary audiences, a very particular attraction of the commedia dell’arte was its actresses, whom, unlike actors, they could not otherwise see on the stage. Actresses joined the professional players rather later than the Pantalone–Zanni duo, and Minturno, writing in 1564, omits the commedia dell’arte’s most celebrated role, that of the inamorata.208 There is a longstanding tradition of scholarship on the pioneering actresses of the early modern Italian stage. But mainstream theatre history has been slow to absorb its findings, and older studies of the commedia dell’arte focus primarily on its comic, male, masks. Only recently has emphasis on the colourful and distinctive stock roles given way to wider recognition that studying female roles and players is not an intriguing sidelight, but essential to understanding the importance of the commedia to Western theatre. The spectacular success of early prima donnas created a radical change in theatrical gender dynamics that transformed the art of the comici and paved the way for the modern professional stage. Women had been performing in Europe long before the commedia dell’arte created the first female stars.209 Nonetheless, commedia troupes are rightly cred-

207 208

209

Minturno, L’Arte Poetica, p.117. E Tietze-Conrat (Dwarfs and Jesters in Art (London: Phaidon, 1957), pp.75, 110, pl.80) reproduces a detail from a painting depicting a mixed-gender troupe, whose date she reads as 1549. It is not possible to tell from the photograph here reproduced as plate 309, whether, as she suggests, the date has been overpainted. However, the photograph is from the same negative as Tietze-Conrat’s, and I read this date as 1578. Amateur all-female acting had a venerable tradition in European convents. Vigil Raber, director of the 1514 Bolzano Passion Play, assigned virtually all its female roles to local women amateurs (Katritzky, ‘Vigil Raber’s stage’, pp.105–6). Amateur actresses featured in sixteenth century English cycle drama, Lord Mayor’s shows, and elsewhere (David

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ited with pioneering the systematic promotion of professional actresses as celebrity performers on the stages of Europe. In contrast to this gradual process, the mechanics of the initial participation and rise to success of women within the commedia dell’arte itself is swift and obscure. Already in the earliest years of the commedia’s documented existence, the contribution of women is evident at the highest level, in every sphere from performance through production to management. Modern scholarship dates the systematic introduction of actresses into Italian troupes to the early 1560s, often citing an observation by the renowned actor Pier Maria Cecchini in 1614 that it had not yet been 50 years since women first appeared in costume on stage. 210 The earliest formal record of an Italian actress joining a professional troupe is a Roman contract of 10 October 1564 recording the agreement of Lucretia of Siena and six men ‘omnes ut vulgo dicitur Commedianti’ to form a company to perform comedies.211 Actresses proved enormously popular. Within a few years of their introduction on to the Italian stage they were a star attraction of commedia companies, contributing significantly to their tremendous audience impact. In the late 1560s, the charismatic star actresses of two professional troupes, Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia, raised audiences to a new pitch of excitement as they vied for recognition.212 Here, Flaminia, Pantalone and Angela,213 who staged ‘la tragedia di Didone mutata in Tragicommedia’, were judged more successful than Flaminia’s great rival, Vincenza.214 In April 1568, Flaminia and Armani again competed for audiences in Mantua, as reported by Baldassare de Preti: ‘S.Ecc.a ha fatto far comedia da due compagnie: l’una de Pantalone, l’altra del Ganaza’.215 Adriano Valerini’s oration in honour of ‘la divina Signora Vincenza Armani’

210

211 212

213

214 215

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Bevington, ‘The popular troupe’, in Medieval English Drama, a Casebook, ed. Peter Happé (London: Macmillan, 1984), 162–74, p.166). French professional actresses are recorded from 1545, when Marie Ferré first trod the boards (Virginia Scott, ‘“La virtu et la volupté”. Models for the actress in early modern Italy and France’, Theatre Research International, 23 (1998), 152–8, p.153). John V Falconieri, ‘The commedia dell’arte, the actors’ theatre’, Theatre Annual, 12 (1954), 37–47, p.41: ‘non sono 50 anni che si costumano donne in scena’. Re, ‘Commedianti a Roma’, appendix. 1 July 1567, correspondence of Luigi Rogna from Mantua: ‘hoggi si sono fatte due comedie a concorrenza’ (quoted in D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p. 449). Possibly Angela, daughter of Maphio del Re, aged twelve when the troupe leader was murdered in Rome in 1553 (Cocco, ‘Una compagnia comica’, pp.64, 69). D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.449. Ibid., II, p.455 (26.4.1568).

I.III.B STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: THE INAMORATA

gives some idea of the stage impact of this multi-talented actress.216 Extravagantly mourned by her fellow actors in 1569, on the occasion of her death by poisoning, Armani heralded the advent of the female prima donna. In a pamphlet of 1574, Thomaso Porcacchi praises the Gelosi and their cast, including Simone da Bologna, who played a facchino Bergamasco, Giulio Pasquati, their Magnifico, Rinaldo and above all their famous prima donna Vittoria as ‘donna che è unica (a most unique woman)’.217 When Henri III of France came to Italy that same year, he expressed the wish to see the Gelosi troupe act with their star, ‘la femme appelée Vittoria’, already at the height of her fame.218 He made his royal entry into Venice on 18 July, and six days later saw Vittoria Piisimi star, at a week’s notice, in a demanding singing role of the Gelosi’s production of Cornelio Frangipani’s Tragedia. A decade later, although she was still the ‘divine Vittoria, a compendium of all the arts, a perfect actress’ to Tomaso Garzoni, his highest praise is reserved for the Gelosi’s rising star, ‘la gratiosa Isabella’.219 Adding to the lustre of Isabella’s stage persona was her polished literary output, which gained her international renown as a playwright, poet and correspondent.220

216

217

218

219

220

‘Nella Musica poi fece profitto tale, che non pure cantaua sicurmente la parte sua con i primi Cantori d’Europa, ma componeua in questa professione miracolosamente […] sonaua de varie sorti de stromenti Musicali […] recitaua questa Signora come forse udito hauete in tre stili differenti in Comedia, in Tragedia, et in Pastorale […] questa Donna riusciua meglio assai parlando improuiso, che i più consummati Autori scriuendo pensatamente […] accompagnaua le parole con gesti si appropriati al soggetto […] se nella Comedia facea ueder quanto ornamento abbi un dir famigliare, dimostraua poi differentemente nella Tragedia la grauità dell’heroico stile, usando parole scelte, graui concetti, sentenze morali […] dirò delle Pastorali da lei prima introdotte in Scena […] tanta forza hauean le parole con che ella descriueua hor questo hor quell’affetto’ (Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, pp.143–9). ‘Esser rara nel recitar tragedie, comedie ed altri componimenti scenici’, quoted by Baschet (Les comédiens italiens, pp.60–1). Ibid., pp.57–9. (See also Anne MacNeil, Music and Women of the Commedia dell’arte in the Late Sixteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp.11–12). Garzoni, La piazza universale: Discorso CIII, pp.901–2: ‘quella divina Vittoria […] merita di esser posta come un compendio dell’arte […] una perfetta comediante’. The great actress, generally allowed only a cameo appearance in traditional accounts of the commedia dell’arte, plays centre stage for MacNeil (Music and Women) and Britta Brandt (Das Spiel mit Gattungen bei Isabella Canali Andreini, 2 vols (Wilhelmsfeld: Egert, 2002). On gender issues, see also McGill, ‘Women and performance’; Hanna Scolnicov, ‘The woman in the window: a theatrical icon’, in Spectacle & Image in Renaissance Europe, Selected Papers of the XXXIInd Conference at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours 29 June – 8 July 1989, ed. André Lascombes (Leiden: Brill, 1993),

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The most famous rivalry between these two great actresses occurred during the spectacular 1589 wedding festivities of Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine de Lorraine.221 For these, hundreds of musicians, dancers and singers were hired to perform in five intermedi, musical entertainments performed between the acts of plays. 222 Although men were cast in the overwhelming majority of female and male roles, the intermedi broke new ground by starring three women. Two of the composer-performers, Antonio Archilei and Giulio Caccini, cast their wives, respectively the dancer, instrumentalist, and singer Vittoria Concarini and the singer Lucia Caccini, as prima and seconda donna.223 ‘Margherita’, Archilei and Concarini’s pupil, sang several supporting roles, and more women may have joined the cast at a later stage.224 The intermedi framed the acts of Girolamo Bargagli’s scripted play La pellegrina, performed by all-male amateur actors, and two commedia plays, both staged by the Gelosi troupe. In these plays, La Zingara and La pazzia d’Isabella, the rival prima donnas Vittoria Piisimi and Isabella Andreini strove to outdo each other, and their brilliant performances as the gypsy (Piisimi) and the madwoman (Andreini) became a highlight of the wedding festivities. Isabella and her husband Francesco founded the greatest early acting dynasty. In 1608, the professional singer Caterina Martinelli, engaged for the title role of Monteverdi and Ottavio Rinuccini’s opera Arianna, died shortly before the Mantuan wedding festivities of Francesco Gonzaga and Margherita of Sa-

221

222

223

224

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281–305; Jane Tylus, ‘Women at the windows: commedia dell’arte and theatrical practice in early modern Italy’, Theatre Journal, 49 (1997), 323–42; Scott, ‘“La virtu et la volupté”’; Frances K Barasch, ‘Italian actresses in Shakespeare’s world: Vittoria and Isabella’, Shakespeare Bulletin, 19 (2001), 5–9; eadem, ‘Italian actresses in Shakespeare’s world: Flaminia and Vincenza’, Shakespeare Bulletin, 18 (2000), 17–21; Michael A Zampelli, ‘The “Most honest and most devoted of women”: an early modern defense of the professional actress’, Theatre Survey, 42 (2001), 1–23; Pamela Allen Brown and Peter Parolin, eds, Women Players in England 1500-1660: Beyond the All-male Stage (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005). Niece of Wilhelm V of Bavaria’s wife Renée (Renate). Christine (1565–1637) was the daughter of Renée’s brother, Charles II of Lorraine (1543–1608), another of whose daughters, Elisabeth (1574–1636), married Maximilian I (1573–1651), son and successor of Wilhelm V. See also plate 25. For James M Saslow, its entertainments constituted a ‘transitional landmark in the increasing role of women’ in renaissance theatre (Florentine Festival as ‘Theatrum mundi’, the Medici Wedding of 1589 (New Haven: Yale, 1996), p.53). Giulio Caccini’s lament at the 1565 Medici wedding, as a fourteen-year-old boy soprano, so appreciated by Prince Ferdinand’s entourage, marked an early highpoint in this genre. Saslow, The Medici Wedding of 1589, p.54.

I.III.B STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: THE INAMORATA

voy, for which it was written. Her replacement was Isabella’s daughter-in-law, Virginia Ramponi, the prima donna of the Fedeli troupe, already engaged to perform in Giambattista Guarini’s scripted drama L’idropica, the main play of the festivities. She mastered this demanding additional role in the astoundingly short span of six days. Virginia (‘Florinda’) had performed well under pressure before, having achieved a stunning success in the title role of her husband Giovanni Battista Andreini’s 1606 play La Florinda, which includes an elaborate sung lament. Her performance of Arianna’s Lament, judged a triumphant success by Mantuan courtiers, represents both a key date in the development of opera and a defining moment in the history of women on the stage.225 Arianna cemented her international reputation and became a feature of the repertoires of many ambitious professional actresses. Three pioneering women of Martinelli’s troupe, noted but not named by the documents recording their London tour of 1578, precede the official sanctioning of actresses on post-restoration London stages by over eighty years. Although the personnel of troupes often fluctuated rapidly, Spanish documents of the following decade are pertinent to the identities of Martinelli’s actresses, who are significant for being among the first, and perhaps the first, women to feature in full-length plays on the English stage. These records are special licences of 1587 allowing Drusiano, his wife Angelica Alberghini, his brother Tristano, their companions Angela Salomona and her (unnamed) husband, and ‘La Franceschina’ to perform in Madrid.226 In doing so, they identify the women of ‘Los Confidentes Italianos’ as the first actresses in full-length plays on the Spanish stage – and their troupe as including veterans of the English tour of 1578. English writers generally treated women associated with travelling actors with mocking contempt regardless of whether they performed, degrading them by associating them with prostitutes. Thomas Nash famously dismissed the celebrated Italian actresses as ‘whores and common Curtizens’ and reduced their

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Burattelli (Spettacoli di corte, p.203) quotes from letters praising the 1608 performance. According to Anne MacNeil, its ‘combination of practiced crafts – rhetorical gesture, seconda pratica music, and commedia dell’arte performance – results in a radically new style of music theatre that is representational in all its aspects’ (‘The nature of commitment: Vincenzo Gonzaga’s patronage strategies in the wake of the fall of Ferrara’, Renaissance Studies, 16 (2002), 392–403, p.403). Falconieri, ‘Commedia dell’arte en España’, pp.74–5. Franceschina here may refer to the male actor Carlo or Carletto, who played the servetta Franceschina in Angelica’s troupe throughout the 1590s.

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plays to the antics of ‘Pantaloun, a Whore, and a Zanie’. The actor and troupe leader Dionisio, who, as ‘Scoto of Mantua’ conjured, and possibly performed with a troupe, before Queen Elizabeth I in 1576, is branded by Ben Jonson’s Corvino as a ‘damn’d mountebank […] a common rogue come fidling in to th’osteria,’ his actress as a ‘tumbling whore’ and their repertoire as “forc’d trickes”.227 Harsnet is even more explicitly negative, maintaining that ‘it is the fashion of vagabond players, that coast from Towne to Towne with a trusse and a cast of fiddles, to carry in theyr consort, broken queanes, and Ganimedes, as well for their night pleasance, as their dayes pastime’.228 The much quoted passage in Hamlet is far from Shakespeare’s only comment on improvised acting: ‘Falstaff: What! Shall we be merry? Shall we have a play extempore? […] For God’s sake, lords, convey my tristful queen, for tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes. Mistress Quickly: Oh Jesu! He doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see’.229 John Marston’s 1599 reference to ‘the nimble tumbling Angelica’ is taken by some as evidence for Angelica Alberghini’s presence during the Martinelli brothers’ 1578 English tour, or even as an indication of an otherwise undocumented later British visit by the troupe.230 Also relevant to non-Italian perceptions of commedia actresses is an extended passage in a play by John Day that draws on the travels of Anthony, Robert and Thomas Shirley. In this muchquoted scene, Sir Anthony Shirley, to whom a visit by the English stage clown William Kemp in Rome is historically documented for 1601, invites Kemp and ‘an Italian Harlaken’ to improvise a performance at his Italian residence.231 The two clowns launch into an extended dialogue – with sexual innuendo robust enough to suggest that pictures featuring on-stage nudity may have more than tenuous links to actual stage practice:

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Thomas Nash, Pierce Penilesse, his svpplicaton to the Diuell (London: I B[usbie], 1592), f.F4r; Ben Jonson, eds C H Herford and Evelyn Simpson, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925–52), IX (1950), p.704; Ben Jonson, Volpone, or the foxe. A comoedie acted in the yeere 1605 (London: Stansby, 1616), II.vi.10–15. Samuel Harsnet, A declaration of egregious popish impostures, to with-draw the harts of her Maiesties Subiects from their allegeance, and from the truth of Christian Religion professed in England, Vnder the pretence of casting out deuils (London: Iames Roberts, 1603), p.149. Hamlet III.ii.1–50; Henry IV pt.1, II.iv.312–13, 439–42. John Marston, ‘Satyre X’, in The scovrge of villanie. Three bookes of satyres (London: Iohn Buzbie, 1598), f.H5v. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.350.

I.III.B STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: THE INAMORATA Kemp Harl. K. H. K. H.

Now Signior, how many are you in companie? None but my wife and my selfe, sir. Your wife, why hearke you, wil your wife do tricks in publike. My wife can play. The honest woman, I make no question […] Your wife plaid the Curtizan. True.232

English travellers’ accounts of European performances emphasize the rarity of women performers back home. Actresses are treated as a newsworthy attraction and a significant innovation that was changing the theatrical landscape of early modern Europe. Fynes Moryson, who went to Italy in the 1590s, reports that ‘in Florence they had a house where all the yeare long a Commedy was played by professed players once in the weeke and no more, and the partes of wemen were played by wemen, and the cheefe Actors had not their parts fully penned, but spake much extempory or vpon agreement betweene themselues, espetially the wemen, whose speeches were full of wantonnes, though not grosse baudry’.233 In 1608 Lord Edward Herbert of Cherbury noted as a novelty that Italians performing in Paris featured ‘women [who] play boys’.234 That same year, in Venice, Thomas Coryat ‘saw women acte, a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard that it hath beene sometimes used in London, and they performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever convenient for a Player, as ever I saw any masculine Actor’.235 Despite their international successes, the mixed-gender troupes did not meet with universal acceptance. Their welcome varied widely from nation to nation. Even within the borders of Italy, the leading companies could be lionized in one region and shunned in another. Plays continued to be performed in which the lovers stayed off-stage entirely, and even in commedia dell’arte troupes, men played some female servant roles well into the seventeenth century. Thus, in 1584, a collection of canzone was published by ‘Battista Amorevoli da Treviso, Comico Confidente detto la Franceschina’, and as late as 1588, for example, Diana Ponti’s Desiosi troupe was licensed to play in Rome only without

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234 235

John Day, The travailes of the three English brothers. Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, Mr Robert Shirley. As it is now play’d by her Maiesties Seruants (London: Iohn Wright, 1607), ff.E4r–v. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS CCC94: Fynes Moryson, The Fourth Part of an Itinerary […] (dated in pencil 1595), p.631. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.179. Thomas Coryat, Coryat’s Crudities: Hastily Gobled up in Five Moneths Travells in France, Savoy, Italy […], 2 vols (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1905), p.386.

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women.236 Often this patchwork pattern of acceptance and exclusion arose from clerical opposition to theatre in general and to actresses in particular. Scandalized by the growing power and success of the professional troupes and their intriguing actresses, prelates and theologians denounced the commedia’s introduction of women on to the stage. In calling for a ban on all theatre in 1578, Cardinal Paleotti specifically targeted the comici’s ‘donne commedianti’, censuring these infamous women of ill repute for earning their living through skills which exerted a devastating effect on the morals of their audiences, and especially on married men who fell for their charms.237 Nonetheless, by the end of the century actresses were a standard feature of the professional Italian stage, inclusively implicated, rather than singled out, in Juan de Pineda’s 1599 long-winded denunciations of the theatre as a ‘bottega del diavolo (devil’s workshop)’.238 Five years later the Dominican monk Domenico Gori made renewed attempts to rid the stage of ‘gl’antichi tanto osceni (the obscene antics)’ of the ‘commedie di Zanni’. Classifying the comici as outcasts of society, with the excommunicated, heretics, pagans and Jews, he warns men of the grave spiritual dangers of marrying an actress, and reminds actresses who perform in lewd comedies that their public words and gestures are as mortally sinful as the private deeds of prostitutes.239 Despite continuing clerical fulminations, there was no going back. There is increasing recognition of the extent to which the early Italian troupes’ success and influence relied on the commercial and creative alliance of actors and actresses, and their art was defined through the process of adapting to accommodate the ambitions and skills of female as well as male performers. The visual record charts the growing confidence of actresses in terms of costume and roles, sphere of action, and stage presence, and confirms the increasing indispensability of women performers at every level of theatrical activity.

I.iii.c

Zanni and Pantalone

Early commedia plots draw heavily on the interplay between the masked duo of the servant Zanni and his master Magnifico. Vasari traces ‘the origins of the comedians who became known as the zanni’ to the activities of a quasi-profes-

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D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.500; Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, p.246. La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Taviani, p.39. Ibid., p.122. ‘Trattato contro alle commedie lascive’, c.1604 (ibid, pp.136–43).

I.III.C STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: ZANNI AND PANTALONE

sional troupe set up in mid-century Rome by the poet Giovann’Andrea dall’Anguillara.240 A Venetian and Bergamasque element anticipating the celebrated stage duo of the older Venetian master, Magnifico or Pantalone, and his Bergamasque servant Zanni, is alluded to in the titles of certain comedies from the time of Sanudo’s early sixteenth century diaries. A particular star of Sanudo’s theatrical episodes is the Venetian buffoni Zan Polo. His activities have been linked with those of the actor Benedetto Cantinella of Venice, whose portrayal of the old Venetian in partnership with his troupe’s Zanni is celebrated by Grazzini in 1559: ‘we travel all over playing the Bergamasque and the Venetian, and staging plays is our profession’.241 Cantinella’s troupe played with much success in Rome in the 1540s, and is a possible direct link between the activities of early sixteenth century Venetian buffoni and the professional acting troupes of the mid-sixteenth century onwards.242 Another poem of the late 1550s much cited in this connection is the sonnet in which Joachim Du Bellay indicates that Marcantonio played the part of a Zanni in a Zanni–Magnifico partnership which was one of the chief attractions of the Roman carnival.243 In 1579, Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria accompanied a group of noblemen led by his uncle, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, to the Venetian carnival, where the highlight of the celebrations was the Gelosi troupe. Ferdinand’s diary offers interesting insights into the playing practices of the great troupes in the period immediately preceding the first opening to public audiences of Venetian theatres. As well as performing publicly, the Gelosi staged several plays in the visiting party’s 240

241

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Vasari, ‘Vita di Battista Franco’, pp.427–8, quoted above (p.81). On the Zanni–Pantalone partnership, see Mario Apollonio, ‘Il duetto di Magnifico e Zanni alle origini dell’arte’, in Studi sul teatro veneto fra rinascimento ed età barocca, ed. Maria Teresa Muraro (Firenze: Olschki, 1971), 193–220; Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’. Grazzini, ‘Di Zanni e di Magnifichi’, in Le Rime Burlesche, p.207: ‘Faccendo il Bergamasco e ’l Veniziano / n’andiamo in ogni parte / e ’l recitar commedie è la nostr’arte’ (see also an undated poem perhaps of 1566 noted above, p.80). Re, ‘Commedianti a Roma’; Bonanni, ‘Benedetto Cantinella’; Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, pp.248–51 (who suggests that in 1525 Zan Polo played under the name of Nicoleto Cantinella, and quotes a letter of 30 April 1538 implying that Cantinella may then already have been with a troupe, although Enrica Benini (‘Il “Bravo”, personaggio da teatro’, Rivista italiana di drammaturgia, 3 (1978), 21–49, p.41) identifies Zan Polo as Giovanni Paulovicchio; and Henke identifies him as Zuan Polo Liompardo (Performance and Literature, pp.50–68)). ‘Voicy le Carneval […] / Allons baller en masque, allons nous promener / Allons voir Marc Antoine ou Zany bouffonner, / Avec un Magnifique à la Vénitienne’, Regrets (Sonnet CXII, quoted by Re, who notes that ‘Marcantonio buffone’ and his troupe enjoyed great success in Rome with their comedie from 1550 onwards (Re, ‘Commedianti a Roma’, pp.296–7).

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own private lodgings, for them and their guests. By 1579, zanni costume was an essential element of carnival practice, and Zanni and his master were a standard pair on the comic Italian stage, as is clear from the travellers’ surprise at their absence from a five-hour comedy staged in Mantua by the Jewish court troupe led by Leone de’ Sommi: 244 [18.1.1579, Venice] Nach malln wider uf unsere Gondele gesessen und haimbgefarn. Zu nacht gessen. Und nach dem die best gesellschaftt, so in gantz Italia von Co- /f.8v/ medianten, so man die Gelosj nennt, alldo gewest, haben sy nach dem nachtmal in der gassen, so man St. Joan & Paolo nent, in ainem hauß agirt. dahin wir auch gefahrn welche biß in drey stondt gewärt hatt. Nach malln seyen wir wider haymb gefarn und hatt sich ein jeder zue rhue gethan […] Den 19 […] Allso seyen wir widerumb haimgefahrn, und ist nach dem Nachtmal in unserm Losament, durch vorgemelte Comedianten, ein Comedi agiert worden, nach solcher hatt sich ieder schlafen gemacht [… 20.1.1579, Venice …] mein Geburtstag […] nach dem Nachtmal, ist abermallß von den Comedianten ein Comedi agirt worden, nach welcher sich jeder in sein zimber verfuegt hatt. [… 21.1.1579, Venice …] Indessen ist der Herzog von Venedig sambt den zehen gehaimen khomen und unß alle beyainandern, in des Erzherzog Ferdinandts Camer visitirt […] haben vast ein Stondt conversirt, und nach dem abermalln ein Comedi zugericht gewest ist der herzog dabey blieben, welche man vor dem Nachtmal gehalten und ungefar umb halbe /f.13v/ sibne außgewest ist. Nach solcher hatt der hörtzog sein abschidt

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[18.1] Then we got back into our gondolas and rode home, to eat our evening meal. And after this as the best troupe of actors in the whole of Italy, known as the Gelosi, was here, they performed after dinner in a house in the street known as San Giovanni & Paolo.245 So we rode there, and it lasted for three hours. After which we rode home, and everyone went to bed. [19.1] So we rode home again, and after the evening meal a play was performed in our lodgings by these same actors. After it ended, everyone went to bed.

[20.1] My birthday … After the evening meal, the actors again performed a play, after which everyone retired to their own room.

[21.1] Then the Duke of Venice and his ten counsellors came to pay us all a visit, in Archduke Ferdinand’s chamber […] we conversed for nearly an hour, after which another comedy had been arranged, for which the Duke stayed. It was held before the evening meal and finished at about half past six. After this the Duke took his leave and we accompanied him to the steps, after which we took the evening meal in our lodgings

Munich, BHStAGHA KA 925, ff.8r–v, 10v, 11v, 13r–v, 19v–20v, 27v–28r, 30r–v. Possibly, this unidentified ‘house’ was the Teatro Tron (by the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo). MacNeil identifies its opening (and that of Teatro Michiel, at the Grand Canal end of the Rio di San Cassiano) to public audiences during the 1581 carnival season as ‘a great watershed in the history of theatrical production in Italy and especially of the commedia dell’arte’ (Music and Women, p.8).

I.III.C STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: ZANNI AND PANTALONE genomben, den wir zu der Stiegen belayt […] und vollgendts das Nachtmal in unserm Losament eingenomben [… 26.1.1579, Ferrara …] Alßbaldt das nachtmal eingenomben, hernach zu ainer Comedi, welche im Allten Schloß gehalten worden gangen. Seyen erst umb zwölf uhr schlaffen khomen. [… 27.1.1579, Ferrara …] Nach essens uff ainem Sal Pallon gespiltt, darnach in Zani klaider angelegt, in ein Gassen geritten die man die Givecca nennet. Alldo vast alles frauenzimber vom Adell, uff Iren Caretten fahrn, die gassen uff und ab, bis donckhl würdet. Seyen allso wider haimb zum Nachtmal geritten […] Nach solchem haben wir unß wider in Zani klaider angelegt / f.20v/ und zu ainem danz so man festin nennet gangen. Allein ein weil zugesehen, darnach wider heimb zu rhue gangen [… 5.2.1579, Mantua …] Nach eßens uf den saal […] gangen. Alldo ein Comedj von Juden agirt worden, hatt schier funf Stondt gewärt. Ist /f.28v/ nichz anders gewest, alls sonst bey welschen Comedj, allein das khein Magnifico und Zanj dabey gewest. das Ort ist mit Portalln und heüßern gar hübsch zugericht. [… 9.2.1579, Bolzano …] Wir haben zeitlich zu nacht geßen. Nach eßens hatt unß ein junger Pursch, einer von Spaur, in sein hauß zu ainem Danz geladen, dahin wir in Zani Mascara gangen, bis uf ailfe gedanzt, darnach unß zu rhue gethan.

[26.1] Directly the evening meal was over, we left to go to a play that was to be held in the old castle [Castello Estense]. We only got to bed at midnight.

[27.1] After the meal we played ball in a chamber, then we put on zanni costumes and rode to the street called the Giovecca. Practically all the noblewomen were there, riding up and down the street in their carriages until nightfall. Then we rode home to the evening meal […] After this we again put on zanni costumes and went to a festino dance. We only watched for a while, then we went home again to rest.

[5.2] After the meal we went to the chamber. There a play was performed by Jews, it lasted for almost five hours. It was no different from other Italian plays, except that it included no Magnifico or Zanni. The stage was most attractively provided with doorways and houses. [9.2] We ate the evening meal early. After the meal, a young fellow from Spaur invited us to a dance at his house. We went there in zanni masquerade costumes, and danced until eleven, after which we went to bed.

Stage routines involving Zanni and his master combined elements from a number of sources: the parasite–master relationship of commedia erudita, the dialect dialogues of the peasant stage, and the crowd-pleasing skills of the professionals: acrobatics, music, song and dance. This rich heritage contributed to the stage duo’s huge success. As their comic routines gained in popularity, Zanni branched out from his original role, based on a Venetian porter of peasant origin, willing to run errands for whoever would pay him, into numerous stage servants, representing personal servants identified by their masters’ livery. The master too diversified, leading to the gradual creation of a whole family of comic servants and masters, many confined to one actor, and often only distinguishable by their names. The enormous success of the new entertainment was not greeted with unqualified

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approval, and Cristoforo Castelletti was one of many hostile playwrights.246 In the prologue to I torti amorosi, he complains that audiences prefer the improvised foolings of an old Venetian and his Bergamasque servant to a serious play taking three years to write, and six months to rehearse.247 While the Zanni–Pantalone pair had long been a commonplace stock fixture of the Italian stage by 1600, it remained, at this time, an exotic rarity to much of the population of German-speaking Europe. For the Hechingen wedding of his nephew in 1598, Karl II von Hohenzollern, who as noted above (p.47) had taken an active part in the Munich wedding of 1568, organized a group of tournament masqueraders disguised as commedia dell’arte zanni. The wedding’s official festival book description gives no clue as to their theatrical connections, and it is clear that its author, Jakob Frischlin, was himself unfamiliar with the Italian zanni. They are correctly identified in the private account of Felix Platter of Basle, who attended as the personal physician of a guest. Karl II’s group evidently made a considerable impact, even though many of its spectators were unaware of the source of its costumes. The detailed descriptions of Frischlin and Platter, not previously cited in connection with the commedia dell’arte, are significant for Zanni’s transalpine diffusion, reception, and depiction. Karl II’s group was the second of seven companies of masqueraders who took part in the wedding’s sole tournament at Hechingen, on Thursday 5 October 1598. Frischlin248 associates them with Turks, Hungarians, Tartars and 246

247

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Others were Varchi: ‘Credo che i nostri Zanni facciano piu ridere che i loro Mimi non facevano, e che le comedie del Ruzante di Padova cose contadine avanzino quelle che dalla citta d’Atella si chiamavano Atellane’ (L’ercolano, 1570, p.259, quoted in Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.225) and Nicolò Rossi (Discorsi sulla commedia, Vicenza 1589, p.34: ‘nè commedie io nomerò giammai quelle che da gente sordida et mercenaria vengono qua e là portate, introducendovi Gianni bergamasco, Francatrippa, Pantalone et simili buffoni, se non volessimo assomigliarle ai Mimi, alle Atellane ed ai planipedi antichi’, quoted in Magni, ‘Il tipo dello Zanni’, p.113). ‘Una chiacchierata all’improviso […] d’un vecchio Vinitiano, & d’vn servitor Bergamasco, accompagnata da quattro attioni disoneste […] che una Comedia Grave, che vi si serà stentato tre anni a comporla, e sei mesi a recitarla’ (quoted from an edition of 1591 by Louise George Clubb, ‘Italian comedy and The Comedy of Errors’, Comparative Literature, 19 (1967), 240–51, p.243, who notes that the first edition is dated 1581). e H Jakob Frischlin, Drey schone und lustige BXcher von der Hohenzollerischen Hochzeyt, ed. Casimir Bumiller (Konstanz: Isele, 2003), pp.222–3, 240: Drauff folgen thet / das sag ich H dir // Ein seltzam Gsind / auff der manier. // Die kamen an mit jren Haeublen // Rot HXtlen warens / darnach scheublen // Oder Mützlen / gar kurtz gestumpet // Haben auff jren Rossen H gumpet. // Weyß ploder hosen hettens an // Gar scheützlich sahen dise Mann. // Die HXtlen von rodt / blaw / gelb 7ÙFK// Solch Leüt im Vngerland du VÙFK. // Die zogen her Türckischer e art // Mancher hett da ein Knebelbart. // Darauff zwey dachlein zogen blaw // Die hindern

I.III.C STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: ZANNI AND PANTALONE

Croatians, and describes their costumes as white hose, blue or grey cloaks, and hats of red, blue or yellow cloth, some with moustaches. This company of ten ‘challengers’ is described by Platter as follows:249 Hierauf volgt die andre compagny der ‘Avanturieren’, zechen ritter, par unnd par rittende, verbutzet wie die ‘Zanii’, besunder die zwen letsten, welche heßliche larven oder angesicht vor sich hatten, daß waren graf Carl von Zolleren, graf von Holach, Reingraf Ott, graf von Zeinigen, schenck Heinrich von Limpurg, Frobenius Truchseß,

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Ten knights, riding in pairs, costumed like zanni, especially the last two, who wore horrible masks or make-up. They were Karl [II Count] of Zollern [-Sigmaringen],250 the Count of Holach,251 [Wild- und] Rheingraf Ott[o zu Kyrburg], 252 the Count of Zeiningen, 253 Heinrich von Limpurg [-Sontheim],254 Frobenius Truchseß,255 [Carl

zwen die sahen graw. // Die Zinckenblaser modulierten, // Vnd disen Reyen artlich zierten. // Posaunen zwo / vnd auch zwen Zincken // Zur rechten die / jhene zur lincken. // Die Proceß daher thete bringen // Graff CAROLVS, von Sigmaringen. // Menigklich die Procession // Hat PÙVVHQ wol passieren lohn. // Dann sie gantz wunderbarlich waren // Jn disen Ringplatz eingefaren. // Von Schaeumen kamen mancher hand // Als wann man ist im Türckenland. // Gantz greülich mit dem Angesicht // Der Tartar vnd Crabat auch sicht. // Dann sonderlich H zwen scheützlich sahen // Wann sie sich herzu theten nahen. // Sie renntten her auff grXhnem e Wasen // Bleckten die zan / hetten groß Nasen. // Das menigklich PÙVW lachen jr // Der sie sach rennen / glaub du mir. // Auff disen auffzug kam der dritt // Den soll man auch verschweygen nit […] Jnns Ringle darnach stachen fein // Die in dem andern auffzug sein. // Gleich wie die Vnger giengens her // Wie droben ist vermeldet mehr. // Sie randten grewlich auff dem Wasen // Mit jren grossen dolder nasen. // Die sie an jren Laruen haben // Darmit sie grewlich zeychen gaben. // Der langen Nasen waren zwen // Die bleckten auch da jre Zaen. // Allda sie jre Bossen machen // Das jederman thet jrer lachen. Felix Platter. Tagebuch (Lebensbeschreibung) 1536–1567, ed. Valentin Lötscher (Basel & Stuttgart: Schwabe, 1976), pp.499–501. (1547–1606), brother of Eitelfriedrich (1545–1605, who, as the groom’s father, hosted the 1598 wedding), present with his second wife, Elisabeth von Cuilenberg (d.1620) (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schoene und lustige BXHcher, pp.143, 154; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.490). The previous day, he had displayed exceptional horsemanship skills, having trained his horse in dressage, acrobatic tricks and jumping; and he was to participate in the hunt. (Felix Platter. Tagebuch, pp.498–9, 504). (1578–1637), brother of the bride; present with his wife Claudia v. Manderscheid and e H daughter Juliana (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schone und lustige BXcher, pp.175, 180, 182, 210, 248; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.490). A kinsman of the young Anna Maria v. Zeiningen, who travelled to the wedding with the bride’s brother Rheingraf Adolf (Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.490). (1573–1637), present with his parents Johannes v. Limpurg-Gaildorf (1543–1608) and Eleonora von Zimmern (one of seven sisters of the groom’s mother, Sybilla) and a retinue of e H thirty-two courtiers (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schone und lustige BXcher, pp.110–11, 144; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.491). Hereditary Lord High Steward of Waldtpurg; present with his wife Anna Maria von Törring and a retinue of twenty-two courtiers, as representative of Maximilian of Bavaria. Also present

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA Schornstetter, Wolf Fuchs, Christoph Fuchs[chs], steurmeister, hatten EOÙZH, ettlich brune wie nachthuben auf, weiße kappen dorunder, mit angehenckter kutten unnd schürtz biß uf die stifel, kurtze mentelin wie goller, von farb EOÙZ, braun unnd gäl, nampten sich der 1. Joan Badello, legt in, dorumb zerennen vor den richteren, 10 gulden, der ander Joan Frimocollo 10 fl, der dritt Scherisepho 8 fl, der viert Peterlino 8 fl, der fünft Jhan Fourmage 5 fl 5 batzen, der sext Joan Fritada 4 kronen, der sibendt Francotrippo 9 gulden, der acht Pergomasco 5 fl, der neunt Zani 4 fl 7 batz., der zechendt Zani 5 fl 7 batz. Die Maintenierer gwanen die neun partido, der Frimocollo die ein. Ire ‘patrin’, die inen nach ranten unnd sper abnamen, waren die grafen von Fürstenberg unnd Helfenstein.

256

257 258 259

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von] Schornstetten,256 Wolf and Christoph Fuchs and the revenue master.257 They wore blue or in several cases brown nightcaps over white caps, with attached cowls and aprons hanging down to their boots, and jackets as short as collars, blue, brown or yellow in colour. The first called himself Joan Badello, and placed a ten florin wager with the judges in order to take part in the tournament. The second, Joan Frimocollo, ten florins, the third Scherisepho eight florins, the fourth Peterlino eight florins, the fifth Jhan Fourmage five florins and five batzen, the sixth Joan Fritada four crowns, the seventh Francotrippo nine florins, the eighth Pergomasco five florins, the ninth Zani four florins seven batzen, the tenth Zani, five florins and seven batzen. The defenders [i.e. Markgraf Georg Friedrich von Baden258 and Scipio von Rappolstein] won nine rounds, and Frimocollo one. Their seconds, who ran behind them and gathered up spears, were Counts [Friedrich of] Fürstenberg [-Heiligenberg]259 and [Georg of] Helfenstein.260

were his father Jakob’s (d.1589) widow Johanna v. Zimmern, sister of the groom’s mother, brother Heinrich and wife Jacoba and her sister Eleonora (widow of his kinsman Karl Truchseß), aunts of the groom (and two sisters of Karl II, with whom the brothers left the wedding the day after the tournament) (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schoene und lustige BXHcher, pp.92, 105–6, 143–4, 150, 155–6, 173, 188, 199, 245; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, pp.489–90, 492). Present with a retinue of six courtiers, as representative of Ernst Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schoene und lustige BXHcher, pp.150–1; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.489). Three otherwise unidentified courtiers. Platter’s patron, and husband of the bride’s sister (Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.468). 1563–1617. Present with his first wife Elisabeth v. Sulz (1584–1601). His father Joachim (1538–98) sent an envoy. His mother Anna v. Zimmern was a sister of the groom’s mother (Jakob Frischlin, Drey schoene und lustige BXHcher, pp.109–10, 144, 188; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.491). Also present were his widowed mother Apollonia von Zimmern (a sister of the groom’s mother), and brother Frobenius, who took part in the fourth group of this tournament (Jakob e H Frischlin, Drey schone und lustige BXcher, pp.143, 151, 188, 228; Felix Platter. Tagebuch, pp.491–2, 501).

I.III.C STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: ZANNI AND PANTALONE

Platter identifies the ten knights by both name and stage name. The latter corrects Frischlin’s interpretation of their costumes. These ten masquerade disguises are not based on a range of ethnic national costumes, but on one quite specific stock theatrical role. The grotesquely masked big-nosed tooth-gnashing final two were generic zanni, and at least seven of the other eight are specific variants of zanni. Lötscher footnotes zanni as a generic theatrical stage clown, without specifying the connection with the commedia dell’arte.261 Schmid notes zanni as ‘Harlequin figures’, but explicitly describes the group as ‘Hungarian-Turkish’.262 Lists of variants of this masked comic servant figure of the commedia dell’arte, evidently part of standard zanni stage patter, are the defining feature of one genre of early modern popular printed ephemera. In late examples, such as Giorgio Maria Raparini’s L’Arlichino of 1718, most of the zanni names appear to be fantasy or caprice names, featured for purely literary purposes, and their connection to genuine stage roles is tenuous or non-existent.263 Sixteenth century examples of the genre are far more likely to feature genuine stage names, and my suggestion is that the zanni variants of the 1598 wedding tournament are not fantasy names, randomly created for this masquerade, but all or mostly inspired by real actors of the time. This is clearly the case for Peterlino and Francotrippo, the stage names of two internationally known and widely documented stars of the commedia dell’arte, Giovanni Pellesini, who created the role of Pedrolino, and Gabriele Panzanini of Bologna (fl.1571–1609), who created that of Francatrippa. That Jakob Frischlin altogether failed to acknowledge the theatrical source of these costumes, and that two others of the ten simply called themselves ‘Zani’ may perhaps suggest that the specific zanni variants that were used stretched the limits of this south-western German group’s knowledge of zanni names at that time. Jhan Fourmage is possibly inspired by Jean Potage, a stage clown created and performed in Germany by Thomas Sackville, an internationally renowned English actor based at the court of Wolfenbüttel during the 1590s, when he also played several seasons at the Frankfurt Fair.264 Joan Frimocollo, Joan Fritada

261 262

263

264

Felix Platter. Tagebuch, p.499 n.77. Ernst Fritz Schmid, Musik an den schwäbischen Zollernhöfen der Renaissance: Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Südwestens (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1962), p.604. Giorgio Maria Raparini, L’Arlichino, poema carnevalesco dedicato a Signori Accademici sfacendati (s.l, s.d.); idem, L’Arlichino poema dedicato a Ss. Accademici Sfaccendati (Heidelberg: Müller, 1718). On Jean Potage (also known as John Posset, Jan Bouset or Hans Supp), see Hansen, Formen der commedia dell’arte, pp.42ff.

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and Joan Badello are inspired by genuine stage identities not yet firmly associated with specific actors. Joan Frimocollo almost certainly refers to the Zan Frignocola or Fracagnola seen in 1581 by Montaigne, acting in Pisa with the Desiosi troupe of commedia dell’arte actors, and recorded in publications such as Giovanni Gabrielli’s Il novo Maridazzo alla bergamasca de M. Zan Frogniocola con Madonna Gnignocola.265 Joan Fritada is the street entertainer recorded by Ben Jonson, Tomaso Garzoni and others in the decades around 1600 as Fritata or Zan Fritada.266 Joan Badello is identifiable with Zan Padella, Gradella or Badil, recorded in Contrasti of 1613 and 1617 and by Garzoni, and depicted as Padelle on the French mountebank stage of Gille le Niais, with Harlequin and others [plate 299a].267 Pergomasco is possibly the ‘Gianni bergamasco’ noted by Rossi in 1589, or perhaps a generic bergamasque zanni.268 Scherisepho’s context indicates that this is also a zanni variant. Perhaps there is some connection with Zan Panza di Pegora, the stage persona of Simone, the Zanni of the Gelosi Company, thought by some to have inspired Sancho Panzo. A Lachrimoso Lamento published on his death in 1585, and the previously referred to Contrasto of 1617 by the same author both name Panza de Pegora himself, as well as Zan Padella, Pedrolin, Zan Frignacola and Zan Fritada, and

265

266

267

268

Verona 1611 (Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, IV, 37–40, p.37); Frignochola: Stanze alla venitiana d’vn bravo, Venice 1582 (ibid, I, 336–42, p.339). Jonson, Volpone, II.ii.110; Garzoni, La piazza universale: Discorso CIV, p.910; Viaggio di Zan Fritada – opera nova e ridicolosa and Barzeletta nova in lingua bergamasca cantada da Zan Fritada alla sua Sabadina (Magni, ‘Il tipo dello Zanni’, 167–9); Opera nuova nellaqvale si contiene il Maridazzo della bella Brunettina, Sorella de Zan Fritada de Valpelosa (Venetia, 1585) in Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, 215–19; Contrasto di bravvra fra il Capitano delvvio e Zan Badil con due Canzoni alla Bergamasca (Ferrara, 1613) in ibid, I, 348–53, p.349; Opera nova dove si contiene madrigali, sonetti, canzoni, & villanelle. Tutte cose honeste & degne ad ogni eleuato spirito. Nouamente da Zan Fritada, & il Figliuolo del Fortunato posto in luce (sl, sd) in ibid, I, p.136, II, p.319. On Zan Fritada see also Henke, Performance and Literature, pp.112–19). Garzoni, La piazza universale: Discorso CIV, p.911: ‘Gradella fa una squaquarata di voce, e di canto molto sonora; idem, L’Hospidale de’ pazzi incurabili, ed. Gorgias Gambacorta (Milano: Ferro, 1967), pp.9, 46–7, 116: ‘non è comedia da due gazette, né la squarquerata triviale di Gradella, che si dona per le piazze per antipasto delle balle di Macaleppo’; ‘una bella squaquerata di risa, di quelle che fa il Padella su la piazza di S. Marco’, ‘Vedrò almen con Gradella sopra il banco’). Contrasto di […] Zan Badil (1613); Contrasto di Zan Salcizza e Scatolin (Carmagnola, 1617); Viaggio de Zan Padella (sd) (all three in Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, pp.286, 349; V, p.416). Magni, ‘Il tipo dello Zanni’, p.113.

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I.III.C STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: ZANNI AND PANTALONE

a poem of 1621 by Croce adds Francatrip to these latter four.269 Several of the 1598 zanni types are also linked in two publications of 1597, Orazio Vecchi’s L’Anfiparnasso, whose cast list names Pedrolin, Zane Bergamasco and a Francatrippa who recites a list of zanni variants that include Fritada, Pedrolin, Padella, Gradella and Frignocola, and Adriano Banchieri’s Il donativo di qvatro asinissimi personaggi, which includes a sonneto naming Pedrulì, Fregnocola and Francatripp.270 A genealogy lists Frittada, Zan Padella and Pedroli, and Conti’s Partenza di Carnevale adds Francatripp to these three.271 Felix Platter’s identification of Karl II’s group as zanni types is of theatrehistorical value in itself, and for identifying them as the subjects of Frischlin’s account of this group. It also identifies as courtiers, rather than members of the nobility, the group’s final pair, whose outsize noses and ugly masks struck spectators as so comical when they ran across the meadow gnashing their teeth at them, that many laughed at their grotesque appearance. In March, May and July 1598, the groom’s father, Duke Eitelfriedrich IV, sent a succession of courtiers, including his tailors Jakob Maurer and Jakob Flies, and his director of music Narzissus Zängel, to Milan.272 On his instructions, they ordered, purchased and transported back to Hechingen bales of cloth of gold, velvet and silk, tapestries ‘for the running at the ring’, masquerade costumes, twenty-four theatrical face masks, musical instruments and other luxury items for the wedding festivities, to the value of over 3000 florins. Many German masquerade costumes were inspired by iconographic sources in ephemeral publications, or by engravings in costume books, and in turn surely had their impact on the iconographic record. But more directly than to visual sources, or even than to Eitelfriedrich’s Milanese and other Italian contacts and suppliers, the search for the source for this unprecedented array of zanni variants north of the Alps before 1600 points directly the Munich wedding of 1568, in which the groom of 1598’s grandfather, father and uncle played central parts. These German descriptions of zanni, by Platter, who recognized them as such and by Frischlin, who did not, chart cross-cultural influences that contributed towards

269

270 271

272

Il lachrimoso lamento (1585); Contrasto […] (1617); Giulio Cesare Croce, La gran vittoria di Pedrolino contra il Dottor Gratiano Scatolone (Bologna, 1621) (all in Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, pp.223–4, 286; II, pp.24–9). Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, pp.266, 275, 302. Genologia di Zan Capella (late sixteenth century, s.d.); Camillo Conti, Partenza di Carnevale (Ronciglione, 1615) (both in Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, pp.253–7; IV, pp.32, 37). Schmid, Zollernhöfen, pp.256–60.

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the diffusion of the commedia dell’arte beyond Italy, and offer vivid insights into early modern German reception – and expectations – of zanni behaviour.

I.iii.d

Harlequin

Harlequin is perhaps the most popular, universally recognized and thoroughly researched of all commedia dell’arte servants. The abundant theories for Harlequin’s origins as a commedia dell’arte mask have been comprehensively reviewed.273 Already in 1904, Driesen had argued that the name Harlequin has its etymological roots not in Italy but in northern Europe. In contrast to the other central masks of the commedia dell’arte, which were created in Italy and exported to other countries, the stage character Harlequin originated in France, and only gradually became accepted in Italy. He suggested that the commedia dell’arte servant Harlequin was created by one individual Italian actor, on the Parisian stage, during the reign of Henri III (1574–89), inspired by Hellequins, a type of local comic stage devil popular in religious plays since medieval times, derived from a satanic underworld leader.274 Although Driesen was unable to identify the actor concerned, or any sixteenth century depiction of Harlequin costume, his theories have been largely borne out by subsequent research, which pinpoints Harlequin’s creation as a stage character quite precisely to in or just before the year 1584. It was Lea who convincingly established Tristano Martinelli (7.4.1557–1.3.1630)275 as the creator of the Harlequin role, a generally accepted

273

274

275

Delia Gambelli, ‘Arlecchino: dalla “preistoria” a Biancolelli’, Biblioteca teatrale, 5 (1972), 17–68; eadem, Arlecchino a Parigi: dall’inferno alla corte del re sole (Roma: Bulzoni, 1993). Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, pp.188–277. Harlequin’s etymological roots as a ‘wild huntsman’, the underworld devil figure sometimes known as Hellequin or Erlen König, who led wild bands of medieval demons or ghosts, have been exhaustively traced to early medieval, and in some cases to pre-Christian ritualistic, origins. His bestial appearance was first imitated by medieval stage devils and carnival fools, and by the masked human participants of the charivari. See also Giovanni Jaffei, ‘Note critiche su le maschere in genere e su Arlecchino in ispecie’, Rivista d’Italia, 1 (1910), 771–825, pp.803–19; Hermann Flasdieck, ‘Harlekin: Germanischer Mythos in Romanischer Wandlung’, Anglia, 61 (1937), 225–340, p.311; idem, ‘Nochmals Harlekin’, Anglia, 66 (1942), 59–69; Gustave Cohen, ‘Survivances modernes de la Mesnie Hellequin’, Bulletin de la Classe des lettres de l’Académie royale de Belgique, 1 (1948), 32–47. Sirro Ferrone, Claudia Burattelli, Domenica Landolfi, Anna Zinanni, eds, Comici dell’arte. Corrispondenze. G B Andreini, N Barbieri, P M Cecchini, S Fiorillo, T Martinelli, F Scala, 2 vols (Firenze: Le Lettere, 1993), I, pp.351–3.

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I.III.D STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: HARLEQUIN

identification reinforced by more recently discovered documentation.276 According to Lea ‘there is nothing to prevent us from supposing that all the references to Arlecchino in the sixteenth century belong to […Tristano] Martinelli’.277 If so, it seems logical to suggest that all sixteenth century depictions of Harlequin also belong to Tristano Martinelli. A troupe of Italian comedians who crossed the Alps in the late 1570s included Tristano Martinelli.278 Led by Tristano’s older brother, the troupe played for fourteen months in Antwerp to October 1577, before travelling on to Paris, and, in 1578, London. Nowhere in these documents of the late 1570s cited by Schrickx is Tristano referred to as Harlequin, but this is of limited significance, as none of the eight actors is identified by role. It is possible that the twenty-year-old Tristano established contact with local comedians at the time of his 1577 visit to Paris. Several Parisian pamphlets of the 1580s demonstrate that when he returned to Paris around 1584–85, Harlequin and his troupe collaborated with the French acting troupe led by Agnan Sarat, and with Henri III’s court buffoons Chicot and Sibilot.279 By 1588, when he addresses a letter ‘a mia madre Lucia Martinelli, madre d’Arlecchino’, Tristano Martinelli was already well known by the stage name Arlecchino.280 In the 1590s, he signs himself as ‘Tristano Martinelli, detto Arlechino comico’, or ‘alias Arlechino’, and he remained identified with the role for life (as late as 1627, he refers to ‘nostra arlichinesca persona’).281 In 1599, ‘Tristano Martinelli cognominato Arlechino’ was promoted to superintendent for the state of Mantua of all performing itinerants, in a decree whose wording leaves no doubt as to the overlap between charlatans and comici.282 Martinelli’s later

276

277 278

279 280 281

282

Ileana Florescu, ‘Harlequin, nom de comédien’, Biblioteca teatrale, 4 (1986), 21–59, pp.30, 57; Ferrone et al., Corrispondenze, I, pp.349–50; Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.83; Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.189–91. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.83. Schrickx (‘Commedia dell’arte players in Antwerp’, pp.79–80) cites documents of the 1570s naming all eight of the troupe’s actors, and noting its three actresses. As noted above, a Spanish licence of 1587 names actresses as well as actors of this troupe (Falconieri, ‘Commedia dell’arte en España’, pp.74–5). Florescu, ‘Harlequin, nom de comédien’, pp.39–41; Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, p.171. Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, p.192. Tristano Martinelli, L’Epistolario d’Arlecchino (Tristano Martinelli 1556–1631) raccolto da Jarro (Firenze: Landi, 1895), p.15; Ferrone et al, Corrispondenze, I, pp.355–64, 429. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, p.207: ‘tutti li comici mercenarii, zaratani, cantinbanco, bagattiglieri, postiggiatori, e che mettono banchi per vender ogli, balotte, saponeti, historie et cose simili (all the professional actors, charlatans, mountebanks, peddlers, jugglers, and those who display for sale oils, ballads, soaps, stories and similar items)’.

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career, when he visited France several times, and the Harlequin role became the favourite of royalty and nobility, is well documented, as is the adoption of the Harlequin role by actors in France after his death. The Harlequin role became generic during the latter part of Martinelli’s lifetime. As early as 1610, the French physician Thomas Sonnet de Courval complains of gaudily attired drug-peddling charlatans touting for business ‘accompagnez d’vne grande suitte & Carauane d’Escornifleurs, batteurs depaué, Basteleurs, Comediens, Farceurs & Harlequins’.283 Harlequins occur in over forty of Scala’s scenarios of 1611, and in Johann Valentin Andreae’s Tvrbo sive moleste et frvstra per cvncta divagans ingenivm of 1616.284 A soldier in Michelangelo the Younger’s La fiera describes a Harlequin in a fairground commedia dell’arte performance; Barbieri refers to the amusing acrobatics of ‘gli Arlichini’ in 1634, and by the time of Martinelli’s death in 1630 the masked comedian Harlequin had become a popular and much depicted stage character.285 But most early depictions of commedia dell’arte masters and their servants feature the servant Zanni, and pictures of Harlequins and other comic performers in patched costume from the period before 1630 are rare.

I.iii.e

Some other roles

The inamorata and regional servant–master stock roles, which underpin commedia dell’arte plots, were complemented by a number of national types. These afforded the opportunity to mock foreigners and their habits, and to tailor performances to foreign audiences by including material in a familiar language. The comic possibilities of foreigners were recognized on the Italian stage well before the commedia dell’arte became established.286 The main male national

283

284

285 286

Thomas Sonnet, sieur de Courval, Satyre contre les charlatans, et psevdomedecins empyriques (Paris: Milot, 1610), p.94. Thomas Platter jr of Basle’s travel account (compiled 1604–5) notes that on 27 July 1599, when he was at supper in the ‘Delphin’ inn at Linas near Montlhéry, musical, theatrical and acrobatic entertainment was provided by a travelling player, a single fiddler wearing ‘Harlekins vermumbte Kleider (Harlequin’s masked costume)’ (University Library, Basle MS. A O 7 & 8, f.474r). Flaminio Scala, Il teatro delle fauole rappresentatiue (Venetia: Pulciani, 1611); Hansen (Formen der commedia dell’arte, pp.57–8) speculates on whether Andreae’s Harlequin wore patched costume, and was the first German stage Harlequin. Jaffei, ‘Note critiche’, p.773; Barbieri, La Supplica, p.109 Sanudo’s diary (1 February 1525) notes that ‘Zuan Polo si portò benissimo, et li intermedii fonno molto belli, de tutte le virtù de soni e canti ch’è possibil haver, vestiti in vari habiti da

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I.III.E STOCK TYPES AND PLAYERS: OTHER ROLES

types of the commedia are military, and, of these, the most characteristic is the Spanish captain, who already features in 1568, as Massimo Troiano’s Don Diego de Mendoza in the Munich wedding performance.287 But early captains were also often played as regional types. Some, such as Girolamo Garavini of Ferrara, who played Capitano Rinoceronte to great acclaim until his death in 1624, spoke no Spanish, and the early commedia featured military types of several other nationalities.288 A popular sixteenth century commedia dell’arte military type was the tedesco or German mercenary, recognizable in pictures from his costume, similar to that of the Vatican Swiss guards. The tedesco, less well documented than the Spanish captain, is noted, for example, in the cast lists of two scenarios of the Corsini Album, a manuscript collection of 100 commedia dell’arte scenarios, perhaps dating to as early as the 1590s, each with a title page illustration (no.38, Le Bvrle di Fidele and no.50, La cieca, see plate 246). He also features in an amateur Ferrarese court comedy, where he was played by the Duke of Ferrara.289 As popular carnival masks, ‘todeschi’ were represented at the Venice carnival of 1572.290 While the commedia Spaniard was almost exclusively a military captain, Turkish costume seems to have been used more for disguise or publicity than for the creation of stock roles, and the Frenchman had no fixed role or social standing on the early commedia stage. He appeared primarily not as a soldier or inamorato, but as a minor servant, as in the Munich wedding performance of 1568 or the servant Philipin of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts [plate 6]. By 1620 the zanni comedies were very much settling into the stereotypic format that Baretti and his eighteenth century contemporaries understood by the

287 288

289

290

mori, da todeschi, da griegi, da hongari, da pelegrini et altri assà habiti senza però volti’, and that in 1533 Zan Polo acted in the character of one Rado Stizoso, a Slav mercenary whom Benini identifies as a forerunner of the commedia military captain (Lea , Italian Popular Comedy, II, pp.476–8; Benini, ‘Il “Bravo”’, p.41). On this, see section I.ii.b, pp.46ff. As revealed by a letter of 28 August 1620 from Cecchini to Ferdinando Gonzaga (Ferrone et al, Corrispondenze, I, p.286). Recorded in a letter of 11 March 1577 by Bernardo Canigiani (Angelo Solerti, Vita di Torquato Tasso, 3 vols (Torino: Loescher, 1895), I, 256–7) ‘Cinque Todeschi con fiaschi de Maluasia, & bicchieri in mano, cantando à questo modo, “Vina vina Bacco Bacco […]” […] Vno Todesco, & uno Francatrippe uestiti honorata mente con fiasche […] pieni de buoni uini […] mangiando, & beuendo attorno il Trionfo’ (Ordine, et dechiaratione di tvtta la mascherata, fatta nella Città di Venetia la Domenica di Carneuale. M.D.LXXI. per la Gloriosa Vittoria contra Turchi, in Venetia, appresso Giorgio Angelieri, MDLXXII (Venetia: Angelieri, 1572), ff.A7, A8).

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term commedia dell’arte. The significant roles of the commedia dell’arte had largely been defined, and later generations of actors took over already created personae. Originality became increasingly difficult, and despite their different names, most of the dottore, Pantalones and captains became as indistinguishable as the lovers had already been in the sixteenth century, lifted out of uniformity only by the most exceptional actors. Publications such as Cecchini’s influential Frutti delle moderne comedie of 1628, Barbieri’s La supplica of 1634 and Perrucci’s Dell’arte rappresentativa of 1699 made firm recommendations concerning performing practice. These increasingly confine the commedia’s range within neat and manageable formulae which, in the very act of defining it, imposed an increasing stylization. From the genuine improvisation, exciting experiments and wide creative repertoire of their earliest decades, the professional players gradually settle into unity, systematization and predictable routine. Within a century, custom and expectation had channelled the previously diverse dramatic offerings of the Italian professionals into the narrow and predictable range of masked and unmasked stock roles, plots and lazzi which for many exemplify the commedia dell’arte in its purest form.

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II

Art-historical analysis: some case studies

II.i

The Recueil Fossard 291

II.i.a

General introduction

The best known and most reproduced renaissance commedia dell’arte images are in Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum, in the so-called Recueil Fossard album.292 The album was discovered by Agne Beijer in the early 1920s, in the uncatalogued reserves of the Nationalmuseum Stockholm. Its title page bears the name of Sieur Fossard, a musician at the court of Louis XIV, who reputedly assembled a vast personal collection of theatrical and festival prints and drawings, in the mistaken hope that it would be purchased by the king. Fossard’s collection was dispersed after his death in 1702 and is now largely lost [plate 39]. In an attempted reconstruction of the original collection, Beijer published forty-six of the eighty-five prints.293 The Stockholm album entered the Nationalmuseum Printroom from the Swedish royal collections in 1904, with at least a dozen further similar leather-bound volumes. It is the only one of these known to have survived the dismemberment into single leaves officially ordered in 1905, and thus the only one whose prints escaped being filed individually into the Nationalmuseum’s general print collection. Two complete sections of Fossard’s dispersed collections are in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. They are bound together as one volume containing 163 mostly seventeenth century prints and drawings, on 124 numbered folios with

291

292

293

On the Recueil Fossard woodcuts, see also Guardenti, ‘Gli artigiani della rue Montorgueil e le incisioni della Raccolta Fossard’, in Gli Italiani a Parigi, 194–200; Kellein, Pierrot, pp.17, 20; Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo’, pp.76–9; Philiep Bossier, ‘Het beeld van de commedia dell’arte in de “Recueil Fossard” en de middencultuur tussen stad en platteland’, Incontri, 12 (1997), 167–78; idem, “Ambasciatore della risa”, pp.64–9; Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon, p.114. Stockholm Nationalmuseum Printroom catalogue nos. NM 2189/1904 to NM 2272/1904; including two prints, on consecutive folios, numbered 2250. Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

two title pages.294 Unlike the Copenhagen Fossard prints, many of the Stockholm prints survive as unique impressions, and the volume’s title page and prints are no longer as Fossard mounted them. They have been rearranged and remounted, in scrapbook fashion, with additional material that was not part of the original Fossard collections, on to the recto pages of a forty-eight-folio bound volume which was still empty-paged in 1738, thirty-six years after Fossard’s death. Some of the Stockholm prints are still clearly identified as Fossard’s by their distinctive inked borders.295 But others have been trimmed [plates 40–1], and some woodcuts have been cut out, rearranged and hand coloured [plates 8– 9]. Fossard could have acquired the engraving now distributed over folios 34–5 of the album [plates 40–1] as a cut-out, or mutilated it himself. But, in view of the absence of inked borders on folios 34–5, these fragments were probably cut out, perhaps even acquired, by a later collector. Although they are traditionally dated as early as 1571, more rigorous theatre-historical methods suggest that the woodcuts of the Recueil Fossard were produced in the mid-1580s [plates 6–11].296 It has been suggested that certain of them represent highlights from particular commedia dell’arte performances, and can be arranged to form coherent plots. This would give these early visual records exceptional documentary significance. However, there has been no agreement concerning the exact number of prints involved, their sequence, or even

294

295

296

Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser. Two further Fossard title pages are in the British Museum, in an album containing prints not of direct theatrical interest (M A Katritzky, ‘The Recueil Fossard 1928–88: A review and three reconstructions’, in The Commedia dell’Arte from the Renaissance to Dario Fo, ed. Christopher Cairns (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Mellen, 1989), 99–116, figs.4a, 4b). My thanks to Anthony Griffiths for drawing my attention to these. For example, Stockholm NM 324–341/1904, two sheets of eighteen engravings from the 1642 and later editions of Franco Bertelli’s Il carnevale italiano mascherato, oue si veggono in figura varie inuentioni di Capritii (reproduced: Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser, pp.38–9). Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi; Bent Holm, ‘L’image ambiguë d’Arlequin: problèmes d’art et d’histoire du théâtre liés à l’interprétation des gravures de la collection Fossard de Copenhague’, in Iconographie et arts du spectacle. Actes du Séminaire CNRS (G.D.R.712) (Paris, 1992), eds Jérôme de La Gorce and Catherine Monbeig Goguel (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996), 155–70, pp.164–5, n.8. Leik (Frühe Darstellungen, pp.46, 105–22) does not rule out a dating as early as the mid-1570s; Alba Ceccarelli Pellegrino links the woodcuts to the Holy League and favours a dating to as late as 1594 (‘La “gravure” “Ancilla comœdiæ” (L’“Improvvisa” alla corte di Enrico III)’, in Lettere e arti nel rinascimento (atti del X convegno internazionale, Chianciano-Pienza 20–23 luglio 1998) ed. Luisa Secchi Tarugi (Firenze: Cesati, 2000), 489–529, p.497).

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their initial selection from the eighty-five Stockholm prints. Here, the focus is on three groups of prints. The artists of two of these are identified as Ambrogio Brambilla and Ambrose I Francken, and further examples of their theatre-related pictures are identified and presented.

II.i.b

Some Recueil Fossard woodcuts

Beijer considered but rejected the possibility that certain of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts represent ‘a complete sequence of acts, in which the artist has reproduced every scene’.297 The basal numeration, from j to vj, of these woodcuts, whose sequence is faithfully honoured in Tessin’s album, is dismissed by Beijer as a typographical convention. He concludes that, rather than reflecting any sort of representative selection from the comedians’ repertoire, these woodcuts are part of an incomplete series heavily biased towards burlesque episodes, clowning and lazzi. In 1945 Beijer conceded that ‘most of them depict isolated situations in some play’, but qualified this by adding that ‘in only a few instances is there a thematic connection between the pictures’.298 In 1942, a theory was put forward that ‘in the Recueil Fossard there is a selected group of engravings, which, when considered in a certain order, suggest a probable story’.299 The inadequacies of this sequence may be judged by the fact that it includes a print which is iconographically and typographically unrelated to the woodcuts, and indeed not even a woodcut but an engraving [plate 42]. In 1970, Mastropasqua suggested the theory again. His case was supported in detail by a selected sequence of eighteen of the woodcuts, arranged into three groups of six, each group representing one act of a three-act play.300 This sequence takes into account both the order in which they are mounted in the Stockholm album, and the basal numbers, but ultimately seems to be based on intuition rather than logic. One problem is that a sequence of only eighteen pictures does not necessarily account for all the Recueil Fossard woodcuts suit-

297 298

299

300

Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.20. Agne Beijer, ‘XVI–XVIII century theatrical designs at the National Museum’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6e series, 28 (1945), 213–36, p.221. John Huber McDowell, ‘Some pictorial aspects of early commedia dell’arte acting’, Studies in Philology, 39 (1942), 47–64, p.59. Stockholm NM2198–2213, 220, 222; Fernando Mastropasqua, ‘Lo spettacolo della Collezione Fossard’, in Ruzante e Arlecchino. Tre saggi sul teatro popolare del cinquecento, eds. F Mastropasqua and Cesare Molinari (Parma: Studium Parmense, 1970), 91–125.

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able for possible inclusion, for example a fragment discovered in 1926 [plate 7]. In 1976, Mastropasqua decided that the series was incomplete, and his sequence, although just one of many possibilities, provided as as good a basis as any from which to investigate the prints.301 Some regard these woodcuts as merely a miscellany of highlights from different troupes; others agree that reconstruction of the series is no longer possible.302 Although the 1970 selection of the eighteen woodcuts cannot be faulted, its sequence can be questioned on both art-historical and philological grounds. Examination of the images and their related texts, both within each print and in relation to the other scenes in the series, has suggested a number of refinements [plate 6]. The reasoning behind them is offered here, without lingering over previously covered ground. For the first act, the 1970 sequence offers a battle scene (NM2220) as the fifth picture. However, if the love scene (NM2202) is substituted, as shown here, the dagger on the floor and Pantalone’s reference in line 2 to being eaten out of house and home refer directly back to the third picture of that act. The second line of the fourth picture (NM2213), in which the grotesque race between Harlequin and Zany is revealed as a contest for the favours of Francisquina, looks forward directly to this love scene as its sequel, and also ties in better with Pantalone’s comments on his servant’s debaucheries in the following scene. In the second picture of the second act (NM2199), Pantalone’s rallying call against ‘the gallant man … this fop Harlequin who puts on such brave airs’, must surely be in response not to Harlequin as prone and suffering suitor (NM2198), but to Harlequin as comic fighter (NM2204), determined to win over Francisquina, who in the second picture of this act (NM2199) recognizes his ‘fight to sustain and defend my beauty’. This act is also visually more coherent if all the battle scenes are placed together here.303 The new sequence depicted here is reached by process of elimination, as Mastropasqua’s selection of the eighteen woodcuts from which the play is built up is the only viable one, and

301

302

303

Fernando Mastropasqua, ‘Pantalone ridicola apparenza – Arlecchino comica presenza’, in Alle origini del teatro moderno, la commedia dell’arte. Atti del Convegno di Studi, Pontedera, 28–29–30 maggio 1976, ed. Luciano Mariti (Roma: Bulzoni, 1980), 97–103, p.97. Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, p.257; Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, p.43; David Esrig, Commedia dell’arte. Eine Bildgeschichte der Kunst des Spektakels (Nördlingen: Delphi, 1985), pp.11–13. i.e. if the fourth, fifth and sixth pictures are Stockholm NM2201, 2208 and 2203, rather than Mastropasqua’s NM2201, 2202, 2222 (‘Lo spettacolo della Collezione Fossard’).

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the basal number of each print has to be honoured. The play ends as it starts, with music, and the wedding dance allows the spectators to take an active part in the celebrations with which the performance concludes. But are the modifications proposed here a genuine advance, or was Mastropasqua justified in implying that further debate on this issue is a waste of time? One way of testing the validity of the various reconstructions is by comparative examination with compositional variants. Such an opportunity is offered by five unsigned and undated engravings [plate 43]. Each image is sandwiched between two sets of quatrains, three French ones above and their German equivalents below, and includes between two and four main characters, all identified by name. Each verse is printed under the character whose dialogue it represents. Despite close integration of verbal and visual content there is no internal logic, either compositional or dramatic. In every print, the order of the dialogue in these verses contradicts the logical chronological order of the depicted dramatic action. Thus, in the first scene Francatripa introduces Harlequin to the audience only after both Licetta and Harlequin himself have spoken. In the second scene, Francisquina agrees to take Harlequin in marriage before Pantalone has had a chance to make the suggestion. In the third scene, Pantalone bids Harlequin farewell before Harlequin has explained why he is returning the children to him. In the fourth scene, Harlequin gets into a jealous rage before Pantalone and Francisquina have made their flirtatious exchange, and similarly in the fifth scene, Zany and Harlequin plot to attack Leandro only after he has been warned by Francisquina. The very crudeness and illogicality of these engravings offers a vital clue in establishing the definitive sequence of the original woodcuts. For the fact that they are the wrong way round establishes beyond doubt that they are copies.304 Answers to questions concerning their patronage and interpretation came only through examining a fourth set, in Berlin.305 Unlike the others, the fourth set is

304

305

On sets of these five engravings in Oxford and Yale, see M A Katritzky, ‘A renaissance commedia dell’arte performance: towards a definitive sequence of Sieur Fossard’s woodcuts?’, Nationalmuseum Bulletin (Stockholm), 12 (1988), 37–53, pp.43–8. On an incomplete set (missing Licetta, Harlequin, Francatripa), in Rome, see Leik, whose tabulation of the sequences accepts that proposed here (Frühe Darstellungen, pp.117, 315– 20, pls.A93–97). On the Yale series, see McDowell (An Iconographical Study, pp.86, 106, 119, 138–9; idem, ‘Commedia dell’arte acting’, notes 52, 116, 118, 121, 127–8, p.53: ‘duplicating in reverse scenes from the Recueil Fossard’). Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, Lipp.Cg.67.kl (Heinrich Wirre and/or Johann Hogenberg, Stam vnd Wapenbvchlin […] wie sie erstlich vom Heinrich Wirings in kupffer gestochen angefangen, vnd volgentz vom Joh. Hogenb. vollendet worden sint, zu Collen truckts Joh. Bußemecher (Collen: Bußemecher, s.d.), c.1600).

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preserved not as individual prints, but as five illustrations in a book published by Johann Bußemecher in Cologne, with engravings by Heinrich Wirre, who died in 1600, and Johann Hogenberg. The Berlin copy contains forty-five illustrations, some of which are known through many impressions. Its title page reveals that it was specifically intended as a ‘Stammbuch’, or friendship album, a pocket-sized album in which the owner’s friends and patrons could be requested to enter their names and titles accompanied by short texts, and sometimes suitable illustrations. Early modern noblemen, travellers and academics, often in their student years, compiled such albums as souvenirs of European tours, often illustrated with coats of arms and typical scenes commissioned from local artists of very varying degrees of talent and experience.306 In the half-century from around 1570 to 1620, a highly fashionable category of coloured drawings in these albums was a series of plates depicting Venetian costume of the type also produced for manuscript costume books, and often including genre scenes of mountebank and carnival activity. The expense of original works of art also created an eager market for affordable alternatives amongst less affluent friendship album owners. In this context, it becomes clear that these engraved copies were not produced to commission in order to publicize or record a specific theatrical performance or tour. They were mechanical copies produced as a speculative business venture, to provide attractive illustrations of an iconographic theme fashionable in friendship albums of the period 1570–1620, namely the costumes of the commedia dell’arte. These prints were aimed to appeal not to a limited market of patrons of a specific theatrical production, but to the much vaster and longer-term market of those who aspired to keep friendship albums, and who could be tempted to part with their money by suitable pictures with which to decorate them. German translations of the French verses of the Recueil Fossard originals were provided because the vast majority of this potential market was German-speaking. The originals were scaled down and printed with generous margins, to fit the typically small format of friendship albums, and allow adequate space for the handwritten entries typical of such volumes. The Harlequin of these prints is not based on any identifiable actor, and has no direct input from stage costume or practice current at the time of their production. He is based solely on the iconographic precedent of the Recueil Fossard Harlequin. These five prints copy the same composition, and the same French verses, as five of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts included in all the reconstructions.307 Re-

306 307

See plates 33, 36, 238–9, 248–61, 285, 317, 325, 336. Stockholm NM2198, 2205–7, 2220.

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gardless of whether their source is the Recueil Fossard woodcuts themselves, or another common or intermediate source, only minimal independent artistic intelligence appears to have intervened in making the translation from the originals to the engravings. This indicates that these five engravings are, unlike more artistically ambitious variants, a relatively faithful reflection of their prototypes. If they do not represent the complete series of the original images on which they are based, there is a high degree of probability that all or part of a coherent sub-series is reflected in them. So it is worth considering the distribution of the five woodcuts which share the same composition as the engravings, within each of the proposed sequences of the commedia dell’arte performance. In fact, there are considerable differences in distribution, and it would be interesting to establish whether these can be shown to support one particular reconstruction. As mounted in the Recueil Fossard itself, and reflected in Beijer’s publication, three of the woodcuts are consecutive, with the other two singly distributed some way before and after this group of three. In McDowell’s proposed reconstruction, the five scenes appear as two widely separated pairs of adjacent pictures, with the fifth again on its own, this time between them.308 Mastropasqua scatters the five over all three acts of his reconstruction, placing NM2220 in Act I, 2198 in Act II, and 2205–7 consecutively in Act III. Only the new sequence here proposed features all five woodcuts consecutively, in one continuous block, as the first five pictures of Act III. Successive impressions indicate the popularity of the series. It is beyond coincidence that more than one subset of the same five compositions could have survived from a series of eighteen. So it seems reasonable to conclude that the scenes represented in the Oxford, Yale, Rome and Berlin series form the majority, if not the whole, of the original series of derivative engravings. The regrouping of the woodcuts outlined here [plate 6] is strongly suggested by the internal coherence of the verses and the images. It assumes that the number in the bottom right-hand corner of each print indicates the position held by that print within an act, although it does not, of course, specify which of the three acts this is. Independent support is given to this new sequence by the five Oxford engravings. According to the new reconstruction, the first five pictures of the third act are the woodcuts of which these derivative engravings are variants. In other words, they fall into the same – final – act of the play. These amendments are offered as a refinement to Mastropasqua’s sequence, and not as a definitive sequence of the original series. His misgivings, the extremely high number of possi-

308

McDowell, ‘Commedia dell’arte acting’, pp.61–4: nos.8–9 (Stockholm NM2207, 2198), no.11 (NM2220), nos.17–18 (NM2205–6).

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ble combinations of these eighteen prints, and the chance of variants which may have bearing on this sequence, all indicate that the reconstruction proposed here can be no more than tentative. Nevertheless, the establishment of a coherent sequence for these woodcuts is useful in providing the basis for a better understanding of what may well reflect a typical late sixteenth century commedia dell’arte plot. II.i.c

Ambrogio Brambilla

Two prints which have frequently been reproduced in connection with the commedia dell’arte are inscribed ‘Ant. Carenzano formis Roma 1583’ and ‘Roma Ant carenzano Formis 1583’ [plates 52–53].309 Stylistic and compositional similarities suggest that they are by the same artist, and depict two episodes from the same narrative. Their inscriptions have misled some into assuming that Carenzano is their artist. However, my identification of the signature in the bottom left-hand corner of plate 52 enabled them to be attributed to Ambrogio Brambilla, an artist of Milanese origin active in Rome c.1579–99.310 Brambilla is known chiefly for his topographical prints, and particularly for architectural views and plans of Rome engraved for the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae. These postdate the death of its first publisher, Antonio Lafrery, in 1577, and were produced for his successors Claude Duchet (active 1577–86) and Nicolas van Aelst (active 1582–1613).311 309

310

311

These prints extend the activity of their publisher, Antonio Carenzano, from 1591–1614, as known to Paolo Bellini (‘Printmakers and dealers in Italy during 16th and 17th centuries’, Print Collector, 13 (1975), 17–45, p.31), by a further eight years. See also Franco Paliaga, ‘Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla’, “le teste di carattere” di Leonardo e la commedia dell’arte’, Raccolta vinciana, 26 (1995), 219–254, pp.228–9; idem, ‘Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla’, in Rabisch: Il grottesco nell’arte del Cinquecento,: l’Accademia della Val di Blenio, Lomazzo e l’ambiente milanese, ed. Franco Ambrosio (Milano: Skira, 1998), 182– 3, 337–8. Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, p.246. On Brambilla, see G K Nagler, Die Monogrammisten und diejenigen bekannten und unbekannten Künstler aller Schulen, 5 vols (München: Hirth, 1863–79), I, pp.411-13, nos.942, 946–7; Paolo Arrigoni and A Bertarelli, Piante e vedute di Roma e del Lazio (Milano, 1939), pp.8, 15, 79, 134, 160ff., 220, 353; Ruth Mortimer, Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts, Part II: Italian 16th-Century Books, 2 vols, (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap, 1974), I, pp.315–17; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.129–36, 233–4, 324–7; Artioli, ‘A Palazzo Berla’; idem, ‘Le grottesche’; Barasch, ‘Theatrical prints’. As such, many of them found their way into the holdings of the de’ Rossi family of Roman printers and publishers in the seventeenth century. They were enough of a success to warrant repeated re-issues, so that for example Gio. Giacomo de’ Rossi’s name is found on a reissued impression of Brambilla’s Theatrum Sive Coliseum Romanum of 1581.

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II.I.C THE RECUEIL FOSSARD: AMBROGIO BRAMBILLA

Portraits, religious engravings, and numerous popular prints, including I gridi di Roma of 1582 (the earliest known broadsheet of hawkers) and allegorical heads of Carnevale and Quaresima, are listed in the standard reference works, but no theatrical pictures. Books such as Dei veri ritratti degl’habiti di tvtte le parti del mondo, published by Bartolomeo Grassi in Rome in 1585, with its forty-nine engraved costume plates by Brambilla, testify to his highly successful career as an illustrator. Brambilla’s activities as a sculptor, poet, painter and architect are also recorded.312 His dialect verses apparently satirize the poetry of contemporary academicians, and are relevant to an understanding of his popular prints, and his relationship to the theatre. An anthology of Milanese dialect verse by members of the Accademia della Val di Blenio, of which Brambilla was a leading member (‘compà Borgnin’), was published in 1589 by Compra Zavargna, the pseudonym and stage persona of its founder, the artist, critic and writer Giovan Paolo Lomazzo. Dismissed in some older literature as ‘local poets of little renown’, these academicians are now achieving recognition for providing a significant bridge between the comic peasant as portrayed by the troubadour tradition and by the commedia dell’arte, in Lomazzo’s Compra Zavargna, the first Milanese quasi-zanni type.313 Lomazzo’s serious writings, such as the Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura et architettura of 1584, display a penetrating interest in comedy, as for example in a description of Besozzo’s painting of laughing peasants.314 For many academies, the writing and performance of amateur dramatic comedies was a central activity, and those of artisan academies such as the Sienese Rozzi, often have close links with the commedia dell’arte of the professional players. Plates 52 and 53 depict stock characters from the commedia dell’arte, firstly in the kitchen preparing for Zan Trippu’s wedding feast, and secondly celebrating the wedding with an open-air dance. Each character is named. In the kitchen are: Burati, M. Gratian, Ma. nespola, Zan Zaccagni, Ma. balzarina; for the dancing, the first three of these have been joined by: Ma. franceschina, Zan Trippu, Ma. filomena, Pantalone and Venturina, accompanied by Mo. Rigo on pipe and

312

313

314

In this context, it is perhaps worth noting stylistic parallels between Brambilla’s signed engravings and two works reproduced here [plates 17, 191]. Glenn Palen Pierce, The “caratterista” and comic reform from Maggi to Goldoni (Napoli: Napoletana, 1986), p.30; Paliaga, “Le teste di carattere”; idem, ‘Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla’. Barry Wind, ‘Pitture ridicole: some late cinquecento comic genre paintings’, Storia dell’arte, 20 (1974), 25–35, p.28.

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tabor. A sonneto by Adriano Banchieri features numerous comic characters, among them Zachagna, Trippu, Burati and Franceschina.315 It is possible that Brambilla’s characters are from a common source, perhaps even the same identifiable troupe. I was able to identify Brambilla’s monogram on a third engraving featuring comedians, inscribed ‘Romæ Baptiste Parmensis formis 1589’ [plate 38].316 Bellini lists this Roman publisher, born in Parma in 1541 and active until 1592, as Battista Panzera.317 In plate 38, five concentric flattened rings alternately feature triads of dice faces and popular and mythological characters, of which the comedians in the third ring include eight named stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. They are Pantalone, Trastulo, Franceschina, [Dottore] Gratiano, Todesco, Francatripe, [Capitano] Cardone and a Pedrolino who predates the earliest previously accepted image of this mask by over three decades. Section III.iv.b suggests that Brambilla is depicting actors associated in 1589 with the Gelosi troupe. The importance of plates 38, 52 and 53 in the study of the commedia dell’arte lies in their being inscribed with dates and places of execution; moreover they establish the interest of Ambrogio Brambilla, an identified sixteenth century Italian artist, in the commedia dell’arte as subject matter for his work.318 There are strong stylistic similarities between Brambilla’s prints and nine of the ten prints mounted on folios 34 and 35 of the Stockholm Recueil Fossard

315

316

317 318

In the third ‘donativo’ of Adriano Banchieri’s Il donativo di qvatro asinissimi personaggi (Vicenza, 1597), that of Messer Dvrindel Rastellant dalla Vallada Bergamina (Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, p.302). Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, p.248. See also Paolo Toschi, Populäre Druckgraphik Europas: Italien vom 15. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (München: Callwey, 1967), fig.146, monogram given as ‘M.R.F’; Erwin Glonnegger, ‘Brettspiele des Volkes’, Homo Ludens. Der spielende Mensch, 4 (1994), 181–95, p.188, as ‘Italien, 18. Jahrhundert’. Variants include two undated later woodcuts, much cruder and broader than Brambilla’s engraving, one with the outer, but not the inner, ring of characters in reverse (Karen F Beall, Kaufrufe und Straßenhändler. Cries and Itinerant Trades. Eine Bibliographie/a bibliography (Hamburg: Hauswedell, 1975), p.319); the other fully reversed (Il nvovo gioco del pela il cihiv (Florence, s.d.): Alberto Milano, ‘Prints for fans’, Print Quarterly, 4 (1987), 2–19, pl.6, detail, as ‘anonymous seventeenth-century artist’; Regina Kaltenbrunner, ‘Alte Spielbücher und -Graphik’, Homo Ludens. Der spielende Mensch, 3 (1993, special issue: ‘Spielbücher und -Graphik des 16.–18. Jahrhunderts’), 41–98, p.91 and fig.25, as c.1680. Bellini, ‘Printmakers’, p.33. According to Sterling: ‘the makers of most of the sixteenth-century engravings of Italian comedians are Netherlanders’ (‘Early paintings’, p.31). In ‘Représentations figurées’, his influential iconography of the commedia dell’arte, Ternois lists as Italian works only a drawing by Guercino, a set of engravings by Bracelli, the anonymous Corsini watercolours, and costume engravings by Jacopo Franco and Pietro Bertelli.

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II.I.D THE RECUEIL FOSSARD: AMBROSE I FRANCKEN

album [plates 40–1].319 Each of these nine Recueil Fossard etchings is a cut-out featuring two or three stock characters of the commedia dell’arte engaged in comic antics. Clearly legible at the base of print NM 2241/1904 (the left-hand middle scene mounted on folio 34) is the inscription ‘Roma apud Laurentius Vaccarium’ [plate 40]. Lorenzo Vaccari, or Della Vaccheria, a printer-publisher of French or perhaps Bolognese origin who ran a workshop at S. Giuliano in Rome from the mid-1570s to 1600, has been taken for the artist of these prints by some authorities of the commedia dell’arte.320 I was able to identify the ‘indecipherable’ monogram on print NM 2241/1904, again that of Ambrogio Brambilla, confirming the close parallels between these nine scenes and plates 38, 52 and 53, in subject matter, artistic style, and handwriting.321 This attribution enabled me to locate and identify an unmutilated impression of the nine etchings, in which the scenes are joined in one continuous block three scenes deep by three scenes wide [plate 54].322 This reveals them to be not the separate tailles-douces depicting a jumble of unrelated lazzi, which Beijer saw in them, but a coherent series of scenes, each accompanied by inscriptions which further enhance their theatrical interest.323 As well as solving the riddle of the authorship of the nine Recueil Fossard cut-outs, enough real art-historical evidence is presented here to assemble a significant group of precisely dated sixteenth century commedia dell’arte-related images by a named Italian engraver, and to pave the way for their more informed theatrical interpretation.

II.i.d

Ambrose I Francken

Commedia dell’arte plots revolve around comic exploitation of human conflicts: particularly those between servant and master, man and woman, and be-

319

320

321

322 323

For Beijer, the nine etchings of folios 34 and 35, while not necessarily the oldest pictures of the commedia dell’arte, show it in its most primitive form, and he suggests a dating of 1560–80 (Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.18). Bellini, ‘Printmakers’, p.34; Thomas Ashby, ‘Antiquae statuae urbis Romae’, Papers of the British School at Rome, 9 (1920), 105–58, pp.123–9; McDowell, ‘Commedia dell’arte acting’, p.50; Mel Gordon, Lazzi: the comic routines of the commedia dell’arte (New York: Theatre Library Association, ‘Performing Arts Resources’, 7, 1983), pls.II, III, V, IX. See also Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.83–9. Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.18: ‘presque indéchiffrable’; Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, pls.174–5. Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, pp.249–51. Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.18.

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tween maturing children and their not always mature fathers. These themes are united in the two engravings on folio 45 of the Stockholm Recueil Fossard featuring the same composition, the one below being a reversed variant with different inscriptions [plate 55].324 They show a fashionable young suitor and a ruffiana at one side of the stage, and an elderly couple at the other. In the centre, a manservant and maid mock a greybeard and crown him with the cuckold’s horns, a central theme of sixteenth century Italian comedy.325 The costumes of the old man and pointing servant are those of the commedia dell’arte Pantalone and his servant Zanni. Five of the characters are identified by name in the lower print, and these theatrical names, as well as the costumes and hairstyles, particularly of the central girl, are of later origin than those of the upper print. My search for compositionally and stylistically related pictures led to a painting on wood featuring this same composition, and two further paintings in similar style and format [plates 56–8]. The three paintings can be arranged consecutively to reflect a plot sharing many typical commedia dell’arte characteristics, although the players are, for example, not masked. In the first picture Pantalone, supported on the shoulders of his servant Zanni, delivers a love letter to the inamorata, via her maid, who takes it from an upper-floor window in the curtained backdrop [plate 57]. A second Zanni serenades on his lute. A third Zanni, servant to the elegant inamorato appearing from behind the backdrop, surprises the group and threatens Pantalone with his dagger. This foreshadows the events shown in the second painting [plate 58]. Here, the inamorato – Pantalone’s rival – and his Zanni attack Pantalone, watched by the inamorata, her maid (who gleefully illuminates the chaotic scene with a candle), her parents and Pantalone’s cowardly servant. The third picture may be regarded as the concluding tableau of this action. Here, Pantalone is crowned with the cuckold’s horns and exposed to the mockery of the inamorato, his Zanni and the maids [plate 56]. The extreme similarity of the actors, particularly the three males, in pose, costume and features to those in the other two paintings, strengthens the likelihood that the three compositions show consecutive scenes of the same series, painted by the same artist. The signature on the upper engraving of plate 55, that of H. Liefrinck, records the publisher of this print, and a print’s publisher was by no means always iden-

324 325

Another impression of the upper print is on f.3 of the Copenhagen Fossard album. Although the girl is identified as an inamorata by some authorities (e.g. Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, p.135), her simple dress and the bag and knife hanging from her waist indicate servant status.

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tical with its engraver, let alone its artist. Hans Liefrinck the Elder was an engraver and print publisher active in Antwerp until his death in 1573. Although the calling of his namesake Hans the Younger, a map designer in Leiden from 1567, makes him a less likely candidate, it is his death which establishes a firm ante quem of 1599 for these pictures. One of the paintings [plate 57], shares its composition and format with a signed drawing which is probably its preparatory drawing [plate 59]. The signature on the drawing, ‘M. Ambrosius Vrancx’, is that of Ambrose I Francken (1544–1618), who is thus almost certainly the artist of all three paintings, and probably of the original design on which the Recueil Fossard engravings of plate 55 are based.326 The related pictures enable the Recueil Fossard engraving to be attributed to a named artist and set in the context of a performance, and offer valuable insights into the action out of which it developed (although modification may be required if further versions, or additional scenes, are discovered). Their artist Ambrose I Francken, a member of the Francken family of artists, was a younger brother of Hieronymus I Francken, and a pupil of the Antwerp artist Frans Floris.327 He may have travelled as far as Italy in the 1560s, and settled in Antwerp soon after his return from Fontainebleau in 1570, entering the Violieren Rederijkerskamer, or Chamber of Rhetoricians, the oldest and most distinguished

326

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For F-C Legrand, plate 59 is ‘cet unique sujet de genre qui nous soit connu le [= Ambrose Francken] rattache étroitement à son frère Jérôme’ (Les peintres flamands de genre au XVIIe siècle (Bruxelles: Meddens, 1963), p.75). Hans Mielke (‘Antwerpener Graphik in der 2. Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Der Thesaurus veteris et novi Testamenti des Gerard de Jode (1585) und seine Künstler’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 38 (1975), 29–83, p.52), unaware of the related paintings and drawing, concluded on stylistic grounds that the design for the Recueil Fossard engraving is the work of Ambrose I Francken. The connection between the drawing and the Recueil Fossard engraving was made by Marijn Schapelhouman (Tekeningen van Noord- en Zuidnederlandse kunstenaars geboren voor 1600 (Amsterdam: Historisch Museum, 1979), p.47). J van Tatenhove, ‘Bookreview’, Oud Holland, 96 (1982), 191–7, pp.193–6) notes the relationship between two of the paintings [plates 57–8], the Recueil Fossard engraving [plate 55], and the drawing [plate 59]. Plate 56 was first noted in this context in 1987 (Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput’, plate 4). Leik (Frühe Darstellungen, p.157 n.388) expresses grave doubts concerning the authenticity of the two paintings here reproduced as plates 57–8: ‘the suspicion here is that we are dealing in both cases with nineteenth century pictures, that may owe their origins to the initiative of a commedia dell’arte enthusiast, perhaps inspired by Maurice Sand’s book of 1860’ (my translation). Satisfactory resolution of this question, as with so many in the field of early theatre iconography, is impeded by the disappearance of the originals into private hands, leaving only grainy monochrome reproductions for scholarly contemplation. On Francken, see Mielke, ‘Antwerpener Graphik’, pp.43–52.

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of Antwerp’s amateur debating and dramatic groups, in 1588. Between 1573, when he entered the Antwerp artists’ guild, and his death in 1618, continual archival records attest to his presence in Antwerp. The strongest stylistic influence on his largely religious oeuvre comes from Marten de Vos, with whom he collaborated extensively. The subject matter of plate 59 is unique in Francken’s known work, but his thin unbroken contours and delicate washes are strongly in evidence, and the drawing’s almost identical format, composition, and style to plate 57 suggests attribution of all three of these paintings to Ambrose I Francken. What bearing does identification of their artist have on theatrical interpretations of plates 56–9, such as Beijer’s suggestion that this Fossard engraving could show a troupe of French farceurs inspired by one of the early visits of the Italian comedians to Paris?328 The artist and probable publisher indicated, Ambrose I Francken and the older Liefrinck, were both based in Antwerp. French, the language of the accompanying verses, was current in Antwerp as well as Paris in the late sixteenth century.329 But evidence in favour of Antwerp must be balanced against the fact that the older Liefrinck is thought to have died in 1573, before the earliest documented visit of commedia dell’arte troupes to Antwerp. Furthermore, Francken is known to have been in France in 1570, where visits of the Italian comedians are well documented from 1571, and was perhaps previously in Italy itself.

II.ii

Inspiration and imitation. The progressive stereotyping of shared artistic motifs: Antonio Tempesta and some Flemish carnival paintings

II.ii.a

Introduction

The numerous iconographic connections between early modern pictures of comic performers form dense nets of interdependent images. Many such pictures are

328

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Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.30. Sadly, it does little for J R Bailey’s intriguing suggestion (30.3.1932 letter to Sir Robert Witt, Courtauld Institute, London), that two of the players in the painted version of the Recueil Fossard composition bear a striking resemblance to Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. It was, for example, the language of the archival records noting the presence of Martinelli’s troupe of Italian comedians in Antwerp in 1576-77 for fourteen months (Schrickx, ‘Commedia dell’arte players in Antwerp’, pp.79–80).

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anonymous and undated, and the complexity of their interrelationships seriously deters attempts to retrace them, or even to establish the chronological development of particular motifs. Association with dated pictures, in order to establish chronological directions of pictorial influence, offers a more reliable approach to dating undocumented ones than speculative attempts to relate them to recorded performances. On-stage depictions of the comici, such as those of the Recueil Fossard, are rightly placed at the top of a hierarchy of commedia-related images. In this section, the focus is on pictures showing actors and comic masks in a wide variety of settings, both on and off stage, including carnival scenes. Such pictures cannot be dismissed as being of ‘minimal documentary value’.330 They are essential for a full assessment of the early modern rise of the acting profession. The renaissance carnival was a rare opportunity for unbridled peasant celebration of sloth, lust and gluttony, the very elements which underlie much of the interaction between the commedia dell’arte’s master–servant pairs.331 Since the mid-sixteenth century, favourite European carnival disguises have been the costumes associated with the more popular commedia dell’arte characters.332 My examination of some carnival pictures also suggests the presence of organized troupes of actors amongst the costumed revellers, parading to publicize their skills, or playing in the street, on or off stage. By this time, depictions of carnival activities had become predominantly associated with Winter in series of the seasons, and with January, and even more typically February, in series of the months.333 The Florentine engraver Antonio Tempesta is associated with pictures of Italian comedians through both his teachers and his pupils. He trained under the Flemish artist Stradanus (Jan van Straet, 1523–1605), who was active in Florence from about 1550 onwards and depicted three Italian comedians in a com330

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Inge Krengel-Strudthoff recognizes pictures as an invaluable documentary source for the commedia, but dismisses carnival pictures: ‘Tatsächlich gibt es […] auch sehr viele Bilder zum Thema Commedia dell’arte, aber tatsächlich nur “zum Thema”. Selten sind es echte Wiedergaben von Aufführungen, meist dagegen nachempfundene Bilder, oft nur Darstellungen einzelner Figuren oder überhaupt Karnevalsbilder: der Quellenwert ist also häufig gering’ (‘Die Commedia dell’arte in Europa. Versuch einer Übersicht über ihre neuere Erforschung’, Kleine Schriften der Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 23 (1969), 45–63, p.58). Anger and avarice, and, to a lesser extent, pride and envy also play their part in the commedia dell’arte, but of the seven ‘deadly’ sins, sloth, lust and gluttony are the dominant motivating forces of commedia plots and lazzi. As noted in connection with Ferrara and Munich (see above, pp.67–8,74). This tradition has medieval roots. As early as around 1400, the February of a fresco cycle of the twelve months, in the Torre dell’Aquila of the Castello del Buon Consiglio in Trent, shows a carnival tournament.

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position known through an engraving after it, and several painted versions [plates 29, 62–3]. Jacques Callot (1592–1635), artist of the influential Balli di Sfessania cycle, trained in Tempesta’s workshop during the first decade of the seventeenth century [plates 2–5]. But the only clearly recognizable groups of Italian comedians in Tempesta’s prints are in the Februaries for his two series of the months [plates 64–5].334

II.ii.b

Direct copies after Tempesta’s Februaries

Febraro is one of a series of the months engraved by Tempesta dated 1599 on the title page [plate 64]. In this print, the tournament contest of running at the ring is watched in the background by a crowd, some in carriages, some on raised covered seating, most standing in the street. In the middle distance, the circle of spectators is held back by two mounted riders, between whom performers entertain the crowds with lute playing and acrobatics. The foreground is framed on either side by raised structures holding spectators, and has three centrally placed costumed horsemen. In the left foreground, a pointing Pantalone is mounted on a donkey, and at the right his servant, Zanni, carries a basket of carnival eggs over his arm. Both Pantalone and Zanni are masked, and dressed in anachronistic, theatrical costume, based on the outfits of the typical mid-sixteenth century Venetian merchant and porter. The houses forming the architectural backdrop to this scene are representative of late renaissance Florentine architecture. Febrarius, from a second series of the months by Tempesta, also appears to be set in his native Florence, the façade of the church in the left background resembling that of S. Maria Novella [plate 65]. In the foreground, five performers in a city square entertain two women on a balcony. The group consists of two women on horseback, in eastern or medieval costume, a zanni with an egg basket, similar to the one in the foreground of Febraro, and, underneath the balcony, a serenading pair, one of whom is a masked lute-playing zanni. The cymbals, chin-strapped headgear and flowing cloak of the other indicate a gypsy. Direct copies after Tempesta’s Februaries include mirror image engravings by members of the prolific Sadeler dynasty of Flemish printmakers, and drawings in a German sketchbook.335 334

335

An isolated instance of a possible commedia-related figure is the left-hand zanni type in a Winter of 1592 (Bartsch, 1978–, vol.36, 807(152)). The Sadeler engravings [plates 66–7] are virtually mirror image copies. Two drawings after Febraro probably datable to the 1610s, one very detailed, the other more freely sketched, in

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II.ii.c

Jan I Bruegel

My research has revealed a large number of pictures less directly influenced by Tempesta’s Februaries.336 Roman carnival is a depiction of costumed revellers by the Flemish artist Jan I Bruegel (1568–1625) [plate 68]. In the foreground are two characters in dark full-face masks wearing red and yellow tedesco costumes. In the centre background are three performers on a stage, an older male or female hunchback flanked by two men, one playing a lute. To the right foreground, a masked boy sells carnival eggs. All the face masks in this painting are in flesh or deep flesh tones. Ertz favours a dating to c.1600, half a decade after Jan I’s return to Antwerp in 1595, and suggests that the painting is based on lost drawings made by the artist during his stay in Rome in the early 1590s.337 Even though both Tempesta’s Februaries have Florentine settings, and Bruegel is depicting the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, there appears to be a definite relationship between Februarius and the layout and even some of the individual buildings and figures in Roman carnival [plates 65, 68]. In both pictures, costumed characters are framed by a stage-like setting, with ‘wings’ and ‘backdrop’ provided by architectural elements including high buildings to right and left, and views leading into the background from either side of a central building. Tempesta’s church has its counterpart in Jan I’s painting, albeit with its tower on the other side. Tempesta’s lute-playing zanni is in similar pose and costume to the lute player on Jan I’s stage, and both pictures have two horses in the foreground, those in the painting both in similar pose to the central horse in the print. To the right of the print, two women overlooking the performers wield eggs, as was the custom at carnival time, and carnival eggs are being sold from baskets at the left of the print, and at the right of the painting, where, as in the print, women overlook the performers.

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albums of material predating 1622 from the Strasbourg workshop of Friedrich Brentel (1580–1651), further demonstrate the influence of this composition (Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, inv.nr VIII 2676, f.26r; inv.nr 1965–10, f.455, see also Wolfgang Wegner, ‘Untersuchungen zu Friedrich Brentel’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg, 3 (1966), 107–96, pp.108–10, 134). M A Katritzky, ‘Scenery, setting and stages in late renaissance commedia dell’arte performances: some pictorial evidence’, in Scenery, Set and Staging in the Italian Renaissance: Studies in the Practice of Theatre, ed. Christopher Cairns (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Mellen, 1996), 209–88, pp.218–27. Klaus Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568–1625); die Gemälde; mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Köln: DuMont, 1979), p.115; Konrad Renger, ‘Römischer Karneval, um 1596’ in Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere – Jan Brueghel der Ältere, flämische Malerei um 1600, Tradition und Fortschritt, Kulturstiftung Ruhr Essen (Lingen: Luca, 1997), pp.143–4, Kat.27.

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It seems worth considering that Jan I’s panel was influenced by, and thus postdates, Tempesta’s print of 1599. A further implication is that Jan I, an artist who undoubtedly visited Rome, and probably witnessed the Roman carnival at first hand, based his painting of this event, its masked performers and revellers, and even its architectural setting, at least in part not on his own experiences, but on pictures by other artists.338

II.ii.d

Tempesta’s Februaries and Flemish revellers

The relationship between the compositions of Tempesta’s prints and those of three further paintings is so close that coincidence can be ruled out [plates 70– 2]. They share virtually identical settings and are all attributed to Louis de Caulery, because of their compositional and stylistic similarities to his signed painting The carnival [plate 73]. Two were sold under the titles Village and party and Carnival revellers at a tourney in an Italianate renaissance town [plates 70–1]. Despite these titles, which imply that the comic masks in the foregrounds of all three of these charming compendia of late renaissance carnival diversions are nothing more than party goers or revellers, they are actors performing comic scenes. No doubt such compendia carried wider symbolic and religious meanings, and, judging by the frequency with which they were painted, perhaps also provided nostalgic consolation to many an affluent February reveller in the lean days of Lent. In the background of each picture a tournament takes place before a crowd. In the foreground, to the right in plates 71–2 and to the left in plate 70, a man with a basket sells eggs, traditionally tossed into the crowd by the more boisterous carnival participants. In plate 70, there are four comic actors next to the egg seller in the street. Pantalone, in traditional black cloak over red suit, rides a ‘pantomime donkey’, a rare iconographic motif, which also features in plate 48. This ‘donkey’ consists of an older player led by a zanni in a buff-coloured suit, and wearing Pantalone’s slippers as ‘donkey’s ears’. They face right, and a second zanni behind, in a pale yellow top and grey trunk hose, wields a dagger. This group 338

This implication has a bearing on other depictions of comic entertainers attributed to Jan I Bruegel, notably a magnificent Allegory of worldly vanities [plate 69], known in several versions, where the high arched windows of an interior look out on to a market square featuring lively carnival performers evidently influenced by those of Callot’s Balli prints of c.1620 [plates 2–5]. Traditionally accepted as a collaboration with Rubens, the painting’s background figures are also close to the carnival performers of Sebastian Vrancx’s Comic masks besides the Tiber [plate 69c].

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serenades an elegant gathering on a temporary raised dais at the right. The picture is delicately painted in thin, free washes through which the ruled underdrawing of the architecture shows. In plates 71–2, Pantalone rides a conventional horse, and has only two servants, one beside him, and a Harlequin in front. Plates 71–2 also feature a group of three acrobats directly below the dais, perhaps directly associated with the comic troupe, and one of many shared compositional elements with Tempesta’s Febraro [plate 64]. Others include the carnival tournament in progress in the middle distance, the mounted Pantalone in the foreground who gestures towards a richly dressed group on a raised temporary structure, the costumed pair of mounted horsemen, the basket of carnival eggs, carriages and a distant crowd of spectators. The compositions cannot have been reached independently or without some common source or intermediary. The wide circulation of Tempesta’s prints and engraved copies increases the probability that northern artists would be familiar with it [plates 64, 66]. Additionally, Tempesta would have had the opportunity to witness at first hand the festival portrayed in Febraro, and it is placed in a convincing Florentine street setting. Plates 70–2 have capriccio settings, suggesting that Tempesta’s print of 1599 precedes them. Various iconographic elements support this indication, for example the pleasing and logical circular route taken by the carnival eggs at the right-hand side of the print (from egg seller up to the ladies, and then down to the hapless gentlemen), is degraded meaninglessly in the paintings, suggesting that it portrays a custom familiar to the engraver, but not to the painters. In plate 70, Pantalone’s servants are still in their earliest theatrical costume, that of the zanni. The Harlequin and his companion of plates 71–2 are later comic servant types. However, plates 71–2 are closer to Tempesta’s print than plate 70. They share, for example, the motif of the tower of acrobats, absent in plate 70, and the pointing Pantalones and their donkeys are similar. These iconographic relationships can be explained if plate 71 is the earlier painting, based (either directly or indirectly) on Tempesta’s Februaries, and plate 70 a later version, based on the earlier painting itself or on an intermediary.339 Evidence in favour of this, and also of the hypothesis that the artist of plate 71 may have drawn on direct observation of Tempesta’s prints for this picture, comes from Tempesta’s Februarius [plate 65]. The theatrical layouts of the two pictures, with foreground figures and backdrop cityscape framed by architectural ‘wings’, are close. The central part of Februarius’s Florentine cityscape also occurs in the capriccio backdrop of the painting, from the far view of the

339

Plate 72 is close enough to plate 71 to be a direct variant.

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square, with church and tower at the left, to the distinctive central building with its deep wings. Many of the architectural details are different, for example the arrangement of the windows in the front-facing façade of the central building. But even these changes could in some cases be explained by the influence of other Tempesta prints, such as one dated 1598 featuring a palace closely resembling the left-hand ‘wing’ of plate 71 [plate 74]. The possibility that Tempesta drew on this Flemish painting for both his Februaries can be virtually dismissed. An as yet undiscovered common source predating both the paintings and the prints also seems unlikely. Most plausible is that the earlier of the paintings is based on knowledge of Tempesta’s prints themselves, or on a later intermediate source. Regardless of the number of variants involved, certain compositional elements of Tempesta’s prints appear to give a clear artistic precedent for the theatrical element of these two carnival paintings, in which case the date of Febraro, 1599, gives a reliable terminus post quem for all three paintings. The stylistic differences between plates 70 and 71 indicate two artists. Despite the art market attribution, the heavily painted background architecture and less artificially contorted types of plate 71 rule out serious association with Caulery.

II.ii.e

Louis de Caulery

Louis de Caulery was born in Caulery, near Cambrai, c.1580, was based in Antwerp throughout his artistic career, and is thought to have died there c.1621.340 He is identified with the ‘Loys Solleri’ who in 1594–5 became an apprentice of Joos de Momper, then already a member of Antwerp’s St. Lucas Guild, into which Caulery was accepted as a master in 1602, himself taking an apprentice in 1608.341 Caulery’s signed paintings include one of exceptional theatrical significance, the undated The Carnival of c.1605 [plate 73].342 It depicts a Pantalone-

340

341

342

On Caulery, see Edwin Buijsen and Louis Peter Grijp, The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music & Painting in the Golden Age (Zwolle: Waanders, 1994), pp.162–5; Dieter Beaujean, ‘Louis de Caulery as a draftsman’, Master Drawings, 36 (2001), 398–408. Carl van de Velde, ‘Enkele biografische gegevens betreffende Louis de Caulery’, Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor schone Kunsten te Antwerpen, (1966), 211–14. Édouard Michel, ‘Louis de Caulery au Musée d’Anvers’, Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, 3 (1933), 224–9, p.227; idem, ‘Un “tableau de société” par Louis de Caulery’, Bulletin des Musées de France, 48 (1936), 52–4. However Beaujean dates it to c.1615 (‘Louis de Caulery’, p.398). Dated signed pictures include: Crucifixion, 1617 (New York art market 1986); The five senses, 1620 (Louvre). An indoor society scene similar to

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like old man mounted on a donkey in the centre foreground, surrounded by a crowd of comic characters, some with musical instruments, including an unmasked xylophone player in the right foreground, in a Harlequin-like patched garment, but neutrally coloured with monochrome greys, rather than brightly coloured. They focus their efforts in the direction of the group on the balcony at the right of the picture, while being watched by the elegant company in the doorway below. Attribution of an unsigned Carnival scene is supported by its similarity, in style, atmosphere and foreground figures, to the signed The Carnival. Carnival scene too features a carnival tournament in the middle distance and comic masks in the foreground, in an Italianate capriccio setting built up in the same theatrical way, with high, cut off buildings forming the ‘wings’ on either side and an architectural backdrop [plate 76].343 The three spectators looking down from a balcony and the richly dressed young man playing the lute in the right foreground of both paintings are similar, as is the foreground group of children dressed as soldiers. A substantial group of pictures by Caulery and other artists relates to Caulery’s The carnival and Carnival scene, themselves compositionally close to the pictures discussed above in connection with Tempesta’s Februaries. Certain of these compositionally related paintings can be arranged in sequences, in which their backgrounds form gradually changing series, taking on an increasingly northern flavour in one while remaining Italianate in another. Some of these sequential compositional changes are here attributed to the decreasing pictorial influence of plate 76, and, through it, ultimately of Village and party [plate 71] and Tempesta’s Februaries [plates 64–5]. Plates 77 and 78 are among further panels attributed to Caulery which share the theme and setting of plate 76, and the leafless tree acting as a central focus and indication of the winter carnival season.344 The Italianate architecture of plate 77 also places it close to plate 73,

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344

the Paris painting appeared on the art market in 1965, then described as being signed and dated 1627 (illustrated: Weltkunst 1.11.1965). An inferior drawing dated 1598 signed by ‘L de Caullery’, one of a group in Cambrai, is the work of a namesake and possible relative [plate 75]. Formerly Marshall Collection. Exhibited Palacio de Velazquez, Madrid 1977–8 (Pedro Pablo Rubens (1577–1640), Exposicion Homenaje, cat.12). Plate 77: see Michel, ‘Louis de Caulery’, p.225; Hummelen, ‘Doubtful images’, pp.207–8. A near replica of plate 78, attributed to Caulery by Theodor v Frimmel (‘Der Monogrammist Sebastian Vrancx im Museo Nazionale zu Neapel’, Blätter für Gemäldekunde, 3 (1907), 193–5, p.195), was sold in Berlin (Lepke: Klarwill Sale, 17 April 1928, lot 57, 98 × 131cm).

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and even closer is yet another carnival painting [plate 79]. Also associated with this group are dated carnival paintings of 1604 and 1605, whose setting, like that of plate 78, is Flemish [plates 80–3].345 Plate 80, and more emphatically plate 81, deviate from plate 76 in that the central building has a much less formal façade, a sloping roof, leafless trees on both sides, and a tower to the left rather than to the right. Additionally, the slope of the bridge to the right with the carriage on it is steeper, there is a greater shift of the central building to the left of the picture, with a correspondingly lesser emphasis of other left-hand architectural details, and the right-hand wings do not have balconies. The door of this wing, arched in plates 76 and 80, has pilasters and a classical pediment in plate 81. The capriccio, imaginary settings of plate 73 and other carnival paintings associated with Caulery have received considerable emphasis,346 but comparison with Tempesta’s Februarius [plate 65] indicates a direct relationship with the print’s Florentine background. In the backgrounds of these paintings can be traced a progressive transformation from the Italian engraver’s reasonably authentic Florentine setting, through Italianate capriccio, to northern town squares, some again featuring recognizable commedia masks.347 If the hypothesis that Tempesta’s prints influenced, and thus precede, plate 71 is correct, then regardless of any undiscovered variants, the sequence of influence can only continue to lead in the same chronological direction. According to this, plates 71–2 precede plate 70, which leads on to the Madrid Carnival [plate 76], from which the composition diffuses into Caulery’s oeuvre, as demonstrated by the Hamburg Carnival and its variants and derivatives [plates 73, 77–9]; and is developed from them by plates 80–3. These ‘sequences of influence’ can in no way be regarded as a complete explanation for their iconographic interrelationships. They intermesh with other equally complex sequences, some pictures may have

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346 347

Plate 80: ascribed to Caulery by Horst Gerson, and its date read as 1.1.1604 by Gudlaugsson (handwritten notes on a photograph of plate 80 at the RKD, Hague); plate 82: A. P. de Mirimonde (‘Les concerts parodiques chez les maitres du nord’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 61 (1964), 253–84, p.284 n.53) draws attention to the closeness of its figures to those of Caulery; plate 83: attributed to Caulery by Michel (‘Un “tableau de société”’, p.54; accepted by Andrzej Chudzikowski, ‘Louis de Caulery et ses tableaux en Pologne’, Bulletin du Musée Nationale de Varsovie, 8 (1967), 25–31, p.27 n.13), who reinforces his dating of plate 73 to around 1605 by citing its closeness to this dated panel of 1605. Michel, ‘Louis de Caulery’, pp.227–8. Notably the Pantalone, Harlequin and tambourine-playing inamorata in the left foreground of plates 81–3.

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been painted concurrently, and compositional parallels are sometimes coincidental.348 But even taking into consideration these areas of uncertainty, they support several suggestions. These are that the date of plate 83, 1605, gives an ante quem for the ‘northern’ sequence, whose terminus post quem is given by Tempesta’s Febraro of 1599 [plate 64], that plates 71 and 76 were probably painted between the years 1599 and 1603, and that the later of the two, plate 76, thus probably dates from the very start of Caulery’s independent professional career, when he was accepted into the Antwerp Guild as a master painter in 1602–3. A further indication is that unlike the artist of plate 71, Caulery did not necessarily have first-hand knowledge of Tempesta’s prints: their shared compositional elements can all be found in the intermediate pictures of other artists.349

II.ii.f

Tempesta and Sebastian Vrancx

There is at least one Antwerp painter of comic performers and carnival scenes who, in contrast to Caulery, was directly influenced by Tempesta’s prints. This is Sebastian Vrancx, born in Antwerp in 1573.350 He visited Rome in the 1590s, and may have worked in the Veneto under Lodewyk Toeput, returning to Antwerp in or soon after 1602, where he lived until his death in 1647.351 Here, he rose to high 348

349

350

351

Even in the restricted context of commedia-related images, it is clear that their compositional similarities cannot be fully explained by simple linear sequences of influence from one picture to another. For example, figures in plates 81–5 which relate to some of those in plate 76 include Father Time on his stilts accompanied by a drummer and a tambourine player, and Carnival himself, mounted on his barrel. In plates 81–3 they are closer to those of plate 84 than plate 76, although the background of plate 84 bears no relation to these paintings. Plates 86–8, carnival scenes including masked entertainers in commedia dell’arte type costume, are more distantly compositionally related. Prints that did influence Caulery directly include plate 10 of Hans Vredeman de Vries’ Scenographiae sive perspectiva, 1560, reprinted Antwerp 1601 (Uwe M Schneede, ‘Interieurs von Hans und Paul Vredeman’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 18 (1967), 125–66, pp.150–1; Beaujean, ‘Louis de Caulery’, p.398). On Vrancx, see: Legrand, Les peintres flamands, pp.200ff.; Friedrich Winkler, ‘Der unbekannte Sebastian Vrancx’, Pantheon, 22 (1964), 322–34; Velde, ‘Enkele biografische gegevens’, p.213; Joost vander Auwera, ‘Sebastian Vrancx (1573–1647) en zijn samenwerking met Jan I Brueghel (1568–1625)’, Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor schone Kunsten te Antwerpen (1981), 135–151, p.146; A Keersmaekers, ‘De schilder Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573–1647) als rederijker’, Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor schone Kunsten te Antwerpen (1982), 165–86. Italian sketches by Vrancx, dated 1597–1602, at Chatsworth, include a titlepage, possibly that of a dismembered Roman sketchbook, inscribed ‘Ann.o 1597 A di 20 di Lulio in

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office in the St Lucas Guild. His very successful workshop collaborated with many local artists, including Jan I Bruegel, Hendrik van Balen and Caulery’s teacher, Joos de Momper, and he was an active member of the Antwerp Chamber of Rhetoricians, ‘de Violieren’.352 Motifs in Tempesta’s The months I, and especially in Gennaro, Febraro, Aprile and Maggio, recur in a number of pictures by Vrancx and his circle featuring Italian comedians [plates 64, 89–91]. Pictures in which possible direct influence is apparent include Earthly pleasures and its variants, several versions of Dives and Lazarus, two panels monogrammed by Vrancx, and a Carnival [plates 92–101].353 Similarities between plate 92 and Aprile [plate 89] include their layout, the foreground pair of the fortune-telling gypsy and her customer, and Neptune’s fountain and peacocks in the background. The central mounted falconer of plate 92 closely resembles those in Maggio [plate 91]. The fountains, formal flowerbeds, peacocks, deer, carriage and pair and central folly of Aprile all have their counterparts in Dives and Lazarus, whose bending foreground servant, display of plates and jugs, pointing man and rich foods are reminiscent of those in Gennaro [plates 89–90, 97–8].354 In plate 99 the shared motifs with Aprile [plate 89] include the peacock, dog, young servant with cloth

352 353

354

Roma’. An art market Mountainous landscape (Sotheby’s 22.11.74, lot 2) is inscribed on the verso: ‘Sebastiano Vrancx in et fecit Roma 1597’. Further evidence for Vrancx’s Roman stay is provided by plate 69c. Possibly, Vrancx was an assistant in the Roman studio of Paul Bril, perhaps even involved with the production of the Corsini Album drawings [see plates 243–7, 276]. Vrancx’s extensive literary oeuvre is said to have included at least fourteen lost plays. Plate 99 shares motifs not found in Tempesta’s engravings with Dives and Lazarus, and is thus probably close in date to the engraving of 1606 [plate 98]; the more integrated design of plate 100 indicates a slightly later date. Painted variants of plate 98 include plate 104, which simplifies the print by, for example, omitting the palm trees, and plate 105, which varies the foreground figures. A colour detail of a monogrammed variant of plate 106, featuring a commedia troupe, sold on the Paris art market in 1995 (54 × 84 cm), is reproduced on the jacket of Heck et al’s Picturing Performance. Plate 107 has been associated with Caulery (C M Kauffmann, Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I: Before 1800 (London: HMSO, 1973), p.66, cat.63), although its figures are close to Vrancx, and it is perhaps a workshop production. Its crudely painted background is a schematic variant of that in plate 98, while its pavilions are similar to those to the right and left of plate 108. This dated painting of 1613 is reliably associated with the workshop of Vrancx (by Jørgen Wadum, ‘Sebastian Vrancx’ værksted og Rosenborg Slot’, Iconographisk Post, 4 (1987), 24–42; see also idem, ‘The Winter Room at Rosenborg Castle: a unique survival of Antwerp mass-production’, Apollo, 128 (1988), 82–7).

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over arm, formally laid-out flower beds and clipped arched hedges, central bower, garden house and grotto with a Pegasus fountain.355 In plate 100, the layout of the formal flower beds and clipped hedges punctuated with a duplicated repetition of a Pegasus fountain in the grotto, the peacocks and dogs, distant carriage, and the young servant with cloth over arm are all shared with Aprile [plate 89]. A display of plates and jugs similar to that in plates 97–9 and Gennaro [plate 90] also recurs, and the foreground figures are set in a grotto reminiscent of the construction of the central folly of Aprile [plate 89]. Plate 101 includes arcades, clipped hedges, formal gardens and a Neptune’s fountain similar to those of Aprile, while the background tournament and carriages are reminiscent of Febraro, and the comic types, especially the strutting Harlequin, link it to plate 71.356 In plate 102 and, to a lesser extent, variants such as plate 103, much fainter echoes of Tempesta’s Months suggest possible direct influence. Reminiscent of Tempesta’s Aprile are such motifs as the central couple, the market women to the right, the Neptune fountain at the left, the arcaded building in the central background, and the horse-drawn carriage. In plate 102, a lute-playing zanni shares a trestle stage in the right-hand middle distance with a mountebank, while in plate 103, the stage is in the central foreground, and two masked actors perform on it. This analysis is directly pertinent both to the attribution and the dating of plate 71, a painting of exceptional theatrical importance that combines motifs from the commedia dell’arte and the prints of Tempesta. The demonstrable and profound influence of Tempesta’s prints on certain theatrical paintings of Sebastian Vrancx strongly supports the stylistic attribution of plate 71 to Vrancx, and allows it to be postdated to Tempesta’s first series of The Months, published in 1599.

355

356

Marianne Takács cites a tradition that Vrancx used Bembo’s written description of an Italian park as the model for such settings in his paintings, and that the villa in the left background of plate 99 may have been based at least partly on the Villa Colorno near Parma (‘Un tableau de Sebastian Vrancx à la Galerie des Maîtres Anciens’, Bulletin des Musées Nationaux Hongrois (1961), 51–62, p.54). On this painting, see also Ildikó Ember, Musik in der Malerei, Musik als Symbol in der Malerei der europäischen Renaissance und des Barock (Budapest: Corvina, 1989); Thomas Fusenig and Chris de Maegd, ‘Lustbarkeiten im Garten’, in Gärten und Höfe der Rubenszeit im Spiegel der Malerfamilie Brueghel und der Künstler um Peter Paul Rubens, ed Ursula Härting (München: Hirmer, 2000), 367–81, pp.367–8. The background of plate 146, at whose left-hand side comedians on a raised stage aid a mountebank, also relates to that of plate 71. Plate 109 relates closely to plate 101, but lacks its right-hand architectural feature.

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II.ii.g

Vrancx and his circle

Numerous further theatrical and carnival pictures are associated with Sebastian Vrancx and his circle. Of particular importance for this study are depictions of commedia dell’arte masks in Italian settings, discussed below [plates120–6, 131–3, 146, 148]. Of the Flemish scenes, those bearing the monogram or signature of Vrancx include several winter carnival scenes depicting figures, some masked, in commedia-related costumes [plates 110–113].357 A monogrammed Harbour scene, featuring actors on a raised trestle stage performing to a crowd of spectators on a busy Flemish dockside, is known in several versions [plate 119]. Plate 150, securely attributed to Vrancx through its association with a print after it, shows carnival mummers in an indoor setting [plate 151].358 A drawing of superb quality, and surely the original of this striking composition, also known through numerous inferior variants, features seven masqueraders in a city street setting [plate 147]. The Italian settings of Vrancx’s theatre-related paintings are often recognizably Venetian or Roman.359 Plate 120, an engraving signed in the plate and probably based on a lost drawing of the 1590s, while Vrancx was in Rome, is a costume plate featuring a Roman couple. In the left background, on a stage raised to just above head height, a mountebank promotes his wares, aided by a string-playing male in zanni costume, and a female. In the right and central background, six masks burst on to the scene, the female in eastern-inspired costume, the males in matachin costumes, one armed with a hammer and one wielding a stick, another playing the violin, a fourth somersaulting, the fifth partnering the woman in a dance. A composition featuring a troupe of Italian comedians in

357

358

359

See also index (Vrancx). Plate 111 reverses the composition of plate 110. Plates 112–16 feature masked carnival revellers of the type depicted on the left-hand side of plate 149. Plate 112 is dated 16*8, with a probable reading of 1618 or 1628. Variants of plate 113 attributed to a range of artists include plates 114–16. Stylistically similar are the comic types in a dated picture of 1631 (plate 117) signed with a monogram interpreted by the art market as that of Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne. The typical attributes of winter in plate 118 include a theatrical or carnival mask. Others in this print series, much favoured by the owners of friendship albums, also feature comic performers [plates 152–3]. Plate 148 may relate to Vrancx’s paintings of comedians in palace garden settings. A painting attributed to Vrancx, showing a troupe of masked comedians disembarking from a gondola at a Venetian quayside, appeared on the London art market in 1965 (50 × 65 cm, my thanks to Jørgen Wadum for drawing to my attention this painting, for which it has unfortunately not proved possible to obtain a photograph).

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a Roman carnival setting is known is several painted variants, which may originate from the workshop of Vrancx [plates 131–3].360 Numerous paintings depict mountebank stages or Venetian carnival scenes set in the Piazza San Marco or Piazzetta [plates 121–6].361 The backgrounds of plates 123–6 show similar views, looking eastward across the piazza to the Campanile and St. Mark’s Basilica; those of plates 121–2 show the view from the sea front looking northwards up the Piazzetta towards the Campanile, Basilica and clock tower. Plate 123 is the most topographically accurate. In plate 124 the Doge’s Palace, for example, is very freely rendered, while in plate 125 it has been replaced by an invented building which bears little relation to reality, and the views of the Piazzetta also introduce a number of topographical inaccuracies. Plates 123–6 depict the traditional Venetian Giovedì Grasso bullfight and masked dances, acrobatic set pieces and processions of the public mumaria at San Marco (plates 123–6). For the first third of the sixteenth century, descriptions of this civic festival in the diaries of Marin Sanudo detail the carnival and other mumarie organized by the Compagnie della Calza, acting alongside temporarily employed professional buffoni.362 By the 1570s, the great commedia dell’arte troupes were being employed to provide comparable shows, attracting wealthy and influential visitors to the city during the carnival period from all over the Veneto and beyond, and commanding fees that routinely allowed them to turn down court invitations during the carnival season. It is such professional troupes, the acknowledged highlight of the Venetian carnival, and not random masqueraders, that are reflected in the right foregrounds of this group of paintings.363

360

361

362

363

Plate 131 has been attributed to both Vrancx (art market) and ‘Caulery(?)’ (Rubenianum, Antwerp) and plates 132–3 are attributed to Caulery (art market). Perhaps more loosely associated with this group is plate 134, which may be an inferior workshop production. Undoubtedly by Vrancx himself is plate 69c, brought to my attention in 2004 (reproduced with thanks to the private owner). Related paintings for which it has not proved possible to obtain photographs include: Carnival at Venice (Christie’s, 30 July 1943, lot 150, as by Alsloot); Bull-baiting in the Piazza of St Mark’s (Sotheby’s, 23 February 1955, lot 2, as by Vrancx, but according to the Rubenianum (Antwerp), reattributed by P. de Boer to Caulery), noted by Legrand as being in the Delwart collection, Brussels, the pendant to one in another private collection, based on Ambrogio Brambilla’s view of a Roman firework display for the Speculum romanae (Les peintres flamands, p.82). Susanne Tichy, “et vene la mumaria”: Studien zur venezianischen Festkultur der Renaissance (München: scaneg, 1997), pp.278ff. They precede by several decades the mid-seventeenth century festival paintings of Giuseppe Heintz often cited as being the forerunners of this popular Venetian genre, and share close

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The most artistically distinguished of this group is A bullfight on the Piazza San Marco [plate 126b].364 In 1928, Dr Hans Schneider, the then vice-director of the Mauritshuis, had lent this painting, inscribed: ‘Johann Lijs fecit 16**’, from his private collection to an exhibition of Dutch art in Rome considered to be of such cultural importance that its organizing committee was chaired by Benito Mussolino.365 In his lengthy review of the exhibition, a Dutch committee member indicated that while he was certain of the authenticity of its inscription, the painting deviates in important respects from the style and composition of Liss’s accepted oeuvre. His proposal for solving this conundrum was to suggest the simultaneous presence in early sixteenth century Venice with the German Johann Liss (d.1631) of an otherwise unknown identically named Dutch artist.366 This suspiciously convenient theory received immediate art-historical support, and underlies Steinbart’s rejection of the picture as the work of Liss, in the first substantial monograph dedicated to the great German artist, whose oeuvre and nationality only fully re-emerged in the twentieth century.367 Steinbart’s detailed illustrated evaluation derisively dismisses lesser art historians who, lulled into a false sense of security by the picture’s undeniably authentic inscription, had failed to recognize its ‘fundamentally different, not to say mediocre style, that has absolutely nothing at all in common’ with the artist’s accepted oeuvre.

364

365

366

367

compositional links with the late sixteenth century Venetian costume pictures of the subject produced for friendship albums, on which see bibliography (Katritzky). During a brief art market reappearance of 1997, without any hint of the lengthy debate it provoked, or its venerable two and a half century provenance, it was described only as ‘property of a Lady’, and despite its inscription, given as ‘Johann Lijs *6**’, attributed to Louis de Caulery. Variants of plate 126c include plates 124, 126, 126b (my thanks to the curators of the Correr Museum for granting me access to this reserve collection painting). They feature formulaic architectural staffage, grisaille background crowds, and, as a glowing contrast, numerous brightly costumed middle and foreground figures, delicately painted by a consummate colourist of high artistic skill. Willem Martin, ‘Jan Lijs’, in R. Galleria Borghese Roma: mostra di capolavori della pittura olandese (25 febbraio – 18 aprile 1928 – A. VI) (Roma: Biblioteca d’arte editrice, 1928), no.68. I believe the Schneider collection painting and plate 126c to be the same work. They share virtually the same dimensions and inscription, and additional compositional features in the Schneider painting absent from plate 126c (notably the prominent shadow thrown by the Campanile, and the first digit of the inscribed date) may be the result of over-harsh cleaning. Willem Martin, ‘De tentoonstelling van oud-Hollandsche schilderkunst in de Galleria Borghese te Rome, Februari en maart 1928’, Mededeelingen van het Nederlandsch Historisch Instituut te Rome, 8 (1928), 89–110, pp.108–9. Fiocco, Venetian Painting, p.19; Kurt Steinbart, Johann Liss: der Maler aus Holstein (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1940), fig.1, pp.3–4, 176–7.

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The picture’s descent into art-historical oblivion was only hastened by Steinbart’s own complete about-turn in his second Liss monograph, where he unreservedly accepted it as a genuine Johann Liss of around 1621.368 Steinbart was not perceived to have emerged untarnished from the murky cultural politics of the war years. Notwithstanding his close personal knowledge of the original, this reassessment attracted distrust and contempt, and the painting was completely ignored by the great Liss exhibition of 1975.369 Great artists often radically modified their style, for example to copy the work of an admired master, as does Jacques Callot in two early engravings (plates 271–2), or to produce a work to commission, or conform to the expectations of a patron. Attribution on stylistic grounds alone is fraught with pitfalls. The Schneider painting’s contextualization, in the related group of pictures presented here, could contribute to our sparse knowledge of Germany’s most important seventeenth century painter, and represents a key to a greater understanding of the commissioning circumstances and dating of these important Venetian festival paintings. The foreground groupings of plates 123–6 each include an elegant gathering on a raised platform in the left foreground, watching bullfighting in the middle of the square, while crowds of carnival revellers mill around the various amusements. Mountebanks perform on raised outdoor stages in the middle righthand distance of plates 121–3 and 125–6. In plates 121–3, crowds of small, hardly differentiated plump figures swirl around the square. Plates 124 and 126 have an even more spontaneous atmosphere. But in plate 125, distinct groups of figures, each with minutely described features, gestures and costume details, are combined into one large and carefully planned composition. It features a representative selection of typical carnival diversions: wealthy and merchant onlookers at the left, the bullfight in the middle, the mountebank’s stage underneath the Campanile, the comic troupe in the foreground and masked participants to the right. Some awkward changes in scale, for example between the figures in the group in the left and middle foreground, and the rather coarse and stilted treatment of the background, indicate an artist inexperienced in handling such an ambitious and complicated composition.

368 369

Kurt Steinbart, Johann Liss (Wien: Schroll, 1946), pp.22–3. In a more recent Liss monograph it rates only two lines of text, relegated to the status of ‘unknown Flemish artist, c.1610’, in a brief unillustrated appendix of ‘inauthentic and wrongly attributed works (selection)’ (Rüdiger Klessmann, Johann Liss: eine Monographie mit kritischem Œuvrekatalog (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1999), p.193, see also p.23).

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Plates 121–3 accord best with their saleroom attributions to Caulery. Plate 123 features running children with outstretched arms in similar pose to those in Caulery’s signed Carnival [plate 73], and both the figures and architectural backgrounds of these paintings belong to similar artistic conventions. The comic troupes of plates 123, 124 and 125 are very different to each other. That of plate 123 appears to be composed of a string-playing male, a woman and a manservant in a tight red matachin suit similar to those worn by the bullfighters at the front right-hand side of the picture. They are followed by another couple and two males in less brightly coloured outfits, but it is difficult to make out more than the most general costume details in the tiny, centrally placed figures. The troupe depicted in plate 124 is a close variant of the one in Lodewyk Toeput’s drawing Allegory of January [plate 127]. In both, a string-playing zanni precedes a Pantalone accompanied by a man holding a bird, who are followed by two masked couples, and the painting is broadly compatible with the style of Toeput, who died c.1603/4.370 The comic troupe of plate 125 consists of a main group of three actors and one actress, namely Pantalone, two menservants, and an inamorata, a masked couple at the extreme right of the picture, a Harlequin and tedesco, and several matachins. There are compositional parallels with the Italian comedians depicted in two drawings by Momper, which themselves appear to derive from those in an engraving after Toeput [plates 128–30]. None of these comic figure types or compositional groups is to be found in the paintings of Louis de Caulery. However, Vrancx’s output repeatedly features similar string-playing zanni variants, somersaulting acrobats, some with hoops, and a masked woman in exotic dress accompanied by a comic servant or Pantalone. In some of his paintings, hammer-wielding zanni lead comic troupes, or there are even variations on a whole component of the troupe of plate 125, namely the Pantalone–inamorata pair with Zanni and a second servant, and one or two acrobats.371 Many of the masked figures in plate 125 also appear in modified form in plates 105 and 107–8, unsigned works associated with Vrancx, possibly workshop productions. In plate 105, the zanni has acquired a striped suit, and moved from the right of the Pantalone–inamorata pair to that of the Harlequin and drunken tedesco pair. In plate 108, the masked performers include the Pantalone–courtesan pair, the somersaulting acrobat and his companion, and a string-playing servant. In plate

370

371

Although the topographical inaccuracies of, for example, the Doge’s Palace raise misgivings about attribution to a long-term Veneto-based artist. See, for example, plates 97, 99–100, 106, 120.

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107, Pantalone and his courtesan, and a second couple both in eastern-inspired costume, are preceded by a string-playing zanni, and followed by a Harlequin. Plate 125 is especially close to the monogrammed plate 97, whose composition is shared by a dated engraving of 1606. Not only do the comic troupes in the two paintings share a close resemblance, but the costume details, poses and facial types of the wealthy spectators are comparable, and consistent with both paintings being early works of Sebastian Vrancx.

II.ii.h

Summary

Aspects of pictures with little direct bearing on theatre history are here examined in some detail in order to demonstrate two points of general relevance to early modern theatre iconography. These are firstly, that very precise dating of such images is sometimes possible quite independently of their theatrical content; and secondly, to demonstrate that the Antwerp artists of this group of paintings drew heavily on detailed knowledge of previous pictures, to the extent that the settings for their depictions of the Italian comedians are primarily variations on a limited range of themes. Often associated with the month of February, these are predominantly urban carnivals and courtly garden scenes. Sometimes the comic masks are nothing more than carnival revellers.372 In other pictures, troupes of performers with more or less identifiable commedia dell’arte characters are shown on stage,373 in street performances,374 entertaining outdoors in palace gardens or courtyards, usually at banquets and picnics,375 or performing or masquerading indoors.376 Others are engaged in less easily definable pursuits, which might be troupe parades to publicize professional skills, or amount to nothing more than public carnival revelry.377 The extent to which eyewitness experience of itinerant troupes, at home or abroad, played a role in modifying the depiction of the costume details, postures, gestures and props in the borrowings which have been noted, is rarely clear. At least one of the artists concerned, Sebastian Vrancx, played a leading role among the amateur actors of Antwerp’s rhetoricians’ chamber. For their performances, costumes and sets, it is possible

372 373 374 375 376 377

See, for example, plates 73, 76, 78–80, 84, 110–16, 149, 153. See, for example, plates 68, 77, 102–3, 117, 119–23, 125–8, 146. See, for example, plates 70–2, 125. See, for example, plates 92–101, 104–9, 148, 157–9, 211. See, for example, plates 138–45, 150–1. See, for example, plates 81–3, 120 (RHS), 123–135 (offstage figures), 147.

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that rederijkers drew on Italian prints, the travelling troupes they saw, or even on paintings by Vrancx or other members of their group. The hypothesis that Tempesta’s Februarius influenced Jan I Bruegel’s Roman Carnival is tentative, and a common source cannot be ruled out [plates 65, 68]. But the compositional similarities suggest that Jan I’s painting postdates his visit to Rome in the 1590s and was not based solely on his own sketches. There is more substantial evidence for tracing a sequence of influence from Tempesta’s prints378 to plate 71, and in turn from this painting to three further carnival scenes,379 and then on from one of these380 to two groups of carnival paintings by Caulery and others. One of these groups features Italianate backgrounds, the other, ending with paintings dated to 1604 and 1605, northern backgrounds. Here more than one print is involved, and an as yet undiscovered common source for the similarities between the prints and plate 71, or influence from this painting to Tempesta, is correspondingly unlikely. The possibility of as yet unknown variants representing further links of influence or requiring modifications to these groupings cannot be ruled out, and any assumptions based on this restricted sampling of the pictorial record can only be tentative. However, this analysis does indicate that plates 71, 76 and 78 may be dated quite precisely to the period 1600–3, and that plate 81 probably dates to 1604–5. The older literature deduces from Caulery’s paintings that he had an extensive knowledge of Italian prints, if not personal experience of Italy itself.381 On the evidence presented here, this case must rest as unproven. But one named artist has been identified who certainly used Tempesta’s prints as a direct source for motifs in pictures containing Italian comedians. He is Sebastian Vrancx, whose Dives and Lazarus [plate 97] of c.1606 and other paintings including Italian comedians drew on motifs in Tempesta’s The months I of 1599 [plates 64, 89–91], and in turn influenced a large group of further pictures containing comic players, investigated in this section. Vrancx is here suggested as the probable artist of plate 71, a painting of commedia dell’arte street performers of exceptional theatrical interest. In drawing on compositional elements in at least three prints by the Italian engraver Tempesta, plate 71 serves to demonstrate both Tempesta’s influence on the development of this genre and some of the problems encountered in trying to identify the performers in such pictures. Al-

378 379 380 381

Notably plates 64–5, 74. Plates 70, 72, 76. Plate 76. Michel, ‘Louis de Caulery’, p.226.

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II.III.A STERLING’S ‘EARLY PAINTINGS’: INTRODUCTION

though Antonio Tempesta only depicts groups of Italian comedians twice, motifs and settings from his prints appear in many Flemish pictures of comic types. The Florentine cityscapes which form the settings of some of his prints, and the poses, props, and costumes of his figures, were repeatedly plundered for garden palace scenes and carnival pictures in Italianate capriccio settings, by Flemish artists whose pictures were in turn modified to provide ‘Flemish’ backgrounds.

II.iii

Sterling’s ‘Early paintings of the commedia dell’arte in France’ reconsidered

II.iii.a Introduction Charles Sterling’s article of 1943, long the most significant scholarly publication concerned with an interpretation of sixteenth century commedia dell’arte images based on art-historical methods, plays a pioneering role in reinforcing a point central to theatre-iconographical research.382 This is that the visual appearance of the comic types, their gestures, costumes, props, postures, facial characteristics, expressions and body types, even the settings in which they are depicted, cannot be decontextualized from the pictorial record as a whole. They have as much to do with the identity of the artists who depicted them, and the pictures with which they are familiar, as with the appearance, performances, and settings of any actual entertainers depicted. Sterling reviews the pictorial record then associated with the visits of Italian actors to France during the years 1570 to 1585, reproducing six paintings, all depicting actors on-stage, or in three-quarter view groups. To three paintings in Paris already well known at this time383 he adds two pictures in museums in Béziers and Rennes, and a Harlequin disguised at that time on the art market, but now in the Drottningholm Theatre Museum.384 More than in its conclusions, the article’s value lies in its method, an unprecedentedly careful art-historical analysis of the then known visual material relating to the early commedia dell’arte. Here, these images are reconsidered in the light of related pictures.

382 383

384

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’. Bayeux Museum [plate 12]; Carnavalet Museum [plate 61]; Paris, private collection [plate 60]. Plates 154, 155, 49.

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II.iii.b The Bayeux painting Traditionally, this panel was interpreted as depicting an altercation at the French court in 1570, between Charles IX and his sister Marguerite de Valois, over her frustrated marriage plans [plate 12].385 Maurice Sand, who first associated the picture with the commedia dell’arte, described it as a court ballet of 1572, with the Duke de Guise as Scaramouche, the Duke d’Anjou as Harlequin, the Cardinal of Lorraine as Pantalone, Caterina de’ Medici as Columbine and King Charles IX himself as Brighella.386 Sand’s description, unillustrated and lacking clear indications concerning the location of the image, raised considerable interest even before the panel was identified and published.387 This was only in the 1920s, when Duchartre triumphantly sprung the panel upon his readers as no less than ‘the oldest and most important document in the iconography of the commedia dell’arte now extant’.388 An inscription, painted on a piece of wood added to the original panel, identifies eleven numbered characters as King Charles IX and members of his court.389 Four of the remaining figures are masked. 385

386 387

388 389

For a detailed discussion of plate 12 and its possible iconographic borrowings, see Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.190–6. On this painting, see also Frances K Barasch, ‘The Bayeux painting and Shakespearean improvisation’, Shakespeare Bulletin, 11 (1993), 33–6; Schindler, ‘Zan Tabarino’, pp.491–4; and for colour reproductions, Kellein, Pierrot, p.18; Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon, p.73. Sand, Masques et Bouffons, I, p.43 Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, pp.231–2 (who raised serious misgivings about Sand’s description). Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.86. Small numbers painted directly beside eleven of the twenty depicted characters, some barely legible, others evidently touched up, identify them as follows: 1) PORBUS peintre auteur du tableau [in the black hat and dark cloak standing in the extreme left background]. 2) LE ROI charles Neuf (1550–74) [Duchartre (p.84) identifies him as the man with outstretched arms directly behind the woman standing in the foreground, in a green hat, hose and garters, a cream coloured doublet and shoes and a black cloak]. 3) HENRY duc de Guise [to the right of Charles; with sword, black hat, shoes and hose, a pale cloak and stockings, and white neck ruff]. 4) CATHERINE de Medicis Reine mere (1519–89) [was known to have worn widows’ weeds from 1559 onwards. The woman standing behind Pantalone is youngish and in a fashionable, cream-coloured dress with decorative black undersleeves, a pale lilac underdress, and the same type of pretty headwear as her female companions]. 5) LE DUC D’ANJOU depuis henry 3 frere du Roi (1551–89) [Charles’s younger brother Henri. Now identified by number as the young man standing between Charles and Caterina, in green doublet, stockings, hose and hat, the last with a spoon in it, black doublet and pink cloak, although Duchartre (p.84) identifies him as the older man to the left of the doorway in the light-coloured headwear]. 6) LE DUC D’ALENCON frere du Roi (b.1554) [Charles’ younger brother Hercule (Francis), a frail hunchback. The number 6

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II.III.B STERLING’S ‘EARLY PAINTINGS’: THE BAYEUX PAINTING

Pantalone, in the central right foreground, wears his traditional black and bright red, with a prominent codpiece, flesh-coloured full-face mask with large circular eye holes, and white hair and beard. The masked servant next to him wears a feathered cap, dark leggings, and a pale grey jacket cut in loose zanni fashion, but decorated with numerous neutrally coloured, and several bright red, green, or yellow patches.390 Two further masked zanni stand at the left of the picture. The setting is a stone-walled interior of monumental proportions, leading to an open archway framing a summer view into formal gardens. To the top left of the panel, a heavy black curtain has been drawn back. Duchartre recognized the panel’s inscription as a later addition, but cited it as evidence that it was painted by Pourbus, and that the location and date of the performance it depicts is the French court c.1572–4. He concludes that: ‘the troupe was certainly one of the oldest, and there is good reason to believe that it was Ganassa’s company […] the scene portrayed could not possibly have taken place later than 1574’.391 Sterling, for whom the inscription has ‘no documentary value whatever’, dismisses its attribution of the picture to the Pourbus family, and debunks its identifications of the depicted people: ‘nothing could be more suspect than this roster of players so obviously well chosen for their roles; it proclaims naïve wishful thinking’.392 However, he accepts Duchartre’s interpretation of the painting’s subject, and confirms its status as ‘the oldest painting known (or at least published) of a scene from the commedia dell’arte’.393 De-

390 391 392 393

is painted above the head of the woman in the background standing immediately to the right of the archway, indicating an error in repainting the numbers. Duchartre (p.84) identifies no.6 as the man described in no.5, above]. 7) ELISABETH mariee a philippe 2 Roi d’espagne soeur du roi (1545–68) [Duchartre (p.84) identifies her as the seated figure in the green dress at the extreme right stroking a lapdog, now identified as number 9. Caterina’s oldest daughter left France in 1559 to marry Philip II of Spain]. 8) CLAUDE mariee a charles 2 duc de Lorraine Soeur du roi (1547–75) [older sister of Charles. The number is no longer visible, and it is not possible to tell which figure is meant]. 9) MARGUERITE mariee a henry 4 Roi de Navare soeur du Roi (b.1553) [younger sister of Charles. The date of the marriage was 17 August 1572, a week before the Massacre of St Bartholomew (24.8.1572). Now identified as the extreme right-hand seated figure]. 10) CHARLES CARDINAL de Lorraine. [seated second from the right]. 11) MARIE TOUCHET maîtresse de charles 9 [the dark-clad woman in the extreme right-hand background is identified by a faintly painted number as this mistress of Charles IX, who married Elisabeth of Habsburg, sister of the future Holy Roman Emperors Rudolf and Matthias, in 1570]. Identified by some as a Harlequin; see below, p.236. Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.86. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.17. Ibid., p.20.

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spite widespread reservations concerning the inscription,394 a dating to c.1571–2 is generally accepted.395 Sterling links the Bayeux and Carnavalet Museum paintings, and suggests the possibility that the Bayeux painting, and a drawing which repeats part of its central composition, may both be independently based on an earlier lost engraving of the central group.396

II.iii.c

Lucas van Valckenborch

Adhémar reinforced Sterling’s link between the Bayeux and Carnavalet pictures, and suggested that they and two further depictions of Italian comedians came from the same sixteenth century workshop.397 He more loosely associated this group with two ‘second-rate’ compositions featuring commedia troupes, here attributed to Lucas van Valckenborch [plates 157–8].398 The oeuvre of the Valckenborch family is still emerging as a focus for commedia studies.399 Sev-

394

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397 398

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Ireneo Sanesi, ‘Note sulla commedia dell’arte’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 111 (1938), 5–76, p.66. Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, pp.270–1; McDowell, ‘Commedia dell’arte acting’, p.55; Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, p.19; Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, p.27; Françoise Decroisette, ‘Les oiseaux de passage’, Langues neo-Latines, 76 (1982), 63–85, pp.64, 78; Robert L Erenstein, De geschiedenis van de Commedia dell’arte (Amsterdam: International Theatre Bookshop, 1985), p.90; Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, p.142. Plates 12, 13, 61; Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.29. J Cousin (‘Une scène des Gelosi: Isabelle Andreini et sa troupe (tableau du Musée Carnavalet)’, Bulletin des Musées de France, 2 (1890), 67–70), identifies the players of plate 61 as Isabella Andreini and the Gelosi troupe. Plates 12, 60, 61, 156. Plates 157–8; Jean Adhémar, ‘French sixteenth century genre paintings’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 8 (1945), 191–5, p.192. With hindsight, I no longer support my tentative stylistic linking of plate 12 to these pictures. Erroneously promoted by more than one scholar from idle speculation to the status of a definite re-attribution to Valckenborch, it has met with justifiably negative reactions (Schindler, ‘Zan Tabarino’, pp.491–5; idem, ‘Zan Ganassa – vom Reichstag zur Bluthochzeit. Neue Funde zu Alberto Naselli, am Theater Ganassa’, in Theater, Kunst, Wissenschaft. Festschrift für Wolfgang Greisenegger zum 66. Geburtstag, eds. Edda Fuhrich and Hilde Haider (Wien: Böhlau, 2004), 301–22, p.321; Frances K Barasch, ‘Shakespeare and commedia dell’arte: an intertextual approach’, Shakespeare Yearbook (Shakespeare and Italy), 10 (1999), 374–400, p.384). Renger, ‘Joos van Winghes “Nachtbancket”’, p.171; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.206 n.489; Hummelen, ‘Doubtful images’, p.211; Otto G Schindler, ‘Türkenkrieg als Faschingsscherz: Der “Karneval in Venedig” in Kremsmünster’, Oberösterreichischer Kulturbericht, 52 (1998), 12–13.

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eral commedia-related paintings are associated with the brothers Gillis (c.1570– 1622) and particularly Frederick van Valckenborch (c.1570–1623), whose father Marten (1535–1612) was also an artist.400 Marten’s brother Lucas van Valckenborch (c.1535–97) was born in Leuven near Brussels.401 Already a wellestablished artist, Reformation sympathies forced him to flee to Liège in 1566, but he was back in Antwerp by 1575. He was in the employ of Archduke Matthias (1557–1619) from around 1577, when the archduke moved to Brussels as nominal Regent of the Netherlands. Here, Valckenborch’s duties included designing costumes for Matthias’s guard, and painting his portraits.402 In 1582, Valckenborch accompanied Matthias to Linz, where he was the only painter of any significance at Matthias’ court until 1593, when he left for Frankfurt to enter into the service of Matthias’ younger brother Archduke Ernst. Here Lucas joined his brother Marten, becoming a citizen of Frankfurt in 1594, and dying there in 1597.403 Matthias’s father, Emperor Maximilian II (1527–76), was one of the earliest foreign patrons of Italian travelling performers, inviting them almost annually to Linz and to Vienna throughout his reign as king and then emperor from 1564

400

401

402

403

Several pictures of comic types on stage [plate 172] or engaged in outdoor [plate 173] or indoor [plate 174] carnival revels are attributed to Marten. On Valckenborch, see Dr Zülch, ‘Die Künstlerfamilie Van Valckenborch’, Oud Holland, 49 (1932), 221–8; Heinrich G Franz, Niederländische Landschaftsmalerei im Zeitalter des Manierismus, 2 vols (Graz: Akademische Druck, 1969), pp.198–209; idem, ‘Niederländische Landschaftsmaler im Künstlerkreis Rudolf II’, Um¥ní, 18 (1970), 224–45; C van Valkenburg, ‘Het vlaamse schildersgeslacht Van Valckenborch’, Oud Holland, 86 (1971), 43–6; Alexander Wied, ‘Lucas van Valckenborch’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 67 (1971), 119–240; idem, Lucas und Marten van Valckenborch (1535–1597 und 1534–1612). Das Gesamtwerk mit kritischem Œuvrekatalog (Freren: Luca, 1990); idem, ‘Die Gärten in den Gemälden der Malerfamilie Valckenborch’, in Gärten und Höfe der Rubenszeit im Spiegel der Malerfamilie Brueghel und der Künstler um Peter Paul Rubens, ed. Ursula Härting (München: Hirmer, 2000), 107–19. Walter Hummelberger, ‘Erzherzog Matthias in den Niederlanden (1577–1581)’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 61 (1965), 91–118, figs.132–3, 138–45, 147, 149; Wied, ‘Lucas van Valckenborch’, pp.140–1, 199. Matthias continued to stay in touch with developments in Flemish art, through his Brussels envoy, Karl Larchier. Archduke Matthias of Austria at the vintage, a signed and dated work of 1597 (London art market, 10.12.1980), is one of many depictions of the Austrian Habsburgs in Lucas’s considerable late production; another is Emperor Rudolf taking the waters (R J W Evans, ‘The Austrian Habsburgs, the dynasty as a political institution’, in The Courts of Europe. Politics, patronage and Royalty, 1400–1800, ed. A G Dickens (London: Thames & Hudson, 1977), 120–45, p.126).

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to 1576.404 Limited financial resources during the period when Valckenborch was his court painter did not prevent Matthias from indulging his love for the theatre.405 After 1612, when Matthias succeeded his older brother Rudolf to the imperial throne, he had the financial means to indulge his enthusiasm for the Italian comedians. At the Reichstag of 1614, during what has been called the ‘the earliest important “season” of improvised comedy at the Bavarian and Imperial courts’, he raised to the nobility the comic actor Cecchini (‘Fritellino’).406 Matthias’s uncle (and later father-in-law) Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (1529–95) also had an active interest in the Italian comedians. His collections included three masked captains of Murano glass, one of the oldest sculptural representations of Italian comedians, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,407 and several ‘Sani’ are featured in his play A Mirror of Human Life.408 Visits by the Italian comedians to Ferdinand of Tyrol’s court, at Castle Ambras just outside Innsbruck, included a five-week season booked by his agent Aloizio Spinosa on 16 December 1589.409 The sizeable troupe of thirteen actors and two actresses received an honorarium of 300 crowns. They came from Mantua, and it seems likely that they included the nucleus of what would, by around 1598–9, become the Gonzaga court troupe. This was the Martinelli brothers and Drusiano’s wife Angelica Alberghini, closely associated from around 1580 with the future Duke Vincenzo I, older brother of Ferdinand’s second wife, Anna Caterina Gonzaga.410

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406 407

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Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, pp.228–30, n.149. Linz is the capital of Upper Austria. At the invitation of Archdukes Matthias and Karl, members of the Bavarian court visited Innsbruck during the carnival period 4–15 February 1589. They enjoyed typical carnival entertainments, such as music, dancing, a tournament, sledge rides, masquerades at court and in the town, and on 9 February, an otherwise unspecified comedy (Munich, BHStA KÄA 4292 ff.485r–489r). Nicoll, The World of Harlequin, p.175. Schlosser, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern, pp.60–1 and fig.48; Torben Krogh, ‘Nye bidrag til den tidlige italienske maskekomedies historie’ in Musik og Teater (Munksgaard, 1955), 132–49, p.148, fig.35. e Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol, Eine Schone Comœdi Specvlvm Vitæ Hvmanæ, auff Teutsch Ein Spiegel des Menschlichen Lebens genandt (Jnßprugg: Johann Pawer, 1584). Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, pp.232–3. On Ferdinand’s unsuccessful plans to bring this troupe to Munich, see Schindler, ‘Zan Tabarino’, pp.514–17. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 188ff. The mother of Vincenzo (b.1562), who succeeded Guglielmo in 1587, and Anna Caterina (b.1566) was Ferdinand of Tyrol’s sister Eleanor. Anna Caterina’s cousin, Ferdinand of Bavaria, brought her from Mantua for the Innsbruck wedding in 1582 (see plate 25 and Lietzmann, ‘Die Geschichte zweier Automaten’, pp.395–6).

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Italian comedians entering a château is known in at least two variants, one of which came on to the Italian art market in 1928 with the title Reception of a Turkish Ambassador, and attributed to Frans I Francken [plate 157]. It was reassigned to Frans I’s brother Hieronymus I, and recognized as depicting Italian comedians, although their similarity to those in earlier prints has not received recognition.411 The Harlequin and Pantalone are close to those in two Recueil Fossard woodcuts depicting a comic serenade [plate 6]. The lute-playing zanni and exotic couple appear to have been lifted from a print by de Jode after Toeput, whose masks are faithfully reversed in the ‘ambassadorial’ group of the panel, where they are placed in a very different setting [plate 130, 16].412 Mannerist architecture and several figures similar to those in Italian comedians entering a château, such as the woman in white in the right centre of the picture, appear in a painting of the 1590s by Valckenborch, Dance on a palace terrace.413 This type of architecture, unique to this picture in the artist’s accepted oeuvre, shows the influence of Hendrik Steenwijk the Elder, since 1573 a sonin-law of Lucas’s brother Marten. Dance on a palace terrace, plate 157 and plate 187 share sufficiently similar architectural staffage and figures to encourage the possibility that the three paintings stem from the same studio and period, given by the date and monogram (apparently that of Lucas van Valckenborch, dated 1590), of plate 187. In the middle foreground of a painting of similar style and format, a troupe of Italian comedians, including Pantalone, Zanni, Harlequin and a masked couple, entertains a courtly gathering in a palace setting [plate 158]. The picture traditionally bore the title Queen Elizabeth and her court at Hunsdon House. Sewter, who first published it (as Queen Elizabeth and her court at Kenilworth Castle in c.1575, by Marcus Gheraerts senior) identifies its figures as follows:

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Legrand, Les peintres flamands, p.72 (who attributes it to Hieronymus I Francken); Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, p.20; Adhémar, ‘Genre paintings’, p.192 and fig.43b; Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, opp.280. Leik notes the borrowings from de Jode, and from Goltzius’ dated print of 1584 after Barendsz, Venetian wedding. (Frühe Darstellungen, p.211). The Zanni of plate 130, also similar to that in the right foreground of plate 135, in turn relates to one in plate 12, a painting apparently dated 1565. Wied, Lucas und Marten van Valckenborch, p.160, cat.53. This architecture may be an elaborate ‘palazzo mobile di legname […] dipinto di chiaro scuro’, of the type whose temporary erection for carnival comedies is noted in archival records such as this one of 1591 (D’Ancona (Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.503), or generic pictorial staffage (Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.210).

145

THE ART OF COMMEDIA the Pantaloon on the left appears to be the actor Giulio Pasquati […] the Zany who brandishes a violin appears to be Gabriele Panzanini […] Almost certainly, therefore, it is the Gelosi company which is represented […] to come at last to the figures of the members of the court, it has been found unfortunately impossible to identify with certainty more than three of them […] namely Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester […] on the Queen’s right; the Queen herself, a dainty, wide-eyed figure dressed in white, with pale golden-red hair and wearing a crown; and on her left, with his arm interlinked in hers, Leicester’s nephew the young Philip Sidney.414

Although it is clear that the representations of actors are based on iconographic precedents, it would be unduly pessimistic to rule out any possibility of linking this picture and others like it with actual locations and genuine commedia dell’arte troupes.415 But whether or not it is intended to represent a real performance, Sewter’s identification of its actors with the Gelosi troupe may be ruled out. It dates from the period when Tristano Martinelli’s Harlequin was still unique on the commedia dell’arte stage, and Martinelli was not associated with the Gelosi troupe. The older man of the interlinked group of man, woman and boy wears a fashionable bonnet and high ruff. His facial hair conforms not to the longer, corkscrew moustache and spade-shaped beard depicted in portraits showing Dudley (c.1532–88) in the mid- to late 1570s (for example, two in the National Portrait Gallery, London), but to the picke-devant style fashionable in the 1580s. The female figure in no way reflects the dazzling imperial majesty and symbolism of Queen Elizabeth’s official portraits, and the boy at her side, identified by Sewter as Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86) seems hardly into his teens. Almost instant exceedingly robust refutation of these claims by a then leader of the arthistorical establishment has not prevented continuing sporadic citations of this picture as ‘proof’ that the Gelosi performed in England in 1575.416 The compositional group of this woman and the boy also feature in another depiction of Italian comic types in a palace garden setting [plate 184].417 Here there are five, in the right-hand middle distance, of whom the last is a dottore on horseback. He is preceded by a very similar group of four to that in plate 48,

414

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A C Sewter, ‘Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth’, Burlington Magazine, 76 (1940), 71–6, pp.75–6. Pace Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.212. H M Hake, ‘Letter: Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth’, Burlington Magazine, 76 (1940), 166; Adhémar, ‘Genre paintings’, p.192; Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput’, pp.74–5; Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.142–3; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.209–12. Legrand, Les peintres flamands, pp.254–5 n.110; G Renson and M Casteels, Het KasteelMuseum van Gaasbeek (Lennik, 1979), pp.50–1; Fusenig and Maegd, ‘Lustbarkeiten im Garten’, pp.371–2.

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namely a Pantalone riding a ‘pantomime donkey’ consisting of a crouching player supported by a standing Harlequin wearing Pantalone’s slippers as donkey’s ears, followed by a zanni holding up an open song book.418 These three paintings, all depicting Harlequins, bear sufficiently strong stylistic similarities to some of Lucas van Valckenborch’s known works for the possibility that he is their artist to deserve serious consideration.419 Comparison of them with signed pictures by Valckenborch, such as a Spring and Autumn of c.1585 in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, reveals certain typical stylistic and compositional characteristics. These include their high viewpoint, distant background views, clean brushwork and clear bright, unbroken colours, intricate mannerist fountain and arcaded architecture, formal clipped hedges and busy scenes peopled with figures sharing a relatively narrow range of distinctive costume, gesture and build. Quite different in style are two depictions of performing troupes that, in contrast to these three paintings, are attributed to Lucas van Valckenborch [plates 160, 162].420 Winter carnival, one of a set of four drawings depicting the seasons, is a small, exquisite, colour drawing with predominant shades of deep blues and browns [plate 162]. The highlight of the festivities is a troupe of Italian comedians in the left foreground, whose crowd of zanni jostle around a shoulder-borne Pantalone in glowing red, with a deep blue waist sash and elaborate headgear. Stylistic and compositional similarities with Momper’s January and February include the circular lutes,421 baggy jackets and short trousers of the zanni, the pop-eyed, round-faced women, with their high, slim waists, the proportions, poses and gestures of the figures in general, and the dogs [plates 128–9]. These characteristics recur in three anonymous drawings perhaps by Momper himself [plates 164–6]. But the strongest stylistic links are with the

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419 420

421

Further paintings featuring court gatherings in palace gardens perhaps to be associated with this group include two featuring three dancing masked performers In one, they are a Pantalone in traditional bright scarlet and black, flanked to the left by a lute-playing zanni with a short black cloak, and to the right by a second servant in a buff suit, black hat, and short red cloak [plate 159]. In the other, this group is in similar pose and costume, but instead of the burlesque carnival instrument of grill and fire tongs, the second servant plays a guitar [plate 185]. Plates 157–8, 184. Martin Royalton-Kisch, Adriaen van de Venne’s Album in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1988), pp.76, 126. Lutes of this time were generally teardrop-shaped (Tom Heck, verbal communication, 1994).

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oeuvres of Hans Bol and his stepson, Frans Boels, probably, like Valckenborch, born in Malines, a miniaturist who generally painted on parchment or copper.422 Carnival masqueraders feature in several of their signed and dated pictures of the 1570s and 1580s.423 Comparison of plate 162 and its three companion pictures of the seasons with the later oeuvre of Boels, notably several signed and dated works of 1616 (Munich Residenz, Miniaturenkabinett) establishes parallels, for example in the schematic representation of the foliage. These are close enough to enable confident attribution to Boels, and dating to around the second decade of the seventeenth century. Plate 160 is an urban carnival scene including masks in commedia-inspired costume. Informally reattributed to Lucas van Valckenborch by the RKD (Hague), it seems to be closer to the style of his nephew Frederick van Valckenborch, who was made a citizen of Frankfurt in 1597, where children born to his wife were christened on 23.4.1598 and 17.8.1600. He was in Rome 1591–2 and Mantua 1595–6, and possible extensive travels in Bavaria and the Tyrol at the end of the century are thought to have included a visit to Landshut in 1599.424 Possibly, he is even the artist responsible for a doublesided sheet of drawings after the Trausnitz staircase frescoes [plates 164–5]. Catalogued as preparatory drawings by Friedrich Sustris, they are on paper

422

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424

For Hans Bol (1534–93) and Frans Boels, see: Theodor v Frimmel, ‘Frans Boels’, Blätter für Gemäldekunde, 1 (1904), 42–6; Heinrich G Franz, ‘Hans Bol als Landschaftszeichner’, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Instituts Graz, 1 (1965), 1–67; idem, ‘Beiträge zur niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei des 16. Jahrhunderts’, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Instituts Graz, 15/16 (1979/80), 135–74, pp.154–68; Yvonne Thiéry, ‘A propos d’un paysage inédit de Frans Boels’, Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, 41 (1972), 59–75; William W Robinson in Hand et al, The Age of Bruegel, pp.73–4. See, for example, plates 167–8 and 171, Boels’s signed and dated Winter of 1594. A copy of Bol’s signed and dated The four seasons: Winter of 1586 (Miniaturenkabinett, Munich Residenz), it demonstrates how closely the style of Boels followed that of his stepfather. In 1602, the family moved to Nürnberg (Zülch, ‘Die Künstlerfamilie Van Valckenborch’, p.226). In Mantua, he is thought to have painted scenery for court performances (Schindler, ‘Zan Tabarino’, p.495). Heinrich Geissler (Zeichnung in Deutschland, deutsche Zeichner 1540–1640, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, 1979), I, p.204) attributes to him a dispersed sketchbook containing townscapes of Landshut, including one now in Budapest dated 1599, Munich, Salzburg, Passau and Stift Melk. A view of Landshut assigned to Lucas van Valckenborch (Weimar, inv.no.4593) is reattributed by Teréz Gerszi (‘The draughtsmanship of Lodewijk Toeput’, Master Drawings, 30 (1992), 367–95, pp.374–5, 384, figs.8, 9) as a copy by Toeput of a preliminary drawing by Hoefnagel for an etching of 1577 published by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 6 vols, Cologne, 1572–1618, III, 1581, f.45).

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with a watermark used at the Landshut papermill of Burkhardt Faist during the period 1595–1614, and thus postdate completion of the Trausnitz frescoes by well over a decade. 425 Frederick and his brother Gillis, who perhaps accompanied him to Italy, painted in similar mannerist style, although they also signed works in more traditional Flemish style.426 The mannerist pictures include a number of night scenes depicting large crowds of carnival masqueraders, including recognizable commedia dell’arte types, some with performers on stage in the background. Plate 177 was tentatively dated to the period 1596– 1607 when it was exhibited in Brussels in 1963; the date of plate 180 has been read as 1597.427 Stylistically close to this group is an indoor banqueting scene attributed to Donducci, in whose left foreground six masked performers, a woman, four men and a lute-playing boy, entertain a hall of banqueters [plate 181]. A drawing in which the unusual motif of a matachin with a parasol may indicate the influence of plate 130 shares a number of compositional similarities with plate 177.428

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As noted by Wolfgang Wegner, who suggests that plates 164–5 are by an unknown master after lost drawings for the frescoes, because of their high artistic quality, and compositional deviations from the frescoes (‘Eine Zeichnung zur Narrentreppe auf der Trausnitz zu Landshut’, Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Niederbayern, 88 (1962), 98–103, p.102). These deviations do not to me appear incompatible with creative copies directly from the frescoes themselves. See also Volk-Knüttel, ‘Der Maler Alessandro Paduano’, p.80. Two such by Frederick feature winter carnival masqueraders, to the left of the drawing Winter (Vienna, Albertina, inv.nr.7914), and at the right background of the main scene on a signed and dated virginals lid of 1619 featuring the seasons [plate 183]. Le siècle de Bruegel, ed. Boon, cat.220. On plate 177, see also Heinrich G Franz (‘Die spätmanieristische Landschaft: der Weg zur phantastischen Landschaft’, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Instituts Graz, 4 (1968), 21–71, p.31) and Hummelen, who dismisses the stages in this and plate 176 as ‘inventions […] imaginary italianate settings’ (‘Doubtful images’, p.211). A privately owned variant is of interest both in providing full-length rather than cut versions of the foreground group of masks, and for being signed in monogram by Frederick, and dated 1603 (reproduced in colour: Weltkunst, October 1996). My thanks to Konrad Renger for drawing this painting to my attention, in March 1998, and to Thomas Fusenig and Ulrike Villwock, for sending me an offprint of their article (‘Hieronymus Franckens “Venezianischer Ball” in Aachen. Eine neue Datierung und ihre Folgen’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 61 (2000), 145–76, fig.5). Plate 161, see also plate 320. Günter Irmscher reattributes plate 161 from Friedrich van Valckenborch to Christoph Jamnitzer, c.1600 (cat.330 in Gerhard Bott, ed, Wenzel Jamnitzer und die Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1500–1700, eine Ausstellung im Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg vom 28. Juni – 15. September 1985 (München: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1985), p.359). This is accepted by Matthias Boeckl (cat.V.13 in Werner Hofmann et al, Zauber der Medusa, Europäische Manierismen (Wien: Löcker, 1987), p.242).

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Several theatrical paintings attributed to Frederick in Austrian monasteries may point to Habsburg patronage. One, in the Benedikterabtei, Ottobeuren, shows entertainments, perhaps at a court festival, actors in mythological costume on a raised covered stage, and a tournament. The right-hand foreground group of a monumental canvas at Kremsmünster has been identified as a performing commedia troupe.429 This is yet another compendium of winter carnival diversions, compositionally conflating selected aspects of highlights that would have taken place at different times and venues. Provided account is taken of the heavy reliance on iconographic precedents, it seems reasonable to interpret the foreground right-hand group as members of a commedia troupe, and those wearing commedia-related costume outside this group, as costumed carnival masks. The canvas features numerous red-costumed matachins. At its centre, five surround two of their number shinning up a greasy pole to claim the caged goose at the top. One ferries a group of hunters across the canal, and to the right, on the far bank, another leads a Pantalone and zanni seated back-to-back on a donkey.430

II.iii.d The Carnavalet painting The second and third paintings discussed by Sterling, a privately owned troupe portrait and a canvas in the Carnavalet Museum, share certain stylistic parallels [plate 61]. He notes the closeness in composition and format of the private collection picture (and an unillustrated near-identical variant) to his fourth illustrated painting [plate 154].431 Plate 60, another near variant of Sterling’s second picture, depicts seven comedians, rather than the eight of plate 154. A zanni, Pantalone and pair of lovers in similar pose occupy the foreground of both pictures. In the background, instead of the left-hand zanni of plate 154, plate 60 features an older woman to the right. The elegant courtesan behind the foreground Zanni–Pantalone pair has been replaced by a maid, and two further courtesans in the centre background make way for a pointing male figure.

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430

431

Marzia Pieri, ‘Maschere italiane e carnevali del nord’, Biblioteca teatrale, 21 (1991), 1–19, p.15. Schindler (‘Türkenkrieg als Faschingsscherz’; idem, ‘Zan Tabarino’, p.495) rejects this identification, and the painting’s attribution to Frederick van Valckenborch, in favour of its interpretation as costumed carnival masks taking part in a procession, by an as yet unidentified artist. Similar motifs occur in plate 135, featuring comic types and carnival diversions in a northern town square setting. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.21. Nicoll (Masks, Mimes and Miracles, fig.224) reproduces this variant of plate 60 (in a Stockholm private collection). For plate 154, see also pp.155ff.

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Noting the ‘entirely different’ style of the variant of plate 60 to plate 154, Sterling associates the former with a painter of ‘Netherlandish descent […] one of those little masters skilled in scenes of genre in the tradition of the Monogrammist of Brunswick, of Jan van Hemessen, and of Martin van Cleve’.432 From the costumes, he dates it to ‘about 1580’. Stylistic and compositional similarities to three paintings here attributed to Ambrose I Francken encourage the possibility that plate 60 and its variants (and perhaps also plate 154) are also from the circle of Ambrose I Francken [plates 56–8].433 The facial types of the young woman in the left background and older woman at the extreme right of plate 60 resemble those of the two maids in the left background of plate 56. The elegant man to the right foreground of plate 60 resembles the man to the right of plates 57 and 59, and to the left of plates 56 and 58, in both facial type and costume. Although the zanni and Pantalone of plate 60 are masked, and those of plates 56–9 are not, there are marked similarities in physical type and costume. Two anonymous and undated variants of the Carnavalet painting are known, one of which is one of a pair of pictures, in the Comédie Française, both featuring actors on stage [plates 61, 188–190].434 Sterling identifies the Carnavalet artist as either Flemish or French and dates it, by the costumes, to the 1570s.435

432 433

434

435

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.21. On Ambrose I Francken, see Section II.i.d, pp.117ff. Plate 207 may be a further theatrical painting originating from this circle. Attributed to ‘Vlämischer Künstler um 1600 aus dem Kreise des Ambrosius Francken’, it features two costumed characters in the left foreground, a man in a vertically striped suit and a musician ‘playing’ grill and tongs. In a variant drawing, the equivalent pair wear clothes not associated with the Italian comedy [plate 208]. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp.20–21. The replica he notes as having been sold to Milan’s Scala Theatre Museum from a Paris private collection, is not now catalogued in the museum’s collections. Accepted by Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, p.19 (who notes, without further details, a variant in the collection of Mme. J Giraudoux); Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, pp.262, 265; Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, p.162; although McDowell suggests 1550–1600 (‘Commedia dell’arte acting’, p.59 n.102; idem, ‘Some pictorial aspects of early mountebank stages’, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 61 (1946), 84–96, p.88 n.28). Jacques Foucart suggests a link to Hieronymus I (Carnavalet Museum documentation), as does Noë (Illustrationen zur Commedia dell’arte, pp.30–1). Adhémar (‘Genre paintings’, p.192), suggests that the Carnavalet and Bayeux paintings, a variant of plate 60, and plate 156 are from the same workshop. A wooden dagger of the type carried by the zanni of plate 156 appears in an ink drawing attributed to Jacques de Gheyn II (Reinhart Schleier, Neue Zeichnungen alter Meister, Entdeckungen aus einer Barocksammlung (Münster: Westfälisches Museumsamt, 1981), pp.117–20) but executed by an artist with native familiarity with Italian (Paliaga, “Le teste di carattere”, pp.236–8,

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The Carnavalet painting is almost half life-size, and its monumental scale is reflected in the smooth and relatively mechanical treatment of its draperies. Their vast expanses do not lend themselves so naturally to the more spontaneous handling of the smaller variants, a particularly brilliant feature of the Comédie Française panel [plate 189]. The gown of the Comédie Française variant’s inamorata is comparable to the street dress of the typical late sixteenth century, well-to-do young Venetian matron [plate 189].436 However, the gown worn by the inamorata of its partner panel features sleeves divided by bands into a series of narrow slashed strips, a fashion inspired by Emperor Maximilian I’s Swiss mercenaries and adopted by high society in the 1530s [plate 190].437 The nearest equivalent to the handling, facial types, actors, and costumes of plates 189–90 is to be found in Venetian carnival by Hieronymus I Francken (1540–1610), the oldest member of a clan that produced several generations of painters. Notably, these were Hieronymus I and his brothers Frans I (1542– 1616) and Ambrose I (1544–1618), Frans I’s sons Hieronymus II (1578–1623), Frans II (1581–1642) and Ambrose II, and Frans II’s sons Hieronymus III, Frans III (1607–67) and Ambrose III. As the earliest of Hieronymus I’s few securely accepted works, Venetian carnival, signed and dated 1565, plays a key role in the development of northern genre painting [plate 16].438 He trained under Frans

436

437

438

suggests a Lombard artist, perhaps from Brambilla’s circle) [plate 191]. The drawing’s zanni and the painting’s central zanni wear similar rope belts and heavy purses, and stick their tongues out in similar lewd fashion. Plate 156 also shares a number of striking compositional parallels with the Trausnitz frescoes [plates 20–23]. These include the distinctive way of painting bows, the female types, the baggy zanni costumes, with their rope belts, beards and bi-feathered hats, and Pantalone’s costumes and two-tone sword. Perhaps plates 156 and 191 are by artists from the same circle which produced Friedrich Sustris, who oversaw the Trausnitz frescoes, namely that surrounding Vasari and Stradanus in Florence. Cesare Vecellio, Vecellio’s Renaissance Costume Book (1598) (New York: Dover, 1977), pl.95. On plates 61 and 189, see Barasch, ‘Shakespeare and commedia dell’arte’. Vecellio’s Renaissance Costume Book, pl.71 describes it as ‘old costume worn in Venice and other parts of Italy’. Isolated examples of the style occur as late as around 1580, for example in an anonymous Ball given at the court of Henri III in honour of the marriage of the Duc de Joyeuse (Louvre), where the dress of the lady seated next to Caterina de’ Medici has such sleeves. On plate 16, see: Kellein, Pierrot, p.97; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.197–8; Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon, p.107. Although it gives it the status of being the earliest painting of the commedia dell’arte, there has long been an unease about its inscribed date of 1565. P Philippot recognized the painting’s genre subject and bravura style as being ‘exceptionnelle pour la date de 1565’ (in Le siècle de Bruegel, ed. Boon, p.98, cat.99). The painting has certain apparently anachronistic details, and although it is far more usual for artists to copy

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Floris in Antwerp, is recorded in Fontainebleau in 1566, and, apart from several years in Antwerp during the mid-1570s, spent his working life in Paris, obtaining French nationality in 1572 and becoming peintre du roi under Henri III in 1594.439 Venetian Carnival features matachins and a troupe of Italian comedians, including Pantalone and Zanni, entertaining a noble audience. It is the oldest known dated painting of stock commedia dell’arte types, and shares many stylistic features of plates 189–90 [plate 16]. These include virtuoso colour effects such as the shot draperies of some of the dresses, the sweet faces and expressions of the women, and their prominent dark button eyes, round girlish features, plump cheeks and arms, double chins, neat ears and waists and small, sketchily depicted hands. An attribution of both the Comédie Française panels to his hand, with a dating near to his dated painting, seems reasonable. In another painting whose figure style appears close to that of Venetian carnival, nineteen singing, dancing and lute-playing comedians frolic across a stage-like platform behind which a cityscape, real or stage backdrop, recedes sharply into the background [plates 16, 192]. The panel may show an outdoor performance with a view of some actual city behind, or the outdoor celebrations of costumed carnival revellers, or alternatively a painted backdrop or perspective scenery of a stage performance. The two pictures feature similarly costumed women, and

439

prints than any other form of art, it is compositionally close to the apparently much later Venetian wedding. Depicting the commedia dell’arte trio of Pantalone and a masked servant, perhaps Zanni, with a courtesan, in a similar Venetian festival setting, Venetian wedding is known through Hendrik Goltzius’ dated print of 1584 and a drawing (Rijksmuseum: reattributed from Dirck Barendsz to Goltzius by Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), Drawings, Prints and Paintings (Amsterdam: Waanders, 2003), pp.49–50; painted variants include: I. Sibiu, Museum Brukenthal (cat. 1909 no.550, as J Heintz); II. London art market, 1939 (as Barendsz); III. London art market, 1983 (as Francken, excludes the egg-throwing courtesan at her balcony above Pantalone and Zanni). Various tentative suggestions have sought to address these factors. Should its date rather be read as 1585? Have hairstyles and other fashion details apparently dating to a later decade been retouched? Was an earlier version of the Venetian wedding composition in circulation two decades before being engraved? A robust approach based on solid art-historical reasoning, but scantier supporting technological observations, entirely rejects the inscription, radically re-dates the painting to the opening years of the seventeenth century, and (I believe, unconvincingly) reattributes it from Hieronymus I Francken to the apprenticeship of his nephew Hieronymus II (Fusenig and Villwock, ‘Hieronymus Franckens “Venezianischer Ball”’, pp.151, 169 n.28, 155–7). These questions raise fundamental issues for early modern theatre iconography, whose evidential foundations rest heavily on the limited number of such seemingly authentic inscriptions. Legrand, Les peintres flamands, pp.71–4.

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comparable props (such as the feather fan) and comic characters. These include Pantalone, matachins (four in the right-hand background of Venetian carnival, and six in the left foreground of plate 192), and the plump dottore-type in the crenellated beret who leaps with outstretched arms behind the Pantalone and Zanni of Venetian carnival, and just right of centre of plate 192. At the start of the seventeenth century, the Francken family contributed a group of interrelated compositions to the genre of the society dance, often featuring pairs of dancers leading a carnival festival. They were commercially successful and many variants exist, with and without groups of comic masks in commedia-inspired costume among the dancers or bursting in on the scene from right or left. Whether or not these are local masqueraders rather than itinerant professionals, these pictures are informative about stage costume. Plate 193 of c.1605 has been attributed to Max and Gabriel Francken, Hieronymus I Francken, or Frans II Francken.440 In a variant by Hieronymus II with similar figure groups, the two masked figures to the immediate right of the group in eastern costume at the extreme right-hand side wear Harlequin and Pantalone-inspired costume [plate 186].441 Dated variants include ones of 1608 and 1616 [plates 204, 204b]. A more distant variant features masqueraders, some in eastern-inspired costumes, entering from the left background, led by a masked musician in zanniinspired costume ‘playing’ a grill and tongs [plate 201].442 Close in style is a painting sharing compositional motifs, such as the seated women in the left foreground, with Venetian carnival, in which a group of costumed masqueraders led by a Pantalone enters at the right [plates 16, 202]. The earliest example of a society dance scene by Frans II is a signed Interior with couples dancing, with no masks, dated 1607 or 1601.443 Signed by Frans II or his father is a dance scene of the second decade of the seventeenth century, in which half a dozen torch-bearing masqueraders, led by a Harlequin type, burst into a room of dancers and musicians from the right background [plate 194].444 Many variants are evidently no more than pictorial derivatives, but the composition’s popularity suggests a genuine vogue for masqueraders at early seven440

441 442

443 444

Ursula Alice Härting, Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei des Frans Francken II, 1581–1642, ein repräsentativer Werkkatalog (Hildesheim: Olms, 1983), pp.167–8, cat.A341, pl.105. Art market authentication by Härting. Attributed to Hieronymus I by Legrand (Les peintres flamands, p.72), and to Frans II by Hartveld. Härting, Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei, cat.A343. Ursula Alice Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581–1642), die Gemälde mit kritischem Œuvrekatalog (Freren: Luca, 1989), cat.434; eadem, Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei, cat.A340.

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teenth century Antwerp carnival celebrations [plates 195–8, 205b].445 In a signed dance scene of the 1630s by Frans II, the masks lurk in the deep shadow of a curtain in the right background [plate 199].446 Further dance scenes attributed to Frans II include one in which torch-bearing masqueraders burst from behind a curtain in the left background, and another featuring masqueraders led by two twisting matachins [plates 200, 203].447 In plate 205, the four masks in the centre left background are Harlequin in a hat and tight-fitting white suit covered with smallish buff, green, and red patches and Pantalone in traditional red, with black cloak, cap and slippers, flanked by two zanni, one bearing a torch. Variously attributed,448 the painting’s stylistic similarities to the Stockholm variant of the Carnavalet painting include the facial types and hands, loose passages of paint in the draperies, overpainting of decorative details, thin-waisted, flat-chested build of the two central women, and Pantalone’s sword [plates 61, 188, 205]. Plate 142, one of a significant group of landscape-format indoor society scenes, many with Italian comedians entering or performing, is signed in monogram by Frans II and dated 1628 [plates 138–45].449

II.iii.e

Marten de Vos

Sterling recognizes and salutes the superlative quality of two paintings of almost identical format in French provincial museums he interprets as depicting Italian comedians in France [plates 154–5].450 Dating the Rennes Woman between two ages to the 1570s, and the Béziers troupe portrait to around 1580–5, he suggests that they are by the same artist, whom he tentatively identifies as

445

446

447

448

449

450

A variant in the museum at Graz shows masked mummers, led by a Harlequin type, entering through a doorway at the right. For plate 199 and an almost identical variant, also signed, see Härting, Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei, cat.A337, cat.338a, pl.104; eadem, Frans Francken, cat.432 (= Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei, cat.A337). Plate 203 is variously attributed to Hendrik van Balen and circle of Hieronymus Francken (art market), Hieronymus I (Legrand, Les peintres flamands, p.72), and Frans II (RKD, Hague). Hieronymus I (Legrand, Les peintres flamands, p.71); Frans II (Mirimonde, ‘Les concerts parodiques’, p.283 n.44); Frans I (Museum Mayer van den Bergh). Plates 143–4, in the Medici collections from at least 1649, are attributed to Caulery, c.1620 by Didier Bodart (Rubens e la pittura fiamminga del seicento nelle collezioni pubbliche fiorentine: Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, 22.VII – 9.X.1977 (Firenze: Centro Di, 1977), pp.96–9). Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp. 22–7.

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François Bunel the Younger, a French artist who survives solely in written documentary records. Here, they are linked to the artistic circle that produced the painting The feast [plate 209], here attributed to the circle of Marten de Vos on stylistic grounds, and by association with a print of the same composition signed in the plate [plate 210].451 In the Béziers picture, perhaps dating to c.1580–85, eight half-length figures fill the canvas [plate 154].452 To the left, a servant or peasant in a red hat stands behind a zanni and Pantalone. To the right a pair of lovers exchange a love-note, the bare-breasted inamorata in a yellow dress with dark green slashes in the sleeves and lace trim, and a bejewelled and veiled tiara, the inamorato in red, white and deep crimson. Behind Pantalone stands a second female in dark modest clothing, veiled or in deep shadow. Two further women standing behind the inamorata are, like her, barefaced, blonde and wearing drop pearl earrings. The picture encapsulates a typical commedia dell’arte closing scene. Zanni’s obscene sign indicates that Pantalone’s mistress has cuckolded him with the young man at the extreme right. Sterling reproduces three variants of the Rennes painting [plate 155]. A painted variant, Young lovers, is after a print, which in turn could be an anonymous copy of a print by Perret after the Rennes painting itself.453 He suggests that the date of Perret’s print, 1579, could indicate an approximate dating for this group of pictures, and a post quem for the Rennes picture, although he does not rule out the existence of a lost engraving, predating the whole group. Misgivings about the reliability of this composition as documentation for sixteenth century stage practice, by critics who cannot accept that the nudity it records would have been possible at that time, are robustly dismissed by Sterling. But he believes that rather than being inspired by a specific play, the composition is a generic satirical genre painting: ‘from Donna Lucia choosing between Orazio and Il Vecchio it has become La Femme entre les Deux Ages’.454 In plate 211, a small panel attributed to Toeput, the handling is broad but compositionally hesitant, and the style indicates a minor Flemish hand heavily

451 452 453

454

Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput’, pp.89–91; on plate 51, see also pp.164ff. See also plate 60. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp.11–13, 24. Young lovers was then on loan to the Metropolitan Museum from a New York private collection. Further painted variants of plate 155 are owned by: I. Lord Bruce of Fife; II. Musée d’Aix-en-Provence; III. ‘M S, Paris’ (reproduced: Sylvie Béguin, L’École de Fontainebleau: Grand Palais, 17 octobre 1972 – 15 Janvier 1973 (Paris: Musées nationaux, 1972), p.221, with further variants noted). Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp.25–6

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influenced by late sixteenth century Venetian mannerism. Seven opulently dressed couples are spread behind and to the right of a banquet table in a leafy glade, with an Italianate landscape featuring a small town set in hills behind. They are plied with food and wine by servants and entertained by a diminutive musician at the extreme right, and three masked players at the left, who wear the costumes of Pantalone, inamorata and Zanni. Pantalone is in his standard outfit of skintight suit with codpiece, flat cap and flowing dark cloak, slippers, and mask. The inamorata wears a black half mask and elegant gown of the highest fashion, and the violin-playing Zanni is in his standard loose trouser suit and feathered cap. All three seem caught in the steps of a stately dance, and although they are quite unmistakably stock commedia dell’arte characters, the entertainment they are offering seems more akin to an informal song and dance interlude than to a sequentially narrative play. Plate 209 is compositionally close, but much larger, and more formal in style.455 It is a polished northern mannerist work whose comparable figures include the six couples, and three players and servants; but not the musician or couple at the extreme right of the sketch. The banquet is now set indoors, with views out to a building of perhaps northern architecture. The costume of this masked trio deviates in some respects from that of Zanni, Pantalone, and the inamorata. Rather than red and black, the older man wears a yellow cloak over a dark grey suit with gold trim. His shoes are buff coloured, and his cap red with brown feathers. Zanni’s hat and shoes are typical neutrally coloured, but his jacket is an uncharacteristic dark greenish, again trimmed with gold, and his trousers and hat feathers are brown. The courtesan, whose hair is a striking blonde, wears a white underdress and short-sleeved rich red overdress which, judging by the clothes of the female feasters, is, as is customary, of the latest fashion. Her lower arms, neck and breasts are bare, with the skin tones enhanced by a string of pearls, and, unusually, her face is covered by a fine white veil. The feasters are predominantly clothed in reds, yellows, orange, buff, and browny-greens. Although the painting has been exhibited and published, it has always been attributed to the second school of Fontainebleau rather than to a particular artist,

455

Closely related, e.g. through the hands, facial types and gestures, is a painting of a musicmaking elegant couple flanked by two masked servants [plate 230]. One to the left wears a black full-face mask and hat, and a tight-fitting jerkin with a distinctive hole at the shoulder, and patches, some rhomboid, in reds, browns, dark colours and black; to the right is a grey-hatted zanni in ruddy half mask and a characteristic loose grey suit.

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and its firm unbroken contours, confident composition, autumnal tints, and elegant sophistication are far from the style of Toeput.456 However, it is virtually identical in composition to the first of five engravings accompanied by verses from the Old and New Testaments. They make up a series entitled Christus adventus, the frontispiece of which is signed in the plate ‘M. de Vos inventor, Joannes Sadler sculps. Sadlers excud.’, numbered I and entitled Crapula et Lascivia [plate 210]. Marten de Vos (1532–1603) was an Antwerp mannerist who took an active part in the affairs of the Antwerp Rederijker players.457 He is traditionally thought to have accompanied Pieter Bruegel on his journey to Italy, and had strong connections with the second school of Fontainebleau, as well as being a pupil of Tintoretto and the probable master of Toeput. After completion of their apprenticeships, Vos and a younger fellow pupil of Frans Floris, Ambrose I Francken, collaborated on several major commissions. In 1594, they jointly oversaw the decoration of Antwerp to welcome the entry of Archduke Ernst of Austria. Although it is clear that independent derivation of the oils from this print by an artist not associated with Vos or his studio cannot be ruled out, the close similarities between engraving, oil-painting and oil sketch encourage an investigation of their compositional links. There are parallels between the engraving and the sketch which are not shared by the painting [plates 209–11]. These include the type of ewer and dog in front of the table, the table leg itself, the female mask’s dress skirt, and sandals of the lute-playing woman and shoulder costume detail of the woman seated behind the table. However, the engraving is much closer to the painting than to the sketch, both in individual detail and in mood, the sketch showing a light-hearted picnic in the open, while the painting and engraving are set indoors and share a much more artificial and self-conscious atmosphere. Even if other versions have yet to come to light, it is unlikely that the engraver would have introduced major innovations to the composition, or radically altered the mood of the work. The similarities between the engraving and painting, and the common variations in detail of engraving and sketch from the painting, cannot have been arrived at independently. This leaves only two possible chronological sequences of the three works. Either Sadeler’s engraving is preceded by the painting, and followed by the sketch, or the painting and sketch are independently based on the engraving. The possibility that the sketch is a later reworking by de Vos himself cannot be ruled out, but it is unlikely, and the work is not incompatible with its art

456 457

Charles Terrasse, ‘L’énigmatique Ecole de Fontainebleau’, L’Œil, 1 (1955), 6–13, p.9. Walter S Gibson, ‘Artists and rederijkers in the age of Bruegel’, Art Bulletin, 63 (1981), 426–46, p.431.

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market attribution to Toeput, a pupil of de Vos known to have made a number of reinterpretations after engravings. A feast has a comparable ‘feeling of monumentality and strong plastic quality’ to that evident in the Béziers picture, and its hands, facial types, gestures and female types are similar to those of the Rennes and Béziers pictures [plate 209].458 The courtesans of the Béziers picture and The feast share similar smooth features, although in the former painting the tight veil with which they have been achieved is dark, in the latter it is white. The three old men wear variations of Pantalone costume, and those of A feast and the Béziers picture have similar lank curly hair, straggly beards and sharp-featured, realistically moulded, fullface masks. The central woman in each painting has exposed breasts, of the same full, separated type, and each wears pearls around her neck and uses the fingers of one hand to grasp a typical commedia prop. The Béziers and Rennes inamoratos have similar features, and similar types are evident in The feast. The numerous prints and drawings of theatre-iconographical interest associated with Marten de Vos and his circle include on-stage depictions. Melancholia, a signed and dated preparatory drawing of 1583, shows a quack doctor and snake charmer on a trestle stage [plate 212]. Pax depicts three actors on a curtained booth stage and a troupe of five acrobats in the middle distance [plate 213]. Pantalone dances to string-playing zanni on the trestle stages at the extreme left of Mercurius and right of Mercury [plates 214, 215]. Some of Vos’s carnival prints include commedia-related motifs in a non-stage context. The group of masked carnival masqueraders in the left background of the moralizing print Negligentie et socordie underline the close connection between carnival excesses and sinful vices [plate 217]. The musical grill and fire tongs and cooking-pot hat of the zanni of Februarius’s carnival masqueraders reappear in another carnival-associated print after Vos, The egg dance [plates 216, 218]. A fine mirror image drawing of identical dimensions is Vos’s preparatory drawing for this print [plate 219]. Here, the sign of the codpiece presides over yet another peasant celebration of the sins of lust and gluttony. The hat pierced by a spoon, cooking-pot helmet and burlesque instruments of grill and fire tongs all feature in commedia iconography.459

458 459

Plates 154–5. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.23. Plates 6, 28, 30–1, 73, 84, 88, 159, 162, 201, 203, 207, 218–24, 319. All three motifs are present in Pieter Bruegel’s painting of 1559, Carnival and Lent in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, a veritable compendium of carnival iconography that itself draws heavily on earlier pictures, such as a Fight between Carnival and Lent in the Museum Mayer van der Bergh, Antwerp, after Hieronymus Bosch.

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The drawing of the Fat kitchen, too, requires reattribution to Vos on stylistic grounds supported by association with a mirror-image signed print of identical composition and dimensions, identified in the plate as ‘M. de Vos invent. Martinus vanden Enden excud.’ [plate 225].460 In the Fat kitchen, sausages, meats, roast fowl and alcoholic beverages are evident in abundance, in a celebration of the sin of gluttony already threatened by the appearance of the allegorical and gaunt figure of Lent at top left, and the Shrove Tuesday waffles at bottom right. Carnival meats are much in evidence in many commedia-associated pictures, and there is a strong association between carnival and the Land of Cockayne. Winter was another subject which lent itself to the depiction of carnival motifs, as for example in a print after Vos by Collaert [plate 227]. This print provided the compositional impetus for a group of depictions of the Italian comedians by Toeput and other artists [plates 127, 228–9]. A major canvas which can be stylistically and compositionally associated with this group is a three-quarter length group of gypsies and masked zanni in Sarasota, in which six life-size three-quarter length figures are tightly compressed across the foreground picture plane [plate 231].461 The centrally placed zanni, who is masked, has his right arm around a woman, and holds out his left hand, palm up. Her fumbling at his waist, and her companion’s caress, give an erotic alibi to an attempt to steal money concealed in the scabbard attached to his belt. Apart from his mask, his costume is similar to that of the Béziers zanni in style, proportions, and colouring, and even in minor stylistic details such as the way the fabric folds around the neck opening,462 and the fall of the cloak. Another man at the extreme right, unmasked and in a bright red cap, peers over the shoulder of a second woman with large, separate breasts, generous proportions and emphasized navel. At the extreme left a third, older, woman holds a child. The delicate superimposed patterning of the central and left-hand women’s garments is a decorative device also deployed in The feast. The picture is animated by the distinctive anti-clockwise circular swirl set up by the hands of the central characters, which have coarse palms and digits, but delicately painted and highlighted backs of the hands and fingertips. Little can be seen of the male figure

460

461 462

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale; reproduced: Martine Grinberg, Carnavals et Fêtes d’Hiver (Paris: Edilec, 1984), p.93. A composition inspired by Cock’s engraving of 1563 after Pieter Bruegel (Oxford, Douce Collection E.2.6/192). See also Konrad Renger, ‘Karneval und Fasten, Bilder vom Fressen und Hunger’, Weltkunst, 58 (1988), 184–9; Wind, ‘Pitture ridicole’, p.28. On this painting, see also below, pp.211ff. A detail seen also in the outfit of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts’ Philipin [plate 6].

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on the extreme right. A half-height more freely painted variant extends the composition slightly on all four sides, suggesting that the larger canvas has been trimmed [plates 231, 232]. In it, the figure on the right is seen to wear a fool’s cap and affect a posture comparable to that of the comic servant at the left of the Béziers picture, and there is a draped backdrop, possibly the fringed opening to a large tent in the background. Plate 231 bears similarities to the theatrical paintings of Vos, an artist whose name has not previously been suggested in this connection. In no other iconographic group are the sources and early manifestations of the commedia dell’arte, or its artistic conventions and potential, laid bare as clearly as in the pictures here associated with Marten de Vos. It was early modern Italian comedians’ dual roots in theatre and folk customs, and more specifically in humanist comedy and carnival ritual, which gave them their fertile creativity and wide appeal, and both sources have left their mark in the works which can be associated with Vos and his circle. They record the commedia’s influences, its troupes and stage performances, and its court appearances, as well as the use of comic types and motifs as vehicles for moralistic, allegorical and religious messages which, in transcending the dramatic content of the comedians’ comic entertainments, blur the interpretation of these pictures as theatrehistorical records.

II.iii.f

Harlequin disguised

Sterling’s sixth painting is a Harlequin disguised which, with two other small panels unknown to him, in the same style and format and evidently three of a series, is now in Stockholm’s Drottningholm Theatre Museum [plates 48–50].463 The present study has identified a fourth painting in the series, Pantalone at the gate [plate 47].464 Harlequin disguised has the same three verses below a depiction of Italian comedians as a Recueil Fossard woodcut, and Sterling recognized it as a compositional variant [plates 6, 49]. The poses, but not the costumes, of the woodcut’s three characters also appear in the painting, where they are flanked by a zanni peeping out from behind the backdrop to the left, and an older maid to the right. One of its companion paintings, The comic serenade, is less closely related to another woodcut in the same Recueil Fossard series [plates

463 464

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp.27–30. Further related paintings include variants of plates 49 and 50 [plates 44–5, 51], and a dated picture of 1623 [plate 46].

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6, 48]. This painting too shares the woodcut’s verses, and its Pantalone, as in the woodcut accompanied by Zanni, similarly serenades Lucia. However, he is now mounted on a ‘pantomime donkey’ consisting of Harlequin wearing Pantalone’s slippers as ‘donkey’s ears’, leading a crouching player. The third panel, The comic duel, with less text than its companion pictures, relates to a woodcut in a different Recueil Fossard series, featuring outdoor settings and two accompanying verses with decorative surrounds [plates 9, 50]. This painting reverses the two central characters of its related woodcut, and adds a maid and Pantalone. In plates 47–50, Harlequin, a zanni and Pantalone wear the same costumes in different situations, and the three Swedish panels have long been accepted as belonging to the same series. Although even cursory comparison with the woodcuts shows that, unlike the engravings discussed above,465 they are not mechanical copies, they are still generally dismissed as naive copies, adding little more than colour to certain Recueil Fossard woodcuts, and hardly worthy of theatrehistorical study for their own sake.466 Undeniably, the artist of these paintings has taken compositional elements from artistic precedents, perhaps the woodcuts themselves, perhaps another as yet unknown common iconographic source or intermediary. But he has made significant alterations and additions of his own to each of the four scenes, and drawn on a variety of iconographic sources. For Sterling, the costumes of Harlequin disguised ‘suggest a date around 1600 or 1605’, accepted by some authorities; 467 others, including the Drottningholm curators, date these paintings to around the 1580s.468 There are strong historical grounds for rejecting a dating earlier than around 1584 for named depictions of Harlequin, and the actors in another painting, Village and party, are close enough to those of Harlequin disguised to indicate that the two paintings may date to around the same time [plate 70]. Above, I outline my reasons for postdating Village and party to Tempesta’s Febraro of 1599, which would tend to support Sterling’s dating of Harlequin disguised [plate 64]. Further support is offered by another painted variant of a Recueil Fossard print, a dated Harlequin and his children of 1623 placing the woodcut’s figures not in its simple stage setting, but in a city square whose architectural elements possibly indicate the wings and backdrop of a theatrical set [plate 46]. It has no

465 466

467

468

Plate 43, see pp.111ff. Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, Shakespeare in the Theatre, sale cat. 212 (London, 1964), p.51; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.155. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.28; Nicoll, The World of Harlequin, xi, figs.17, 18, 21; Fletcher, Shakespeare in the Theatre, p.51; Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.216–17. Erenstein, De geschiedenis van de Commedia dell’arte, fig.18.

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painted verses below, but is close in style to the Drottningholm paintings, sharing, for example, the delicately painted stitching of the Harlequin’s patches. The late date of this painting is one of several factors, including the costume style and relative artistic quality of the woodcuts and paintings, which indicate that the Drottningholm variants also postdate the Recueil Fossard woodcuts. Although Sterling associates plate 49 with Caulery, he is characteristically cautious: The author […] is undoubtedly Flemish […] One might even believe this picture to be the work of Caulery […] But in spite of his similar color and his lively and fluid brushwork, he cannot have been the painter of our picture. He never escaped from his elongated canon of the body and his roundish modeling, from a certain cold and facile mannerism. The figures of our little master are more frankly drawn and more abruptly modeled; they are more vital and robust.469

Of the only possible comedians in patched costume I know of in paintings which are or could be by Caulery, one, in the signed Carnival in Hamburg, is very different to the Harlequin of Harlequin disguised [plates 49, 73]. The other, the right-hand of three central comic types in a courtyard scene attributed to Caulery, is too small to make out the costume clearly [plate 281]. Far closer are the costume of a Harlequin in a Venetian carnival painting I associate with Sebastian Vrancx, with its random brightly coloured patches on a close-fitting white suit, black hip pouch, and ornately handled sword, and the Harlequins of Village and party and several further paintings.470 Other comic types in the three Drottningholm panels are also close to those in Vrancx’s oeuvre. Their zanni are similar to those of plates 70 and 125 in costume, mask and spear-shaped dagger, and even his pose is repeated in plate 50, albeit rotated through ninety degrees. Their Pantalone, with his distinctive three-buttoned doublet, showy sword, contoured flesh-coloured three-quarter face mask, white undershirt, black slippers and long white beard is similar to that of monogrammed paintings by Vrancx, although he wears a cap rather than a fez, and his cloak is of a fuller cut and falls straight from the shoulders rather than having a slight collar [plates 99, 100]. Lucia’s split sleeve in plate 49, and her distinctive, slightly concave, stomach, peaked hairstyle and the parallel stripes around the bottom of her dress, are characteristic of Vrancx. The facial features of the females in the Drottningholm series are close to those in two paintings in Paris which I associate with Hieronymus I Francken,

469 470

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, pp.29–30. Plates 62, 71, 107, 125.

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and their Pantalones are also similar [plates 47–50, 189–90]. But the brushwork of the Parisian paintings is more brilliant, and appears to have more Italian influence and virtuoso passages, for example in the shot colours of the woman’s drapery. Another painting in Drottningholm, Comedians on a Venetian terrace, also features a Harlequin whose clear precedent appears to be that of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts [plate 221]. Coarser in handling than plates 47–50, it shows four masked comedians, an inamorata accompanied by a Harlequin, zanni and Pantalone, in a Venetian loggia. Anonymous and undated, it relates to a group of landscape-format winter interiors of the 1620s and early 1630s [plates 138–45]. Comparison of four variants of Harlequin disguised suggests that plate 44, and a painted variant of higher quality in a UK private collection, are compositionally so close that it seems likely that plate 44 is based directly on the private collection painting [plates 6, 49, 51]. The latter shares the same three quatrains of French verse below as the Recueil Fossard woodcut and the Drottningholm painting.471 Fletcher, who inclined to the view that the UK private collection variant ‘is based on the 1577 visit of I Gelosi to France’, read its date as either 157[?] or 159[?], and its monogram signature as ‘D.f’, which neither he, nor Allardyce Nicholl or Anthony Blunt, to whom he showed the original, were able to interpret.472 Iconographic parallels between each pair of

471

472

Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, The History of Entertainment, sale cat. 200 (London, 1962), p.93; idem, Shakespeare in the Theatre, pp.50–1. Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, figs.28–30 reproduce this painting, the Recueil Fossard woodcut and the Drottningholm Harlequin disguised. Fletcher, Shakespeare in the Theatre, pp.50–1: ‘Blunt […] believes that our painting is of French origin and suggests that it might have been painted by an artist attached to the company’. Leik (Frühe Darstellungen, pp.152–4) reads the date as 1590(?) and identifies the artist, whom she refers to as Master D, as coming from the circle of Hieronymus I Francken, but suggests that an inferior associate was responsible for painting all but the figure of Lilia. The monogram is close to two assigned to Marten de Vos by Nagler (Die Monogrammisten, II, pp.341, 486). Unusual iconographic elements the woodcuts share with pictures associated with Marten de Vos include the cauldron helmet, Pantalone’s unusually long flowing cloak and button-down waistcoat, and Zanni’s wide-brimmed, feathered hat. The facial features of the elegant female in plate 44 resemble those of the left-hand standing muse of Vos’s signed Apollo and the muses (Antwerp), while the very free handling of her skirt draperies is reminiscent of the paintwork of the right-hand seated muse. The gold trim of the draperies in this painting, and the delicate treatment of Lilia’s features, gauze veil and ruff, and Harlequin’s hat feathers, seem close to Vos, although the awkward stance of the men and coarseness of depiction of the hands and backdrop draperies do not. If this picture is from an Antwerp workshop, this would have implications for the location of the depicted troupe, traditionally thought to be Paris.

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the three versions of Harlequin disguised which feature the quatrains below make it impossible to put the woodcut and paintings into chronological order without assuming further, as yet unknown, related pictures [plates 6, 49, 51]. These include Harlequin’s boots and armband, where the two paintings differ from the woodcut. But Harlequin wears Horatio’s high-crowned, feathered hat in the woodcut and private collection painting, while he is bare-headed in the Drottningholm painting, whose captain is very close in pose, if not costume, to the captain of the woodcut. In the private collection painting, by contrast, his right arm points out of the picture, and he is identified as Leandro, while Lucia, the elegant young woman of the other two pictures, is here Lilia, the name Lucia being taken by her companion. It seems clear that further variants were produced. If they come to light, it may be possible to do more than speculate on the place of origin and designer of the composition of Harlequin disguised.

II.iii.g Lodewyk Toeput Sterling identifies a picture attributed to various artists, including Lodewyk Toeput (c.1550–c.1603/5) [plate 242] as possibly the only painting of performing commedia dell’arte actors from sixteenth century Italy.473 Although he also briefly footnotes ‘several drawings in the Corsini Album’, he does not note their Italian origins.474 Before turning to a consideration of the commedia-related work and influence of Toeput, this section considers the Corsini Album, and particularly plate 243, which exhibits similarities with Toeput’s style, notably in its wilful perspective, lumpy nudes and striated buildings.475 The undated (probably early seventeenth century) Corsini Album is a manuscript collection of 100 commedia dell’arte scenarios, numbered 1 to 102, of which two, the original numbers 45 and 50, are missing. It was probably the working collection of a troupe, or plots poached from the professional stage by some amateur. Whatever its exact theatrical status, the album is unique in that each of its scenarios has been provided with its own individual illustrated title page. Perhaps the best known series of commedia-related coloured drawings, each depicts one scene, or composite scene, from that scenario, enabling the roles of many of the depicted actors and actresses to be identified [plates 243–7]. The binding of the collection bears the

473 474 475

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.30. Ibid., p.19. See, for example, Luigi Menegazzi, ‘Ludovico Toeput (il Pozzoserrato)’, Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 1 (1957), 167–223, figs.50–67.

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arms of Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy (1593–1642), indicating that it was bound together at some time between 1608, when he became a cardinal, and 1642. But the exact dates of these drawings are unknown. Nagler ignores Lea’s warnings against necessarily taking the date (c.1618–22) of the related Locatelli collection of scenarios as a reliable post quem, and puts them in the second quarter of the seventeenth century.476 D’Amico ventures a dating of 1621–42.477 Clearly, there is some conflict here with the costume types of the innamorati, which predate the major fashion changes introduced all over Europe in the years around 1630. A previously unnoted post quem is given by a sole mention, in Il Gratiano Innamorato (scenario 90), of ‘Arlecchino’, a character first named in the mid1580s. One drawing, that for La gran pazzia di Orlando (scenario 1), uniquely in the Corsini Album, is a monochrome full-page frontispiece separate from its title page; its artist, of considerably greater talent than those of the remaining 99 drawings, has never been identified [plate 243]. The drawing’s style is close to Toeput, but closer to another Flemish artist working in Italy, the Rome-based Paul Bril (1554–1626). The ‘sign of the glasses’ in the top right-hand corner, perhaps an example of Bril’s own characteristic punning monogram, encourages attribution to Bril or his circle. Because the remaining ninety-nine drawings are of such extremely pedestrian quality, dating on stylistic grounds is difficult, and there is no way of telling stylistically whether or not plate 243 predates them. So Bril’s artistic development and the date of his death cannot be used as guidelines in dating the whole collection. These naive, colourful pictures are comparable to the typical costume picture series of friendship albums. Although some friendship album drawings are clearly inspired by prints and could be the work of amateurs, the existence of variants to many popular compositions of this nature appears to indicate that some artists were able to support workshops from such commissions [plates 260–1].478 The watermark in the flyleaf of the album is one first appearing in Rome in around 1638, suggesting that the Corsini scenarios may have been bound together at around that time. Aasted notes that the most frequently occurring watermark in the paper used for the scenarios themselves is a Roman one of c.1589, while others are c.1570 and c.1591, but gives no separate data for the water-

476

477 478

A M Nagler, ‘The commedia drawings of the Corsini scenari’, Maske und Kothurn, 15 (1969), 6–10, p.7; Lea , Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.144. Silvio D’Amico, Storia del teatro drammatico, 4 vols (Milano: Rizzoli, 1939–50), II, p.68. See index (friendship albums).

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marks of the paper on which the drawings themselves are painted.479 She argues that these scenarios considerably predate their binding, and also the Locatelli collection of c.1618–22, and redates them to the second half of the sixteenth century. 480 A dating to the 1590s seems an attractive option, but all that can be established on the basis of the known evidence is that the Corsini drawings were produced c.1590–1620. At that time, Bril ran a large and thriving workshop in Rome, which employed among its assistants many young Flemish artists passing through the city in their student years, possibly including Sebastian Vrancx, known to have been in Rome at least between the years 1597 and 1602 [plate 276]. It is worth considering that, during his apprentice years in Rome, Vrancx may have been involved with the production of the Corsini drawings. Toeput, a Fleming who settled in the Veneto, where he was known as Pozzoserrato, is one of the few named artists to whom sixteenth century commedia dell’arte-related pictures are regularly attributed by the art market. Because Toeput forms a connecting link between many artists interested in the commedia dell’arte, and absorbed and reflected elements of their very diverse styles into his own oeuvre, his name acts as a focus for works in this genre. Toeput may have been a pupil of Marten de Vos in Antwerp. By the early 1570s, he was established in Venice. Soon after 1581, when he visited various Italian cities including Rome and Florence, he moved permanently to Treviso. In Venice, he worked in the studio of Tintoretto, where Vos had been twenty years previously, and he has close stylistic links with both these artists, and with the Bassani, particularly Leandro, who worked in his father’s studio in Bassano until the late 1580s, when he moved to nearby Venice.481 Joos de Momper may have studied under Toeput in the 1580s482 , and there is also some evidence that Sebastian Vrancx visited Toeput in the 1590s.483 Toeput’s oeuvre includes land-, garden-, and cityscapes. His religious scenes were often a pretext to depict contemporary Venetian courtly diversions such as banquets and concerts, and he also painted series of the months and the seasons, and allegorical works. 479

480 481

482

483

Elsebeth Aasted, ‘The Corsini scenarios: the oldest surviving commedia dell’arte collection’, Nordic Theatre Studies, 4 (1991), 94–110, pp.95–7. Ibid., p.108. Menegazzi, ‘Ludovico Toeput’, pp.169, 178, 183; Tom Nichols, Tintoretto. Tradition and Identity (London: Reaktion, 1999), p.90. ‘“Een lantschap van Mompers Meester Lodewyck van Treni [read ‘Trevi’]” was listed in the inventory of Herman de Neyt, Oct.1642’ (Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, and Anne-Marie S Logan, European Drawings and Watercolors in the Yale University Art Gallery 1500–1900 (New Haven & London: Yale, 1970), p.275). Takács, ‘Un tableau de Sebastian Vrancx’, p.61

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Many works of importance to theatre history have been attributed to, or associated with Lodewyk Toeput by art historians, museum curators, and saleroom experts.484 In order to aid more reliable attribution and dating of these pictures, a systematic search was made for other pictures compositionally and stylistically related to each of those attributed to Toeput. Contextual analysis resulted in several reattributions.485 The works attributed to Toeput feature three distinct contexts in which the Italian comedians are found, namely, formal staged theatre performances, carnival festivals, and courtly celebrations, in both indoor and outdoor settings. Toeput kept in touch with the work of his compatriots, and copies by him after contemporary Flemish engravers, as well as engravings after his own works by other artists, are documented. Even where his pictures record specific performances that could potentially be identified, compositional elements may be largely borrowed from previous works. Depictions of the comedians in the context of courtly celebrations, associated with Toeput, include de Jode’s iconographically influential engraving of a Masquerade after Toeput [plate 130],486 a Carnival banquet [plate 242] pub-

484

485

486

Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput’ reproduces fifteen (figs.1, 2, 5–9, 13–14, 18–20, 23, 28–9) and analyses them in the context of fourteen further reproductions of commedia dell’arterelated pictures [plates 57, 58, 228, 262, 127, 229, 84, 242, 265, 130, 266, 211, 104, 159, 148]. All then virtually unknown to theatre historians (none are noted by Ternois (‘Représentations figurées’); Pandolfi (La commedia dell’arte); Duchartre (The Italian Comedy); Nicoll (Masks, Mimes and Miracles; idem, The World of Harlequin), they were rapidly integrated into the accepted canon of commedia-related iconography (see, for example, Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, figs.8, 9, 12, 31, 35, 46, 47). Works associated with Toeput footnoted in Katritzky, ‘Lodewyk Toeput’ (p.80) include: Winter (Luciana Larcher Crosato, ‘Di “Quattro Stagioni” del Pozzoserrato e la grafica fiamminga’, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 34 (1985), 119–30, fig.4); Masked fête, Berlin art market, 1933 and Banquet with Italian comedians, New York, Julius Weitzner, 1956 (Legrand, Les peintres flamands, p.73); variants to plate 84 known to the late Wolfgang Wegner (David Scrase, private communication, 1986); and plate 12. Plates 57–8 are reattributed to Ambrose I Francken. Plate 84 is discussed in the context of the oeuvre of Louis de Caulery; plates 104 and 148 in that of the oeuvre of Sebastian Vrancx, and plate 211 in relation to Marten de Vos. Poensgen, ‘Jodocus a Winghe’, pp.326, 328; Mirimonde, ‘Les concerts parodiques’, p.274 (‘une joyeuse bande, conduite par un luthiste’); Renger, ‘Joos van Winghes “Nachtbancket”’, pp.173–4 (‘Maskierte Damen und Herren […] angeführt von einem Lautenspieler’); Bert W Meijer, ‘A proposito della Vanità della ricchezza e di Ludovico Pozzoserrato’, in Toeput a Treviso, Ludovico Pozzoserrato, Lodewijk Toeput, pittore neerlandese nella civiltà veneta del tardo cinquecento. Atti del Seminario, Treviso 1987, eds Stefania Mason Rinaldi and Domenico Luciani (Asolo: Acelum, 1988), 109–24, pp.115–16 (‘una festa di coppie mascherate che scendono da una gondola, con musicisti e

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lished as a Toeput by Peltzer, who drew attention to its similarities with Masquerade, and three outdoor banquet scenes [plates 104, 159, 211].487 Plate 242 shows a company grouped around a laden banqueting table in a covered area open to the outside all round. Some play lutes, others drink wine or converse, and they include commedia dell’arte stock types as well as elegantly clad couples. There are stylistic parallels with a carnival scene which, from the water carrier at the middle top, is clearly January from a series of the months [plate 265]. Attributed to ‘School of Bassano’, it shows four masked comedians flanked by Bassanesque soldier types, in front of an extensive landscape with a hill town. The bare trees framing the composition to either side, flocks of birds and hesitant handling are reminiscent of Toeput’s work. According to Sterling ‘there are no paintings of [commedia dell’arte stage scenes] from sixteenth century Italy’, and plate 242 is ‘perhaps […] a real scene of the commedia dell’arte played during Carnival and before masked and banqueting spectators. If so, it is the only example known of such a subject in Italian painting before 1600’.488 However, extensive searching revealed the existence of at least two commedia-related paintings by the Italian artist Leandro Bassano (1557–1622), carnival scenes representing February from series of the months [plates 226, 267]. They show stock commedia characters in a carnival context, but some of their motifs echo aspects of plate 242, and to a lesser extent plate 265. Plate 267, signed ‘Leander Bassanensis F’, predates his knighthood of 1595 or 1596; plate 226 is close enough in style and content to date from a similar period, perhaps the late 1580s. In both, the view is down a wide city street whose buildings flank either side of the picture, framing the foreground like a stage set, to converge just left of the centre in a triumphal arch. In both streets, bull-baiting is in progress and an open stall in the right foreground sells plucked chickens and other carnival delicacies, while a troupe of comedians, all masked, is gathered at the left. Thus these pictures display together typical carnival amusements. In plate 226, Pantalone faces a couple, the woman gazing diffidently at him, the male serenading her with a lute. In front of them is a blindfolded Cupid leading a dog towards Pantalone; to their left are two servant figures and to the right a matachin. In plate 267 the same group of Pantalone, blindfold boy (unlike the

487

488

ciarlatani […] si tratta, quindi, di una scena pseudo-carnavalesca’); Fusenig and Maegd, ‘Lustbarkeiten im Garten’, p.369 (for a distantly related group of comedians, see also p.360. I thank Ursula Härting for drawing this image to my attention in 1998). R A Peltzer, ‘Lodewyck Toeput (Pozzoserrato) und die Landschaftsfresken der Villa Maser’, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 10 (1933), 270–9, fig.7. Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.30.

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boy in plate 226 not characterized by wings and quiver) and couple is without the two servant figures to the extreme left. A matachin here kneels behind, rather than beside, the main group of comedians, apparently to a similar figure squatting on a raised pedestal, and only partially visible at the extreme left of the canvas. The possibility that this canvas has been cut is strengthened by the composition of a large-scale watercolour, virtually identical except that it shows slightly more on three sides, and significantly extends the composition on the left-hand side [plate 268].489 This reveals not only two masked figures standing to the left of Pantalone, similar to those in plate 226, but several figures in a doorway behind them, and two matachins seated above the doorway, with whom the kneeling matachin is now seen to be in animated communication. Costumed figures feature in the backgrounds of both works; in plate 226 another Pantalone accompanied by two servants, a zanni and another matachin, are recognizable to the right. The distinctive matachin costume has a green and gold vertically striped doublet with padded rims at the shoulder and false sleeves, tight buff-coloured leggings held in by belled leather belts and straps around the waist and calves, moulded full-face mask, squashy red stocking cap, white undershirt and no neck scarf, but billowing white cloth around the waist and between the legs. This unusual variation recurs in plate 242, and has some similarities to the costume of the right-hand mask in plate 265. Other common compositional elements strengthen the connections between the canvases by Bassano and Carnival banquet [plates 226, 242, 267]. The wine-drinking bravo who fills the bottom left-hand corner of Carnival banquet is closely paralleled in the cavalier drinking at the road stall in plate 226, the troupes in both plates 226 and 242 include a monkey, costumed in plate 242, and the three Pantalones are almost identical in both costume and pose, while the Pantalone of plate 265 is rather less elaborately attired. The horizontally striped costume of the mask to the extreme left of Carnival banquet, reminiscent of the costume of certain seventeenth century commedia dell’arte servants, has precedents in a distinctive green and gold horizontally striped jacket repeatedly featured in the work of Leandro’s father Jacopo Bassano.490 Carnival banquet fea-

489

490

Published by Schleier as a workshop study for the painting (Neue Zeichnungen, pp.14, 17, fig.2). Variants of plate 226 are in the Ukraine (Hlyboka Castle) and Russia (Tula Museum). According to McDowell Eugene Kenley, ‘the association of matachins with the comedia continued well into the seventeenth century’ (Sixteenth-century ‘Matachines’ Dances; ‘Morescas’ of Mock Combat and Comic Pantomime (Stanford: University Phil. Diss., 1993), pp.51, 55). As, for instance, worn by one of the magi in the National Gallery of Scotland’s Adoration of the magi.

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tured in the Dantsek-Dayka de Pozsony collection as by Giovanni Schiavone (‘Il Meldolla’) [plate 242]. It was sold in 1930 (from the Karácsonyi Collection, Budapest) as by Toeput, an attribution accepted by Sterling and others, and in 1937 as by Leandro Bassano, while Takács inclines towards a follower of Toeput, and Meijer proposes Dirck de Vries.491 Its stylistic closeness to Bassano’s carnival pictures supports attribution to the same workshop: identified by Leandro Bassano’s signature on the Vienna canvas. Carnival banquet is far closer to Leandro Bassano than to the hesitant style of plate 265, possibly also a workshop production. The Bassaneque elements also evident in de Jode’s engraving after Toeput may be due to Leandro Bassano’s influence on Toeput rather than, as Peltzer suggests, because it originates from the same hand as Carnival banquet [plate 130].492 The engraving’s foreground is occupied by a line of masqueraders led by a turbanned mask and his exotically dressed female companion following a lute-playing zanni across the front of the picture towards a Pantalone and his zanni at the extreme left. In the left background, a concert takes place on a pavilion, to the right is a wide terrace with views down a Venetian canal. A painting, The concert, reflects the left-hand composition of the engraving, showing only the pavilion and three left-hand masks, and has marked similarities to Carnival banquet [plates 130, 242, 266]. The lute players seated at the left of the two paintings are close, and in The concert, the servant accompanying Pantalone at the left is not a zanni, as in the engraving, but a type similar to the servant to the left of Carnival banquet. The performers in many pictures featuring masks reminiscent of de Jode’s group, whether from Toeput’s own studio or by other artists, are purely derivative; however, rather than merely copying de Jode’s engraving, some artists may have used it as a compositional aid in recording performers they themselves had seen.493 If the compositional links with Momper’s drawings January and February are due to direct influence, it is likely – because they share the same orientation, and because prints, by their nature, achieve a far wider circulation than drawing – to be from the print to the

491

492 493

Sterling, ‘Early paintings, p.30; Renger, ‘Joos van Winghes “Nachtbancket”’, p.171; Takács, ‘Un tableau de Sebastian Vrancx’, p.58; Meijer, ‘A proposito della Vanità’, p.118. Peltzer, ‘Lodewyck Toeput’, p.278. Such as plates 124–5, 128–9, 157, 228–9, 262–3, 266. The only commedia-related paintings associated with Toeput by Menegazzi (‘Giunte a Ludovico Pozzoserrato’, Arte Veneta, 15 (1961), 119–26, pp.122, 124) are plate 228, which he dates to the early 1580s, and plate 262, which he dates to c.1590.

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drawings [plates 128–30].494 The foreground groups in February and plate 157 are related, and the group in the extreme right-hand foreground of January, of a masked woman in eastern costume attended by parasol-bearing matachins, is reminiscent of a group in de Jode’s print. Indeed, the whole of the foreground figure groups of both January and February are built up and composed in a remarkably similar way to those of this print [plates 128–30]. In each of the three pictures, a small group at the extreme left point into the picture, and the middle ground is taken up by a lute-playing zanni, and each of Momper’s right-hand groups mainly features comic types similar to those in the print. It is possible that Momper was simply borrowing from previous art, without any first-hand knowledge of the Italian comedians, although he is thought to have visited Italy in the 1580s. Significant costume differences between the comic types in his drawings and the print tell against this. More likely is that Momper was using de Jode’s print after Toeput as a compositional guide to depicting troupes he himself had actually observed. Callot’s engravings after Momper’s drawings, via Collaert’s prints, have been dated to around 1610, the year Callot completed his apprenticeship with Antonio Tempesta [plates 269–72].495 In signing his engraving in the plate, de Jode recorded Toeput as its original artist. Many pictures depicting comic types in settings exhibiting compositional relationships, however faint, to Toeput’s work, can be confidently excluded from his oeuvre. However, they underline the role played in establishing the artistic conventions of the winter carnival picture by Toeput, and by Marten de Vos, from whose print of Hiems this group ultimately derives its compositional inspiration [plate 227].496 In the right foreground of one such, A village with carnival revellers on the ice, are nine colourful comic types [plate 264]. They include a stilt walking Harlequin type in white, with blue and red patches and red hat with white feathers, a white Pulcinella type, and various acrobats predominantly in reds, blues, and yellows. Although attributed to ‘circle of Lodewyk Toeput’, the pronounced mannerist style of the background landscape, and nervous quality of the comic types suggest that the picture postdates Toeput’s death in 1604, and

494

495

496

Two of a series of the months in the Rijksmuseum, recorded as by Joos de Momper on the engravings after them [plates 269–70]. See also Hollstein IV, p.207, nos.559–70, p.213, nos.125–8; a February after Momper by Hans Collaert is unrecorded in Hollstein (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum). Thomas Schröder, Jacques Callot: das gesamte Werk, 2 vols (Herrsching: Pawlak, 1971– 86), II, pp.880–2. See plates 162, 263–4, 275–6.

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is by an imitator or admirer of Jacques Callot. Winter carnival too is built up on similar compositional principles to the Vos print which exercised such an influence on the compositions of Toeput’s carnival pictures, with a large bare tree splitting the composition into a right-hand ice-scape and left-hand side more dominated by architectural elements [plates 227, 275]. I reattribute it from Hendrick van Avercamp to Pieter Stevens by virtue of its similarity to two drawings, one authenticated by a print after Stevens of c.1607, and February, Roman carnival from Stevens to Paul Bril by virtue of Bril’s monogram and its shared composition with a dated engraving of 1615 after Bril [plates 276–79].497 While none of this last group can be seriously associated with Toeput himself, Allegory of January, an unsigned drawing attributed to Toeput, relating to Momper’s January and February and the Fitzwilliam Museum’s drawing January/Carnival, provide the basis for associating several winter carnival scenes with Toeput [plates 84, 127–9].498 In plates 127 and 229, the picture plane is bisected by a largely leafless tree dominating the immediate foreground. To the left, there is a view of an Italianate town resembling Georg Hoefnagel’s engraving of Treviso after Toeput.499 It is seen through a ruined arch, in front of which a procession of commedia players makes its way out of the picture. To the right, a wide country road leads across a bridge to a landscape stretching into the distance beyond. The players are in each case led by a lute-playing zanni; Pantalone and a man holding up a bird are followed in the Yale drawing by two fashionably dressed couples, in Winter by one such couple accompanied by their comic servant [plates 127, 229]. There are unmistakable parallels between

497

498

499

On plate 277, see An Zwollo, ‘Pieter Stevens, ein vergessener Maler des rudolfinischen Kreises’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 64 (1968), 119–79, p.166; on plate 278, see Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire 1540–1680, a Selection from North American Collections (Princeton: University Art Museum, 1982), pp.160–1, cat.58. Bril’s visually punning monogram is also on one of the Corsini Album drawings [plate 243]. Haverkamp-Begemann and Logan, European Drawings, p.275. See plates 124, 228, 229, 262, 265, and the painting of Winter from a series of the four seasons published as a major early Toeput by Crosato (‘Di “Quattro Stagioni”’, fig.4). Plate 229 is attributed to Joos de Momper’s son Frans. From the proximity of the comic types to those in an engraving of 1614 by Matham after Wildens another painting with carnival figures attributed to Frans Momper can be dated with some confidence to 1614 or later [plates 273–4]. The comic types in plate 124 are even more similar to those in plate 127 than they are to those in plate 130, suggesting more direct contact with Toeput than simply knowledge of prints after his works, and a possible studio work. Menegazzi, ‘Ludovico Toeput’, fig.58.

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the comic groups in plates 127 and 229 (and other paintings, such as plate 124), and those in de Jode’s engraving [plate 130]. In the backgrounds of both plates 127 and 229 there is bull-baiting on the main road into the city, in the panel a dramatic performance is also in progress, on a raised outdoor stage. In plate 124, the bull-baiting occurs in a very different setting, that of St. Mark’s Square, Venice. The motif of the central winter tree so evident in plate 277 similarly occupies the foregrounds of plate 228 and Winter, with an allegorical personification of ‘Winter’ seated in front, in the open in plate 228 (as in plate 127), and on a processional cart in Winter.500 The right-hand scene in plate 228 resembles that of plates 127 and 229: to the left, instead of their arch, is an imposing townscape behind a large bridge raised on four massive brick arches. In front of this, a procession of comedians, including acrobats, Pantalone and violin- and lute-playing zanni, winds its way into the picture and towards the town. In Winter, the background lacks any such dominating architectural feature. The division of land to the left and water to the right seen in plates 127 and 229 is preserved, but the water is frozen over, and, as well as carnival revellers or a comic troupe to the left, there are carnival sleighs on the ice in the right background. A country road leading via an arched bridge into a wide landscape, comparable to those common to the right-hand side of plates 127 and 228–9 forms the whole picture in plate 262, where comedians take part in bull-baiting in the foreground and form a procession across the bridge. It is also echoed in the right-hand side of plate 84, with its wide landscape containing a rustic bridge but few buildings and no central tree. Its arch frames the left-hand background, compositionally similar to that in plate 127, although the foreground is a unified spread of carnival revellers across the bottom third of the picture plane, many of them costumed, but related only loosely to specific commedia masks. Although attributed to Toeput, there are close stylistic and compositional links with Momper’s January [plate 128]. They share a similar view towards a circular Italianate town, down a broad street on which bull-baiting and a dramatic performance on a trestle stage take place. Like his January, Momper’s February features comedians in the foreground, a group with similarities to that in the de Jode engraving, as noted above, and to those in plates 127 and 229 [plates 128–

500

For Winter, see Crosato, ‘Di “Quattro Stagioni”’, fig.4. On plates 84, 127 and 228, see Stephen Ostrow, Visions and Revisions, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, October 18 – November 24 1968 (Providence, RI: RI School of Design, 1968), pp.15–16. On plate 228, see also Meijer, ‘A proposito della Vanità’, p.121.

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30]. The compositional similarities but weaker handling of plate 229 and its partner as compared to the Momper months may more plausibly be explained by an attribution to Toeput, than to Momper’s son Frans. The compositional links between the de Jode engraving and Momper’s January and February, and the group of interrelated pictures here discussed, bear witness to the influence of Toeput’s carnival scenes on Momper’s Months, a major series by his more talented compatriot.501 Their further investigation could elucidate the links postulated between Toeput, Momper and Caulery, and aid interpretation of their carnival costumes, some of which are closely paralleled in Flemish carnival scenes.502 More exact dating and attribution of these pictures could illuminate the extent to which their artists accurately recorded the carnival in Toeput’s adopted Treviso, or added elements borrowed from their own experiences, recent or not, of the carnival in Flanders, or from other works of art. It is clear from this group of pictures that artists appropriated the group of masked comedians in de Jode’s engraving after Toeput, and the compositional setting for winter carnival pictures taken by Toeput from Vos. These borrowings graphically demonstrate the increasing domination of imitation over inspiration that led to a progressive stereotyping of shared artistic motifs in pictures of the Italian comedians.

501 502

See especially plates 127–30, 228, 229, 262. Such as signed and dated drawings of 1573 and 1580 by Hans Bol [plates 167–8].

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III

Theatrical interpretation: some case studies

III.i

Scenery, settings and stages

III.i.a

Introduction

There is a great lack of detailed description of the actual performances and acting methods of the troupes of Italian professional actors who developed the commedia dell’arte before 1600. For information on their scenery, settings and stages, we are largely reliant on the surviving visual material. Only a relatively small proportion of renaissance pictures of commedia dell’arte characters show them on stages with scenery, raising the question of exactly what sort of performances the comic actors featured in other performance situations were able to offer. Techniques for extracting documentary evidence from visual records, and for interpreting commedia-related works of art in the light of accurate information about their artist, date and place of origin, and artistic variants, are considered above. Even when a particular early modern depiction might appear to be based on what its artist had seen at a specific performance, it cannot escape being strongly influenced by the artistic conventions and commissioning pressures of its time. Pictorial evidence never provides an unbiased ‘snapshot’ of a performance event, even when it may seem to be a straightforward record of a particular performance.503 This is particularly important when considering pictures of the commedia dell’arte, whose costumed characters are depicted in ‘real life’ as well as performance contexts, so that an additional problem encountered in interpreting visual evidence of renaissance commedia dell’arte performances is in defining and identifying those performances. Nevertheless, further art-historical details of the pictures under consideration in this section are only provided where they are directly relevant to its theme: the depiction of

503

As demonstrated by, for example, Louise George Clubb (‘Pictures for the reader: A series of illustrations to comedy 1591–1592’, Renaissance Drama, 9 (1966), 265–77) on the woodcuts to a 1592 edition of the play Gli Inganni, or W M H Hummelen on rederijker stages (‘Toneel op de kermis, van Bruegel tot Bredero’, Oud Holland, 103 (1989), 1–45; idem, ‘The boundaries of the rhetoricians’ stage’, Comparative Drama, 28 (1994), 235–51).

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scenery, settings and stages. Further, the assumption is made that, in general, these pictures reflect the contemporary stage practice of professional actors to a reasonable degree of accuracy, even though by no means all relate to specific performances by Italian troupes. McDowell classifies early commedia dell’arte platform stages into the three categories of bare platform stage, open stage with plain curtain backdrop or scenic background, and stage enclosed at sides and top.504 Anderson discusses five categories of renaissance commedia stages, in order of increasing sophistication: firstly, the cleared space; secondly, the trestle stage, with or without backdrop; thirdly, the open-air booth stage; fourthly, hired indoor rooms (often advertised in advance by a public parade); and fifthly, the specially designated theatre.505 These categories simplify the wide range of staging methods depicted in the iconographic records, most of which can be found indoors as well as outdoors. The early pictorial evidence suggests that cleared-space staging covers a broad spectrum from the not-so-cleared space, where entertainers jostle with their audience, through to improvisational use of architectural features as natural stages, and even occasional enhancement of a natural performance space by the addition of curtains or temporary audience boxes. Street performance areas could also be defined by means of a specially constructed raised platform. This could be an unadorned trestle stage, a stage with curtain backdrop, an architecturally enhanced curtained stage with constructed openings in the backdrop and/or architectural side features, or full perspective scenery. The surviving pictures suggest that these categories coexisted in the late renaissance, rather than simply replacing each other in chronological succession. Although this is familiar ground, the curtained platform stage receives an undue share of critical attention in commedia dell’arte studies. The iconography rarely clarifies whether the stage is situated in hired rooms or a specially designated theatre, and sometimes not even whether the performance is being held indoors or outdoors. There is also a good reason for the relative neglect of depictions of cleared space and natural staging. Most fall into the category of the numerous images with valuable information for the renaissance theatre historian which are under-researched because, despite clearly depicting commedia dell’arte characters, their theatrical significance is difficult to interpret.

504 505

McDowell, ‘Early mountebank stages’. Michael Anderson, ‘Making room: Commedia and the privatisation of the theatre’, in The Commedia dell’arte from the Renaissance to Dario Fo, ed. Christopher Cairns (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Mellen, 1989), 74–98.

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III.I.B SCENERY, SETTINGS AND STAGES: CLEARED SPACE STAGING

III.i.b

Cleared space staging

A major problem with images of the cleared space performance practice is that identifying and defining the limits of theatrical performance in pictures which show no scenery, setting, or stage at all is generally far from straightforward. Sometimes, it is impossible to tell whether the background to a depiction of comic masks is theatrical scenery, or a genuine setting, either for professional performers, perhaps parading around a town to advertise a forthcoming indoor performance, or for non-professionals in carnival costume. Genuine (as opposed to theatrical) settings can be further differentiated into those which can be related to actual locations, and those based to a lesser or greater extent on imaginary locations, often strongly influenced by previous pictures. These problems of interpretation have contributed to the relative under-researching of the iconographic records. There are many pictures in which it seems possible, likely, or, in some cases, even certain that the masked or comic characters depicted are not stage performers at all, but costumed carnival revellers. The settings of many commedia-related pictures are Italian or Italy-inspired. But some of these settings are idealized, and it is hard to establish exactly what relationship the contents of such pictures have with any real location and event. The boundaries between ceremony, ritual, street entertainment, song and dance routine, public parade, and theatrical performance are not clear cut, and are not always manifest in the pictures. Some of the images under consideration may not show performers at all, but be independent illustrations to texts of a non-performance type, such as songs and anecdotes featuring commedia dell’arte characters. My own most likely reading of plate 65 is that two zanni, two courtesans on horseback and a Turk are performing in a city square, identified as Florentine. It is also possible that plate 65 does not show performers at all, but merely costumed carnival revellers; or that it shows performers on a perspective set, not in a cleared space. Even in pictures where the activity taking place falls clearly under the definition of theatrical entertainment, it is not uncommon for there to be no scenery, set or stage, and for the actors to define their performance area solely by clearing a space for themselves. The performance area does not seem to be defined in plates 70–2, where an area in the background has been enclosed for a joust, but again, the masks appear to be simply performing at street level, in an unenclosed area of a city square. The comedians in some pictures perform in palace gardens or courtyards, often to audiences seated at picnics or banquets.506

506

See, for example, plates 92–8, 105, 159, 211.

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Cleared space performances can have indoor as well as outdoor settings. Depictions of indoor or covered settings often show the entertainment as one element of festivities which could also include feasting, music making and the playing of games such as backgammon or dice.507

III.i.c

Natural stages

A wealth of pictorial evidence suggests that cleared space staging sometimes made use of existing architectural features to emphasise the performance area. Even in plates 65, 70 and 152, noted above, the actors have enhanced the clearedspace performance areas by playing to defined audience areas. Terraces, large loggias and entrance lobbies of the type to be found in Italianate palaces, particularly if they incorporated steps, or the public buildings of most renaissance towns centres, lent themselves well to use as makeshift outdoor stages. Such architectural features were a favourite setting for dramatic entries and entertainments by masked comedians.508 Indoor performers sometimes also took advantage of existing architectural features.509 For itinerant entertainers with limited ability to transport equipment, such ready-made stages had the advantage of providing almost instant grand settings. However, they might be unfamiliar to visiting actors, not necessarily suited to large audiences or to the collection of entrance fees, and disappointing to audiences.

III.i.d

Unadorned raised stages

The third level of sophistication, after cleared space and natural stages, is the unadorned wooden platform. For most such depictions of platform stages the lack of detail, and angle of depiction of the stage, mean that, even assuming that they are accurately reflecting stage practice, the exact size of the platform stage is difficult or impossible to determine.510 But the pictorial evidence suggests a wide range, from tiny square platforms which are hardly more than a floor mat with narrow, usually waist-high, trestles just big enough to raise two or three performers a metre or so above ground level, to large wooden structures raised to the shoulder or head height of the audience, or even higher, and suitable for a 507 508 509 510

See, for example, plates 138–45, 150–1, 209–10, 221. See, for example, plates 27, 37, 99–101, 108, 130, 157, 162, 226, 266–8, 280, 282. See, for example, plates 30, 181. Hummelen, ‘Toneel op de kermis’, pp.27–8.

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complete commedia troupe.511 Although to some the miniature stage of plates 14– 15 ‘appears to be a small portion of an acting platform’, an artistic convention rather than a genuinely small stage,512 it seems reasonable to interpret its double thickness joined by a central hinge as a realistic representation of two sections of an actual itinerant troupe’s stage, untrestled and folded together for transportation. Sometimes stages are shown constructed against the sides of buildings, lending both added stability and a ready-made backdrop. Only rarely, as in plate 277, is an unadorned raised stage depicted in an unmistakably indoor setting.

III.i.e

Stages with curtain backdrops

It is only at this level of staging, often depicted in conjunction with music making mountebank troupes selling their wares, that custom-made set and scenery are introduced. At their simplest, they consist of no more than a backdrop, usually a curtain supported by a metal rod or wooden poles, which may be plain, or bear some form of decoration and/or inscription, and/or have one or more openings.513 Rarely, as with the large torches to either side of the stage in plate 75, lighting arrangements are indicated.514 Sometimes there is an enclosed area behind the backdrop, to give a booth stage, or a large elaborate temporary outdoor stage has been constructed in front of a house, which appears to be utilized both as additional performance space and as a backstage area.515 Occasionally, as in plate 3, the stage supports are concealed, and possibly this below-stage area was used as a storage and changing area. The curtain of the stage in plate 3 is painted with a perspective street scene reminiscent of Serlio’s comic set, as is the backdrop of the stage-within-a-stage of plate 245 (Corsini scenario 34). Often the pictorial evidence does not make it clear whether the stage is indoors or outdoors, but where it does, they are generally outdoors, although plates 277 and 292 respectively feature a trestle and a booth stage in indoor settings. Many indoor scenes featuring comic carnival types or entertainers in cleared-space settings depict them entering or in close proximity to a curtained door or opening, a possible indication of the use of curtains to define performance space in domestic interiors.516 511

512 513 514 515 516

See, for example, plates 27, 36, 68, 102–3, 121–3, 126, 128, 206, 212, 214–15, 254–5, 258, 269, 271, 275, 277–9, 283–6, 340. McDowell, ‘Early mountebank stages’, p.87. See, for example, plates 2–3, 77, 117, 119, 120, 125, 146, 287. On this painting, see also Hummelen, ‘Doubtful images’, pp.206–7. See, for example, plates 75, 172, 175, 213, 288–92, 299. See, for example, plates 16, 29–30, 62–3, 140, 200, 205, 207–8, 221.

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III.i.f

Architecturally enhanced curtain stages

Scala’s scenarios of 1611 indicate that the commedia dell’arte required division of the stage into separate areas, and point to two key factors required for the successful performance of full-length improvised commedia plays.517 They require a stage which facilitates extensive use of the unmotivated exits necessary for successful improvisation, and also has at least two levels, of which the upper could most simply be provided by first floor windows. An intermediate step between stages with curtain backdrops and stages with full perspective scenery is represented by the architecturally enhanced stage with curtain backdrop. At its simplest, this is depicted in plate 58, which shows a raised stage with a curtain backdrop with window-shaped openings created not by cutting holes in the backdrop, but by nailing the surrounding cloth to hollow wooden window frames. Fixed scenery, albeit of the most rudimentary kind, has been created. The naturalism with which the hang of the backdrop material, and its pleating, pinning and folding around the central opening are depicted, suggest that they are based on observation from life, although the extent to which this reflects actual stage practice, rather than artistic embellishment, is undecided. As Anderson notes, plate 58 contains: ‘many unusual features and it remains unclear whether the artist was faithfully reproducing stage practice’.518 Some of the pictures in and relating to the Recueil Fossard showing stages with curtain backdrops also feature simple solid scenery to one or both sides, as does one of Minaggio’s pictures of c.1618 of Italian comedians.519 Alternative types of architecturally enhanced stages with curtain backdrops are represented in the middle background of plate 177, which appears to feature a curtained stage on which the curtains are supported by a solid pillared framework, or plate 295, where a tower has been constructed behind the backdrop.

III.i.g

Perspective stages

A more complex type of staging involves full perspective scenery. Serlio’s comic, tragic and satyric stage settings of 1545 influenced virtually all renaissance perspective stage sets postdating them, however rudimentary [plates 296–8].520 His comic and tragic sets were street scenes, although the tragic set featured 517 518 519 520

Scala, Il teatro; Fitzpatrick, Oral and Literate Performance Processes, pp.109, 124. Anderson, ‘Making room’, p.96 n.21. See plates 47–8, 293. Sebastiano Serlio, Il secondo libro d’architettura, perspettiva (Paris: Barbé, 1545).

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III.I.G SCENERY, SETTINGS AND STAGES: PERSPECTIVE STAGES

much grander and more dignified architecture. The comic set is a culmination of a tendency, during the first half of the sixteenth century, to increasingly replace civic and courtly renaissance and classical elements in the comic scene with outmoded Gothic domestic architecture. Serlio’s third set, later used extensively for pastoral drama, featured rustic cottages in a woodland glade. The most valuable information on early commedia performances with full perspective scenery is provided by the 100 Corsini Album title page illustrations, each of which features a staged performance scene [plates 243–7]. A central question when interpreting these pictures is whether or not they depict actual sets and actors, that is, are based on productions of the plays they illustrate. Do they give ‘a rather faithful picture of what the spectators saw at certain moments of a performance […] a rather faithful record of the use of scenery by the commedia dell’arte troupes’?521 Or are they, like some of the woodcuts discussed below, just more general, all-purpose evocations of plots of the type they illustrate, produced by artists who knew little more about the individual plays than what is available to us today in the accompanying scenarios? Some have interpreted these drawings as aids for inexperienced or amateur actors, or promotional material from which prospective patrons could commission the scenario of their choice.522 Others conclude that although one illustration often appears to conflate several incidents from a particular scenario, ‘analysis of the title-page illustrations in the Corsini scenarios has shown a close correspondence between picture, scenario and property list […] the decorations on the title pages represent actual stage performances of the scenarios’.523 Whatever the actual degree of accuracy of these representations, it can be reasonably assumed that their artists were familiar with contemporary stage practice, and that these pictures offer a great deal of valuable documentary information of a non-specific nature concerning renaissance commedia dell’arte perspective sets. A statistical approach offers a preliminary route to understanding the evidence these drawings offer. The Corsini Album sets can be divided into three basic types, namely the city street, based ultimately on Serlio’s comic set;

521 522

523

Nagler, ‘The Corsini scenari’, pp.9–10. The 138 folios of watercolour drawings of the New York Public Library Spencer Collection’s codex Repertorio di una compagnia della commedia dell’arte (on paper with watermarks dating 1569–91) may be a collection of this type, as suggested by Louise George Clubb, who first published some of these images (‘Italian renaissance theatre’, in The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, ed. John Russell Brown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 107–41, p.118). Aasted, ‘The Corsini scenarios’, pp.106, 108.

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rural scenes, based loosely on Serlio’s pastoral set; and hybrid sets combining one urban with one rural wing. Seventy-seven percent are of the first type, city street sets, used in seventy of the seventy-five comedies, seven of the ten tragicomedies, and none of the fifteen plays which fall into the remaining four categories.524 Much plainer and simpler in arrangement than Serlio’s prototype, although clearly inspired by it, these tend to feature box-like houses, which do however provide the openings on two levels necessary for effective performance of commedia scenarios. In the illustrations to scenarios 35 (L’hospite amoroso) and 54 (La nobilta di Bertolino), furniture has been placed in the street set, presumably to indicate an indoor setting [plates 245-6]. Rural sets form seventeen percent of the depicted sets. They are used for all but one of the eleven pastorals, the sole tragedy, both opere turchesche, the tragicomedy La gelosa gverriera (49), set on a military field, and no less than three comedies.525 Although no pastoral, tragedy, opera reale, or opera turchesca is depicted with city sets, three comedies and a tragicomedy have frontispieces featuring rural sets. Urban settings were considerably cheaper to stage than rural settings, as they involved not only pastures, but usually several of the following additional elements: woods, sea, lakes, grottoes, fountains, mountains, temples, abysses, dramatic weather effects, military camps and towers. Tragedy was only rarely performed by commedia troupes, so it would be surprising if they went to the expense of having special sets made, especially as the grand and dignified sets considered appropriate to true tragedy would be cumbersome to transport and out of keeping with their style. The frontispiece to L’Adrasto (37), the Corsini Album’s sole tragedy, shows five actors in a rural setting, apparently in front of a painted backdrop depicting a coastal city with ships and mountains in the background. The remaining six percent of the drawings feature hybrid sets.526 Other depictions of late renaissance commedia dell’arte performances with perspective sets include the rudimentary perspective set of plate 299, where wings and backdrop depict a simple architectural interior. The left wing only starts receding a quarter of the way along the stage, leaving an area at the extreme left which represents an architectural exterior, in front of which more spectators stand.

524

525

526

The 100 Corsini Album scenarios subdivide into six categories of drama: comedy (75), pastoral (11), tragicomedy (10), opera turchesca (2), tragedy (1), and opera reale (1). Li Dispetti (85), in a formal garden setting; La magica di Pantalone (93), on a mountain slope; and Il pozzo (25), in a glade with a large hexagonal well in its foreground. For two comedies (La Zengara (21) and Il Veleno (89)), two tragicomedies (L’innocente rivenduta (61) and Le teste incantate (97)), one pastoral (Il fonte incantato (77)) and one opera reale (La gran pazzia di Orlando (1)).

184

III.I.G SCENERY, SETTINGS AND STAGES: PERSPECTIVE STAGES

More elaborate perspective sets are depicted in numerous images, including book illustrations, the Three Italian comedians of c.1618–20 and other prints by Callot, and two ink drawings [plates 300–306]. Among the best known book illustrations are numerous title page woodcuts, such as plate 300, and the woodcuts for the prologue of the 1617 edition of Giovanni Briccio’s Pantalone Imbertonao,527 and the 1607 edition of Adriano Banchieri’s La prudenza giovenile.528 They also include twenty-nine woodcuts used in the 1592 edition of Curzio Gonzaga’s Gli inganni and elsewhere,529 and the fourteen woodcuts of the 1597 edition of Orazio Vecchi’s L’Anfiparnasso. Each of these latter features one or more actors in front of a different perspective scenery set. Krogh identifies Vecchi’s characters, many of them taken straight from the commedia dell’arte, in these woodcuts, and relates them to episodes in Vecchi’s play.530 The degree of caution necessary for such an exercise is underlined by twentynine woodcuts showing stock comic characters in front of different perspective scenery. Unlike all but one of Krogh’s woodcuts, which shows the whole stage and the front two rows of the audience, each features the stage and set in its entirety. Clubb publishes all twenty-nine and demonstrates that they were an allpurpose stock series commissioned for the purpose of selecting illustrations for at least three different plays of the early 1590s. She concludes that: ‘it is obvious that the entire series was designed expressly to provide illustrations for any regular example of the genre’.531 In three separate plates, Callot’s Three comedians feature Zanni, the Captain and Pantalone, in each case taking up the whole foreground of a print whose background features the same comedian in a typical commedia scene, on a stage with a perspective set, with a large audience in front [plates 302–4]. The three sets are similar, elaborate street scenes inspired by Serlio’s comic set [plate 296]. Plates 305–6 are two anonymous drawings, surely by the same hand, each featuring a lively commedia scene in a city street represented by a perspective set. 527

528

529 530

531

Kathleen M Lea, ‘The bibliography of the commedia dell’arte: the miscellanies of the comici and virtuosi’, The Library, 11 (1930), 1–38, pp.28–9; eadem, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.214. Briccio (1581–1646), a Rome-based professional painter, produced his own woodcuts, as a visual guide for the amateur actors for whom he wrote plays such as this and La ventura di Zanne, e Pascariello (Viterbo, 1619). Martha Farahat, ‘On the staging of madrigal comedies’, Early Music History, 10 (1991), 123–143, figs.2–5. Clubb, ‘Pictures for the reader’. Krogh, ‘Italienske maskekomedies’, pp.134–43; Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, pp.263–80. Clubb, ‘Pictures for the reader’, p.267.

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In some images it is difficult to tell whether the masked comic characters are shown in real-life or theatrical settings. Plate 224 is an inlaid panel in a piece of furniture featuring masked comedians, plate 307 is a drawing, and plates 12, 17, 156 and 192 are paintings. Do these pictures depict carnival revellers, or comedians performing in cleared spaces, in genuine, albeit often rather fanciful, streets, or do they show actors on stages with perspective sets? Plates 17 and 307 offer, perhaps, the least evidence to define their central groups. These figures may be actors on stage, or simply street masqueraders. Beijer, who first identified and published plate 224, is in no doubt that it represents actors on a theatrical stage.532 In his opinion, the panel records either a scene from a performance by a visiting Italian troupe at a southern German court in the first decades of the seventeenth century, or French farceurs. For Beijer, this scenery has nothing in common either with the type of curtained sets familiar from the Recueil Fossard, or with Italian perspective sets, and is a product of pure imagination, possibly influenced by the type of sets used at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. However, this set, and especially the central building, with its pointed elevation, high round window and door with steps and pediment, seems to me to have perceptible correlations with Serlio’s comic set. Plate 156, generally interpreted as showing a perspective stage set, is variously dated to the later sixteenth533 or early seventeenth534 century. Plate 192, which I reattribute from the eighteenth century Venetian School to the circle of Hieronymus I Francken, affords insufficient clues to enable a decision on whether its background cityscape is a painted backdrop, perspective scenery, or simply a genuine urban setting. Certain features tie in with those associated with the late renaissance comic scene, notably the central round, columned building. The background divides into three areas: a garden scene to the left, and two deep perspective constructions at centre and right, bounded by two large buildings centrally, a clump of tall trees to the extreme left, and an architectural wing with a woman at its window to the right. Whatever the explanation of this picture and its unique triple setting, it is clearly of great theatrical interest. The question of whether architectural features depicted in images featuring commedia masks are supposed to represent real buildings or painted sets may also be asked of the Bayeux painting [plate 12]. Here the concern is whether the actors are performing

532

533 534

Agne Beijer, ‘Quelques documents sur les farceurs français et italiens’, Revue d’histoire du théâtre, 9 (1957), 54–60, pp.59–60, fig.8. Adhèmar, ‘Genre paintings’, p.192; Aasted, ‘The Corsini scenarios’, p.108. Mario Apollonio et al, ‘Commedia dell’arte’, in Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 9 vols (Roma, 1954–62), III (1956), cols.1185–1226, fig.CXLIX; Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, fig.14; Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.90–1.

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in a cleared space or on a perspective stage, that is, whether the architecture and formal garden depicted in this painting represent part of a real-life cleared space setting, or, as has been suggested by several authorities, are stage scenery and a painted backdrop with a back-shutter.535 The visual clues afforded by plate 12 seem too meagre to allow a firm decision as to whether its setting is a perspective stage, or a genuine and perhaps identifiable palace interior, with a view out on to an actual garden.536

III.ii

Zanni and Pantalone

III.ii.a Introduction The Zanni–Pantalone partnership forms the heart, and oldest core, of the commedia dell’arte, and the depiction of Zanni and Pantalone in reliably documented contemporary visual material yields important evidence for the sources and development of the commedia. Commedia erudita adopted the servant–master partnership from the classical stage. Amateur attempts to exploit its entertainment potential were hampered both by lack of skill and by the social stigma attached to the garish costumes and gross bodily contortions necessary for successful clowning.537 By grafting crowd-pleasing elements from the traditions of acrobatics, juggling and carnival on to the commedia erudita duo, professional performers were able to develop them into a commercially successful stage act which formed the major comic focus of their plays. By 1568, the date of the Munich wedding performance, Zanni is becoming established as the central element in a particular type of Italian comedy, recognized outside Italy, and identifiable in the iconographic record. The earliest dated pictures of Zanni and Pantalone pairs and their forerunners feature them not on the stage, but in the context of real-life settings. Dating to the 1560s, they show mountebank troupes on marketplace trestle stages and domestic servant–master scenes [plates 233–7, 283].538 Several undated prints apparently 535 536

537 538

McDowell, ‘Early mountebank stages’, p.89. Robert Erenstein has informally suggested that the setting may be that of the stage of the Hôtel de Bourgogne (private communication, 1994). Noë, Illustrationen zur Commedia dell’arte, pp.47–51, 83. Plate 283 remained commercially viable for over two centuries. David Kunzle reproduces an impression dated 1773, from the Roman print workshop of Carlo Losi (The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 (Berkeley: University of California, 1973), fig.7.4).

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showing Zanni and Pantalone as costumed carnival revellers may also date to around this time [plates 220, 308]. By the time of Antonio Tempesta’s Febraro of 1599, Zanni (standing in the right foreground with a basket over his arm), and Pantalone (mounted on a donkey in the left foreground), are masked [plate 64]. Their costumes are noticeably anachronistic and theatrical. Although not on stage, they play an integral dramatic role in the tournament spectacle, and are unmistakably based not on everyday characters, but on the commedia masks. It is extremely difficult, however, to chart reliably the changeover from ‘real life’ to theatrical source in the iconographic record. Differentiation between depictions of genuine Venetian master–servant duos in everyday dress, and costumed marketplace mountebanks, carnival revellers, or professional actors is rarely straightforward. Neither is there a simple relationship between the commedia dell’arte proper and the popular sources from which it drew its strength and inspiration, whose very essence was in turn affected by the commedia characters as they developed on stage.

III.ii.b Venetian servants and masters A printmaker closely associated with images of Zanni and Pantalone in the 1560s was Nicolò Nelli. Born c.1530, he was active from 1563 to 1572 as an engraver and printer in Venice, where he specialized in book illustration, and particularly portraits.539 He is also known from a treatise of 1569 on the horse (Libro de marchi de cavalli), topographical engravings and popular broadsheets such as the Proverbii of 1564. His numerous engraved portraits include the signed and dated one of 1568 of Massimo Troiano on the frontispiece of Troiano’s 1568 Munich festival book. Five engravings by Nelli feature the Venetian Magnifico Naspo Bizaro and his servant Zan Polo [plates 233–7]. The wine flows freely as a bored Zan Polo keeps himself occupied in his gondola, first by eating, then by twiddling his fingers, then by picking his teeth in an increasingly gross manner. He awaits his master, an elderly, love-stricken and hyperbolic Magnifico who interminably serenades on his lute the beautiful Cate Bionda Biriota. She peeps shyly, and then more boldly, from her window, and eventually descends to be given, reluctantly, in marriage to the fortunate Magnifico, in a sumptuously festive scene dated 1565 above Nelli’s monogram. In this final scene, in which Cate and 539

For Nelli, see Bellini, ‘Printmakers’, p.33; Mortimer, Italian 16th-Century Books, I, pp.150–3, II, pp.465–6.

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Naspo are surrounded by servants and guests and attended by the lethargic Zan Polo, the dramatic suggestion generated by a complex web of crossing and interacting glances and gestures is the scaffold for a comic masterpiece [plate 237]. Cate’s greedy relatives can ill restrain their eagerness for Naspo’s riches, while his gaze, in turn, rests not on his new bride, but on her neighbour, leaning invitingly out of a window above Zan Polo, who laconically notes Naspo’s inclinations and sizes up his own chances with his new mistress. Several motifs, such as the servant with the pestle and mortar, are common to the commedia.540 However, although the costumes of Nelli’s Magnifico and Zan Polo are related to those of the commedia masks, they are shown unmasked, in contemporary dress. Thus they appear not to be based on comic stage characters, but to be a more or less affectionate parody of contemporary Venetian types. As such, Nelli draws on the same source from which the Zanni and Pantalone of the commedia developed, and provides an insight into the attitudes towards this Venetian servant–master duo in the very years in which the commedia first came to the fore.

III.ii.c Zanni costume The Zanni–Pantalone partnership drew elements from the mid-sixteenth century real-life Venetian servant and master pairs from whom their costume originates. Paintings such as two by Giorgione confirm that, under his Venetian patrician’s gown, Pantalone continued to wear the dress of his youth, the jacket and tight-fitting hose which were the height of daring fashion for young Venetian males in the opening decades of the sixteenth century.541 Zanni’s suit was usually of plain, coarse, light, neutrally coloured material, with an uncollared hiplength long-sleeved belted jacket, loose or baggy trousers in matching material often ending just above the ankles, and no codpiece. But the iconography records many variations. The suit may have additional details.542 Occasionally, it is not

540 541 542

See also plates 52, 191, 249. Trial of Moses by fire (Uffizi, Florence); Adoration of the magi (National Gallery, London). Such as collars [plates 52–3 (1583), 310 (1595), 311 (1616)]; ruffs [plates 35, 249, 252, 253 (1619), 312 (1610), 319]; codpiece [plates 218, 313 (1615)]; jacket buttons [plates 314, 319]; turned-up legs [plates 17, 98 (1606)]; rolled-up sleeves [plate 277 (c.1607)]. Plates 54 and 315 feature zanni with collars, rolled-up sleeves and turn-ups. The zanni-type costumes of plate 162 are olive green, and embellished with cuffs, elaborate lace collars, decorative sashes, and shoe buckles.

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plain and undyed, but dark, rough-textured, or layered.543 Or it may have stripes, or some sort of more elaborate patterning, for example around all or some of the bottom of the jacket sleeves and body and the trouser legs.544 As the character of Zanni is identified with that of the Bergamasque peasants who worked in Venice as servants and porters, so has his costume been associated with those of the north Italian peasant and porter [plates 321–2].545 Troiano’s account of the 1568 Munich commedia dell’arte performance underlines this connection. Having swapped clothes with Zanni, his master Pantalone reappears ‘dressed in coarse clothes […] he was a porter’.546 Engravings depicting authentic Venetian porters and servant–master pairs demonstrate discrepancies between Zanni and porter/servant dress which have been noted by some scholars [plates 233–7, 322]. Decroisette attributes these to the ‘stylization’ of stage costume; Povoledo to the influence of the skin-tight suit of the professional buffone, whom she identifies as Zanni’s forerunner.547 The travel diary of Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria offers an alternative source. When the young Prince and his four companions headed for the carnival festivities in Ferrara on 12 January 1566, they travelled incognito, disguised in zanni costume. The diary suggests a composite source for this zanni costume whose most important element, sailors’ trousers, is non-rustic.548 Zanni’s cap may have been directly copied from that of the urban chimneysweep, or perhaps it merely reminded the Bavarian chronicler of such caps [plate 323]. But pictorial records confirm that zanni costume was indeed inspired by the loose rough linen trouser suit of the sailor, apparently admired and adopted by the Venetian dockers of peasant Bergamasque origin on whom the commedia Zanni was based [plates 316, 322, 324]. Suits of the type associated with Zanni are also worn in the iconographic record by other commedia servants, such as the Recueil Fossard’s Zany Corneto, Philipin and Francatripa, a Burati, Zan Trippu and Zan Zaccagna of 1583, a 543 544

545

546

547 548

See, for example, plates 57, 159, 209, 224. See, for example, plates 27, 35, 57, 105, 207, 240 (1581), 248 (1575), 312 (1610), 317 (c.1588), 318 (1604), 319–20. Such patterning sometimes indicates a comic servant other than Zanni. Peasant garb was a popular renaissance carnival disguise in the alpine regions (Paul Vandenbroeck, ‘Verbeeck’s peasant weddings: a study of iconography and social function’, Simiolus, 14 (1984), 79–124, pp.85–6). Troiano, Dialoghi, f.150v (quoted above, p.58; in the Catalan version, f.151r: ‘vestido con vestidos rusticos […] era vn ganapan’). Decroisette, ‘Le zanni’, p.79; Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, pp.257–8. Diary, f.105v; the passage is quoted above, p.67.

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Pedrolino of 1589, and German carnival fools of 1610 and 1619 [plates 6, 38, 52–3, 253, 312]. The iconographic record reveals a remarkable diversity within the basic constraints of the zanni outfit, and tracing the historical development of the stage costume over the first few decades of the commedia dell’arte through the surviving dated pictures is not straightforward. It confirms that some sort of hat, more often than not feathered and brimmed, is invariably sported by the true Zanni, and that a dark three-quarter mask and beard occur in dated pictures from the 1560s onwards.549 Occasionally, zanni types wear an obviously false beard, or animal mask.550 Only from 1600 do dated depictions of zanni in pale rather than dark masks, or without mask and/or beard, start appearing regularly, as, for instance, Tempesta and Franco’s beardless zanni of 1599 and 1610, Vrancx’s and Stevens’s pale-masked zanni of 1606 and c.1607, and several carnival zanni types.551 Hieronymus Francken’s comic servant carries a musical instrument and, at his belt, a purse and weapon, and at least one such accessory is clearly visible in all the earlier dated depictions of zanni [plate 16].552 With some elements of zanni costume, such as hats, shoes, cloaks and props, there appears to be little correlation with dated depictions. One or another of a varied range of feathered and unfeathered hats, caps, turbans, or even kitchen cauldrons, plumed pouring funnels or other non-standard headgear, was actively sported by virtually every zanni [plates 218, 265]. A notable exception is the left-hand zanni in plate 17, who has doffed his hat, leaving his mask ties clearly visible. The type of footwear, whether none, or clogs, plain or spotty shoes, or the more usual black slippers, is not always easy to distinguish in the iconography.553

549

550 551 552

553

See, for example, plates 16 (1565), 283 (1568), 238 (1573), 248 (1575), 22–3 (1576), 33 (1579), 240 (1581), 52–3 (1583), 317 (c.1588), 310 (1595), 318 (1604), 271–2 (1610). See, for example, plates 27, 31–2, 220, 240, 326. Plates 64 (1599), 98 (1606), 277 (c.1607), 286 (1610), 312 (1610), 313 (1615), 253 (1619). In 1568 it is a sword [plate 283]; in 1573, dagger, purse and violin [plate 238]; in 1575, dagger and lute [plate 248]; in 1576 generally a black purse and sword or dagger, sometimes with a lute or cello bow [plates 22–3]; in c.1577, dagger and purse [plate 249]; in 1579, lute and dagger [plate 33]; in 1581, lute [plate 240]; in 1583, purse and dagger, with or without violin [plates 52–3, 258]; in c.1588, rommelpot [plate 317]; in 1595, sword [plate 310]; in 1599, purse and basket of carnival eggs [plate 64]; in 1604, sword and bellhammer [plate 318]; in 1606, purse and rommelpot [plate 98]; in c.1607, purse and dagger [plate 277]. Other instruments carried by Zanni include the pipe [plates 54, 255], bent-back guitar [plate 209–11], grill, poker and morris bells [plate 218], morris bells alone [plate 166] or with tambourine [plate 35], drum [plate 220], hunting horn [plate 315] or bagpipes [plate 27]. See, for example, plates 35, 218, 249 and Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, fig.7.

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A longer cloak or shoulder streamers were less usual than the short, often dark, capes zanni are often depicted wearing over their shoulder or left arm from the early 1570s onwards.554 The most usual prop was some sort of musical instrument, or arms and armour, as noted above, closely followed by kitchen utensils and/or items of food.555 One of the zanni of plate 166 appears to brandish a pig’s trotter. Sometimes zanni hold an item of apparel, such as gloves, eyeglasses, money bag, or lengths of rope, perhaps removed from their waists, where like sailors they often used them as belts, one or more torches, a syringe, or bellows.556 As late as 1631, comic actors are still depicted in straightforward instantly recognizable zanni suits [plate 292]. But the iconography confirms that the temptation to stamp individual actors’ personalities on the zanni role and its traditional costume spawned more and more modifications, and fuelled the decline of the commedia dell’arte’s earliest servant, in favour of a host of more colourfully liveried variants.

III.ii.d Zanni and Pantalone in the Land of Cockayne One early non-stage setting in which Zanni and Pantalone are depicted is that of the carnival, and more specifically, the representation, at carnival time, of the Cockayne revels. Were celebrators at such festivals merely borrowing costumes already familiar from the stage, or did the central characters of the commedia originate in the carnival festivities? A signed and dated print of 1564 by Nelli offers a bird’s-eye view of the gluttonous pleasures of the fabled Land of Cockayne, where edible stockpiles are of carnivalesque proportions and sloth and greed are extravagantly rewarded, inhabited by its leader Panigon, and his enthusiastic followers the Cucagnesi [plate 327].557 Explanatory inscriptions

554

555

556 557

See, for example, plates 17, 27, 31, 35 (1619), 130, 142, 181, 239 (1593), 285 (dated ‘seventeenth century’ by Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, p.344; c.1570 by Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.30). Such as basket alone [plates 64, 312, 315] or with bottle [plate 165]; jug [plates 313–14]; pestle and mortar [plates 52, 191]; spoon [plates 166, 315]; grater with or without cheese [plates 166, 315]; sausages [plates 54, 220, 308]; comb, colander, syringe, or bucket [plate 54]. See, for example, plates 27, 33, 99, 142, 161, 166, 205, 224, 260–1, 308, 314, 319–20. A considerable literature and iconography bear witness to the fascination this secular Nirvana exercised on the medieval mind and its inheritors. Pieter Bruegel’s Land of Cockayne of 1567, in Munich’s Alte Pinakothek, one of the most artistically memorable paintings of this theme, indicates that even the holy orders were not immune to this particular weakness.

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accompany the vignettes and the whole is completed with seventeen lines of verse in the lower right-hand corner. An anonymous reversed version, a print entitled La Cvccagna, descrittione del Gran Paese de Cvccagna dove chi piv dorme piv gvadagna, even more clearly labels the most important landmarks. They include palaces to sleep in, a prison for those who work, a sea of good Greek wine and huge mountain of grated cheese, a fountain of malmsey wine, saltworks of pure sugar, trees that grow warm pancakes and a mine that produces gold coins.558 The reversed version’s companion print of identical format, Il Trionfo de Carnavale nel Paese de Cvcagna, apparently from the same workshop, may also be derived from a print of the 1560s by Nelli [plate 308].559 The Shrovetide carnival, with its opportunity to indulge, for the last time before Lent, in luxury foods such as meat and alcohol, holds the key to the understanding of the Land of Cockayne’s grossly comic ‘régression orale’.560 Fantasy spilt over into reality when members of Netherlandish fishermen’s and butchers’ guilds attacked each other with salt herrings and sausages in carnival pageants which symbolized the fight between an anarchic, prodigal, male King of Carnival and a thrifty, practical, female Quaresima.561 Such fights are a favourite subject of numerous Flemish paintings, and the extent to which they reflect genuine carnival practice of the time is disputed. The subject, pioneered by Bosch, and popularized above all by Pieter Bruegel’s Battle between Carnival and Lent of 1559, is depicted in many later Flemish paintings also including

558

559

560

561

1879-6-13-587, British Museum, London: Palazzi dove si dorme, Pregion per chi lavora, Mare di bvon vino Greco, Montagna grandissima di cascio grattato, Fonte di maluagia, Saline di zuccaro fino, Alberi che producono fritelle calde, Miniera che produce scudi d’oro. An impression in the Deutsches Theater Museum, Munich, is possibly a variant to that here reproduced as plate 308 (DTM.III/3657, noted without signature or reproduction by Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, p.265). A reversed variant in the Raccolta Bertarelli, Milan, signed in the plate ‘Ferando Bertelli exc’ is reproduced by Toschi, Populäre Druckgraphik, fig.55. F Delpech, ‘Aspects des Pays de Cocagne, programme pour une recherche’, in Colloque International Tours 1977, L’Image du Monde Renversé et ses représentations littéraires et para-littéraires, eds Jean Lafond and Augustin Redondo (Paris: Vrin, 1979), 35–48, p.44. The woman at the centre of plate 166 is a rare female Carnival, as proclaimed by the pig’s trotter and spit of carnival meats she brandishes (cf. spits in plates 73, 161, 220, 260). On such pageants, see Sandra Billington, ‘Butchers and fishmongers: their historical contribution to London’s festivity’, Folklore, 101 (1990), 97–103; Dietz-Rüdiger Moser, Fastnacht – Fasching – Karneval, das Fest der “Verkehrten Welt” (Graz, Wien, Köln: Kaleidoskop, 1986), pp.32–3. On connections between carnival meats and the commedia, see Barry Wind, ‘Annibale Carracci’s “Scherzo”: The Christ Church Butcher Shop’, Art Bulletin, 58 (1976), 93–6.

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masqueraders in commedia-related costumes.562 The boundaries between fantasy and reality were even more blurred when the city of Naples staged the turbulent carnival game of Cuccagna. For this orgiastic free-for-all, rooted in the essentially comic concept of Cockayne but spawned by the cravings of the poor, a construction of stages at various levels, with a painted backdrop representing the Garden of Delights, was amply furnished with vast mounds of food, and fountains which spouted real wine.563 At a given signal, the ravenous populace was let loose on this edible tableau. Often, the results were so violent that the game was temporarily suspended; indeed, ‘Cuccagna’ was banned altogether by the civic authorities at the end of the sixteenth century. Plates 308 and 327 were quite possibly influenced by actual carnival pageants and celebrations, and, in their turn, almost certainly had an influence on them.564 In plate 308, the slothful Land of Cockayne has been transformed into a bloodthirsty battlefield: at the top an army of zanni, led by a Pantalone with a syringe preceded by two bulls, drives out Panigon, mounted on a boar, and his unhappy men. A band of gypsies lies ready to ambush the fleeing Cucagnesi, still clinging pathetically to their carnival meats. In the central scene, a tournament celebrates the comedians’ victory, while to the right, eight Pantalones and Stefanellos count their looted gold, and to the left their eight zanni seize Panigon’s abandoned macaroni mountain. Below, ‘Carnavale’ is crowned King of Cockayne, and condemns the unfortunate Panigon to death. Unfeeling tedeschi drain the sea of Greek wine while the execution is carried out by three mallet-bearing Anatolian matachins, who drown Panigon in a butt of malmsey wine. Sixteen lines of doggerel in the bottom right-hand corner summarize the action. But why are the pleasure-loving comedians, fighting under the banner of the King of Carnival, in such a vicious campaign against the frivolous Cucagnesi, a group of like-minded temperament in whose country, surely, Carnival is a way of life? Why are the comedians and Cucagnesi not united against their common and ancient enemy, symbolized by Quaresima, the Queen of Lent? Even if it proves possible to unravel the enigmatic relationship of the comedians to the Cucagnesi it will not be a matter of simply identifying the sources from which the Italian comedians took their motifs. The figure of Panigon was borrowed by Rabelais from popular culture, and transformed by him into the King of Cockayne, and underwent further transitions dur562 563

564

See, for example, plates 81–3, 86–8, 136. Franco Valsecchi, L’Italia nel seicento e nel settecento (Torino: UTET, ‘Società e Costume’, VI, 1967), p.394. See Gibson (‘Artists and rederijkers’, pp.438–9) on the influence of engravings by Franz Hogenberg and after Pieter Bruegel on Antwerp pageant floats of 1563.

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ing the piecemeal re-assimilation of the Rabelaisian with the traditional Panigon.565 Similarly, as the commedia dell’arte developed, there was a constant give and take between it and the popular sources from which it drew its strength. This dynamic interchange not only moulded the development of the commedia, but affected the very essence of those far from static popular traditions. A pair of Venetian woodcuts show Il Triomfo del Carneval and Il Triomfo della Quaresima as stately processions [plate 220]. In Carneval, the King of Carnival is borne aloft by a troupe of comedians.566 Zanni, Pantalone, a dottore, a dark-masked inamorata and masked matachin are recognizable in a procession which is a pointed burlesque of Petrarchan Triumphs. Its participants may be a motley bunch, but they carry the symbols of their leader with pride. Tripe, sausages, plucked chickens and other carnival meats assume the dignity of war trophies, lending these humble woodcuts a distant affinity with Andrea Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar567 entirely absent from the unruly village bun-fight atmosphere of the Flemish carnival scenes.568 Are these masks merely costumed carnival revellers, or are they the members of an actual commedia troupe? The iconography appears to confirm the generalization that the earliest professional actors borrowed and put together elements familiar in their own times. But it is unclear whether the Pantalones and zanni depicted in such carnival scenes borrowed their costumes from figures already fully established on the stage by professional actors, whether the Pantalone–Zanni duo was established before the commedia dell’arte, perhaps in the rough and tumble of mid-sixteenth-century carnival celebrations or the marketplace, whether it was simply inspired by the typical Venetian Magnifico and his servant, or whether the true account is to be pieced together from a combination of some or all of these and other hypotheses.

III.ii.e

Zanni and Pantalone as mountebanks’ assistants

The exact nature of charlatan entertainment is one on which the iconographic record is open to varied interpretation, and one way forward is offered by com-

565

566

567 568

Antoinette Huon, ‘Le Roy Sainct Panigon dans l’imagerie populaire du XVIe siècle’, in François Rabelais, ouvrage publié pour le quatrième centenaire de sa mort, 1553–1953 (Genève & Lille: Droz & Giard, 1953), 210–25. Impressions in Paris (Bibliothèque de l’Opéra) and Rome (Museo NATP) are hand coloured (Grinberg, Carnavals et Fêtes, p.45; Toschi, Populäre Druckgraphik, fig.56). Royal Collection, Hampton Court. See, for example, plates 81–3, 86–8, 136.

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parative analysis in the light of textual documents. Notable among texts that bring into sharp relief performance strategies used by actual early comici operating as mountebanks to interact with specific live audiences are German-language accounts by Thomas Platter and Hippolytus Guarinonius. Perhaps not coincidentally, both were physicians. Itinerant ‘Comœdianten’ in Avignon for several months at the end of 1598 were repeatedly witnessed by Platter. The account in his travel journal describes how the seven-strong Italian troupe staged plays and interludes in an indoor tennis court for several weeks.569 When their falling audiences no longer supported the rent, they moved outside, drawing up to 1000 people to their ‘long table’ set up in Avignon’s Place de Change. Here, in the time-honoured fashion of charlatans, they staged marketplace performances ‘en banque’ and sold medicines and cosmetics to the crowds attracted by their performances. The mixed-gender troupe, all of whose members were costumed and masked, included two actresses, and featured skilled singers, instrumentalists and performers, capable of staging full-length pastorals and of playing the stock commedia dell’arte characters ‘Pantalon’, ‘Zani’ and the doctor. Platter names the troupe’s leader as Hans Latz, or Zan Bragetta.570 This indicates to me that the troupe was not, as previously generally assumed, led by some humble and otherwise unrecorded quack chancing his luck on the stage, but by an influential professional actor who established his reputation in the mainstream of the commedia dell’arte tradition. The Italian who played under this stage name, as yet unidentified and virtually unrecorded in modern scholarship, was evidently something of a celebrity in his own day. Possibly he was identical with, or related to, the Girolamo Bragati of Padua who performed with Maphio del Re in the late 1540s. The creator of a significant variant of Zanni, Zan Bragetta inspired a masked comedy of 1585 (Bragatto), and several defamatory lines of verse in Genologia di Zan Capella, suggesting that he fathered four felons hanged for petty thieving. Underlining the connections with France and the commedia dell’arte are the character ‘Braghetto francese’ in the

569

570

Thomas Platter jr, MS. A O 7 & 8, ff.262r–265v. University Library, Basle. See also Rut Keiser, Thomas Platter d. J. Beschreibung der Reisen (Basel & Stuttgart: Schwabe,1968), pp.305–8, and for an English translation of an abridged French version, Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, pp.270–1. On this and other theatrical aspects of the writings of Platter and his older half-brother Felix, noted above (pp.97–8), see bibliography (Katritzky). Platter, MS. A O 7 & 8, f.262r: ‘(zan Bragetta) Hans Latz’. As here, Platter often precedes a term or name that he has translated literally into German, with its parenthesized and italicized original wording. Keiser (Thomas Platter d. J., 305), reads ‘Ian Bragetta’.

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cast list of Vergilio Verucci’s comedy Le Schiave of 1629, and his inclusion in ‘tutta la Zannesca natione’, in an undated poem lamenting the death, in c.1586, of the actor Tabarino.571 By 1591, his stage persona was sufficiently well established to merit inclusion in a comprehensive costume book by Pietro Bertelli [plate 319b].572 Bragato was among fourteen plates depicting celebrated comici selected half a century later from this book by a descendant, Franco Bertelli, to serve as the basis for his highly successful specialist costume book of 1642, Carnevale Italiano Mascherato.573 Commedia dell’arte scenarios were a vehicle for providing a succinct overview of whole performances, and rarely gave space to more than the most perfunctory descriptions of individual lazzi, the generally comic set piece theatrical routines of the commedia stage. Difficulties in distinguishing between the diverging traditions of stage practice and iconographic conventions, when interpreting the pictorial record, have contributed to the startling gap between the iconographic and textual content of illustrated publications on the commedia dell’arte. Stock characters are depicted engaging in a range of obscene and scatological lazzi that are granted little comment in either the surviving textual documentation, or the modern accompanying text. A medical treatise of 1610 with considerable bearing on these issues is by Hippolytus Guarinonius.574 Unlike Platter, he does not identify his theatrical descriptions as specific performances by named players, although there are indications that many are based on his own personal experience of outdoor mountebank troupes, seen as a medical student in 1590s Padua. Some long known to literary historians, and all still awaiting incorporation into the mainstream of commedia dell’arte scholarship, the thirty-four lazzi descriptions of his treatise represent both a further indication of the substantial overlap between charlatan and commedia activity, and the

571

572

573

574

Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, p.255; III, pp.51–2, V, p.439; Stanze della vita e morte di Tabarino Canaglia Milanese: in Schindler (‘Zan Tabarino’, p.542). Pietro Bertelli, Diversaru[m] nationum habitus, iconibus in ære incisis, 3 vols (Patavii: apud Aliatum Alcia et B Bertellium, 1589, 1591, 1596), II, plate 77. F Bertelli, Il carnevale italiano mascherato (the exact borrowings are tabulated in M A Katritzky, ‘Franco Bertelli’s “Carnevale Italiano Mascherato” of 1642 and other printed influences on theatrical pictures in alba amicorum’, in Kloviev Zbornik. Minijatura – crteÞ– grafika 1450–1700. Zbornik radova sa znanstvenoga skupa povodom petstote obljetnice roðenja Jurja Julija Klovia. Zagreb, 22–24 listopada 1998, ed. Milan Pelc (Zagreb: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti – Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2001), 216–29, p.227). Hippolytus Guarinonius, Die Grewel der Verwüstung Menschlichen Geschlechts (Ingolstatt: Angermayr, 1610).

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most informative textual source of documentary information concerning early modern lazzi.575 In line with accepted theatrical practice, most involve a very limited number of players, but taken as a whole they indicate a framework peopled by a small mixed-gender troupe. These descriptions range in length from oblique hints indicated in a single phrase or sentence, to page-long observations recording detailed insights into the presentation, structure and reception of individual lazzi. As such, they afford an incomparable overview of the verbal and physical comic repertoire of a late sixteenth century working troupe, and represent a valuable corollary to the visual record. Nicolò Barbieri (1576–1641), famed in his stage role of Beltrame by 1634, the date of publication of his well-known defence of comic acting, La supplica, in it recalls the start of his performing career, as a member of il Monferino’s mountebank troupe in 1596.576 Giovanni Rivani, who took the stage name ‘Dottor Graziano Campanaccio da Budri’, repeatedly risked being expelled from the Fedeli troupe for mountebank activities.577 Flaminio Scala, one of the most respected troupe leaders of his time, operated a demanding perfume business alongside his stage career. Giovan Domenico Ottonelli describes how members of the Uniti troupe preceded a street performance in Trapani, Sicily, in 1638, with the sale of patent medicines and other merchandise.578 The eyewitness descriptions of Platter and Guarinonius indicate that such documented instances, of celebrated comici at the peak of their profession combining commedia dell’arte and mountebank activities, are unexceptional. Their accounts strongly support the suggestion that mixed-gender troupes, capable of staging full-length plays featuring the lazzi and stock characters of the commedia dell’arte, routinely operated

575

576 577

578

See Jean-Marie Valentin, ‘Bouffons ou religieux? Le débat sur le théâtre dans l’Allemagne catholique au début du XVIIe siècle (A Albertinus, H Guarinonius)’, in idem, Theatrum Catholicum. Les jésuites et la scène en Allemagne au XVIe et au XVIIe siècles (Nancy: Universitaires, 1990), 19–48; Peter Sprengel, ‘Herr Pantalon und sein Knecht Zanni. Zur frühen Commedia dell’arte in Deutschland’, in Wanderbühne. Theaterkunst als fahrendes Gewerbe (Kleine Schriften der Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 34/35), ed. Bärbel Rudin (Berlin, 1988), 5–18; Alberto Martino, ‘Fonti tedesche degli anni 1585–1615, per la storia della commedia dell’arte e per la costituzione di un repertorio dei “lazzi” dello zanni’, in Aspetti dell’identità tedesca. Studi in onore di Paolo Chiarini, eds Mauro Ponzi and Aldo Venturelli, 2 vols (Roma: Bulzoni, 2003), II/2, 657–708; bibliography (Katritzky). Barbieri, La supplica, pp.126–7. Letter of 27 August 1623 from Giovan Paolo Fabri to the Duke of Mantua (cited by Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari, p.231, see also Ferrone et al, Corrispondenze, I, p.120 n.2). Ottonelli, ‘Della Cristiana Moderazione del Teatro’, 1648, in La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Taviani, 320–526, p.495.

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as mountebanks. They imply a far greater overlap between the repertoires of charlatans and comici than the protestations of the latter would suggest. In this light, it seems reasonable to assume that the theatrical costumes and lazzi on the mountebank stages of some pictures relate to actual stage costumes and comic episodes of the type used in charlatan performances.579

III.iii

Some further comic types

III.iii.a Some female types There are particular problems with identifying and classifying the female stock types in depictions of the commedia dell’arte. Even so, the visual material offers a valuable supplement to the evidence available in the written documentation. The pictures clarify the gestures, activities and accessories of the female comedians, and convey valuable information concerning the costume of actresses in general, its historical evolution and its relation to a wide range of specific female roles and performance situations. Depictions of commedia-related stock roles and costumes in non-stage performative contexts, and female carnival masks and charlatans, even in stage contexts, often dismissed as peripheral distractions in conventional text-based considerations of the commedia dell’arte, are integral to its visual record. Analysis of the iconography has the potential for clarifying the players’ costumes and stage presence and their contribution to the dramatic effect at hand. This task, complicated by the commedia’s reliance on crossdressing, is even more difficult with respect to actresses than actors. On the all-male stage, the presence of men playing women was conventionally limited to a minimum. Men playing men dominated the stage, and their roles were distinguished by easily recognizable stage costumes. Male stock roles rapidly developed stylized stage names, costumes, masks, and other distinguishing characteristics which aid their identification in pictures, even where the context is not obviously theatrical. In contrast, early actresses honed their skills in arenas in which overtly theatrical costume was rarely worn, such as the marketplace, oral tradition, and festivity. Depictions of female carnival masks and mountebanks suggest that even in stage contexts, female performers habitually wore less stylized costumes than men. The visual and textual documentation

579

See, for example, plates 36, 120, 125, 146, 214–5, 254–5, 258, 275, 283–7, 299, 340.

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suggests considerable overlap in the names, costumes and social classes of early modern female stock roles, both with each other and with the real-life types they represent. Perhaps because visual recognition is less straightforward for early female players than for actors, there are no detailed studies of female commedia costume comparable to those of its male roles. In commedia erudita, female parts were always played by boys and men. The plays written for these all-male casts generally held to the convention that wives and romantic heroines should appear as little as possible during a performance, with much of their action related at second hand by maids and servants. Playtexts indicate that the respectable female roles only rarely break free of this convention before the advent of the commedia dell’arte. If they appear on stage at all before the mid-sixteenth century, female characters tend to hover well in the background, preferably framed by a window or door of their own domestic interior, a theatrical device extensively developed by commedia actresses. Despite church opposition, they turned the same doors and windows that had marked boundaries for their cross-dressing male colleagues into stepping stones on to centre stage.580 On the late sixteenth century professional stage, although some maids continued to be played by men, key scenes involving the inamorata were increasingly no longer reported at second hand by the maid, but conducted in full view of the audience. The inamorata herself, played by a woman, became an essential on-stage presence. The introduction of actresses on to the professional stage, pioneered by the early troupes of the commedia dell’arte, was enormously popular, and a major factor in ensuring a rapid expansion of the stage roles played by the younger women. Cross-dressing, like nudity, attracted the particular condemnation of the church. For the great early modern actresses, it is much more than a slick trick of the trade. It was their strategy of choice for escaping the restrictions of theatrical plots that followed the conventions of the all-male stage, where the presence of men playing women was generally limited to a minimum. The earliest female comici pioneered creative ways of exploiting secondary disguise to transgress the multiple social taboo of younger respectable women appearing in public, let alone as actresses. To facilitate their escape from the prescribed domestic spaces of female roles, and more fully explore and realize their potential as performers, these women created and starred in a wide range of disguises, drawn from the spheres of gender, race, age, mental competence, and social class. They embraced cross-dressed roles as diverse as gypsies, beggars, pilgrims,

580

Scolnicov, ‘The woman in the window’; Tylus, ‘Women at the windows’.

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and slaves of either gender; madwomen, pageboys, soldiers; even a Syrian astrologer or their own elderly father,581 as creative passports to new dramatic territory – in terms of performance modes as well as theatrical space – traditionally monopolized by men. Conversely, many female roles continued to be played by cross-dressed men. This made its impact on the development of regular female stage costume, on actresses concerned to deploy their feminine charms to win and dominate centre stage, and on the visual record.582 Early actresses were the targets of numerous complaints, which sometimes offer informative insights into female stage costume, and occasionally confirm that its provocative nature in some images is based on genuine stage practice.583 Partial nudity is sometimes associated with the servant role, as with Franceschina’s exposed breasts or legs, but more often, especially in conjunction with opulent clothing, jewellery, or elaborate hairdressing, such as the bleached, curled styles favoured by Venetian courtesans, with the role of the courtesan.584 Despite its popularity in art, it is unclear how much nudity there was on the commedia stage itself. By its nature far less easily identified in pictures, cross-dressing was certainly a significant early modern commedia stock-in-trade. Although the visual record is especially hard to interpret in this respect, it is well known that actresses, no less than genuine courtesans, frequently and elaborately disguised themselves as men. ‘The Harlotts called Cortisane,’ as Fynes Moryson notes in 1595, ‘commonly weare dobletts and Breches vnder their wemens gownes, yea, I haue seene some of them (as at Paduoa) goe in the Company of young men to the Tennis-Court in mens Apparrell (…) most commonly wearing doblets and Hose of Carnation Satten, with gold buttons from the Chinne round to the wast behinde, and silke stockings, and great Garters with gold lace both of the same

581

582

583

584

These last two played by Isabella in the 36th and 24th scenarios of Scala’s Il teatro, ‘Isabella astrologa’ and ‘Il finto Tofano’. The nine-strong troupe of Alberto Naselli (‘Zan Ganassa’), for example, which made a vital contribution to pioneering the introduction of women on to the Spanish stage during the period 1574–84, had only one actress. Although Naselli’s wife Barbara Flaminia, the great Roman diva, played the role of Ortensia, the troupe’s other stock female roles, Francesca and Isabella, were, for a considerable period, played by the actors Cesare de Nobili and Giacomo Portalupo (Sanz Ayán and García García, ‘El “oficio de representar”’, p.485). Domenico Gori (‘Trattato contro alle commedie lascive’, c.1604, in La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Taviani, p.141) claimed that the Florentine stage of his time routinely suffered obscene indignities such as an actress wrapped in a sheet with a man, another who played Europa totally nude, or one with an actor concealed under her garments. See, for example, plates 6 (top row, fifth scene), 27, 53, 100–1, 128, 130, 154–5, 209–11, 260, 269, 271.

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colour’.585 In plate 27, the courtesan, with elaborate horned Venetian hairdo, wears breeches under her dress, as does many an inamorata in the scenarios. In the invaluable Corsini Album, the plot spelled out in the text of l’Innocente Rivenduta (scenario 61) makes possible the identification of a cross-dressed actress on stage [plate 246]. Doralice, the diminutive inamorata at the right, has exchanged clothes with the Turk next to her. She wears typical male Turkish costume (slippers, loose knee length long-sleeved robe gathered in at the waist, white undershirt, and simple turban). He wears Doralice’s sleeved gown with high collar, but betrays himself visually by his beefy physique. Another rare depiction of an actor in female costume is in the first scene of plate 315, where Pantalone, without abandoning his pudding-basin hat, wears the simple aproned dress typical of a maid’s costume and carries a spindle. It is often suggested that the women of the commedia dell’arte were only exceptionally masked in performance.586 Examination of the iconographic material, however, reveals that a significant number of early female commedia characters are depicted with their faces wholly or partially covered by a veil or mask. With the male characters, masks are predominantly worn by the old masters and their servants. With the female characters too, their range appears to be confined largely to particular types, although unlike the males, the female masked types are by no means exclusively depicted masked, and the wearing of masks appears to be dependent on performance situation as well as role. No masked females are depicted, for example, in Recueil Fossard woodcuts or Corsini illustrations, and only very few in peasant or servant dress [plates 6, 243–7]. In general, the female types depicted with face masks wear the type of rich clothing associated with the inamorata or courtesan, and appear in outdoor or informal, private indoor settings rather than on the public dramatic stage. At its most discreet the female mask is, like the loup, little more than a black eye mask, prompting arguments that such masks are not genuinely theatrical.587 According to Duchartre: ‘the women did not wear masks […] the tiny black velvet mask, or loup, which the women of the commedia dell’arte sometimes wore cannot be considered a true mask, for it was used outside as well as inside the theatre. The loup was as much a part of a woman’s dress as her brocade and lace’.588 But the

585 586 587 588

Oxford, MS CCC94, pp.629–30. Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, p.112. See, for example, plates 17, 124, 140–5, 211, 256. Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.266. Some may be carnival masks: see Sarah Carpenter, ‘Women and carnival masking’, Records of Early English Drama, 21 (1996), 9–16.

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visual record shows that some actresses wore masks that differed from those worn by other richly dressed women. The theatrical mask often covered considerably more of the face than the loup. In numerous pictures, including many associated with the circles of Sebastian Vrancx and Frederick van Valckenborch,589 the females wear types of black three-quarter masks. More substantial than the elegant loup, these typically covered the nose as well as the eyes, sometimes also extending over the cheeks and upper lip, and occasionally with a moustache attached.590 Although its uneasy contrast with the feminine gown of its wearer provides the modern eye with gender-ambiguous cues, these ‘twiskes of downy or woolly stuffe covering their noses’ may have been intended primarily as a protection against foul air.591 In some pictures, women perform indoors wearing masks of similar type and construction to those of their male companions.592 Also undeniably theatrical are the full- or nearly full-face black masks worn by some commedia females. Some are of cloth, others more elaborately moulded and shaped, many fastened with tapes above the ears. More difficult to distinguish in the iconography than black face masks are pale or flesh-coloured face masks, and the most discreet form of mask depicted, the veil.593 Numerous images depict commedia actresses in a full or three-quarter face flesh-coloured moulded mask, veil, or thick make-up, although it is not always easy to distinguish between such facial disguises. In plates 86–8, the masks are little more than rectangles of soft cloth with holes for the eyes, tied tightly back behind the ears. In plate 130, the central female’s full-face moulded mask is secured by a tape running under the nose, while those in Bassano’s paintings are fastened more conventionally, with tapes tied to holes in the side of the mask and then back behind the ears [plates 226, 267–8]. In complete contrast to the grotesque masks of his comic men, those of Bassano’s women are moulded and delicately painted with extreme realism and attention to life-like detail. In plate 226 the actress wears a pearl necklace, earrings, white underdress, dark green overdress trimmed with gold, and bright red gown. She is blonde and bareheaded but wears a moulded mask, and holds gloves and a kerchief. Bassano’s depictions are particularly significant for the 589 590

591 592 593

And those of other artists, for example, plates 138, 221, 242, 251, 257, 317. As, for example, in plate 317, of c.1588, which also indicates methods for attaching such masks, by tapes at the top and sides, fastened by a hat or tied at the back of the head. Coryat, Coryat’s Crudities, p.386. See, for example, plates 140–5, 181, 221. Full-face veils are featured in plates 154, 162, and 209.

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presumed authenticity of the costume, as they appear to show actual professional performances, albeit in street settings, by a local artist familiar with the comedians. Light coloured three-quarter and full-face masks for both men and women also seem to have been a standard part of the costume in a number of northern carnival rituals [plates 147, 150–1, 218]. The exposed breasts, elaborately dressed hair, pearls, jewels, rich apparel and explicit gestures of the female in the middle of the left-hand performing trio of plate 209, who wears a full-face veil, mark her out as a courtesan. Possibly this is also the role of the more soberly dressed veiled female in plate 162, who also accompanies a Pantalone. In the engraved version of plate 209, the female’s veil appears to have given way to a light-coloured full-face moulded mask similar to that customarily worn by Venetian courtesans [plates 210, 240]. A courtesan in another engraving wears a similar moulded pale full-face mask, rather than the exceptionally full black face masks of the painted versions [plates 29, 62–3]. Textual records suggest actresses wore veils for their sexual allure, and that they were found provocative on stage.594 The written documentation records that the more talented early actresses were able to offer a wide range of skills, among which the more common were dancing, singing, and the playing of instruments. Humbler female players also left their mark on foreign audiences. Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria was greatly impressed by the tumbling skills of ‘a little girl of eleven or twelve years’, the star of a four-strong troupe of Italian acrobats who performed for him in Trent in 1565.595 Italian women acrobats who crossed the Channel to perform scandalized the London preacher Thomas Norton, who in 1574 inveighed against ‘that unnecessarie and scarslie honeste resorts to plaies […] and especiallie the assemblies to the unchaste, shamelesse and unnaturall tomblinges of the Italion Woemen’.596 Although such accounts confirm that Italian women and girls took part in acrobatics, it is less usual for commedia females than males to be depicted actively displaying musical, dancing or acrobatic performing skills.597

594

595 596 597

A plea was sent to Ferdinando de’ Medici in 1581 on behalf of the Confidenti troupe, to waive certain laws regarding forbidden props and items of costume, and to release one of their actresses, arrested for wearing silver-coloured veils, from prison (MacNeil, Music and Women, p.210). Diary, f.43r, quoted above, pp.63-4. London, British Library, MS.Add 32,379, f.41v. For dancing theatrical women see, for example, plates 6, 16, 17, 22, 41, 53–4, 80, 100, 120, 123, 203, and 309.

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III.III.A SOME FURTHER COMIC TYPES: FEMALE TYPES

Inamoratas are often depicted aiding mountebanks. They play a limited range of ‘respectable’ instruments, commonly the violin, lute, colascione or harp, in contrast to male musicians on mountebank stages, usually theatrically dressed as commedia menservants and depicted playing many types of instruments.598 Plates 12, 192 and 230 also feature string-playing women, while a woman in plate 65 apparently in gypsy costume may be playing some kind of cymbals, and several pictures feature a female tambourine player.599 In a similar trio depicted in both indoor and outdoor settings, the music is provided by a stringplaying zanni, and the woman simply joins in with the dance [plates 209–11]. The women of the commedia dell’arte also display a more limited range of gestures, poses and props in depiction than the men. Typically, they are with a male companion, holding hands; or with a hand or arm on his shoulder; or engaged in some other familiar gesture or embrace. In the iconography, their most common hand-held object is an item of clothing such as the veil of their headdress, or a kerchief, fan, or muff; other popular accessories include general cooking and kitchen equipment, plants, baskets, purses, letters, and potions. Older women depicted in the iconography are generally maids, bawds or wives.600 The outer ring of plate 38 features a named depiction of a ruffiana. In headcloth and aproned peasant dress, she stoops over the stick in her right hand, and carries a dead fowl in her left. Two old women holding rosaries, in the Trausnitz ceiling and staircase frescoes, may be ruffiane. One hands a letter of assignation to a young woman, the other supports herself with a stick [plates 21–2]. The Corsini Album illustrations depict the wife of Pantalone, Lucretia (La sepultura, scenario 14) or Flaminia (Le moglie superbe, scenario 31) [plate 245]. The written documentation emphasizes two female stage roles above all others, those of the maid and the inamorata. For basic classification purposes, my reading of the visual evidence identifies four overlapping categories of costume. They are the elegant upper-class garments worn by the fashionable young inamorata and the respectable married woman; the servant’s simpler and plainer outfit, worn by most maids, nurses, and crones; the provocative and showy costumes of courtesans; and the exotic, usually ‘eastern’, garb of the foreign or disguised woman.601 As with male roles, the majority of female commedia roles

598 599 600 601

See, for example, plates 255, 285–6, 340. See, for example, plates 81–3, 86–8. See, for example, plates 6, 48–9, 54, 70. These categories are not exhaustive. The Corsini Album illustrations, for example, depict a turbanned queen (scenario 33), an enchantress or female magician in a gypsy-like headscarf

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fall into the category of servant or served. Often imperious as a mistress to servants and suitors, the inamorata featured large in most commedia dell’arte plots, and the actress playing her often dominated the stage and eventually the troupe itself. Typically, she was a marriageable young daughter of Pantalone, the dottore, or some other old master of the comici. Plots are concerned with their complicated, but ultimately successful, search for appropriate marriage partners. Although the inamorata typically wore opulent gowns in the height of court elegance, unlike the menservants and their masters, no hard-and-fast rule may be used to separate depictions of her role from those of other young females. The inamorata’s costume was particularly flexible, spanning a wide range of garments from the everyday wear of maids and elegant gowns of respectable upper-class women, through to the overt stage costume of professional entertainers, such as exotic acrobats, dancers, and musicians, including the dancing, singing cantarina. Pictures identifying female performers or their roles by name, either directly, as in the Recueil Fossard woodcuts and Dionisio Minaggio’s Feather Book, or from accompanying written documentation, as with some Corsini Album illustrations, offer a valuable reservoir of reference images [plates 6, 243–7, 293–4]. Relatively few named portraits of renaissance professional actresses exist. Early modern images of actresses labelled ‘Isabella’, for instance, cannot always be identified as Isabella Andreini, who popularized this stage name for female lovers, sharing it with, for example, the Uniti’s Vittoria degli Amorevoli.602 The frontispieces of plays published by the comici often feature portraits of their authors. Accepted images of Isabella Andreini, possibly dressed in her stage role of the inamorata Isabella, include the portrait busts on the title page woodcut of the 1601 and 1602 editions of her Rime and commemorative medal struck after her death in 1604, and a full-length likeness in the right-hand background of Poccetti’s fresco depicting members of the Medici court [plates 328, 335].603 Female servants are as essential to commedia plots as the ubiquitous menservants, typically attending the inamoratas, performing household chores, transporting messages and objects, or fending off unwanted attentions of the zanni

602

603

(scenario 57), and a female pilgrim with child who are in fact the disguised Ortensia and her young son, the secret family of the captain (scenario 26) (plates 245–6). See also M A Katritzky, ‘Comic stage routines in Guarinonius’ medical treatise of 1610’, Theatre Research International, 25 (2000), 217–32, fig. 2. MacNeil reproduces all three, and several variants (Music and Women, pp.31, 50, 117– 120). For a possible painted portrait of Isabella in Milan’s Scala Theatre Museum, see Mazzoni, ‘Genealogia’, fig.2.

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and the old men. Maids are more often depicted with props, such as a purse, scissors, dish of food, basket of vegetables or spindle, that powerfully evoke their sphere of domestic activity, and indicate potential or actual stage action. The maids Nespola and Balzarina in plate 52 are depicted in their kitchen, one preparing food at a table, the other tending a pot over the fire while repelling a manservant with a draining spoon, actions that suggest their involvement in extended comic stage business, or lazzi. On-stage maids typically wear aproned dresses and headcloths, and are often depicted hovering behind their mistresses, or in a compromising situation with a manservant.604 Ricolina (f.104) and Spineta (f.110), the two maids of Minaggio’s pictures of c.1615–18, have been identified as portraits of the actresses Angela Lucchesi (‘Rizzolina’) and Luisa Gabrielli (‘Spinetta’) [plates 293–4].605 Ricolina wears a modest white blouse with blue and black patterning on the sleeves, green tunic, white apron, cheerful blue and red headscarf and white clogs, holds a brace of game birds in one hand, a bunch of flowers in the other, and has a vegetable basket on her arm.606 Spineta’s fine gown of rich yellow and navy with elaborate cuffs, matching cap and a fan, like the unaccustomed finery of the ‘servitor molto costumato’ of the third scene of plate 315, demonstrates the generous overlap in costume between the stage maid and her mistress. In the Corsini Album illustrations too, the low-cut collarless gown with apron typically worn by maids, such as Pantalone’s maid Franceschina in scenario 100, is occasionally also worn by inamoratas [plates 244–7].607 Its underplayed theatricality makes the stage maid’s costume especially hard to identify where actresses are not explicitly depicted in performance contexts, or contextualized by male companions in the strikingly distinctive costume of commedia menservants. Minaggio depicts three as inamoratas, of whom Florinda (f.106), and possibly also the similarly costumed unlabelled woman on folio 111, portray Virginia Ramponi (‘Florinda’). On folio 106, she is dressed in the height of court elegance, in a green underdress, black overdress with brown lining, white collar and cuffs, and small plumed cap, and carries a fan in her right hand. Flavia, on folio 105, portrays Margherita Luciani (wife of Girolamo Garavini, ‘Capitano Rinoceronte’), modestly dressed in a white blouse, green bodice, grey skirt, 604 605

606

607

See, for example, plates 12, 44, 55–6, 60–1, 156, 188–90. Beatrice Corrigan, ‘Commedia dell’arte portraits in the McGill Feather Book’, Renaissance Drama, n.s.2 (1969), 167–88, pp.175–6, 179. For typical maid costumes see also Lucia [plate 51], Tifeta [plate 11], Licetta [plate 6], Francischina [plates 6, 38, 50, 260–1]. As perhaps in scenarios 48, 59, 86 [plates 246–7].

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white shoes with red ribbons and a small plumed cap, gloves, and a white apron with vertical blue stripes. The typical costume worn by the inamoratas of the Corsini Album hardly differs from that of Minaggio’s Florinda [plates 293a, 244–7].608 It consists of a white blouse with a stand-up collar, floor- or almost floor-length underdress, sleeved overdress often with elaborate false sleeves, and neatly presented hair. Whether courtesans or not, the stage costume of female lovers was more dependent on context than on role. In the public arena, even the inamorata whose reputation is not respectable may wear a respectable elegant gown. Named inamoratas who may reasonably be identified as courtesans, because of their immodest poses, dress and associations, include La Donna Lucia, La Dona Cornelia and Venturina [plates 6, 11, 49, 53]. The plot summary of scenario 15 of the Corsini Album suggests that the female depicted on the right of the title page illustration is Cintia, a widow who became a courtesan before remarrying. Bare-headed and unmasked, she wears an elegant gown typical of those worn by female lovers of the Corsini Album, as does Goltzius’ Venetian Courtesan, whose performative context is given by her male companions Il Magnifico and Zanni, stock commedia roles [plates 240, 245]. This latter depiction is particularly valuable in specifying the exact profession associated with the depicted woman’s costume, and in giving a detailed impression of the type of stage costume associated with the courtesan at a particular given date, 1581. Notable are the high plumed bonnet, light full-face mask, high, sheer collar, waist sash, richly brocaded floor-length gown, short cape, gloves, and ample range of jewellery. The wide range of dates of related depictions of similar women, evidently also

608

Figures in Corsini Album title page illustrations who can tentatively be identified as named inamoratas include Angelica (scenario 51); Cintia (22); Claudia (55); Doralice (16: on the left, 43, 61, 68); Elisa (53); Emilia (17, 99); Flaminia (27, 35, 47, 58, 92); Isabella (36, 55, 67, 76, 91); Lanora (67); Lavinia (56); Lidia (47, 51); Olimpia (22); Ortensia (21: on the left, 87); Turchetta (98). Exceptions to typically dressed Corsini inamoratas include Doralice (left, scenario 15), who provides a contrast to the courtesan by virtue of her modest aproned dress and lack of finery; Isabella and Claudia (right, scenario 55), in nightshirts, simple unisex collarless white knee-length unwaisted gowns; Flaminia (scenario 35), Doralice (scenario 43) and Isabella (scenario 91) in standard inamorata costume, but betraying their madness through their wild gestures and unkempt hair; Emilia (scenario 17), daughter of the King of Scozia, depicted meeting her inamorato Leandro in Arcadia, wears a suitably Arcadian loose tunic and scarf over a floor-length skirt; Elisa (scenario 53), daughter of Pantalone, captured by the Turks, wears Turkish costume, a loose knee length robe gathered in at the waist, and a small turban; Turchetta’s slave costume is a shorter tunic with an iron neck collar (scenario 98).

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courtesans, by much less gifted friendship album artists, from the 1570s onwards suggest that Goltzius’ courtesan is based on a still earlier joint iconographic antecedent.609 They also demonstrate the difficulty of dating images of this type, because of the long-standing popularity of this costume, originally adapted with only minor modifications for the stage, but increasingly removed from the typical outfit of real-life courtesans as it became a traditional stage costume. Turkish costume was more usually associated with stage or carnival disguise by both men and women than a stock type in its own right.610 A frequent disguise, especially for female lovers and maids, was some form of exotic stage dress of more or less eastern flavour, often Turkish or gypsy-inspired. In addition to its purely visual appeal, Turkish costume carried vivid military and religious connotations.611 The Corsini illustrations demonstrate the popularity of eastern-inspired costume in a performance context.612 In these pictures, Turkish, gypsy, eastern and slave costume are favourite disguises of inamoratas; and real stage slave girls, gypsies or Turks, such as the one who has exchanged clothes with Doralice in L’Innocente Rivenduta (Corsini scenario 61; plate 246), are also depicted. Doralice’s assumed ‘Turkish’ costume is similar to that worn by the inamorata Elisa, captured by the Turks; and by Coviello’s daughter, an inamorata masquerading as the Turkish slave woman Turchetta. Her even shorter version of the ‘Turkish’ tunic is gathered at the waist and further dramatized with an iron neck collar (Corsini scenarios 53 and 98); and Isabella and Doralice are disguised as slave girls (Corsini scenario 16) [plates 245, 247]. Artists also used the Turkish look for showy, exotic costumes for comic female types in depictions of outdoor parades and carnivals. The curious raised

609 610

611

612

See, for example, plates 33, 248, 257, 285, 317. See also plates 267–8. Bavarian court accounts at Landshut for the year 1573 note payment of thirty-two florins at the beginning of the carnival season to the court tailor Conrad Vleiß for sewing ‘den Jungen Freülein Turckisch klaider unnd lange Reckh zu sturmung der Schneeschloß’ (Munich StA, Slg.Trautmann 94.IV.55). The popularity of Turkish costume in northern carnival parades is indicated, for example in Bol’s dated drawing, also of 1573 [plate 167], which features a ‘Turk’ leading a woman in a kashbasti and flowing gown, and exotically dressed women occur in pictures by a wide range of artists, such as Francken, Frederick van Valckenborch, Stevens, Schwoll, Toeput, ver Haecht and van Paenderen [plates 27, 163, 183, 201, 275, 331; see also Crosato, ‘Di “Quattro Stagioni”’, fig.4]. Comedians who experienced the Turkish threat at first hand include Isabella Andreini’s husband Francesco, who spent seven years in Turkish captivity before starting his acting career (Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.231). See, for example, plates 244–7 (scenarios 2, 16, 18, 21, 23, 41, 53, 61, 94, 98).

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headgear of these women often resembles the Turkish kashbasti, featured in the highly influential late sixteenth century costume plates of Cesare Vecellio, and introduced to the Turkish harem by European concubines, notably Roxelana (‘Hurrem Sultana’), in the mid-sixteenth century [plate 330].613 Pictures such as plate 130, which shows nine performers, all masked, in exotic costumes with an unmistakable eastern flavour, suggest that such disguises raise questions that are not adequately addressed by dismissing them as carnival revellers. Where such players appear to be members of a troupe, performing in the open or parading to publicize their skills, it seems plausible to consider the possibility that these women have, as a publicity exercise, substituted exotic disguise for the costumes appropriate to their stage roles. Exotic costume would have been the most gorgeous and eye-catching garments possessed by the troupe. By raising more interest with the public than the commonplace costumes of respectable female lovers and maids, while fitting in with the constraints of public decency better than courtesan costume, it would have effectively fulfilled the aims of the parade or open-air performance, which was to attract custom. But even if the comic types depicted are based on real troupes, the artists may have seen them years, even decades, before depicting them. The commedia dell’arte characters featured in such works follow iconographic precedents, sometimes resembling each other down to their individual groupings, gestures and costumes. Thus, even fairly precise dating of these paintings on stylistic grounds does not always enable the players themselves to be accurately dated.614 By the mid-sixteenth century, gypsies, nomadic migrants of Asian descent whose dress represents a special sub-category of eastern costume, were popular

613

614

It was based on a type of headgear which descended from the ancient Greeks, via the Roman diadem. Headgear of the kashbasti type is featured in Tempesta’s two prints of February [plates 64–5]. Typically, women in exotic costume or headdress in paintings of commedia dell’arte troupes in outdoor settings by Vrancx and his circle are accompanied by Pantalone or another male comic type, such as a servant, captain or Turk. Sometimes, an exotic female is depicted in a carnival context, or more loosely associated with zanni or male Turks. For the most part masked, these women often have sheer veils trailing from their hair, or raised above it by a pointed cap or headdress, which may be decorated with showy plumes. Some wear richly decorated split overskirts to knee or calf level, short fur-lined jackets, or trailing overgowns or cloaks, and many hold fans. Vrancx’s pictures span the half century from the 1590s to 1647. Plate 125, perhaps an early work by Vrancx dating to around 1600, features commedia dell’arte characters some of whom, even down to their individual groupings, gestures and costumes, repeatedly recur, hardly changed, in much later pictures by Vrancx.

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stage characters [plate 332].615 The title page to Corsini scenario 21 illustrates an on-stage scene featuring gypsy costume resembling depictions in costume books of the period [plate 245]. But the appearance of gypsies alongside commedia dell’arte stock types in another painting may have a less straightforward explanation, demonstrating some of the complications involved in using early modern depictions of comic types as documentary information [plate 231]. It depicts two zanni, a ragged child, and three women whose flowing fringed cloaks, loose striped robes, and circular headdresses with chin cloths correspond to the traditional costume of the female gypsy. The exotic look and the symbolic, allegorical, and moral possibilities of gypsy culture attracted late Renaissance artists. Renowned for their skill in entertaining, fortune telling, and cheating the gullible, gypsies were pagans who (according to legend) refused to help the Holy Family on their flight into Egypt, then thought to have been their country of origin.616 Individually, or within the same image, gypsy women and commedia dell’arte menservants are commonly illustrated as examples of deceitful or cheating types, as in some emblem book pictures, festival paintings, or popular prints.617 Two vignettes of Le bararie del mondo of c.1600, a popular print providing a visual compendia of typical market day distractions, respectively show mountebanks on a trestle stage, two of them in stock commedia dell’arte costume, promoting their wares with a comic street show, and a gypsy mother with child. The couplet below this latter roundly condemns her activities: singing, dancing and tell615

616

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Early modern drama featuring gypsies includes a play of 1544 by Francesco d’Ambra, Giancarli’s farce La Cingana (1550), a commedia erudita by Giordano Bruno, Jonson’s Masque of Gypsies, ballet designs by Daniel Rabel, Cervantès’ La Gitanilla, plays by Molière and Middleton, scenario 21 of the Corsini Album (plate 245). They are sometimes depicted in a carnival context, as in the top left-hand corner of plate 308, where authenticlooking gypsy costume is worn by what appear to be costumed masqueraders (see also JeanPierre Cuzin, La diseuse de bonne aventure de Caravage (Paris: Musées nationaux, 1977), pp.22–3). Cardinal Borromeo passed several edicts in repeated efforts to banish undesirables, including gypsies and actors, from his territory. In a tract of 1592, the theologian Guglielmo Baldesano attributes the origins of the ‘infame professione’ of the comici to the heathen ‘colto de gl’idoli’, and compares them to vagrant gypsies (La fascinazione del teatro, ed. Taviani, pp.10–16, 96–106). See, for example, plates 38, 92–5, 284, 292; Stefano della Bella, Royaume de Cieux, engraving (Douce Prints W.2.3a, 68, Bodleian Library, Oxford: reproduced M A Katritzky, ‘The mountebank: a case study in early modern theater iconography’, in: Evidence and Inference in History and Law: Interdisciplinary Dialogues, eds William Twining & I Hampsher-Monk (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2003), 231–286, pl.15, detail).

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ing fortunes, and points towards church condemnation of such worldly pleasures as deceitful trickeries [plate 284]. The Gypsy fortune-teller of Caravaggio’s influential early seventeenth century painting uses her fortune telling and a flirtatious gesture to cover up the fact that she is subtly teasing a young soldier’s ring from his finger. Plate 231 also shows a gypsy simultaneously telling and illicitly diminishing the fortunes of her client. Its modern title, A scene from the commedia dell’arte, has been accepted without question as being an appropriate and adequate description of its subject by the many art and theatre historians who have written about it.618 Barry Wind, who mistakenly identifies the central zanni as a Pantalone, cites this painting as direct evidence for ‘the popularity of the fortune telling theme in the “commedia”’ and interprets it as depicting ‘the gulling of Pantaleone by a gypsy’.619 Investigation suggests a more complex link with the late renaissance stage. The possibility that the painting constitutes a documentary record of an actual stage performance cannot be entirely discounted. The outfits look authentic, so the question of whether they are real, carnival, or stage gypsies is not resolved on the basis of costume. Rather than illustrating a dramatic episode played by costumed actors and actresses, the artist may have combined disparate elements from different sources as a suitable vehicle for his visual message. The painting can be closely associated with a number of interrelated allegorical and popular messages. It comments on Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, and her well-known fickleness. The child holds the whipping rod to a spinning top, associated in Dutch emblem books both with sloth and with the spinning wheel of fortune, also indicated by the central activity of the fortune-telling gypsy women. They dupe Zanni by their outrageous flirting, as a cover-up to rob him, thus paradoxically diminishing his fortune in the very act of telling it.620 Religious, allegorical

618

619 620

An exception is Leik (Frühe Darstellungen, pp.162–8). For Anthony Blunt (‘Georges de la Tour at the Orangerie’, Burlington Magazine, 114 (1972), 516–25, p.519), plates 231, 60, 154 and 209 exemplify ‘a type of theatrical composition current in France in the late sixteenth century’. Ternois (‘Représentations figurées’, p.234) includes plate 231 in his list of the six most important early paintings of the commedia dell’arte. Regarding the artist of plate 231, with hindsight it now seems to me that the suggestion of Jacques Bellange has much to recommend it, not least that it was made by both Otto Benesch (1962) and Pierre Rosenberg (1973). Mitchell Merling tentatively favours Nicolas Bollery (curatorial communication, 22.6.99). Wind, ‘Pitture ridicole’, p.32. The renaissance saying ‘We are seven’ was commonly illustrated by some combination of animals and humans with foolish connotations, such as owls, donkeys, and indeed fools and

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and popular, as well as dramatic, readings of the picture are possible. They are not necessarily equally valid, mutually exclusive, or incompatible with the possibility of a relationship between plate 231 and the professional stage. The ambiguity of its subject makes plate 231 a particularly clear example of a painting whose use as a visual source for the history of performing women is far from straightforward, despite depicting recognizable stock types and costumes associated with the commedia dell’arte.

III.iii.b Male national types The most easily recognizable male national types in early commedia iconography are two soldiers, the Spanish captain and the tedesco, or Teutonic mercenary. Also featured in some commedia performances are Turks, generally as an excuse for displaying exotic costumes, and Frenchmen, most often as a secondary servant, captain or inamorato. These national types had antecedents on the Italian stage, and both the tedesco and the Turk have parallels in northern, as well as Italian, carnival practice and iconography. Sixteenth century captains were generally Italian, Spanish, Teutonic, or, less often, French. The role afforded the opportunity to mock foreigners and their habits, and to tailor performances to foreign audiences by including material in their own language. Italian, Spanish and French captains were often played as young, unmasked, and fashionably clad, and in this respect share many visual characteristics of the inamorato, or young male lover, with whom there is considerable iconographic overlap.621 The visual confusion is compounded in that in some commedia plots, the role of inamorato is taken by the captain, and many established actors of the inamorato role went on to play the part of captain in their later careers. A further difficulty with differentiating depictions of Spanish, French and Italian soldiers is that although some actors restricted the role to one nationality, others were

621

commedia dell’arte servants. But, as in many other pictures of this type, there would be only six of them in the picture, the joke being that the seventh character, no wiser than the rest, was the spectator himself. The two outermost of the six characters of plate 231, the old woman at the extreme left and the comic servant at the extreme right of the painting, look directly, not into the spectator’s eyes, but at his belt, where the renaissance spectator’s purse would have been, giving the spectator a strong sense of implication in the narrative episode, and a direct reference may be intended to the saying ‘We are seven’. See, for example, the central figure of plate 304, whose costume, in strong contrast to the assorted Capitani of Callot’s Balli series [plate 3], realistically depicted, has been variously interpreted as that of a captain or inamorato.

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known to portray captains of more than one nationality. This gives depictions of commedia captains which are named, and those which can be associated with named depictions, a particular importance. Francesco Andreini was one actor who played the part of an inamorato for many years before creating his personal version of the stock military captain. This was Capitano Spavento del Vall’Inferno, the most famous and successful commedia dell’arte captain, perhaps inspired by the Capitano Spavento of Parabosco’s 1552 erudite comedy Il Pellegrino. Ferrone suggests that portrayals of many commedia stock roles span a wide spectrum, from the farcical buffooneries of street players and charlatans to the elevated dignity desired by educated professional actors, and that for the role of captain, these extremes are represented by the drunken fooling tedesco and by the courtly Christian knight. Establishing strong links between the artist Fetti and the Andreini family, he develops this theme with reference to Fetti’s portrait of a comedian, whom he identifies as Francesco Andreini, and the left-hand figure of a fresco lunette of c.1607 by Poccetti, traditionally identified as Andreini’s Capitano Spavento [plates 1, 335].622 Ferrone affirms that both these depictions are concerned to dignify the image of the actor, by distancing him from the street buffoons and strengthening his identification with the educated and even courtly strata of society. However, some elements of the dress of Poccetti’s Spavento have marked similarities with German military costume.623 Andreini published books in 1607 and 1612 in which he reminisces over the Gelosi of the late sixteenth century and mentions his own exploits as their captain. A passage in the sixteenth dialogue of Andreini’s Bravure of 1607 suggests that Capitano Spavento may have

622

623

Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari, pp.23–4, 30, 244, 247–53. On Bernadino Barbatelli (‘Poccetti’), see also Ferrone ‘La parola e l’immagine’, pp.107–8; Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo’, pp.82–3; Mazzoni, ‘Genealogia’, 113ff. Extensive frescoes in the Villa Il Pozzino, at Castello near Florence, include grotesques of 1619 with several scenes of buffoni and comici engaged in acrobatic spectacle. The villa was purchased by relatives of Antonfrancesco Grazzini, some three years after the playwright’s death in 1583, who commissioned the elaborate fresco cycle from Poccetti’s pupil, Piero Salvestrini of Castello. Salvestrini was influenced by the prints of Callot, and they perhaps had direct contact 1615–17, when Callot was at the Medici court. See Carlo Cresti and Massimo Listri, Civiltà delle ville Toscane (Udine: Magnus, 1992), pp.75, 212–17; Maria Pia Mannini, ‘Decorazioni fiorentine del seicento tra commedia dell’arte e melodramma’, Paragone, rivista mensile di arte figurativa e letteratura, 45 (1994), 220–30. For Povoledo (‘Le bouffon’, pp.262, 265), Andreini is here wearing ‘le costume des officiers allemands, l’habit “accoltellato” des gardes suisses’.

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had strong elements of the tedesco and the French soldier, as well as the Italian or Spanish captain on whom the commedia dell’arte put increasing emphasis. In this, the Capitano says ‘habito mezo Spagnuolo, mezo Francese, mezo Todesco et mezo Italiano, foderato tutto di contrari pareri, ricamato di strane bizzarrie, con la sua bottoniera d’interesse di stato’.624 This raises the intriguing possibility that Andreini’s Capitano Spavento could wear tedesco costume, and that a Todesco on Brambilla’s games board of 1589 depicting Gelosi actors is an early portrait of Francesco Andreini as Spavento [plate 38]. Some have identified the captain depicted in Martinelli’s Compositions de rhetoriques as Girolamo Garavini, who spoke no Spanish and played the exclusively Italian Capitano Rinoceronte [plate 14]. The mercenaries of the ceiling and stair frescoes at Castle Trausnitz in Landshut, painted in the mid-1570s, rank amongst the earliest depictions of the captain role. Although some are popularly identified as portraits of Massimo Troiano as the Spanish captain Don Diego de Mendoza, the role he played in 1568, it seems highly unlikely that Prince Wilhelm would have sanctioned portraits of a courtier whose career had ended as a disgraced murderer in 1570 [plates 20–3]. The ceiling frieze shows a possible Spanish captain in red stockings and doublet, high black plumed cap, slippers and long cloak, cream shirt with white ruff and cuffs, and cream doublet with dark vertical stripes. He draws a long sword and strikes a suitably threatening attitude towards two zanni stuffing their mouths from a large plate at the left of the scene. The staircase frescoes show a possible Spanish captain in doublet and hose, with a hip-length cape. Military captains depicted in the Corsini Album range from one standing next to Pantalone, who, with his twin Silvio on Pantalone’s other side, is soberly dressed in black (scenario 11), to one sporting full battle regalia, including breastplate, plumed helmet, sword and shield (scenario 77) [plates 245, 247]. Scenario 39 illustrates a captain and his long-lost Spanish twin brother, the love-maddened Lelio, flanked by a servant–master pair [plate 246]. Reminiscent of the Corsini Album captain is a black-clad masked figure featuring in paintings by Sebastian Vrancx, typically in a plumed cap, short cape, sash, and sometimes gloves, and often carrying a stringed instrument rather than a sword.625 Minaggio’s Chapitan Mata-mor of c.1618 has been identified as a portrait of Silvio Fiorillo (1584–1634) in the stage role he created, the Spanish Capitano Matamoros, a role also depicted in the c.1611 title page portrait of Fiorillo used

624 625

Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari, p.21 See, for example, plates 71–2, 97, 100, 105–6, 110.

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in several of his published plays [plate 293a].626 The Recueil Fossard woodcuts depict one of the earliest identified Spanish captains, Capitano Cocodrillo, created and played by Fabrizio de Fornaris of Naples [plate 6]. Fornaris, who may have been with the Confidenti as early as 1571,627 and is thought to have died in 1637, was with the Confidenti in Paris in 1584, when he published a play, L’Angelica, there, featuring speeches in broken Spanish by Cap. don Alonso Cocodrillo. The Recueil Fossard Cocodrillo wears a wide hip-length cloak, plain shoes, and an unplumed bonnet. In some painted versions of this composition, the equivalent character is labelled Il Sr. Leandro, and is evidently intended to be not a captain but an inamorato [plates 44, 51]. The Capitano Cocodrillo of Callot’s Balli de Sfessania engravings, a fantastical creature in skin-tight clothes with plumed hat, grotesque scarf-like cloak, and morris bells at his ankles and down his chest, perhaps a free interpretation of the role, can be ruled out as a portrait of Fornaris [plates 2–5]. Similarly, as far as costume is concerned, Callot’s Capitano Cardoni is no more informative than his other Balli captains, and just as unlikely to portray a specific actor. The documentary status of another depiction of this role is less insecure. Valentino Cortesei, who created the role of Capitano Cardone, led the Uniti in Genoa in 1593. He was with the Uniti troupe in Ferrara in 1584, and also played with other troupes, such as Martinell’s in 1598 in Mantua, where he was cited as a witness to the affair of Drusiano Martinelli’s wife, Angelica. The role features in Orazio Vecchi’s L’Anfiparnasso of 1597, Scala’s scenarios of 1611, Boccalini’s Parnasso of 1613, Michelangelo the Younger’s 1618 carnival play La Fiera, and the manuscript Locatelli scenarios of 1617, where the cast list for Li Dui Capitani identifies the role’s nationality as Spanish. Brambilla’s Cardone of 1589, although tiny, shows the actor in plausible stage costume: a feathered cap, cloak, doublet, and hose, hand on sword, in swaggering pose, and may be the earliest dated portrait of a specific actor in the role of a named commedia dell’arte Spanish captain [plate 38].628

626

627 628

Corrigan (‘Commedia dell’arte portraits’, p.177) argues a progression in the role’s costume between the earlier print and Minaggio’s picture, although Harald Zielske demonstrates that the pose and costume of the latter are based on a print by Callot (‘Das McGill-Featherbook (1618) – eine ikonographische Quelle zur Commedia dell’arte?’, Kunstchronik, 51 (1998), 99–106, pp.102–3). Maria Ines Aliverti (‘An unknown portrait of Tiberio Fiorilli’, Theatre Research International, 23 (1998), 127–32) identifies a possible painted portrait of the actor. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.486. M A Katritzky, ‘Eight portraits of Gelosi actors in 1589?’, Theatre Research International, 21 (1996), 108–20, p.116.

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Like the Spaniard, portrayals of the German on the commedia dell’arte stage are almost exclusively military. The uniform of the Teutonic captain or tedesco is the colourful, distinctive type of the German or Swiss mercenary. Overwhelmingly, the tedesco is iconographically associated with one or both of two characteristics: he is either a prodigious drinker or a military musician. The drinkers among them dance, lurch or slump drunkenly, brandish bottles, flasks, goblets, small or even quite large barrels, or very often, some combination of these alcoholic attributes. A tedesco of Schwoll’s British Museum sketchbook carries a large barrel under his left arm, raises a drinking yard with his right, and bears a sword and dagger [plates 27, 31]. The alcoholic excesses of Brambilla’s tedesco are amply indicated, by a wine flask in his right hand, and an outsized wineglass raised in his left [plate 38]. He sports the exaggeratedly slashed hose and doublet typical of this role, and often further emphasized by strongly contrasting striped colours in the below-knee padded hose, and sometimes also the doublet and/or stockings [plate 38]. Favourite colours were yellow striped with bright green or with red, often with a metal breastplate and/or weapon [plates 22–3, 36, 156]. His hat, almost invariable for this character, is of the standard large beret type, but, less usually, plumed. It seems from Brambilla’s tiny vignette that his tedesco is not lacking in other accessories common for this character, such as a generously padded codpiece, flamboyant knee garters and copious head and facial hair. But unlike some depictions of the character, who wear a dark three-quarter mask, he is unmasked. In the Corsini Album title page illustration to scenario 50, a tedesco disguised as a blind man wears a hip length cloak over his usual outfit, and has a small guide dog on a lead (La cieca, see plate 246). The lute-playing tedesco of plate 280 also wears a cloak, and carries a dagger. The tedesco of plate 73 wears some kind of over-jacket, morris bells on his ankles, a string of sausages slung around his chest and an oil lamp for a hat, and, like the tedesco of plate 161, carries carnival meats spiked on a spit. The musical tedesco generally carries a military drum, although sometimes it is a pipe alone or with tabor; or a rommelpot, lute or morris bells.629 The German military drummer has an iconographic parallel in certain Flemish carnival pictures, dating from around 1570 onwards, featuring processions of moresco troupes in northern settings, led by two musicians, a drummer in tedesco costume and a tabor player, followed by one or more couples in eastern dress.630

629 630

See, for example, plates 53, 73, 76, 78, 280. See, for example, plates 167–8, 170–1, 217. cf. Harsnet: ‘the Fidler comes in with his Taber, & Pipe, and a whole Morice after him, with motly visards for theyr better grace’ (A

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Plate 217 depicts the vice of slothfulness, and here the procession is depicted together with typical carnival pursuits condemned by the church, such as gambling and excessive drinking. In other types of procession or processional dances, depicted in the oeuvres of many Flemish artists, and by the Italian engraver Brambilla, stock commedia roles, often with one or more couples in Turkish or vaguely eastern dress, are led by one or more musicians.631 Sometimes, these too include musicians in tedesco costume.632 One group of such pictures of c.1600–5 is associated with Vrancx and Caulery. It features two comic musicians, one or both in tedesco costume, one beating a drum, the second playing a tambourine or rommelpot, in a carnival procession including a stilted Father Time, and a Bacchus seated on a barrel mounted on runners.633 Associated with this group of 1600–5 are two pictures in which tedesco types carry carnival meats on spits [plates 73, 161]. Actual commedia dell’arte parades in which drummers lead actors are noted by Garzoni in 1585 and in a Leiden licence of 1598 permitting a visiting troupe of Italian actors to perform on condition that they do not parade around the town with their drummer.634 A collaboration between Italian professionals and local performers perhaps relevant in this connection occurred as early as 1544, when Giovanni-Antonio Romano’s six Italian players took their repertoire ‘d’anticques, moralitez, farces, et autres jeux rommains et françois’ to Paris. Here, they contractually engaged a ‘joueur de tambourin de Suisse’ and two further French players, whom they initiated into ‘l’art et industrye de jouer d’anticques jeux rommains’.635 Unlike Spanish and German costume, Turkish or eastern-inspired costume, a favourite for showy commedia dell’arte disguisings in the early scenarios and

631

632 633 634

635

declaration, p.49). The right-hand corner of Pieter Bruegel’s Gloomy day of 1565 (Vienna) features a carnival procession of three adults and a child, in everyday peasant dress, apart from the child’s paper crown and bell, and the cauldron headgear of the background adult. See, for example, plates 53, 87–8, 107, 113, 124, 126–7, 129, 130, 183, 201, 203, 228–9, 262–3, 280 and other works by Aerts, Balten, Francken, Momper, Toeput, Vrancx and Frederick van Valckenborch. See, for example, plates 53, 280. Plates 76, 78, 80–4. Garzoni (La piazza universale: Discorso CIII, p.902) emphasises the importance of the drummer in announcing the arrival of the troupe to a new town ‘come entrano questi dentro a una città, subito col tamburo si fa sapere, che i signori comici tali sono arrivati’; on the Leiden licence, see Robert L Erenstein, ‘De invloed van de commedia dell’arte in Nederland tot 1800’, Scenarium, 5 (1981), 91–106, p.97. Lebègue, ‘La Comédie Italienne’, p.11. Evidently yet another reference to the ‘labours of Hercules’.

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iconography, was rarely military. Where Turkish and other commedia types are depicted mingling in carnival crowds or bursting in on carnival revellers, it is unclear whether the Turks are actors or carnival masks. An engraving features Anatolian matachins in tight-fitting buffone-like outfits [plate 308]. But this seems to be a special case, and Brambilla’s games board of 1589 reveals the standard costume of Il turco to be a turban, loose calf- to floor-length gown, undershirt and slippers, as do the title page illustrations to Corsini Album scenarios 41 and 61 [plates 38, 246]. In that for scenario 18, the three actors using Turkish costume as disguise still wear their regular stage costumes underneath [plate 245]. More elaborate ‘eastern’ costume is depicted in processions or outdoor performances. These include an elaborately padded, plumed and ribboned turban, buttoned, decorated and sashed jacket, and fearsome pickaxe in plate 130, the wide-collared, floorlength robes and strangely tasselled turban of plate 281, the animal mask, elaborate turban and cloak with false sleeves of plate 31, and the sabre of plate 107.636 Although the commedia dell’arte Frenchman has a venerable tradition, he crops up only sparingly as the francese in early scenarios, as a chameleon figure, an occasional supporting actor who also figures under various specific names, and plays a wide range of minor roles.637 He has been iconographically identified as the black-clad figure featured in twelve of the Corsini Album title page illustrations, and associated with these scenarios’ named parts of Scartoccio, Trappolino, Trastulo, Sardellino, Pasquarello, and Coviello.638 Scartoccio wears a dark tunic over paler, loose leggings, black hat and a dark, full-face mask, a costume possibly modified by the fact that, for the purposes of the plot, he is depicted disguised as a blind man, and the evidence that he is French seems convincing (Corsini scenario 50, see plate 246). But there seems no compelling reason for identifying the Corsini Coviello who also wears dark apparel, as French (scenarios 83 and 92, see plate 247). The Trappolino on the title page of scenario 80, like Minaggio’s Trapolino, wears similar costume to Zanni, and the innkeeper Trappolin of scenario 40 is also depicted in zanni-style costume, centrally flanked by the inamoratos Orazio and Fabrizio, one of whom is the left-hand, black-clad character [plates 246–7, 293a]. A Philipin of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts may be French, and is possibly related to the valet Philippin of a farcical intermedio of Le Jars’s French

636 637

638

See also plates 109, 157, 183, 217, 331. Troiano, Dialoghi, f.148v (quoted above, p.57: ‘un seruo franzese’, played in the 1568 Munich performance, by an eighth, unidentified actor); Scala, Il teatro, giornata VIII; Corsini Album scenario 48 (Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, V, p.264). Aasted, ‘The Corsini scenarios’, pp.100–1.

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tragicomedy, La Lucelle, of 1576, whose zanni-like lazzi are noted, without making the connection to his Recueil Fossard namesake, by Lebègue [plate 6].639 Other Recueil Fossard woodcuts depict dramatic collaborations between the troupes of the Italian comedian Harlequin and the French actor Agnan Sarat, and between unidentified Italian comedians and French farceurs [plates 10, 11].

III.iii.c Buffoni and matachins There are evident connections between the commedia dell’arte and moresco dances, especially pantomimic, acrobatic, armed matachins of the type traditionally introduced by way of intermedi into commedie erudite and generally performed by professional buffoni.640 The moresco embraces a range of dances, characterized by a high dramatic narrative content, acrobatic style, and the wearing of costume and dark face masks. Hakewill, writing of Rome in 1627, notes ‘these forraine exercises of vauting and dauncing the Moriske’, and the link between moresco dancing and acrobatics is emphasised in a document of 1605 noting the participation of both sexes: ‘diuers Gypsies (as they termed them) men and women, dauncing and tumbling much after the Morisco fashion’.641 The overlap between buffoni and matachins, and their close connections with comici, receive significant support from the documentary record, and especially from a wealth of pictorial evidence. Numerous depictions of carnivals, Italian and northern, record the presence of both stock commedia dell’arte types, and acrobatic performers in a type of costume which can be associated with buffoni and moresco dancers.642 They raise the question of whether or not actual collaboration or overlap between professional actors and ‘th’Antike, Morisko, and the Mattachine’ is implied.643

639

640

641

642 643

Raymond Lebègue, ‘Premières infiltrations de la commedia dell’arte dans le théâtre français’, Cahiers de l’association internationale des études françaises, 15 (1963), 165– 76, p.174. And perhaps also comici (G Yvonne Kendall, ‘Theatre, dance and music in late Cinquecento Milan’, Early Music, 32 (2004), 74–95, p.78). George Hakewill, An apologie of the power and providence of God in the government of the world. Or an examination and censvre of the common errovr tovching natvres perpetvall and vniversall decay, divided into fovre bookes (Oxford: Lichfield & Tvrner, 1627), p.339; OED: sv ‘Morisco’. See also above, p.219. Guillaume de Salluste sieur Du Bartas, Du Bartas his deuine weekes and workes translated and dedicated to the Kings most excellent Maiestie by Josuah Syluester (London: Arthur Iohnson, 1611), p.574.

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Matachins (properly defined as ‘a kind of sword-dancer in a fantastic costume’),644 were professional performers who earned their living by performing dances such as the armed moresco or morisco dance known as the ‘matachins’, and other acrobatic displays. These ranged from pedestrian stock-in-trade turns of individual acrobats, such as juggling, hoola-hooping, stilt and hand walking, to choreographed spectacles requiring large co-ordinated troupes. The latter included bullfights with sword, hammer or lance, the climbing of carnival greasy poles, and the human tower and other gymnastic spectacles and feats known as the ‘antics’, Forze d’Ercole, or ‘labours of Hercules’. Rabelais warmly praised a matachin troupe of 1549, and Sidney wrote in 1586: ‘who euer sawe a matachin daunce to imitate fighting, this was a fight that did imitate the matachin: for they being but three that fought, euerie one had aduersaries, striking him, who strooke the third, and reuenging perhaps that of him, which he had receaued of the other’.645 It has been convincingly suggested that some early commedia dell’arte characters had a choice of two quite separate costumes, which were only fully integrated when commedia types became standardized in the seventeenth century.646 One was based on early sixteenth century contemporary costume appropriate to their character in real life, the other, typified by the tight-fitting Harlequin costume certainly being worn by the 1580s, on the skin-tight suit, or tights, of medieval and renaissance buffoni, matachins and fools. It seems likely that significant elements of the costume and stage routines of tight-suited commedia servants such as Harlequin were directly based on those of buffoni and matachins. The ‘matt[a]cini de [A]natolia’ of an anonymous sixteenth century print confirm that these matachins are masked and fantastically costumed armed acrobatic dance(r)s of Turkish origin [plate 308]. The background of plate 281, where a troupe of matachins perform a vigorous sword or stick dance accompanied by one of their number on a drum, gives a rare vivid impression of the vigorously athletic nature of their dancing.647 644

645

646 647

OED: sv ‘matachin’, see also Garzoni, La piazza universale, on the matachin as a dance (Discorso XLV, p.547), and as a carnival costume (Discorso LXXXIV, p.790). Rabelais, La Sciomachie, p.26 (‘En lieu de Comedie au son des cornetz, hautzbois, sacqueboutes, &c, entra vne compagnie de Matachins nouueaux, lesquelz gran dement delecterent toute l’assistance’, see also above, p.38); Philip Sidney, The Covntesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (London: William Ponsonbie, 1590), f.74v. Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, pp.257–8. See also the dancing troupe in M A Katritzky, ‘Was commedia dell’arte performed by mountebanks? Album amicorum illustrations and Thomas Platter’s description of 1598’, Theatre Research International, 23 (1998), 104–125, pl.1. For Povoledo, matachin dancing represents ‘la danse par excellence de la Commedia dell’Arte’ (‘Le bouffon’, p.261).

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The standard costume of the matachin, the only performer often depicted with commedia troupes to commonly wear morris bells, is a skin-tight red suit with white strips of cloth at the joins of the fabric and disguising the join of the full-face black mask, and a squashy cap [plate 319b].648 Brambilla’s games board of 1589 suggests that matachin costume differs in important respects both from that of the Matto or fool, and the Saltarino or independent acrobat, who wears a buttoned doublet and hose and is unmasked, bare-headed, and free of bells or neck scarf [plate 38]. This neck scarf, evidently intended to secure the full-face mask and disguise the join between mask and skin, was generally arranged in loose folds around the throat and fastened in two points at the back, a costume detail possibly misunderstood by the engraver of Vrancx’s Dives and Lazarus.649 The same costume variation is exhibited in plates 81–2, each of which features both light and dark suits, all with knee sashes and long waist sashes, and some with circlets around their upper arms. Plate 259 also exhibits this variant of the neck scarf, and these matachins of 1583 wear their bells around their knees, studded leather belts instead of waist sashes, plumed hats, and wield wooden spoons in lieu of the weapons with which matachins are typically armed.650 In plates 86–8, they lead the fight of the butchers against the fishmongers, wielding strings of sausages, and the carnival wagon of plate 220 is led by a sausage-festooned matachin. In plate 308, their waist sashes have almost become little skirts, and they are shoeless and have buttons down their fronts. The matachin of plate 99 wears a dark suit and pale, moulded face mask. In plate 108, two matachins, one with a dark mask and yellow cap, are in pale yellow; a third in red with a dark half mask, and a fourth in a dark suit both have morris bells at wrists as well as ankles. Usually plain, matachin suits are exceptionally vertically striped, or spotted,651 and two men at the extreme right of the procession in plate 130, and others in the paintings of Leandro Bassano, may be wearing elaborate adaptations of the matachin outfit. 648

649

650

651

A rare exception is a foreground zanni with morris bells in plate 166, a drawing related to pictures of the type of Hans Leinberger’s Dance contest (Vienna, Albertina, G.898; Pass.8), Balten’s Den Dans des Werelts, La danse du monde (Paris BN, Hennin G151583), or a print by Daniel Hopfer (B.VIII 490.73). In each, male moresco dancers gyrate around a central female personifying worldly vanities. Plates 97–8, 104. The moulded full-face mask of a zanni in matachin-like headgear is casually discarded on the central bench of plate 336. Occasionally swords, bows and arrows, knives, or lances [plates 101, 131–3, 161], more generally hammers, often painted in brightly contrasting stripes. See, for example, plates 22, 35, 161, 320. Some Trausnitz ceiling frieze matachins wear plain buff-coloured suits; one is in striped yellow and buff with pink sleeves. Except for the hand walker, they wear squashy padded red or yellow caps.

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Generally, where they are in pictures also including characters in stock commedia costume, matachins or buffoni are depicted engaging in performative activities of a highly athletic nature. The matachin centre stage of a commedia performance, in tight-fitting suit with morris bells at knees, waist and upper arms, pitch-black full-face mask, and a conical ‘dunce’s’ cap, accompanies his wild dance on the grill and tongs; another matachin, also on furniture inlay work, plays a lute [plates 35, 224]. Others dance attendance to an inamorata, or juggle with oranges.652 Matachins often feature in pictures in which, as in these last, they are in the context of the Venetian carnival, most often in St Mark’s Square.653 In plate 123, of c.1600–5, six commedia dell’arte stock types in the middle foreground are led by a buffone in a tight-fitting red suit with a squashy cap, while a dozen or so more cavort around a bull in the right foreground.654 In plate 124, one group of buffoni fight a bull, others perform a popular ‘labour of Hercules’, the human pyramid. This spectacular feat, involving as many as a dozen acrobats on five levels, was evidently generally performed in buffoni costume, and often masked and in close association with commedia dell’arte actors.655 A Roman document records a payment to ‘attegiatori che fecero la moresca et le forze di Hercole’.656 Such ‘antics’ involved ‘vaulting with notable supersaltes and through hoopes, and last of all the Antiques, of carying of men one uppon an other which som men call labores Herculis’, and a sermon, which asks ‘Are they Christians, or Antics in some Carnival?’ makes the connection with carnival celebrations.657 Plate 125 shows about a dozen matachins in tight suits with waist sashes, squashy caps, neck scarves, morris bells at their ankles, and black full-face masks, again at the Venetian carnival. Most attack a bull with lances, inside a large triangular area formed by three of their number, who play drums. But in the foreground one, surrounded by commedia stock types, has a hoop around his middle and walks on his hands.658

652

653 654 655 656

657 658

See, for example, plates 36, 128, 130. Numerous documentary references to such activities include one of 1572, when the troupe of Johannes Romanus and Julius Parmensis entertained the citizens of Strasbourg with dancing, acrobatics, fencing and the labores Herculis (Trautmann, ‘Italienische Schauspieler’, p.290). See, for example, plates 123–6. Plates 37 and 262 feature similar activities in alpine settings. See, for example, plates 64, 71–2, 126b and c, 161, 177, 192, 213, 320. From the Privy Purse of Pope Paul III (1468–1549) (Lea , Italian Popular Comedy, II, p.406). Sir Thomas Smith, 1572 (OED: sv ‘Antic’); Bishop Joseph Hall, 1618, ibid. For similar figures see, for example, plates 92–5, 97–100, 104, 106, 108–9. Plate 6, where Harlequin walks on his hands, reminds us that this was a favourite lazzi of the commedia dell’arte. For hand walking and juggling with small hoops, see also plates 131–3, 281.

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Matachins are also depicted at the carnival in Rome659 and in northern cities. In plate 135, dozens of them cavort in a northern town square and climb a greasy pole, a traditional carnival diversion. In plate 80, they are accompanied by stilt walkers, and a foreground group of three men and a woman dancing a grotesque moresco to the accompaniment of a string player.660 Another group of northern carnival pictures with a stilt walker in the background has similar contorted male dancers in the foreground, this time accompanied by commedia dell’arte stock types as well as men in buffone costume.661 A matachin in an alpine carnival scene partners a Pantalone in a similar dance, accompanied by a masked lute-playing child in matachin costume [plate 242]. Similar dance movements occur in plate 337, and in Minaggio’s depiction of Chola Napolitano, of c.1615–18, identified as a portrait of the comico Aniello di Mauro, known for his skilful dancing [plate 293a].662 Elsewhere, characters in buffone or matachin costume accompany themselves on the tambourine as they dance with other masks, or accompany a Pantalone on stringed instruments.663 Early seventeenth century paintings depicting carnival stilt walkers based on the stilt walker in the background of Callot’s Smaraolo cornuto, Ratsa di Boio illustrate the enormous influence of Callot’s Balli prints.664 The window of plate 69 looks out on to a northern carnival scene which is virtually a compendium of the background diversions in Callot’s Balli prints, including stilt walkers, a man seated backwards on a donkey (as in Cap. Babeo, Cucuba), and acrobats hand walking and performing a ‘crab’ (as in Fracischina, Gian Farina) [plates 3–4]. Buffoni sometimes lead carnival processions, often bearing one or more torches.665 The tightsuited torch bearer of plate 338 is practically mirrored by the extreme left-hand figure of plate 152, and another variant of the costume appears in the title page illustrations to Corsini Album scenarios 39 and 82 [plates 246–7]. Buffoni and matachins take a prominent part in some of the earliest known paintings of commedia dell’arte performances by named artists, such as Hieronymus I Francken, Leandro Bassano and Christoph Schwarz. In plate 16,

659 660

661 662 663 664 665

See, for example, plates 131–3. Comparable grotesque dancing groups in the foreground of related pictures, accompanied by several musicians, include one or more participants in buffone-like suits, some with strings of sausages slung around their chests [plates 73, 76, 78–80]. Plates 81–3. See also plates 203, 228, 273–4. Corrigan, ‘Commedia dell’arte portraits’, p.178. See, for example, plates 139, 142, 145, 161. Plate 3. See, for example, plates 69, 69b, 264. See, for example, plates 117, 163, 331, 338.

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four in the top right-hand corner wear moulded pinkish tan-coloured full-face masks with grotesque features, framed with white neck cloths, bright scarlet caps and suits, and appear to be shoeless, but in some kind of padded mittens. In plate 226, one in a moulded pinkish-tan, grotesquely featured, full-face mask, bright red cap, white undershirt, beige tights and dark green jacket with pale yellow stripes performs a grotesque dance accompanied by a lute-playing inamorato. In plates 267–8 they leap on and off ledges in the left foreground. In the Trausnitz ceiling frieze, they play the cello, clown around, walk on their hands and perform a comic sword fight with a tedesco [plates 22–3]. These early iconographic associations between acrobatic performers and professional actors have a bearing on the twenty-four engravings of Callot’s Balli di Sfessania [plates 2–5]. Although this series marks a qualitative high point in commedia dell’arte iconography, and represents its most important art-historical watershed, its documentary value as a record of the commedia dell’arte is often minimized. The series dates to Callot’s return to Lorraine in 1621, after over a decade in Italy, and exercised a uniquely great influence on subsequent representations of the theme. According to Posner, the supposition that its dancers: portray a Commedia dell’arte company or at least personages from such companies […] is wrong or, at least, seriously misleading […] it is true, of course, that music and dance had a role in the Commedia, but they were certainly not the distinctive or central features of its productions. Callot’s prints, therefore, either take a peculiar and unappreciative view of the real nature of the impromptu theater, or they are not meant to represent it at all […] one cannot doubt that the Balli prints represent a fairground and that the dancers are ordinary fair performers and not Commedia dell’arte players.666

For Posner, Callot’s prints depict a troupe of dancers specializing in the sfessania, a Neapolitan moresco of possibly Turkish origin. He virtually rules out a link with the commedia dell’arte even though, in an appendix, he quotes from a document of 1588 which notes that the Naples carnival features ‘tanti boffoni’, commedia stock roles, and a performance of the sfessania dances.667 Despite general agreement that they depict dancers of a specific type of moresco, Callot’s Balli engravings continue to attract diverse interpretation.668 Only rarely are

666

667 668

Donald Posner, ‘Jacques Callot and the dances called Sfessania’, Art Bulletin, 59 (1977), 203–16, pp.203, 204, 207. Ibid., p.216. On Callot, see also Povoledo, ‘Le bouffon’, p.263; Georg Syamken in Hofmann et al, Zauber der Medusa, pp.243, 415–17; Christopher Cairns, ‘Jacques Callot dans la bibliographie récente sur la commedia dell’arte’, in Jacques Callot 1592–1635, Musée historique lorrain Nancy, 13 juin – 14 septembre 1992, ed. Paulette Choné (Paris: Musées

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they still cited without qualification, as a source for commedia dell’arte performance practice.669 Most scholars follow Posner in rejecting any connection between Callot’s Balli dancers and the commedia dell’arte beyond their names.670 Some regard these prints as imaginative capricci, unrepresentative of either actors or dancers.671 The imaginative nature of Callot’s Balli prints is undeniable. But the iconographic material here examined supports the possibility that they may be based, however freely, on actual performance practice, either in the form of a commedia dell’arte troupe capable of offering matachin dances in its own repertoire, or a temporary collaboration between troupes of actors and dancers. Not all the characters depicted in the type of costume discussed in this section are professional performers, neither is it clear whether commedia dell’arte companies typically employed matachins or buffoni, or were routinely capable of offering acrobatic spectacles such as the sword dance or human tower in their repertoires. However, the widespread depiction of characters in buffone and matachin costume in conjunction with professional actors identified here, in Flemish, German and Italian iconography spanning the whole period of early commedia activity, is an indication that this is not simply an artistic convention, but reflects genuine performance practice.

III.iii.d Harlequin As individual actors attempted to rise above the crowd and stamp their own mark on the Zanni role, a host of variants were created, many of which differed in little more than name and minor costume details. But a few of these servant roles were so successful that they survived their creators, and became common theatrical property. Of these, Harlequin is the most notable. Recent investigations of the medieval iconography of Hellequins suggest that they typically share

669 670 671

nationaux, 1992), 225–6; Kellein, Pierrot, pp.23–6, 100–103; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.252–9, 280; Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo’, pp.79–80; Otto G Schindler, ‘Zur Kremser “Komödiantenszene” im Stammbuch des Malergesellen Ferdinand Simmerl (1643)’, Unsere Heimat, Zeitschrift für Landeskunde in Niederösterreich, 68 (1997), 100–112; Zielske, ‘Das McGill-Featherbook’; idem, ‘Les trois Pantalons’; Irène Mamczarz, Le masque et l’âme: de l’improvisation à la création théâtrale (Paris: Klincksieck, Théâtre européen, opéra, ballet, 8, 1999), pp.131–51; Guardenti, ‘The iconography of the commedia dell’arte, p.199. Mamczarz, Le masque et l’âme, p.131. Posner, ‘Jacques Callot’; Taviani, ‘Immagini rivoltate’, p.59. Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.254.

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the most characteristic costume features of their later cousins, the commedia dell’arte Harlequins, namely their masks and patches.672 Influenced either directly, or via carnival costume, by the hairy costume of medieval stage devils, the origins of patches as a costume device are thought to go back to an attempt to symbolize outwardly, in visual form, the spiritual blemishes which literally ‘stain’ the characters of carnival revellers in open opposition to ‘spotless’ Christianity.673 Possible influences on other characteristic features of early Harlequin costume can also be traced in Hellequin iconography.674 These include his almost invariably featherless hat, black half-face mask, the hornlike ‘wart’ on his forehead, his wooden bat or sword, and even the wicker basket in which he sometimes carries children on his shoulders. Attempts to demonstrate a continuous line from the sannio of the classical stage to the commedia dell’arte comic servant or zanni are unconvincing. Some authorities also reject the possibility of unbroken continuity from the costume of early medieval devils to the spotted and patched outfits of the commedia dell’arte Harlequin and Catholic carnival fools. Leibbrand, for example, traces their antecedents back no further than the fifteenth century carnival, and places them squarely within a medieval Christian, rather than pre-Christian cultish tradition.675 Hundreds of pre-1620 depictions of zanni are known, but images of Harlequin from this period are comparatively rare. The Recueil Fossard woodcuts depicting Harlequin were discovered only in the 1920s.676 Although Driesen had seen no sixteenth century depictions of Harlequin, he correctly concluded from the written evidence that before 1600, the patches of Harlequin costume were still irregular.677 The most reliable early depictions of Harlequins, those bearing contemporary identification as such, confirm this. By the early eighteenth century, Riccoboni could take for granted his readers’ familiarity with Harlequin’s ‘bizarre’ brilliantly multi-coloured, regularly lozenge-patched suit, and a poem by Raparini offers a detailed and vivid description of this costume,

672

673

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Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser, pp.83–149; idem, ‘The Hellequin figure in medieval custom’, in Custom, Culture and Community in the Later Middle Ages, eds Thomas Pettit and Leif Søndergaard (Odense: University, 1994), 105–24. Jürgen Leibbrand, ‘Vom befleckten Leib zum “Flecklehäs”’, in Narrenfreiheit. Beiträge zur Fastnachtsforschung, ed. Bausinger et al (Tübingen: Schloss, 1980), 139–175, pp.142–3, 159; Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser, pp.127, 139; idem, ‘The Hellequin figure’. Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser, p.125. Leibbrand, ‘Vom befleckten Leib’, pp.142–3. Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments. Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, p.232.

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by which Harlequin is still universally recognized.678 In its fully developed version, Harlequin costume was routinely borrowed by other characters, and in this context it serves as shorthand, for example, in an annotated list of stage characters appended to a Divertissement written by Caylus in the 1730s, for a group of amateur associates. Each of their costumes is described in considerable detail, with the sole exception of Pistolet’s, whose complete entry is: ‘Pistolet a été joué en Arlequin’.679 In contrast, early Harlequins typically had randomly patched costumes. The pre-1620 iconography depicts comic costume with a wide range of patches: many or few, large or small, regularly or irregularly shaped, with round or straight edges, dull or brightly coloured, random or marshalled into regular patterns, sewn on with neat or untidy stitches. They may cover all or part of the costume, which in itself may be of the loose zanni or tighter acrobatic type. Although Harlequin’s costume evolved considerably over the centuries, there have been few comprehensive attempts to identify and classify the depictions of the costume of Harlequin and other comic performers in patched costume produced within the lifetime of Tristano Martinelli.680 Identification and accurate dating of a representative sample of relevant pictures is central to effective classification of the iconography. In order to classify depictions of Harlequin it is necessary to make decisions regarding the selection of pictures. This task requires both a precise understanding of the term Harlequin, and of its applications in the early modern period, and exemplifies at a very basic level a central concern of theatre iconography, namely how to relate visual and written documentation. Some early modern depictions of Harlequins and Harlequin-related costume present an accurate reflection of contemporary stage costume, others reflect fabrications, or distortions – intended or not – by their artists. The iconography suggests both that comic patched costume was not confined to the Harlequin role, and that patches are not an invariable element of Harlequin costume. It is important to avoid a circular definition of Harlequin images which merely identifies them with their 678

679

680

Silvia Leoni, ‘“L’autre scene” ou Arlequin et son public’, in Arlequin et ses masques. Actes du colloque franco-italien de Dijon 5–7 septembre 1991, eds Michel Baridon and Norbert Jonard (Dijon: EUD, 1992), 185–96, p.189; ff.A3–A4 of the anonymous, undated and unpaginated 46-side poem L’Arlichino, evidently a previously unrecognized earlier edition of this poem by Raparini (1660–1726), widely known in a 236-side page second edition of 1718 partially published by Pandolfi (La commedia dell’arte, IV, pp.212–42). Anne Claude Philippe comte de Caylus, Histoire et recueil des Lazzis, Judith Curtis and David Trott, eds. (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, ‘Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century’ no.338, 1996), p.75. M A Katritzky, ‘Harlequin in renaissance pictures’, Renaissance Studies, 11 (1997), 381– 419.

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most characteristic costume features, but does not necessarily take account of their artists’ original intentions. Without losing sight of these important qualifications, the starting point here is the fact that, typically, the most obvious visual element of Harlequin costume is that it is patched and/or multi-coloured. The iconography may be subdivided into four categories: identified Harlequins; dubious Harlequins; and unidentified characters who probably are Harlequins, either wearing Recueil Fossard-like or non-Recueil Fossard-like costume. Pictures of comic servant types with contemporary identification as Harlequin are rare, but they are of particular importance in studying Harlequin’s costume, and include those whose identification may be accepted without qualification, as well as pictures of identified Harlequins in dubious or atypical costume. The second category includes Harlequin-related costume worn by dubious Harlequins and definite non-Harlequins: depictions of comic characters in patched costume which do not appear to show genuine Harlequins, either unidentified, or actually bearing specific contemporary identification to a character other than Harlequin. Most early depictions of comic characters in patched costume bear no contemporary identification. Those of probable and possible Harlequins may, for the sake of convenience, be divided, albeit not altogether precisely, into the third and fourth categories of this iconographic classification. These are unidentified depictions of characters in costume of the type associated with the Harlequin role in the Recueil Fossard, and those in other types of patched costume. Identified Harlequins include one on a dated marble tablet of 1618 now in the Museo del Palazzo Ducale, Mantua. Its relief carving of Arlechin Comic Famos can be identified as a depiction of Tristano Martinelli by virtue of the tablet’s association with the flour mill Martinelli purchased in later life.681 The dedication in an undated publication with the title Compositions de Rhetorique de Mr. Don Arlequin enables it to be associated with a visit of Tristano Martinelli to France around the year 1600, suggesting that the four woodcuts depicting Harlequin which it contains are portraits of Martinelli in his stage costume [plate 15].682 The hand-

681 682

Ferrone et al, Corrispondenze, II, pl.21; Ferrone, Attori Mercanti Corsari, pl.51. Rasi, I comici italiani, II, pp.97–100. Luigi Riccoboni reproduces a print after the titlepage Harlequin of Compositions de Rhetorique (Histoire du theatre italien, depuis la decadence de la comedie latine, 2 vols (Paris: Chardon, 1730–31), II, plate 1). Riccoboni’s rather free copy in turn served as the basis for several nineteenth century illustrations purporting to show Harlequin in authentic sixteenth century costume, for example a depiction of Harlequin reproduced by Louis Moland (Molière et la Comédie italienne (Paris: Didier, 1867), p.55), which both Moland and Jaffei (‘Note critiche’, p.800) erroneously identify as depicting the Gelosi company’s Simone da Bologna.

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coloured title page woodcut of the only known copy, in Paris, shows Harlequin with a wooden bat through his belt, wearing a pitch-black mask and shoes, red cap, and a pale undyed suit with patches of subdued reds, browns, fawns and pale greens.683 Bearing in mind the facts concerning the origins of Harlequin as a stage role, it is possible to identify all sixteenth century pictures with reliable contemporary identification as Harlequin quite precisely: as depictions of the actor Tristano Martinelli dating from about 1584 onwards, when the role created by this actor first received the stage name Harlequin, and before this role and the distinctive costume associated with it were adopted by other actors.684 The present study adds a significant image to the small canon of pre-1600 identified Harlequin pictures [plate 310]. It is a previously unknown companion image to a much-reproduced woodcut, long accorded the status of: ‘the only hard evidence we have that Elizabethans saw any picture of the Italian stock characters so often mentioned in English plays and pamphlets […] the only Italian theatrical image pre-dating 1600 that can be assigned to an English printer’.685 This broadsheet advertisement illustrating Pantaloun & Zanie is bound into the Bodleian Library copy of The Divels Legend. Also bound into the same Bodleian Library volume is a companion pamphlet, a twelve-page political pamphlet published by Thomas Gosson containing one of the earliest English-language references to Harlequin.686 Here, Harlequin declares that, while the Leaguers dispute, “I noble Harlequin a passing good Burbonian, will like an Universitie lurcher, licke all the fatte from their trenchers”. A broadsheet French version of the unillustrated English Harlequin pamphlet, also dated 1595, is illustrated with a woodcut depicting Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve [plate 310]. The iconographic proximity of these prints’ ‘Doctour Pantaloun’, ‘Zanie’ and ‘Harlequin’ to their Recueil Fossard counterparts, and provenance of the pamphlets’ texts, point to the precedence of the French edition, and to Parisian, rather than English, production for the Harlequin print and its companion. This 683

684

685

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Sara Mamone, Firenze e Parigi, due capitali dello spettacolo per una regina: Maria de’ Medici (Milano: Silvana, 1987), fig.148. Pace Castagno, for whom the Recueil Fossard Harlequin depicts Alberto Naselli (The Early Commedia dell’Arte (1550–1621): The Mannerist Context (New York: Peter Lang, 1994), pp.62–3). Barasch, ‘Theatrical prints’, pp.27, 34; Christopher Cairns, ‘La commedia dell’arte in Inghilterra: il “gran rifiuto” mito o realtà’, in XIX convegno internazionale. Origini della commedia improvvisa o dell’arte, Roma 12–14 Ottobre 1995, Anagni 15 Ottobre 1995, eds M Chiabò and F Doglio (Roma: Torre d’Orfeo, 1996), 291–302, pp.301–2. A new pleasant and delightfull Astrologie, invented by reverend Maister Harlequin the royall Astrologer, calculated for the Leaguers Merydian (London: Gosson, 1595), f.C3r.

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latter may be the Divels Legend print itself, or, given its markedly more artistically crude workmanship by comparison with Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve, more likely an as yet unknown French original copied for the English edition. The only other sixteenth century pictures in which Harlequin receives contemporary identification which may be accepted without qualification are certain of those in and associated with the prints of the Recueil Fossard.687 Most notable among the Recueil Fossard prints which depict Harlequin is a series of eighteen woodcuts in which the role features thirteen times [plate 6]. They also include two of a sequence of six featuring Agnan Sarat’s troupe, showing Harlequin acting with them as a glassware dealer, a depiction of Harlequin on stilts in a print which has been reconstructed from fragments in the Recueil Fossard, and one of a series of woodcuts of actors in an outdoor setting [plates 9–11].688 Driesen poignantly recognized the existence of this ‘lost Harlequin print’, despite not knowing any pre-1600 image of Harlequin, because his point of reference was four close variants of other woodcuts in this particular series of the asyet undiscovered Recueil Fossard [plate 9].689 Numerous paintings depicting Harlequins relate compositionally to individual Recueil Fossard woodcuts.690 What is not clear is whether these paintings are simply copied from the prints, or whether they reflect contemporary input, and earlier pictures have merely been used as compositional aids in recording a current production. In contrast, the Harlequin of another set of prints has no direct input from stage costume or practice current at the time of their production, but is based solely on the iconographic precedent of the Recueil Fossard Harlequin [plate 43]. Another set of prints with French and German verse, also produced for the friendship album market, includes one featuring Harlequin, zanni and Avra. This Harlequin wears a bestial full-face mask and feathered cap, and appears to have a sparsely patched, baggy costume [plate 260]. Some scholars have disputed the possibility that the depictions of Harlequin in the Recueil Fossard and Compositions de Rhetorique can show the same actor [plates 6–11, 14–15]. Iconographic variations are explained through various factors, including artistic licence.691 Perhaps the differences also reflect the natural

687 688

689

690 691

Plates 6–11, 43–6, 48–51. Plate 10: other impressions, Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Opera, Res.2 nos.1–2; plate 11: Hallar, Teaterspil og tegnsprog, fig.25. Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, pp.266–8. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, cabinets des éstampes, E.a.79 Res. ff.48r–49v. See, for example, plates 44–6, 48–51. Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.189–91.

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ageing process. In the Recueil Fossard, Harlequin has no codpiece, a tight onepiece suit with no visible fastenings, moustache, beard and full head of hair, and a simple face mask [plates 6–9]. By around 1600, the now 44-year-old Martinelli is noticeably less lean, lithe and hairy, has acquired a codpiece, and wears a jacket with lace-up front, and black shoes. His patches, although still random and, for the most part, irregular, have more regular edges and shapes, and he has a feather in his hat, an elaborately moulded mask and a smaller beard [plate 15]. The Harlequin of 1618, depicting Martinelli in his early sixties, wears a broadly similar costume, although his patches are more numerous, smaller, and mostly round in shape.692 These then, are the pictures which form the secure basis for establishing early Harlequin costume. But others include identified depictions of Harlequin in less typical costume. One such, in a friendship album, features three performers on a narrow stage, a violin-playing woman flanked by two dancing masked men in uncharacteristically brightly-coloured zanni style suits, black shoes, red stockings, and bells on the points of their shirt collars and the tips of their unusual, elaborate gold and red hats. The man on the left, in a green suit, is identified as ‘Arlequin’, his companions as ‘Isabella’ and ‘Franquatripa’. This picture relates closely to one in a British Library album which dates to 1616–18, and may be tentatively dated to around this period.693 Hansen reproduces a ‘Harlequin’ by Wenzel Hollar after Callot, tentatively dates it to before 1627, points out that Hollar has here wrongly labelled a copy after Callot’s iconographically influential Zanni [plate 303], and suggests that Hollar, himself unfamiliar with the appearance of Harlequin, was influenced in this erroneous identification by the fact that Callot was French.694 Hansen’s editor notes that a woodcut reproduced by Kindermann as illustrating the ballad sheet Pickelherings Hochzeit oder der lustig singende Harlequin of 1652, which Hansen demonstrates to be based on the same Callot engraving of a zanni, actually dates to 1752, and is thus irrelevant to an assessment of Harlequin’s early modern costume.695 Inigo Jones’s surviving drawings for William Davenant’s masque Britannia Triumphans (1638) include several relating to the fourth antimasque, which featured a mountebank and his two companions, identified as

692 693 694 695

Ferrone, Attori Mercanti Corsari, plate 51; Mamone, ‘Arte e spettacolo’, pp.77–9. Katritzky, ‘Comic stage routines’, figs.1, 2. Hansen, Formen der Commedia dell’Arte, pp.10, 59, 113–4 (fig.65a, right-hand figure). Heinz Kindermann, Theatergeschichte Europas, 10 vols (Salzburg: Müller, 1957–64), III (1959), p.367; Hansen, Formen der Commedia dell’Arte, p.44.

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‘zani’ and ‘Herlikin’ in Jones’s sketches.696 Although a large and detailed sketch shows ‘Herlikin’ in a baggy unpatched suit, a small vignette in a composite sketch indicates what appear to be round patches on his jacket. A mid-seventeenth century French engraving identifies the four companions of a mountebank on a trestle stage as, from left to right, Harlequin, Gazelle, Gille le Niais and Padelle [plate 299a]. This Harlequin is depicted wearing a bowler-shaped unfeathered hat and tight, unpatched, apparently monochrome, outfit. The iconography suggests that the patches of Harlequin’s early costume were irregular, and that they were only systematically regularized in the 1620s. This is confirmed by Pier Maria Cecchini in 1628.697 Most early depictions of comic performers in Harlequin-like costume bear no written identification of the identity or role of the performer, and these include many images that fall into the category of ‘dubious Harlequins’. Some early modern pictures feature seemingly anachronistic appearances of costumes with regular patches. Concerning one such character, on the walls of the Trausnitz staircase, sometimes accepted698 or tentatively accepted699 as a Harlequin, Lea agrees with Driesen700 in rejecting this identification, noting that although his ‘tunic of large green- [in 1995 red] and-white checks [… gives] him the appearance of a modern Harlequin; his connexion with the Arlecchino of the sixteenth century is extremely doubtful and he probably does not belong to the Commedia dell’arte’.701 A suggestion that he may portray a Bavarian court fool could explain the portrait-like depiction of the features and pushed-back mask high on his brow, and parti-coloured jacket.702 This latter compares with, for example, the following item from an English college inventory of 1548: ‘A fooles coote w.th checker Work of grene Red & White’.703

696

697

698 699 700 701 702 703

Stephen Orgel and Roy Strong, Inigo Jones, the Theatre of the Stuart Court, 2 vols (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet & Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1973), I, pp.683 (fig.344, bottom row, middle figure), 689 (fig.358). ‘L’abito adunque vorebb’ esser moderato, il quale s’è molto allontanato et a gran passi discostato dal convenevole, posciachè, invece dei tacconi o rattoppamenti (cose proprie del pover’ uomo) portano quasi un recamo di concertate pezzette, che li rappresentano morosi lascivi et non servi ignoranti. … Sì che lo sconcerto dell’ habito par che indichi quello dell’ ingegno’ (quoted in Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, p.276). Castagno, The early commedia dell’arte, p.157; Rauhut, ‘La commedia dell’arte’, p.257. Sprengel, ‘Herr Pantalon und sein Knecht Zanni’, p.7. Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, p.232. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.14. Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.70–2. Sandra Billington, ‘Sixteenth-century drama in St John’s College, Cambridge’, Review of English Studies, 29 (1978), 1–10, p.6.

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Characters associated with Harlequin by Raparini include ‘Pasquino, Tabarino/ Tortellino, Naccherino/Gradelino, Mezzettino/ Bertolino, Fagiuolino’.704 Identified depictions of non-Harlequins in patched or parti-coloured Harlequin-type costume proliferate from the mid-seventeenth century, and include comic menservants such as Brigantin, Mezetin, Trivelin, Tracagnino, Trufaldino, Trufaltin and Zan Muzzina, as well as the maid Spinetina [plate 299].705 Earlier examples of this type of costume appear to be worn by, for example, a Trastulo of 1589 and a Bagatino of c.1618 [plates 38, 294]. Such identified depictions are invaluable comparative material for interpreting depictions of dubious early Harlequins, such as an apparently sixteenth century painting of a concert, in which the figure on the right is in zanni costume [plate 230]. The patches of the figure on the left are not random or irregular, as in the known depictions of Tristano Martinelli, but nearer to the regular rhomboids worn by Harlequin a century later. The possibility is that he is not a Harlequin at all, but one of the countless other servant types who sprang up towards the end of the sixteenth century, for many of which we have no documentation regarding their costume. This is supported by the colouring of his costume, sombre ochres and dark reds rather than the bright rainbow colours traditionally associated with Harlequin. Even more regular are the diamond-shaped patches on the hose of a lute-playing mask standing to the right centre foreground of a Carnival, another costume which relates to that worn by Brambilla’s Trastulo of 1589, and which, due to its date of around 1600, cannot be that of Harlequin [plates 179, 38]. In plate 177, also attributed to Frederick van Valckenborch, the extreme left-hand figure of the foreground group, a male in a black half mask, red cap and grey suit, wears a cloak with Harlequin-like pale blue and pink patches. At first glance, a painting which, judging from the costumes, artefacts and style, could well be located in Florence around 1570, appears to present another seemingly anachronistic depiction of Harlequin’s post-Martinelli costume [plate 62].706 However, in the Stradanus print of the same composition, the equivalent

704

705

706

Raparini, L’Arlichino (s.d.), f.D3v; the much longer 1718 edition quoted by Giulia Campos (‘L’“Arlichino” di Giorgio Maria Raparini’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 102 (1933), 165–223, p.221), adds ‘Trufaldino/ […] Polpettino, Nespolino/ […] Trappolino, Zaccagnino/ Trivellino, Traccagnino/Passerino, Bagatino/Bagolino, Temellino/Fagottino, Pedrolino/Fritellino, Talacchino’. Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.158; Nicoll, The World of Harlequin, pls.44, 114, 115; idem, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, figs.196–8, 221. My 1991 association of the costume with that of Harlequin is accepted by some subsequent writers (M A Katritzky, ‘How did the commedia dell’arte cross the Alps to Bavaria?’, Theatre Research International, 16 (1991), 201–15, pl.VI; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.28 n.37).

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character, the central servant in the group of three actors in the right background, wears zanni costume [plate 29]. Several possibilities could account for the apparent anachronism of a Harlequin in a pre-1584 picture. It could be a post1584 copy of the Stradanus print, and the Harlequin character a modification of the copyist. Alternatively, perhaps the comic servant is not Tristano Martinelli playing Harlequin, but another actor, in a servant role of another name, whose costume coincidentally appears similar to post-Martinelli versions of the Harlequin costume. It seems much less likely that the painting depicts Martinelli before the mid-1580s; even though he may have evolved elements of the Harlequin costume in his decade on the stage before the role received its name in France, and innovative stage costumes introduced by his sister-in-law, the actress Angelica Alberghini, in the early 1580s, include one decorated with feathers and other ornaments.707 Some iconographic identifications of Harlequins are controversial, other are simply erroneous [plates 1, 265].708 Comic types who bear only a superficial resemblance to Harlequin include the xylophone player in the right centre foreground of Caulery’s signed Hamburg panel, Carnival [plate 73]. He is unmasked, and his neutrally coloured garment has grey, rather than brightly coloured, patches. A tentative identification of the second figure from the left in the painting I giocatori di morra, as an ‘off-duty Harlequin’, is unconvincing.709 A class of painted maiolica dishes known as arlecchino feature characters in commediarelated costumes. Manufactured at Montelupo, west of Florence, their hugely popular designs remained constant for many decades. Although production peaked around the period 1620–40, when examples were exported as far afield as Virginia, the genre clearly has its origins in the late sixteenth century.710 Berti records the existence of at least one dish depicting what he identifies as a Harlequin, but the figures featured on commonly reproduced examples include only the comic masked servants zanni and Brighella, as well as the commedia dell’arte

707

708

709 710

For ‘una comediante […] mascare, e l’abito suo non è da zani, ma d’ormesino di vari colori e cappelletti molto garbati carichi di pennacchi e altri ornamenti; la qual nuova non è però della gasetta’, Florence, Archivio di Stato, letter of 5 January 1582: quoted in Solerti and Lanza, ‘Il teatro ferrarese’, p.169. For example, of a figure in plate 265 (Paul C Castagno, ‘Grotesque images of early commedia dell’arte iconography’, Theatre History Studies, 12 (1992), 45–65, pl.14). Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena (Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, pp.238–40, fig.A147). Beverly Straube, ‘European ceramics in the New World: the Jamestown example’, Ceramics in America, 1 (2001), 47–71.

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master, military captains and innamorati. Despite their generic name, these dishes appear to have little direct bearing on the early iconography of Harlequin.711 A particular iconographical puzzle is presented by plate 12. Many of its comic types seem close to those of Recueil Fossard woodcuts, in both pose and costume. But the costumes of the two comedians identified by Duchartre as possible Harlequins bear little resemblance to those of the Recueil Fossard Harlequins.712 Although identification as a ‘Harlequin’ of the figure standing in the left background of the picture (wearing a black three-quarter mask, buff suit and bright red feathered hat) may be dismissed, an assessment of the significance of the foreground ‘Harlequin’ is more problematic. He stands next to Pantalone, in a black three-quarter mask, with a pale buff feathered puddingbasin cap, and a pale grey suit of the loose zanni type with smallish irregular patches on it, mostly buff, but including several bright red, green and white ones on his sleeve and upper body. Although his costume is sparsely patched and baggy, Sterling agrees in identifying it as ‘the oldest known version of Harlequin’s costume’, and some authorities compare it to the tight costume of the Recueil Fossard Harlequin.713 Duchartre identifies this figure as a portrait of Zan Ganassa in Harlequin costume, and by extension names Ganassa as the creator of the Harlequin role. His interpretation has been superseded by more recent scholarship, but this figure is still widely accepted as a depiction of Harlequin or Zan Ganassa, although often with reservations.714 The evolution of certain iconographic motifs demonstrates that, in general, depictions of the Italian comedians borrowed from previous art, becoming progressively stereotyped as artistic conventions increasingly overrode considerations of realism. An understanding of this process, fundamental to an interpretation of the iconography and its theatrical significance, requires the consideration of as wide a range as possible of compositionally and stylistically related

711

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714

Jeanne Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux (Paris: Musées Nationaux, 1974), fig.1310 (*zanni and female lover; *identified by their captions only as masked figures); Fausto Berti, The Montelupo Ceramics. From Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries (Firenze, 1986), pp.39–40 and figs.112 (*Brighella), 113 (*zanni and *Pantalone), 116 (*zanni and male lover or soldier); F. Berti and Gianna Pasquinelli, Antiche Maioliche di Montelupo Secoli XIV–XVIII (Pisa, 1984), 94 (identified as a mask of Harlequin, not illustrated). My thanks to Timothy Wilson for bringing these dishes to my attention. Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, pp.83–4. McDowell, An Iconographical Study, pp.85, xxviii, cx; Sterling, ‘Early paintings’, p.20; Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.193. Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.144, 153.

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pictures, not all of which depict Harlequin types. The relative rarity of early depictions of Harlequin provides an opportunity to examine another aspect of this process, and highlights the iconographic influence on later depictions of masked performers of certain widely circulated prints. The most important of these in relation to early pictures of Harlequin are the Recueil Fossard woodcuts and six prints which do not depict Harlequin.715 Similarities between Momper’s drawings of January and February and an engraving after Toeput may be due to direct influence from the engraving to Momper’s drawings [plates 128–30].716 Collaert’s engravings after Momper are reasonably faithful direct copies of Momper’s drawings, although the right-hand comedian in Collaert’s February has lost altogether the few Harlequin-like patches his suit displays in the drawing [plates 269–70]. Some comic groups of plates 125 and 135 are close to those of these prints, although their Harlequins exhibit affinities with that of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts [plate 9]. Section II.ii.g associates plate 125 with Sebastian Vrancx, and relates it to a large group of other paintings, of which several also show compositional affinities with plates 269–70 as well as depicting Harlequins close to that of plate 9.717 The comic types in plate 280, which depicts a Harlequin similar to that of plate 9, also relate to those in plate 125, although they have little in common with those of Collaert’s prints. De Jode’s print also seems to have exercised an influence on two further paintings depicting Harlequin.718 The dottore of plate 158 is similar to that of the print, although its Pantalone has strong affinities both with the Recueil Fossard’s Segnor Pantalon and the Magnificus of the Goltzius print, and its Harlequin too seems close to that of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts.719 The compositional parallels between the comic performers in the de Jode print and plate 157 are striking, but here too, there are also parallels with the main series of Recueil Fossard woodcuts. The Harlequin, in particular, is in virtually identical pose to one in plate 6. The comedians in a further painting in this group, plate 184, also include a Harlequin, but are too indistinct to allow compositional comparison of this nature. Further works depicting Harlequins which may be associated with Vrancx or his circle include one in which Pantalone and his courtesan, and a second couple both in exotic costume, are preceded by a string-

715 716 717 718 719

Plates 6, 9, 64–5, 130, 240, 269–70. Section II.iii.g, pp.171ff. Plates 105, 107, 221, see above, pp.133ff. Plates 130, 157–8. Plates 6, 130, 240.

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playing zanni, and followed by a Harlequin; a Carnival whose strutting Harlequin is close to that of Village and party, and the dated Harlequin and his children of 1623.720 All these pictures feature a figure wearing Harlequin costume of the type familiar from the Recueil Fossard woodcuts, namely a black half mask, black purse on a belt, small featherless cap, and tightly fitting pale suit with irregular patches randomly sewn on to it. The three Drottningholm panels, for example, reveal the cap to be red, the shoes pale or buff, the suit typically white, and the patches, sewn on with rough stitches, red, green, yellow and brown [plates 48–50]. The Harlequin of a painting more distantly related to this group, through the lute-playing zanni in the right foreground, is directly to the left of this zanni [plate 135]. Extraordinary features of this picture, set in a grand northern square, include the line of matachins preceding a mounted Pantalone from left to right, whose final destination is the top of a tall column being scaled by several of their number, and the oversized camel ridden by a cello-playing Pantalone in the right foreground.721 An early seventeenth century miniature from a Flemish friendship album features a carnival masquerader in this type of Harlequin costume, but with the addition of a pale neck ruff.722 Such balls were not uncommon for larger pictures at that time, and indoor student masquerades were to become a popular subject in eighteenth century albums. However, it is exceptional for an early seventeenth century friendship album illustration to depict either indoor carnival celebrations or Harlequin costume. There are, for example, no Harlequins in the numerous depictions of carnival mummers or actors aiding mountebanks in friendship album illustrations of the period 1570–1620, which typically feature commedia dell’arte-related costume.723

720 721

722 723

Plates 46, 101, 107. Denis van Alsloot (c.1570–1628), to whose circle this painting was attributed when it came on to the art market in 1990, is the artist of a Carnival on the ice (Katritzky, ‘Harlequin’, pl.5) known in at least ten painted versions. These paintings feature a comic character in patched costume, sometimes with a monkey on his back, with masked ice-dancing couples, the men in curious braided costumes, perhaps a type of moresco costume. This latter costume, and neither that of the Harlequin-like character in patched costume, nor, as has been previously suggested (Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Meissen Porcelain in Colour (London: Ferndale, 1979), p.18), a Callot print, served as the pattern for the costume of one of the earliest commercially produced coloured porcelain commedia dell’arte figurines, Johann Gottlieb Kirchner’s so-called ‘Harlequin’ of c.1725 for the Meissen factory in Dresden. Katritzky, ‘Harlequin’, p.414, pl.13 Katritzky, ‘The mountebank’; eadem, ‘Was commedia dell’arte performed by mountebanks? (see also bibliography).

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Apart from the interrelated images discussed above, I know of only very few other groups of early depictions of unidentified characters in patched costume. One includes several of a large group of carnival dance scenes by the Francken clan, of which plate 205 is perhaps the earliest and finest.724 In this, Harlequin wears a tight-fitting white suit and wide-brimmed, unfeathered white hat, the suit covered with smallish round patches of buff, green and red. In plate 198, his jacket is baggy, but all these Harlequins are distinguished by holding a musical instrument, wearing a wide-brimmed, unfeathered hat and having patches in the shape of small spots. A similar costume features in plates 113–16. The costumed characters, a group of four in the right-hand foreground, are a masked man in a black suit with a white ruff and red undershirt, with a foxtail, carrying a giant grill-pan and wearing a string of sausages slung over one shoulder and leading a woman, also with sausages around her neck, followed by a masked boy playing a rommelpot, or friction drum, and preceded by a drum-playing boy in a brightly patchworked white suit reminiscent of the type worn by early Harlequins [plates 114–6]. An undated print features actors on a stage, two in baggy patched costume [plate 301]. Several further groups of early seventeenth century Flemish paintings depict comic masks in patched costume with significant differences to that of the Recueil Fossard woodcut Harlequins. A group of northern urban carnival scenes, one dated 1605, features masked characters in baggy suits with jigsaw-shaped patches or dark hose and patched jackets.725 Most of these pictures feature a masked, tambourine-playing female between two masked males at the extreme left. In plates 81–2 the left-hand male wears dark hose, but his jacket is patched, Harlequin fashion. In plates 86–8, his place in the trio is taken by an old master type, and another character, to the right of the trio, wears an unusual variation of patched costume. His pale suit is covered all over with bright irregular jigsaw shaped patches, proportionally larger in plate 86 than in other paintings of this type. This distinctive patched costume also features in a depiction of a village festival where the Harlequin is accompanied by only one other mask, and their role is unclear [plate 136]. Several groups of pictures feature Harlequin types with brightly coloured roundish patches. In many society dance scenes associated with the Francken clan, the Harlequins wear baggy jackets, and they often hold a musical instrument, wear a wide-brimmed unfeathered hat and have

724 725

Plates 186, 193–6, 198, 204–5; on these paintings, see also section II.iii.d, pp.154ff. Plates 81–3, 86, 88, 136; on these paintings, see also section II.ii.g, pp.128ff.

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patches in the shape of small brightly coloured spots.726 Round patches also feature in several of a group of early seventeenth century winter carnival scenes associated with Vrancx.727 ‘Arlechign’ (Moena, Bassa Val di Fassa) and ‘arlechini’ (Montalbiano, Valfloriana) are traditional figures in the modern carnival celebrations of the Italian Alps. Their costumes tend to feature bright patches on a white base, rather than any more recent version of Harlequin’s stage costume, which suggests to some authorities that they may derive directly from renaissance Harlequin costume, or even predate the commedia dell’arte.728 The relationship of carnival costumes, whether in modern usage or depicted in renaissance or medieval pictures, to those of the comic stage, cannot simply be summed up by assuming that while many carnival revellers adopted popular stage costumes as their disguise, other carnival costumes pre-date those of the commedia dell’arte. Mutual influences and modifications, both to the costumes themselves and to the names by which they are known, have contributed to interrelationships of extreme complexity between carnival and stage costume. It is clear that by no means all early modern depictions of comic characters in patched and/or multicoloured costume are of Harlequins, nor, for whatever reason, do all depictions of Harlequins show them in such costume. Some early depictions of figures in costume of the type associated with Harlequin reflect specific performances by Martinelli himself, some are general evocations of contemporary stage practice or folk customs, others are based solely on iconographic precedents. Many of these pictures draw heavily on detailed knowledge of previous art for their settings, and for the poses and costumes of their Harlequins. I have noted similarities between Tempesta’s two prints of February and a group of paintings, including Village and party, whose Harlequin, although he brandishes an egg and a tambourine rather than a dagger and a hat, seems iconographically close to those featured in the Recueil Fossard woodcuts.729 Similar Harlequins appear in other paintings.730 One such is plate 50, one of a

726 727 728

729 730

Plates 186, 193–6, 198, 204–5. Plates 113, 116. Cesare Poppi, ‘Il sesso degli angeli: strutture simboliche e riti di passaggio nei carnevali dell’arco alpino’, 149–97, pp.178ff; Renato Morelli, ‘Antropologia visiva e carnevali tradizionali dell’arco alpino’, 199–251, p.207; both in Il Carnevale: dalla tradizione Arcaica alla traduzione colta del Rinascimento, ed. M Chiabò and Federico Doglio (Roma: Centro studi sul teatro medioevale e rinascimentale, 1990). Plates 9, 64–5, 71–2. On these paintings, see also section II.ii.d, pp.124ff. Plates 50, 101, 281.

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group of paintings relating closely to Recueil Fossard woodcuts, of which several feature Harlequin.731 Another Harlequin close to this group is in plate 221, which relates to several interrelated groups of later paintings of comic types with close iconographic affinities, especially apparent in their Harlequins and matachins.732 In the previous section, the broadness of the range of artists of different nationality and ability who depicted the roles under consideration, those of the buffone and the matachin, supported the conclusion that depictions of these roles tend to reflect genuine performance practice rather than artistic stereotypes. The troupe with which the first Harlequin performed is known to have visited the Low Countries from as early as 1576. This analysis of early depictions of Harlequin suggests that, where their artists are identifiable, they are, overwhelmingly, Antwerp-based, or have strong connections with Antwerp.

III.iv

Composite, multiple and serial images

III.iv.a Introduction This study seeks to demonstrate the relevance of contextualizing the early commedia-related iconographic record. Overwhelmingly, these images are not isolated, but belong to groups. Several overlapping categories of composite, multiple and serial images relating to the early commedia dell’arte can be identified. The clearest are iconographic variants, series of stock types, and serial or composite sequences arguably relating to a specific performance or troupe. This leaves a large body of less easily categorized multiple images. The importance of iconographic variants has been considered in some detail in section II, which discusses and demonstrates their use in the art-historical analysis of selected iconographic motifs of theatre-historical significance. Two collective iconographic sources worthy of greater attention in this context than they are given here are early modern printed books,733 and the prints and drawings of friendship albums. My recent publications identify friendship album images as one of the most substantial early modern sources of commedia-related iconography.734

731 732 733 734

Plates 44–51; on these paintings, see also section II.iii.f, pp.161ff. Plates 105, 107, 125, 139–45. An overview is indicated by Leik (Frühe Darstellungen, pp.222ff). Some of the examples here reproduced are identified as friendship album pictures only in the index. On theatre iconography in albums see bibliography (Katritzky).

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Many series of prints and drawings include two or more commedia-related images, which benefit from being considered in relation to each other. Examples of these are January and February from Momper’s drawings of the months, and the prints derived from them, Italia and Francia after Hans von Aachen, and three of a series of engravings by de Passe after Vrancx.735 Later series of illustrations of stock types, such as that produced by François Joullain to illustrate Riccoboni’s Histoire du théâtre italien of 1730, form the basis for the illustrations of numerous histories of the commedia dell’arte. But early series of this nature have attracted little attention. Images which may be loosely included in this category include the three stock types illustrated on a late sixteenth century glass goblet, and Callot’s prints of The three Italian comedians [plates 302–4, 339]. The 1592 edition of Gli inganni includes two woodcuts each depicting four individually framed full-length stock figures, including Zanni, Pantalone, the dottore and the tedesco.736 More comprehensive series of stock types may also be identified in Brambilla’s games board of 1589, Minaggio’s feather pictures of c.1618, Callot’s Balli engravings, a group of five Recueil Fossard woodcuts, Pietro Bertelli’s costume plates, de Gheyn’s Mascarades and Martinelli’s Compositions.737 Apart from the Recueil Fossard prints and Martinelli volume, all these series also include depictions of characters other than commedia dell’arte stock types, and Callot’s series is particularly controversial. As well as the main series of woodcuts [plate 6], the Recueil Fossard contains a series of five woodcuts which may be regarded as a series of stock types [plate 9]. Each features two named commedia stock types, each standing on its own small individual grassy hump. There are quatrains in decorative oval cartouches under three of these pairs, namely Francatrippa/Harlequin, Segnor Pantalon/ Zany Corneto and La Donna Isabella/Pantalon Inamorato, but not under the other two, namely Pantalon/Messere Dotour, which is hand coloured, and Francisquina/ Il Signor Horacio. Variant impressions of four of these figures, as four separate images, are in Paris.738 The main costume prints for

735 736 737 738

Plates 2–5, 128–9, 151–3, 269–72, 282, 288. Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, II, p.336; Clubb, ‘Pictures for the reader’, pp.266, 274. Plates 2–5, 9, 14–15, 38, 293–4, 319, 319b. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, cabinets des éstampes, Ea.79 Res. fols 48r–49v: Messere Dotour, f.48r (Stockholm Recueil Fossard variant, NM.2219/1904, right-hand side; see also Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.198, RHS; the Paris print includes the accompanying quatrain, missing from the Stockholm version); Segnor Pantalon, 48v (Stockholm NM.2226/1904, LHS; Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.331, lower print); Zani Corneto,

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Boissard’s and de Gheyn’s Mascarades have been variously dismissed as irrelevant to the stage, and hailed as central to early commedia dell’arte iconography [plate 319].739 They may most usefully be regarded as what their title declares them to be, that is masquerade costumes, and their main relevance to the commedia dell’arte is simply that some of them show a heavy debt to the costumes of commedia stock types of their time. Some of the most significant serial or composite sequences possibly relate to specific troupes, performances or plays. These include the 100 Corsini Album title page illustrations [plates 243–7]. Series of woodcuts, such as those noted above, illustrating early editions of Vecchi’s L’Anfiparnasso, Briccio’s Pantalone Imbertonao, and Gonzaga’s Gli Inganni, demonstrate some problems of interpreting such images.740 Some series lend themselves to arrangement into quasi‘visual scenarios’, possibly intended to have a similar mnemonic function for spectators to that which the written scenarios had for the actors. Their analysis yields information concerning troupe make-up, cast lists and cast interrelationships, sets, props, performance practice and acting units, plots, lazzi, and the non-verbal spectacle and mime content of commedia dell’arte performances, during the period before professional entertainers branched into the increas-

739

740

49r (NM.2226/1904, RHS; Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.331, upper print); Francatrippa, 49v (NM.2218/1904, LHS; Duchartre, p.178, the Paris print completes the partially illegible quatrain of the Recueil Fossard impression). A second depiction of Harlequin is one of three woodcuts from or closely associated with this series in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal, Paris: vol.200, Francisquina (n.2), Il Signor Horacio (n.3), Harlequin (n.4, reproduced: Holm, Solkonge og Månekejser, p.15); no.5 in this volume is a second impression of Recueil Fossard woodcut NM.2213 (Harlequin, Zany Cornetto). See also Driesen, Der Ursprung des Harlekin, pp.266–8; Jaffei, ‘Note critiche’, p.810. For McDowell, the ninth plate of the series depicts an inamorata with a ‘disguised Zanni’ or ‘a figure in a Brighella costume disguised as an Innamorata’ (An Iconographical Study, pp.96–7). Stella Mary Newton, Renaissance Theatre Costume and the Sense of the Historic Past (London: Rapp & Whiting, 1975), p.260: ‘of the engravings by van Gheyn bound in the Boissard volume […] none really portrays commedia dell’arte costume’. Christian W Thomsen, Leopoldskron: frühe Historie, die Ära Reinhardt, das Salzburg Seminar (Siegen: Vorländer, 1983), pp.74, 77: ‘we enter the world of Harlequin and Commedia dell’arte in Reinhardt’s collection with Jaques de Gheyn II and his series The Masks, which consists of ten engravings from around 1600 […] the series connotes Commedia dell’arte put into a Dutch context of life’. On de Gheyn, see also: Leik, Frühe Darstellungen, p.205; Barasch, ‘Theatrical prints’. Lea, ‘The bibliography of the commedia dell’arte, pp.28–9; eadem, Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.214; Clubb, ‘Pictures for the reader’; Krogh, ‘Italienske maskekomedies’, pp.134–43.

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ingly rigidly separated specializations that led to modern drama, opera, ballet, and circus. Two such series are the sixteen ceiling frieze frescoes and twentynine walls of staircase frescoes of the 1570s at Trausnitz Castle [plates 20–3]. As well as being considered in relation to each other, they require consideration in the context of the didactic aims of the much larger decorative scheme of which they form part. Few, perhaps none, of the surviving written scenarios correspond exactly with working scenarios actually used by players in the preparation of specific performances. The ‘visual scenarios’ which can be reconstructed from such pictorial series are at an even greater remove from actual performances, and have to be interpreted in this light. Even so, much information is to be gained by identification and comparative analysis of commedia-related multiple and serial images. This section presents three brief case studies along these lines.

III.iv.b Stock types: Brambilla and Minaggio Dionisio Minaggio was landscape gardener to the Duke of Milan. His now dismembered Feather Book contained 156 pictures, painstakingly built up in mosaic fashion, using small pieces of naturally coloured feather, many in bright and exotic hues [plates 293–4].741 Most (112 folios), including the title page, signed by Minaggio and dated 1618, depict birds and other natural history subjects, but there are also twenty-six folios of human subjects. Of these, folios 77– 84 feature musicians, possibly professionals associated with Italian comedians, and another fourteen folios depict the comedians themselves. Seven show one actor, two feature two actors, one is of one actress, and four show an actor and an actress. All but one of these twenty comici are named by role, and many of them have been identified as actors and actresses who performed in Milan in the 1610s, the decade in which these images were produced.742 Folio 100 depicts the inamorato Leander, played by Benedetto Ricci (1592– 1620). Folio 101 shows the two comic servant roles Trapolino and Baltram, the 741

742

On the McGill feather pictures see also Gerhard R Lomer, ‘Feather pictures of the commedia dell’arte’, Theatre Arts Monthly, 14 (1930), 807–10; Molinari, La commedia dell’arte, pp.151–60; Claudia Burattelli, ‘I comici dell’Arte nelle tavole in piume d’uccello di Dionisio Menaggio (1618)’, Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37 (1996), 197–212; Lawner, Harlequin on the Moon, pp.158–9; Zielske, ‘Das McGill-Featherbook’ (who demonstrates that Minaggio borrowed some of his poses and costumes from Callot). By Corrigan, who provides a detailed account of Minaggio’s pictures (‘Commedia dell’arte portraits’).

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stage names of Giovan Battista Fiorillo and Nicolò Barbieri. Folios 102 and 108 show Policianelo and Chapitan Mata-mor, two roles created by the actorauthor Silvio Fiorillo. Folio 103 shows Dotor Campanaz, an elderly lawyer, one of the stock master roles of the commedia dell’arte, played by Bartolomeo Bongiavanni. Folio 104 shows Trastulo (perhaps G P Pasquarello) and Ricolina, the maid Rizzolina, stage name of the actress Angela Lucchesi. Folio 105 shows Mario and Flavia, secondi innamorati played by the actress Margherita Luciani and an unknown partner. Folio 106 shows Florinda, an inamorata role played by the actress Virginia Ramponi (b.1583). Folio 107 shows the Florentine rustic Pombino, played by Girolamo Salimbeni. Folio 109 shows Chola Napolitano, a comic servant role associated with the actor-dancer Aniello di Mauro. Folio 110 shows Schapin and Spineta, Francesco Gabrielli, creator of the comic servant type Scapino, and his wife Spinetta Locatelli, who played a maid (‘Spinetta’). Folio 111 shows an unnamed actor and actress, perhaps a second portrait of Florinda, with her stage partner, the inamorato Lelio, played by her husband Giovan Battista Andreini. Folio 113 shows the comic servants Cietrvlo and Bagatino, and folio 114 shows Chocholi. Cietrulo may have been a variation of Pulcinella, also played by Silvio Fiorillo, Bagatino the unidentified actor of this role associated with the Confidenti in 1627, and Chocholi a variant of Federico Ricci’s Pantalone role. Similar identification exercises have been attempted with the performers depicted in other series of commedia-related images, notably selected woodcuts of the Recueil Fossard collection [plate 6]. Despite their long-standing traditional association with the Gelosi, they are now generally identified as Drusiano Martinelli’s troupe.743 A less well-known series of images of performers identified by role is that in Brambilla’s dated games board of 1589 [plate 38].744 Its vignettes of symbolic objects, mythological figures, street traders, and entertainers depict enough named stock commedia types and roles to people a troupe of comici: the old masters Pantalone and Gratiano, the comic menservants Trastulo, Pedrolino and Francatripe, the maid Franceschina and the foreign military captains Todesco and Cardone. A number of further characters, not necessarily intended to depict comici in this context, have strong associations with popular and court festivals, carnival, pastoral plays and masquerades. These include a fool (il matto), acrobat (il saltarino), performing monkey (il babvino), peasant (il Vilano), gypsy mother with child, ruffiana, mounted bar-

743 744

Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.151–3. Katritzky, ‘Eight portraits’.

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barian, Turk, ‘Time’, ‘Ignorance’, an astrologer, the shepherds Cloro and Tirse, a satyr, Cupid, and Bacchus. Identification of incomplete documentary material, whether iconographic or written, with actual actors and performances is problematic.745 Despite the problems with identification, it is here suggested that this games board is depicting actual actors who were at that date, namely 1589, associated with the Gelosi troupe, some only temporarily, others on a long-term basis. The actors from whom the Gelosi company was formed are thought to have first came together in Mantua in 1568, with the amalgamation of two troupes led by the prima donnas Vincenza and Flaminia; by their 1571 tour of France, the new troupe was known as the Gelosi.746 By 1589, the Gelosi’s troupe leader was Francesco Andreini (1548–1624), who married Isabella Canali (1562–1604) in 1578, and retired from the stage on her death in childbirth. Isabella, documented as a Gelosi actress from 1583, rapidly became fêted throughout and beyond Italy.747 Valuable evidence concerning the Gelosi troupe is given in the fourteenth dialogue of Francesco Andreini’s Bravure of 1607, in which he names the Gelosi’s stock roles, and identifies their players.748 His own role was that of Capitano Spavento da Vall’Inferna,749 and the troupe had four innamorati and four old men,750 the menservants Zanni and Francatrippa, played by Simone da Bologna and Gabriele Panzanini, and the maid Franceschina (Silvia Roncagli of Bergamo). Pierre de l’Estoile’s journal records a pamphlet of October 1603 on the Gelosi during their last French tour. This summarizes its ten touring mem-

745

746

747 748

749

750

The cast list of a court divertimento of 11 March 1577 noted by Bernardo Canigiani, the Florentine envoy to the Ferrarese court, is remarkably similar to that of the Gelosi troupe, but the Gelosi arrived at Blois on 25 January 1577 for an extended season (Baschet, Les comédiens italiens, p.69), and the performance in Ferrara is thought to have been staged by amateurs (Wolff, ‘Die Commedia dell’arte’, p.315; Ferdinando Taviani, ‘Bella d’Asia. Torquato Tasso, gli attori e l’immortalità’, Paragone/Letteratura, 408–10 (1984), 3–76, p.74). Stefanella Ughi, ‘Di Adriano Valerini, di Silvia Roncagli e dei Comici Gelosi’, Biblioteca teatrale, 3 (1972), 147–54, p.150. Gambelli, ‘Arlecchino: dalla “preistoria”’, p.42; eadem, Arlecchino a Parigi, p.152. Pandolfi, La commedia dell’arte, I, p.375; Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, pp.71–2; Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.179–80. He notes that on occasion he also played other roles, such as a comic Sicilian dottore, the magician Falsirone and, in pastorals, the shepherd Corinto. First and second inamorata (his wife Isabella Andreini and Signora Prudenzia of Verona), first and second inamorato (Orazio Padovano and Silvia Roncagli’s husband, Adriano Valerini of Verona); Zanobio and Piombino (both played by Girolamo Salimbeni of Florence), Pantalone (Giulio Pasquati of Padua), Graziano (Lodovico da Bologna).

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bers as two pairs of innamorati, of whom he names only Isabelle, the two old men Pantalon and Gratian, the menservants Petrolin and Zanon, Francisquine and ‘le fanfaron poltron Épouvante [= Francesco Andreini]’.751 1589 was the year of the Gelosi’s great success in Florence, at the wedding festivities of Ferdinando de’ Medici to Christine de Lorraine, when the troupe’s leading stars, Vittoria Piisimi and Isabella Andreini, enthralled the city with their interpretations of La Zingana and La Pazzia d’Isabella, as recorded by Giuseppe Pavoni.752 His diary praises Vittoria’s performance as La Zingana on Saturday 6 May, and Isabella’s madness scenes on 13 May, during which she imitated the voices and speech patterns of her fellow actors, of ‘Pantalone, Gratiano, Zanni, Pedrolino, Francatrippe, Burattino, Capitan Cardone and Franceschina’.753 Six of Isabella’s eight fellow-actors, all but Burattino and Zanni, are depicted on Brambilla’s games board. Pantalone, Gratiano and Franceschina were popular stock characters, represented by actors associated with several different commedia dell’arte troupes of the time. But in 1589, the stage roles of Capitano Cardone, Pedrolino and Francatrippa were still specific to Valentino Cortesei, Giovanni Pellesini, and Gabriele Panzanini, the individual actors by whom they were created. The connections, if any, of Valentino Cortesei, longtime leader of the Uniti, with the Gelosi in 1589 are unclear. However, it is possible that Andreini’s Capitano Spavento may have included elements of the tedesco, or even that Brambilla’s todesco is a portrait of Francesco Andreini in his stage role of Capitano Spavento.754 The Gelosi’s Dotor Graciano was Lodovico de’ Bianchi of Bologna. A ‘graciano delle Godige Comico Geloso’ wrote to the Grand Duke of Tuscany on 6 November 1576, at around the time when Bianchi, who styled himself ‘il dotor Graciano comicho geloso’ in a letter of 1585,755 and ‘Lodouico Bianchi da Bologna. Alias Dottor Gratian partesana della vera Compagnia delli Comici Gelosi’ in 1587,756 appears to have joined the Gelosi. In 1585, his response to an invitation from the 751

752 753

754 755

756

Cited by Raymond Lebègue, ‘Les Italiens en 1604 à L’Hotel de Bourgogne’, Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France, 40 (1933), 77–9, p.78. Rasi, I comici italiani, II, p.243. ‘Giuseppe Pavoni’s description of the festivities in Florence, 1589 […] from the unique printed copy of Pavoni’s “Diario” (Bologna 1589)’, in Glynn Wickham, Early English Stages 1300–1660, 3 vols (London: Routledge, 1959–81), II.i (1963), pp.341–8 (Italian and English); Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte, pp.74–6. On Brambilla’s depictions of the tedesco and Cardone see also section III.iii.b, pp.215ff. Stefanella Ughi, ‘Di Ludovico de’ Bianchi e dei Comici Gelosi’, Biblioteca teatrale, 10/11 (1974), 184–8, pp.184–5. Rasi, I comici italiani, I, p.407.

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Duke of Milan to act with the company of Diana was that he would not come without his fellow Gelosi actor, Pantalone.757 In 1589 he is recorded in Milan, the city of Brambilla’s origin (6 September), and Pistoia (21 October). Brambilla’s Gratiano wears the standard dark broad-brimmed hat and calf-length gown of the dottore of law or academia, familiar from depictions such as the title page illustrations to Corsini Album scenarios 36, 67 and 90 [plates 245–7]. The M. Gratian of Brambilla’s prints of 1583 wears a similar hat, but is ungowned, revealing the garments worn beneath [plates 52–3]. The Gelosi’s Pantalone, Giulio Pasquati of Padua is recorded from around 1567, when he was in Mantua, and was probably with the Gelosi when he was in Vienna in 1575, and in Milan in 1585. Brambilla’s Pantalone wears the near ankle-length, long-sleeved full gown and pudding-basin hat typical of the Venetian merchant, and plays a lute, a possible allusion to his weakness for serenading younger women, a popular lazzi of the commedia stage. The role of Pedrolino was created by Giovanni Pellesini of Reggio Emilia (c.1526–1616), husband of Vittoria Piisimi of Ferrara (‘Fioretta’), who co-starred with Isabella in Florence in 1589. Brambilla’s depiction of Pedrolino significantly predates the oldest previously accepted image of this mask, and establishes his earliest known costume.758 Sposalizio del Gobbo Nan, an undated late sixteenth century print, depicts dancing and seated wedding guests, the latter including two named as Buratin and Pedrolin, and the right-hand figure in a woodcut from the 1597 edition of Vecchi’s L’Anfiparnasso is identified by some as Pedrolino.759 However, Nicoll deplores the absence of sixteenth century images of Pedrolino, and refers to the title page woodcut of Croce’s La gran vittoria di Pedrolino, of 1621, as giving his ‘earliest dress’.760 Brambilla’s vignette shows Pellesini in his mid-sixties, in the original form of Pedrolino’s costume, a variant of the typical zanni suit. In 1575, Pedrolino led a company, which wintered in Florence, Pisa and Lucca, whose scandalous affairs apparently hindered their return to Pisa. In 1580, the Duke of Mantua had such success with his plans to amalgamate Pedrolino’s company with the Confidenti that Pedrolino married their leading lady, Vittoria.761 Pellesini led the Uniti until around 1598, and formally joined the Mantuan court troupe of Duke Vincenzo I c.1610.762 He was with Adriano Valerini

757 758 759

760 761 762

D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, p.489. Katritzky, ‘Eight portraits’, p.116. Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, p.67 (signed in the plate: ‘Gio flor for’); Krogh, ‘Italienske maskekomedies’, fig.20. Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, p.295; idem, The World of Harlequin, p.89. D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, pp.478–9. Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari, p.129; Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, pp.222–3.

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in around 1581, when Valerini successfully petitioned Carlo Borromeo to license his troupe’s scenarios, and with the Gelosi on their final tour to France, where Octavien Genêtay notes that ‘j’ay veu representer à l’hostel de Bourgogne par la compagnie d’Isabelle et Pedrolin, la tragédie du Calyfe d’Egypte’.763 In 1613 the poet François de Malherbe ungraciously commented of a royal command performance of the now 76-year-old Pellesini and 56-year-old Tristano Martinelli at the Louvre, that ‘neither was any longer of an age appropriate to the stage’.764 Pellesini, an archetypal example of the actor as buffone, was a much sought-after and highly paid guest star, and his association with the Uniti is no hindrance to identification of Brambilla’s images with the Gelosi company.765 As Pavoni’s diary demonstrates, both Pellesini and his wife Vittoria acted with the Gelosi at the Medici wedding of 1589, the year of Brambilla’s print. It is not known whether Gabriele Panzanini, the actor who played the part of Francatrippa for the Gelosi troupe, created the role. Brambilla’s Francatripe wears another variant of the zanni outfit, with a longer than normal jacket over the characteristic baggy trousers. This costume is very much that of the Recueil Fossard’s Francatripa, who has been identified as a portrait of Panzanini,766 and both have moustaches and a substantial pointed beard, although only Brambilla’s version carries a violin [plates 6, 38]. Given the early dates of these prints, the strong possibility is that Panzanini is portrayed both by Brambilla’s Francatripe, and in the Recueil Fossard depiction, which Gambelli dates to the mid-1580s. The role of the comic servant Trastulo was played and perhaps created by Giovan Pietro Pasquarello of Florence, who accompanied Alberto Naselli to Spain as one of his troupe’s shareholders in 1580, 1581 and 1585.767 The comic partner-

763

764 765

766 767

Barbieri, La supplica, pp.86–7; diary entry, 4 January 1604, quoted by Lebègue, ‘Les Italiens en 1604’, p.77. Baschet, Les comédiens italiens, pp.243–4: ‘ce ne sont plus âges propres au theatre’. Renowned for bufonarie such as one with which he entertained guests at a ‘German’ banquet given by the Duke of Ferrara for Sig. Gaspare di Monte in 1582. Pedrolino, concealed underneath a pie crust placed over a man-sized hole cut into the central table, surprised the guests by raising his head out of the pie to speak to Pantalone (G B Rossetti, Dello Scalco, 1584, quoted by Lea , Italian Popular Comedy, I, p.251). See also Ferrone, Attori mercanti corsari, pp.103, 106, 109, 118. On a similar entertainment at the Munich wedding of 1568, see Wirre, Ordentliche Beschreybung, f.54v, quoted above, p.49n.96. Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.152–3. Falconieri, ‘Commedia dell’arte en España’, pp.26, 35–6; Corrigan, ‘Commedia dell’arte portraits’, p.179; Bernardo José García García, ‘La compañía de Ganassa en Madrid (1580– 84): tres nuevos documentos’, Journal of Hispanic Research, 1 (1993), 355–70; Sanz Ayán and García García, ‘El “oficio de representar”’, p.485.

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ship between Trastulo and Zan Ganassa praised by Lope de Vega celebrates Pasquarello and Naselli, and it seems likely that the Trastulos of Brambilla, Minaggio and Callot depict Pasquarello [plates 2, 38, 293].768 Brambilla’s Trastulo wears a tight long-sleeved jerkin, short hose with the kind of diamond-shaped patterning associated with Harlequins of later centuries, and an unbrimmed cap with a feather, and wields a burlesque musical instrument. His costume relates to the regular diamond-shaped patches of the hose of a lute-playing mask, standing to the right centre foreground of a painting of c.1600 [plate 179]. This seemingly anachronistic appearance of Harlequin’s post-Martinelli costume may in fact depict Trastulo, although Minaggio’s Trastulo wears monochrome black. Pasquarello may also have given his name to a second stock role who, as illustrated by Bertelli’s Pascariello of 1591, wears the more conventional zanni suit of most early commedia servants [plate 319b].769 ‘Pasquariello’ remained popular throughout the seventeenth century, when, as testified by illustrations, including one in Callot’s Balli, the role seems to have developed from a zanni variant into an old master type [plate 4].770 It is unclear whether either this Pasquariello role, or any of the ‘tanti buffoni, Trastulli e Pantaloni […] Pascariello Pettola’ of the Neapolitan carnival of 1588, refer to the actor Pasquarello, or to imitators, or were independent of the actor.771 The Gelosi’s Franceschina was Silvia Roncagli of Bergamo (born c.1547), wife of the Gelosi inamorato Adriano Valerini of Verona (c.1547–92/5), who was associated with the troupe from the 1570s. She made a name for herself as a performer in the Gelosi’s intermedi, as noted in a letter of 1585 from Lodovico de’ Bianchi, the Gelosi company’s Dottor Gratiano Partesana informing the Duke of Mantua that Silvia is as necessary to the company in intermedi as in other matters.772 By 1589, actresses were well established, and the Gelosi troupe counted some of the most celebrated among its number. If Brambilla is depicting mem-

768

769 770 771

772

On Lope de Vega, see: Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte”’, pp.363–6; Aurelia Leyva, ‘Notas sobre Alberto Naselli “Ganassa” en España (1574–1584)’, in Actas del VI Congreso Nacional de Italianistas, Madrid 3–6 de Mayo de 1994, 2 vols (Madrid: Universidad Complutense, 1994), II, 19–25, pp.20–1. Shergold, ‘Ganassa and the “commedia dell’arte”’, pp.361–2. Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, pp.260, 289 (figs.177, 207). Giovan Battista Del Tufo, Ritratto o modello delle grandezze, delitie e meraviglie della nobilissima Città di Napoli, 1588 (quoted in Rasi, I comici italiani, I, pp.461–2; Posner, ‘Jacques Callot’, p.216); see also Sandberger, ‘Roland Lassus’ Beziehungen’, p.76; Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, p.260. Ughi, ‘Di Adriano Valerini’, p.151; eadem, ‘Di Ludovico de’ Bianchi’, pp.184, 187.

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bers of the Gelosi troupe, it is surprising that he chose to include only one female role, that of the maidservant Franceschina, although it is possible that other females on the games board, such as the cingana or ruffiana, also portray stage roles. The actor Battista Amorevoli of Treviso, who signed himself ‘comico geloso detto la Francischina’ in a publication of 1578, and ‘comico confidente’ in 1584, has been suggested as the Franceschina of the Recueil Fossard woodcuts. 773 The date of Brambilla’s print supports an identification of his Franceschina with Silvia Roncagli, and the fact that he depicts not the pert young maid of plate 53, but an older woman in a long gown, with a spindle, may reflect Roncagli’s age in 1589, of around 42. Perhaps because of its commonplace appearance, the maid’s costume is only rarely identifiable in depictions of actresses in non-performance contexts, making Brambilla’s vignette particularly significant. Dionisio Minaggio and Ambrogio Brambilla were primarily concerned not to flatter the actors with grand and showy portraits, but to record their appearance and costumes. These images foreshadow a genre which was to become popular in the following century, that of the series of stock type portraits, and offer valuable indications concerning the costume, gestures and props of members of Italian troupes in 1589 and c.1618.

III.iv.c Two composite prints compared This section presents a comparative analysis of two composite prints, each in a notable album of popular prints now in a royal collection. They are the anonymous and undated Burlette e schersi di commedie in the Royal Library’s Dutch Drolls album and Ambrogio Brambilla’s Che diavolo e questo, widely known through nine prints in the Recueil Fossard [plates 40, 315]. I have identified an unmutilated version of these latter, which restores their previously unknown text, and reveals them to be one composite print, three scenes across by three scenes deep [plate 54].774 Plate 315 is four scenes across by four scenes deep, and each of these scenes, like those of plate 54, features two or three comedians accompanied by dialogue.775 The printer of plate 315 is recorded in the plate as Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi, active c.1640–72 in the Piazza Navona workshop of the Roman de’ Rossi 773 774 775

Gambelli, Arlecchino a Parigi, pp.152–3, 190; Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, p.306. For text, see end of section, p.254. For text, see end of section, pp.254ff.

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family of printers and publishers.776 They are known to have acquired and republished plates originating from a number of other sixteenth century printers’ workshops, including those of van Aelst, Salamanca, and Lorenzo Vaccari. Thus, while G.B de’ Rossi’s death provides an ante quem, plate 315 (or the original plate on which it is based) could well predate de’ Rossi’s activity as a printer, and may date to the early seventeenth century. The twenty-five scenes of the two composites can be subdivided into a number of categories. The Windsor series (W1–W16) opens and closes with scenes in which Pantalone masquerades as a woman; in the last scene (W16), as in the fourth of the Brambilla print (B4), Zanni has apparently given multiple birth. Indeed, a strongly misogynous sentiment permeates these vignettes. The image of a man hatching eggs used in B4 is a well-known symbol for the hen-pecked husband, often used in connection with fools or besotted lovers. Genuine female roles feature in only three scenes (B3, B8, W3). The bella franceschina of the music in the Windsor series (W5) may refer to a popular pavane or dance tune with the title Che la bella Franceschina, which in turn possibly refers to the commedia dell’arte maid, whose most popular stage name was Franceschina. This tune is referred to in Troiano’s account of the 1568 Munich wedding, and by Bendinelli in 1614.777 Both series are dominated by an obsession with food (B1, B6, B9; W6–7, W11), drink (B9, W15), and ablutions (B5, B7–8; W9, W13, W16). The uncompromising emphasis on defecation in B8, W13 and W16 reminds us that it features in some of the most popular lazzi of the early scenarios of the commedia dell’arte.778 While the motivating force in B1, B6, B9, W6–7, and W11 is unabashed gluttony, several of these scenes additionally reveal a marked sadistic streak in the participants. This aggressive element is present in both series, coming to the fore visually particularly in the violent horseplay of B1–2, W3, W7 and W14, and the over-enthusiastic ministrations of B5, B7–8, and W9. It is also manifested verbally in the coarse, even bellicose, tone of the language of both series. Brambilla’s scenes focus exclusively on the basic instincts and pleasures common to even the least sophisticated members of the human race. Half of the scenes of the Windsor print, however (W2–5, W8, W10, W12, W14), form a category unrepresented by Brambilla. This is the caricaturing of courtly pastimes and customs, and particularly its nostalgic recreations of the

776

777 778

On de’ Rossi, see Bellini, ‘Printmakers’, p.31; Thomas Ashby, ‘Le diverse edizioni dei Vestigi dell’Antichità di Roma di Stefano Du Pérac’, La Bibliofilia, 16 (1915), 401–21. Troiano, Dialoghi, f.141v; Leuchtmann, Die Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568, p.414. As emphasised by the lazzi of Guarinonius, in Die Grewel (noted above, p.196).

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age of chivalry’s aristocratic pursuits, whose influence was still evident in late sixteenth century court entertainments and festivals. Thus W2 is a burlesque on jousting, with Pantalone, aided by Zanni, making a childish game out of the skilful tournament contest of running at the ring. W8 features a travesty of dismounted combat; the master–servant relationship is turned on its head by the bullying Zanni and querulous Pantalone of W3, and W4 ridicules the noble pastime of hunting, with a mule and owl standing in for the traditional horse and falcon. W5, W10, and W12 poke fun at the courtly accomplishments of dancing and singing. In W5, Pantalone plays the lute while Zanni and the mule parody an elegant dance; B3, Brambilla’s dancing scene, is only superficially comparable. Here Zanni provides the music, and the unseemly, barely contained lusts of his elderly master, rather than courtly pursuits, are the butt of the joke. W14 parodies courtly romance: far from being about to commit suicide as a result of unrequited love, the last word of the dialogue reveals, by its punning on ‘tortoise’ and ‘lazy-bones’, that Zanni’s spleen is merely directed at the small reptile lying defenceless at his feet. In B7 and W9, Pantalone’s sadistic tendencies are particularly apparent. He uses some vicious-looking instruments to pull the teeth and trim the beard of a Zanni who, despite being shaken by the experience, tries to keep up his ingratiating manner in order to talk his way out of a tight corner. He turns the tables on Pantalone in W3, and really gets his revenge in B5 and B8, with fearsomely vicious implements. Zanni also has the upper hand in W11, where Pantalone is reduced to an ingratiating groveller in the hope of tasting his cake. Zanni’s insults never become as openly offensive as the worst of Pantalone’s. Instead, he tends to rely on wordplay and sarcasm, and his ominous ‘lasse fa a mi messer’ is the catchphrase of both prints. Thus, despite the added ‘chivalrous’ element in the Windsor series, unmistakable verbal and visual links are shared by the two prints. The discovery of plate 54 and its inscriptions has restored these Recueil Fossard prints to a more meaningful theatrical image, and enabled art-historical contextualization within a distinct genre of composite prints. In these nine scenes, six commedia characters engage in some comic horseplay, or lazzi. The main participants, a Pantalone and his two zanni, are joined in three of the nine scenes by secondary characters: a tedesco, a girl, and an older woman. This discovery also raises many questions. It is unclear whether these nine scenes record the typical comic routines of mountebanks’ assistants, the uncoordinated revelry or felicitous high jinks of costumed carnival revellers, or the jealously guarded lazzi of some fully fledged professional troupe of commedia dell’arte actors.

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Neither is it clear whether these images and their inscriptions relate to the activities of Brambilla or his fellow members in the Accademia della Val di Blenio, in which case Brambilla’s role in the development of the commedia dell’arte might be more than simply one of passive observer and recorder. Beijer dismissed the vignettes of Brambilla’s print as ‘jeux de saltimbanques, des lazzi sans aucun rapport entre eux et sans grande importance au point de vue théâtral’.779 In reflecting, to whatever extent, lazzi of the type presented by the Italian comedians on the early modern professional Roman stage, such prints make a valuable contribution to the theatre-iconographic record. Note 774 (Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, p.250 n.29): Che diavolo e questo / Ah poltro te’ m’ha mangiat la me part di machero / ti menti p la gola / Non ue moui nigot messer, Lasse fa a mi. / Non menar cosi forte bestia / Pare questa misser / A patro buteue ualent homo adesso / Cara fia vu balle tanto ben che uado tutto in broetto / O veccchio matto. / Non me de fastidio adesso messer che so infantat. / Che diauolo fastu li asino / Fa pian bestia tu me peli la testa / Lassem pettena ben messer ch’adesso comenza a uegni i piatton. / p haui rubbat le’ salzizze’ / Perdonem messer che la rason uol cosi / frustar’ un par mio an, basta / Messer no m fe stenta’ piu, degratia lassamel pia in bocca. / Pia sto boccon Zanni ch’el se grosso. / Oyme che son accecata. oyme / perdonem messer che l’e stat la candela / Oyme che fastu traditor sassin te me brusi el culo. / mi nit uol andar piu in Almagna, mi uol star sempr qui a trincher e mangiar lasagne / E mi no uoio anda piu a Bergom, e uoio sta chi lo a mangia i machero.

By the devil, what is this? / You scoundrel, you have eaten my share of the macaroni / You lie through your teeth. / Don’t move at all, sir. Leave it to me. / Don’t strike me so hard, imbecile. / Ward off this one, sir. / O master, jump in as a valiant man / Dear girl, if you dance so well, I go into a rapture / You old fool. / Do not disturb me now, sir, because I am giving birth. / By the devil, what are you doing there, fool. / Go gently, imbecile, you are plucking my head. / Let me comb you thoroughly, sir, for now the lice begin to come out. / For having stolen that sausage / Forgive me sir, but reason requires it. / To whip one of my sort, that’ll do. / Sir, do not torture me any more. Please let me take it in my mouth. / Take this mouthful, Zanni, for its big. / Woe is me, I am blinded, woe is me! / Forgive me sir, it was the candle. / Woe is me, what are you up to traitor, murderer, you are burning my arse. / I don’t want to go back to Germany any more, I want to be here for ever, drinking and eating lasagna. / And I don’t want to go back to Bergamo any more, I want to stay here and eat macaroni.

Note 775 (Katritzky, ‘Italian comedians’, pp.252–3 n.30): Zanni te pare adesso che pari una donna / Zanni, do I now seem like a woman to you? / By Cancher messer come ste ben, nessun ue the pest, sir! How fine you look / No one will cognoscera mai, uegni pur, uia / spinge forte ever recognize you, come on, let’s go! / Push zanni che a’man a’mano me accosto a l’anello strongly Zanni, so that little by little I will get lasse fa a mi messer / No ue moui negotta messer close to the ring. / Leave it to me sir. / Don’t

779

Beijer and Duchartre, Recueil de plusieurs fragments, p.18.

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III.IV.C SERIAL IMAGES: TWO COMPOSITE PRINTS che sto ben a sto mud’mi / sta sora de ti bestia che me fracassi le spalle / Messer hauete un servitor molto costumato / Va pian zanni che la mulla camina troppo forte Deghe di speroni messer che andara pian / O patro sone un po un ballett Che lasinello uul balla con mi / Or su balla asinello fio mio caro con gianni che io sonaro la bella franceschina / mene fort el spedo patro seno chel’formaio casca tutto nel fogo / spesega zanni che me scotto le man, mette el formaio su la cocuzza che le cota / A’ traditor patro a sto mod an a uolim robba i macchero / Pian Pian zanni che son ruinao; no uoio i tuo maccheroni no, / Ste indre messer lasse fa a mi, ueni de fora adesso poltro / Tu menti per la gola delle bastonae te me dao / femela aguzza in ponta caro messer in cortesia / Sta forte zanni sti uoi che ti conzi ben la barba. / Conzela alla spagnola messer / O patro e uoio fa ona Cauriola alla napolitana uedi messer / Salta pian zanni te non me rompi questa lira, pian bestia / O caro zanni fio mio dolce da ben de ueluo inzuccherao da me un pochettino de la tua torta / ste lontan da questa torta messer, se no che ue daro de sta paletta sul mostazzo / La, sol, fa, re, ut, la, mi, fa, sol, fa, la, la, la, mi fa ut, mi, fa, sol, fa, ut mi Senti o patro come e canti be / No alza tanto la uose zanni, che lasinello no se sente a pena / Al me dole la panza messer ste fort cosi un pezzo / Spedisete zanni che sono oramai stracco. / adess adess o fornito da cagha messer / Che fastu bestia guarda quel pistolese che le se inscurio el tempo / Tegnim messer se no chem uoio amazza, e son desperat; O pouera tarteragha / leua quel fiasco dalla coda del muletto presto zanni che casco / Casche a doss a mi messer che no ue rompi l’per terra / O pouero zanni le se infantao de doi zanolini, e mi sono la balia / Ande a laua i fassator messer che i fantolini han cagatt / Sup.lice. / Gio. Batt. d’Rossi in Nauona forma.

move at all sir, because I’m fine like this. Stand on your own two feet, wretch, you’re breaking my back. / Sir, you have an exceptionally wellbred servant. / Go slowly Zanni, because the mule walks too fast. / Use your spurs sir, that it may go more slowly. / Oh master, play a dance for a little, because the little donkey wishes to dance with me. / Come dance little donkey, my dear one with Gianni, that I may play the beautiful Franceschina. / Turn the spit vigorously, master, otherwise the cheese will all fall into the fire. / Hurry, Zanni, as I’m burning my hands, put the cheese on your bonce for it’s baked. Ah treacherous master, like that, hey, wanting to steal my macaroni. / Softly, softly, Zanni, or I am ruined, I do not want your macaroni, no. / Keep back, sir, leave it to me; come out now, you scoundrel. / You lie through your teeth about the blows you give me. / Make it pointed at the tip, dear sir, if you please. / Keep still Zanni, if you wish me to trim your beard. / Trim it Spanish style, sir. / Oh master, now I wish to do a neapolitan somersault, look sir! / Jump gently, Zanni, so that you don’t break my lira, gently you imbecile. / O dearest Zanni, my sweet son, my goodly one, my velvet one, my sugary one, give me a little piece of your cake. / Keep away from this cake sir, otherwise I’ll hit you with this spatula on your ugly mug. / La, so, fa, re, doh, la, me, fa, so, fa, la, la, la, mi fa doh, mi, fa, so, fa, doh me. Listen, oh master, how beautifully I sing. / Do not raise your voice while singing, Zanni, because the little donkey can barely be heard. / Oh, how my belly aches, sir. Keep still like this a while. / Hurry up, Zanni, I am getting tired now. / In a moment, sir, I shall have finished crapping. / What are you doing, imbecile, be careful of that hunting knife because it has become very overcast. / Restrain me sir, otherwise I shall kill myself. I am desperate; oh miserable lazybones! [= pun: ‘tortoise’] / Lift that bottle from the rear end of the mule, quickly Zanni, because I’m falling. / Fall on to me sir, if you do not wish to break your back on the ground. O miserable Zanni, he has given birth to two baby zanni, and I am their nurse. / Come here and wash the swaddling clothes, sir, because the babies have crapped.

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III.iv.d Female roles in serial images Scholars studying women performers have a wide range of art to consider: paintings, drawings, prints, and rarer examples of three-dimensional art, some belonging to series, others created as single images. These are an invaluable evidential source for the appearance, costume, gestures, and props of early actresses, their stock roles and stage business. Early studies of actresses tended to interpret the iconography literally and to generalize broadly from a limited range of images of often uncertain date or provenance. While the pictorial record is important in assessing women’s contribution to early modern theatre, effective identification and interpretation require a critical approach to using pictures as historical evidence and an understanding of the complex issues surrounding gender representation on the early modern stage. Only rarely does the pictorial record offer a straightforward reflection of early modern performing women. Some pictures are modern forgeries; others have suffered from unreliable restoration or dating, or have been altered by additions, including texts. Even in a genuine, reliable, and clear picture, women may be cross-dressed or otherwise disguised, and female stage roles are not necessarily played by women. A picture may not necessarily reflect a ‘historically authentic’ performance event; if it does, there may be considerable variation in the degree of authenticity. All early modern pictures are subject to an array of contingencies that include artistic fantasy, iconographic precedents or commissioning pressures, and distortion for stylistic, moralistic, allegorical, satirical, or other reasons. Some depictions of actresses have no known visual precedents; many are pastiches, copies, or adaptations, based on earlier works. Such factors are integral to the use of images as historical documents. They do not disqualify a picture from contributing to our knowledge of female performance, and an informed awareness of them can greatly enhance its theatre-historical potential. Only a limited amount can be achieved by considering them in isolation. A better approach is to ‘read’ individual pictures of actresses within the context of relevant documentation, textual as well as visual, and here serial images are of particular significance. Among the best known serial images of early actresses are those of the Recueil Fossard. The surviving sections of this dispersed and largely lost collection of miscellaneous early modern prints, now mainly in Scandinavia, include a muchreproduced sixteenth century series of eighteen woodcuts of Harlequin with his Italian troupe of actors and actresses. In total, nine male and five female charac-

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ters, all named, are featured in these eighteen prints [plate 6].780 My own reading of the plot tentatively distributes these fourteen characters between the households of the two older men, as follows: Segnor Pantalon has two male servants, Harlequin and Zany Cornetto; the female characters are his maid Francisquina (top, second from right; also in bottom row), and his wife, Dona Lucretia (centre row, last on right). Donna Cornelia (bottom right) could be their daughter or a courtesan; such ambiguity of status is frequent in the iconography. The other older man, Segnor Dotour, has two menservants, Francatripa and Philipin; his maid is Licetta (third row, first image). The inamorata or courtesan Donna Lucia is courted illicitly by Pantalon (top, second from left), and officially by Segnor Horacio, the friend of Cocodrillo. Like practically all the males, the son of the dottore, Segnor Leandro, dallies with Francisquina, but his wooing of a more credible marriage partner, his social equal Donna Cornelia, in the final picture seems to suggest that this performance will end, as many did, with a marriage. Of the fourteen parts, four are featured in all three acts, and only one of these, Francisquina, is a female role. The other three are principal masks, Pantalon and his comic servants Harlequin and Zany Cornetto. Lucia, who is depicted in acts I and II, and Lucretia, who is depicted in act II, could double with Cornelia and Licetta, who feature only in the last act. Pantalon, Harlequin and Zany take part in all three acts, and Leandro in the last two, but the other five male roles could be doubled by three players. Over a third of the players in this performance, five out of fourteen, are women. More significantly, the maid Francisquina is one of four major roles, and women feature in over half of the eighteen pictures which make up this series. Two prints of 1583 by Brambilla represent a compact print series offering valuable visual evidence concerning the gender make-up of commedia dell’arte troupes. One shows five commedia characters in a kitchen, making preparations for a wedding [plate 52]. In the second, six newcomers join three of them, namely the comic manservant Burati, Gratian and Nespola, in a celebratory wedding dance [plate 53]. The six men are three comic servants, two old masters and a tedesco who plays the pipe and tabor. It is harder to categorize the five young women, but they are possibly two maids, Nespola and Balzarina, and three courtesans, Filomena, Venturina and Franceschina. Five of the eleven characters are women, and they are central to the narrative. Many scenes of the Landshut staircase fresco paintings feature women players [plates 20–1]. Access to the complex continuous frescoes of the thirty walls of this cramped life-size three-dimensional pictorial scheme of the 1570s, dam780

For a discussion of reasons for arranging these eighteen woodcuts to reflect episodes in the three acts of a particular commedia performance, see section II.i.b, pp.109ff.

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aged by fire, is restricted. While the artist’s primary intention was not necessarily to recreate one particular commedia performance,781 there has surely been an attempt in this staircase to evoke a plausible sequential plot, and women clearly play a substantial part.782 Five of the dozen or so stock characters are women, many of them recur on different levels, and they may be divided into several households. Those of the old men each include a comic manservant and a daughter. The liveried manservant and pageboy may serve the two military captains, who woo the daughters of the older men. The performance ends with the Spanish captain united, by Zanni, with his inamorata, while her father, Pantalone, looks on. The cast is completed by an exclusively female household, consisting of the courtesan, ruffiana and maid, which takes a lively part in the action, aiming brimming chamber pots and other missiles at their menfolk across the seven levels of this cramped spiral staircase. Even in their present damaged state, these frescoes show that women, and not just young pretty women, had a powerful dramatic presence on the commedia stage. Serial images such as these both broadly support textual evidence that women’s participation varied widely from troupe to troupe, with between a third and half being women, and confirm the increasing prominence of the prima donna over the course of the sixteenth century. Actresses consolidated their on-stage presence by developing sophisticated strategies for circumventing the prejudices against women on the stage, and for overcoming the challenges posed by the heritage of a theatre dominated by the need to minimize on-stage female roles. They reinforced an increasingly vital and compelling stage presence through audience-pleasing devices such as improvised set pieces, music and costumes, and by developing a wide variety of roles, as reflected in the pictorial record. As the prima donna became an essential stage presence, artists began to make actresses a focal point. Regardless of how closely male artists’ focus on inamoratas reflected the priorities of stage practice, it is clear that the rise of the commedia dell’arte promoted the emergence of female stage roles from the margins to the centre of theatre. Italian women of abundant talents, equal to the challenge of wholeheartedly grasping and exploiting these new opportunities, stepped triumphantly into the limelight of public acclaim. The visual record confirms that commedia dell’arte actresses became increasingly adept in deploying youth, beauty and talent to successfully negotiate their fair share of the early modern stage. 781

782

For Lucia Corrain, the stair frescoes do not relate to an actual performance, but have a formal mnemonic function (‘La commedia dell’arte nelle corti tedesche’, in Venezia e la Germania (Milano: Electa, 1986), 159–70). Mastropasqua, ‘Lo spettacolo della Collezione Fossard’, pp.101–2.

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A major focus of this study is the identification of pictures whose documentary value for theatre history may previously have been unrecognized or dismissed, in order to interpret the performance events depicted in them. Such pictures are largely undated, anonymous, and unpublished, and art-historical analysis has a direct bearing on their theatrical interpretation. The traditionally narrow approach taken by theatre historians to the early iconography has focused attention on a small group of frequently reproduced pictures, while leaving much relevant material unresearched. Only comparatively recently has evaluation of the commedia dell’arte shifted from emphasis on its stock types to increasing understanding of it as a diverse professional theatre whose roles were essentially the creation of individual actors and actresses. From their initially wide creative repertoire, Italian comedians gradually settled into increasing predictability, and the interpretations of historians and writers primarily familiar with these later manifestations profoundly affected twentieth century approaches to the early commedia dell’arte and its iconography. The older literature virtually excludes pictures not depicting the commedia dell’arte stock types in recognizable performance situations, preferably on stage. Sterling’s art-historical analysis of early commedia dell’arte pictures, focused exclusively on this type of picture, introduced a new awareness among theatre historians that the artists of such pictures are influenced not only by what they see on stage, but by commissioning pressures, artistic conventions and iconographic precedents.783 One aim of the present study is to extend Sterling’s approach, to pictures previously excluded from such analysis because of their less obvious relevance or inaccessibility. This involves the identification of images, their classification according to art-historical methods, and interpretation of their theatrical content. Section I summarizes the rise and spread of professional acting in sixteenth century Italy, and examines some forerunners of the commedia dell’arte and its early stock types. It presents a new assessment of the mechanisms by which the commedia dell’arte reached Bavaria, where the earliest comprehensively documented commedia performance took place, in Munich in February 1568. Here 783

Sterling, ‘Early paintings’.

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too, the earliest and most comprehensive series of commedia paintings, the two Landshut fresco cycles of the 1570s, are located. This study draws extensively on two diaries recording the visits of a Bavarian prince to Italy in 1565–66 and 1579. They provide new evidence regarding the rise of the commedia dell’arte and its central comic master–servant duo Zanni and Magnifico, both on stage and at the carnival. The diaries suggest links between a range of Italian commedia dell’arte-related entertainments and those subsequently held in southern Germany, notably at court weddings in Munich in 1568 and Hechingen in 1598. In doing so, they indicate some ways in which stock roles of the Italian comedy diffused across the Alps, and emphasize the central importance to this process of close family ties between Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and the ruling families into which his Habsburg sisters married, including those of Florence, Mantua, Ferrara and Bavaria [plate 25]. No less than their hosts, the principal guests at early modern court festivals expressed their generosity, taste, and ultimately their power not just through the permanent exchange of gifts, but by the temporary sharing and display of their most valued worldly possessions and human resources. They travelled to foreign courts with vastly lengthy retinues of carriages and wagons transporting precious metal-ware and other household goods, jewels, masquerade costumes and finery, but also servants, musicians, and, if they could afford the expense, other professional performers, whether long-serving courtiers or hired on a temporary basis. The Munich wedding of 1568 marks the start of a half-century period during which the Italian comedians were the most sought-after performers in large areas of German-speaking Europe, and its principle guest of honour, the groom’s uncle, Ferdinand of Tyrol, was in the vanguard of this fashion. Section II identifies significant bodies of commedia-related pictures by a number of artists not previously associated with theatre iconography. It provides art-historical analyses of selected iconographic groups, some already well known, others first identified in the publications arising from this study.784 They include several sets of Recueil Fossard prints, the six paintings which are the subject of Sterling’s article, and a large group of Flemish pictures whose borrowings of motifs and settings from the prints of the Italian engraver Tempesta demonstrate the progressive stereotyping of commedia-related motifs which was already occurring around 1600. A point that emerges especially strongly from this work is that the value of a picture as documentary material for the history of performance and spectacle is not purely related to what it actually shows, but

784

See bibliography (Katritzky: 1987–97).

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also to the extent to which its visual information can be interpreted, for example through external information concerning its place and date of production, its artist, artistic influences and variants, its patron, and the performers and performance it depicts. My work on aspects such as the identification of previously unrecognized monograms, signatures, dates, or other inscriptions on pictures, and the attribution of pictures to named artists and schools, is undertaken in this context, and not as an exercise in art-historical connoisseurship for its own sake. Association of undated pictures with firmly dated ones in order to establish chronological directions of pictorial influence offers a more reliable approach to dating undocumented iconographic material than speculative attempts to relate it to recorded performances. Association with specific named artists enables pictures to be placed more securely within the context of an oeuvre and place of production. Section III offers theatrical interpretation of selected aspects of some of these pictures, concentrating in turn on scenery, settings, and stages, then stock characters, and finally multiple and serial images. Only rarely is it possible to retrieve (or even to assess the extent of) any specific theatre-historical information offered by the early iconography, such as the identity of the troupes or actors depicted, or the dates and locations of the depicted performances. However, these images represent a substantial source of general theatre-historical information, concerning, for example, scenery, settings, and staging, and the costumes, gestures, poses, props, and accessories of the stock characters. This study represents the first large-scale attempt at the systematic retrieval of such information with respect to the commedia dell’arte. The early iconography depicts commedia actors on the whole range of staging, from cleared spaces and natural stages to elaborate perspective stages, and is particularly informative concerning the costumes, gestures, and accessories of the stock types. The widespread depiction of characters in buffone and matachin costume in conjunction with professional actors, by a broad range of early artists of many European nationalities, is an indication that this is not simply an artistic convention.785 It reflects genuine performance practice, again confirming the versatility of the early Italian comedians. An analysis of the much rarer surviving early images of Harlequin suggests that, in contrast to matachin depictions, many of them are artistic stereotypes based on a very limited number of identifiable iconographic precedents. Section III concludes with a brief consideration of the significance of several multiple and serial images. These include a previously unknown games 785

Pace Posner, ‘Jacques Callot’.

261

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board of 1589, on which I have been able to identify the earliest depictions of some of the roles then associated with the actors of the most famous early commedia troupe, the Gelosi company; which give valuable indications concerning their costumes and appearance. This study presents the largest single published body of pre-1621 commediarelated iconography available to date, of which a significant proportion was unpublished in this connection prior to my own publications. It offers advances in our knowledge of the artists, dates, and places of production of these images, the contribution which they can make to interpretations of the early Italian comedians, and of techniques for extracting documentary evidence from visual records of the early commedia dell’arte. It also identifies numerous named artists, German, Flemish, and Italian, many not previously associated with the commedia dell’arte, who contributed towards the development of its pre-1621 iconography. Stylistic and compositional connections between the pictures are investigated, as an aid to more accurate dating, in order to relate them to particular artists, and to gain an idea of the influence of iconographic precedents. Notable amongst these latter are certain influential and widely circulated prints, not all themselves depicting commedia-related motifs. This study also brings together new visual and written evidence, for example with respect to zanni costume and carnival street revels, where iconographic links between depictions of northern carnival processions and processions including stock commedia characters confirm those suggested by early modern texts. My inclusive approach has contributed towards the marked rehabilitation of carnival pictures evident in recent scholarship in this area, and provides a broad overview suggesting new avenues of enquiry. Analysis of the iconography strongly supports the view that the Italian comedians had multiple roots: both in the theatre and in traditional folk customs; or more specifically in commedie erudita, professional entertainment, and carnival ritual. The ‘hybrid vigour’ achieved by combining the most positive elements of these disparate sources gave them their fertile creativity and wide appeal, and they have left their mark in the early iconography. The texts and images presented here support the view that all-year-round professional theatre originated in a fusion of the skills of professional buffoni and actresses, musicians and dancers, carnival street improvisers, and the amateur humanist stage, which culminated in the inamorata, Zanni and Pantalone trio. Analysis of these pictures has also confirmed that, by the early seventeenth century, the iconography, like the commedia dell’arte itself, was, for the most part, settling into a well-worn routine based on precedents and conventions.

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Depictions of early commedia stock types, their gestures, costumes, props, postures, facial characteristics, expressions, and body types, and even the settings in which they are depicted, have as much to do with the identity and motives of their artists, and the visual heritage those artists drew on, as with the actual appearance, performances, and settings of the entertainers they depict. A relatively limited number of iconographic precedents exercised a strong influence on many of these pictures, confirming that they cannot be regarded as simple reflections of specific performances, or even as general evocations of contemporary stage practice. The comedy and carnival pictures in publications produced for the early modern German friendship album market consistently indicate that it is no coincidence that they made such frequent and heavy-handed connections between the Italian nation, stronghold of Catholicism, and motifs taken from carnival and comedy.786 At a time when professional commedia dell’arte actors and street performers could earn a year-round living in Venice, many German-speaking regions banned carnival pursuits and professional comedy altogether, or at best, tolerated them only within the bounds of the carnival period, as severely restricted seasonal pleasures. The masked stock characters of the Italian comedy, and their iconographic representations, both in and outside the context of stage and carnival, had the potential for significant religious and political implications for German spectators, and carried intensely negative undertones of decadent excess, deception and wanton folly. Theatre historians are increasingly aware of the need to take into account iconographic precedents and contextual circumstances when interpreting pictures whose theatrical significance is inextricably connected with their art-historical interpretation. Individual pictures, particularly if they are insecurely dated or attributed, can make only a limited contribution. Our knowledge of early performance practice is fundamentally dependent on a broad overview of the relevant iconography, the provision of which is a central concern of this study.

786

See, for example, Mimicarum Aliquot facetiarum icones ad habitum Italicum expressi. Abbildung etlicher Italianischer vermumbten bossen, der bluhenden Jugendt zugefallen [...] durch Crisp. d. P. [plate 260].

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Bibliography

Bibliographic details for standard reference works, museum, sale and exhibition catalogues, and monographs or articles on individual artists consulted, are generally listed only for publications individually cited.

Principal collections cited (for archival material, manuscripts and works of art, see also index, under location). Basle, University Library MS. A O7 & 8

Angelieri, MDLXXII (Venetia: Angelieri, 1572)

Berlin, Kunstbibliothek Lipp.Cg.67

Munich, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (BHStA) Fürsten Sachen (FüSa) FüSa T.XXVI FüSa 364 FüSa 418 FüSa 772 Geheimes Hausarchiv, Korrespondenzakte (GHA KA) GHA KA 593 GHA KA 608 GHA KA 924, of which ff.33r–121v are here cited as Diary GHA KA 925 GHA KA 1712 Personalakten and other documents HR I Fasz 279 HR I Fasz 462 HR I Fasz 465 HR I Fasz 466

Florence, Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF), Mediceo del Principato (MdP) MdP 2889 Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle inv.nr VIII 2676 inv.nr 1965–10 London, British Library MS.Add 32,379 London, British Museum (BM) BM 1879-6-13-587 BM 1071.g.7(14): Ordine, et dechiaratione di tvtta la mascherata, fatta nella Città di Venetia la Domenica di Carneuale. M.D.LXXI. per la Gloriosa Vittoria contra Turchi, in Venetia, appresso Giorgio

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Kurbayern Hofzahlamtsrechnungen (HZR) HZR 1(1551) – HZR 36(1590) Kurbayern Äußeres Archiv (KÄA) KÄA 4292 KÄA 4579 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BStB) cod.germ.1957 cod.germ.929 cod.germ.2614 Munich, Deutsches Theatermuseum (DTM) III/3657 Oxford, Bodleian Library A new pleasant and delightfull Astrologie, invented by reverend Maister Harlequin the royall Astrologer, calculated for the Leaguers Merydian (London: Gosson, 1595) Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS CCC94, Fynes Moryson, The

fourth part of an Itinerary […]. (dated in pencil 1595) Oxford, Douce Collection (Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum) E.2.6 W.2.3a Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal Vol.200 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale (BN) cabinets des éstampes, E.a.79 Res cabinets des éstampes, Hennin collection Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Opera Res.2 Stockholm, Nationalmuseum Printroom NM 324–341/1904 NM 2189/1904 to NM 2272/1904 (Recueil Fossard)

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300

Index

* indicates indexing of plate (generally by main artist or location: see individual plate captions); Cda: see commedia dell’arte

Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig Museum: plate 16 Aachen, Hans von: plates *282 (Italia), *288 (Francia): 180-1, 242 Aasted, Elsebeth: 166–7, 183, 186, 219 Academicians, Academies: see troupes Abts, Wouter: plate 142 Abbreviations used: individually indexed Acrobatics: see drama Actors and actresses, comici, performers (see props, stock roles, troupes): academicians: see troupes actors (on all-male stage): 15, 39, 56, 72, 88, 199–200 actress–servant–master trio: 15, 63, 90, 153, 157, 204, 239, 262 actresses: 15, 31, 38–9, 42, 44, 85– 92, 103, 136, 144, 165, 196, 199– 213, 244–6, 250–1, 256–8, 262 costume of: see props introduction of: 31, 39, 85–6, 199 effect on male audiences: 92, 201 at window: 118, 186, 188–9, 200 roles (see stock roles): 85–92, 165, 199–213, 256–8 amateurs: 15, 18, 34–41, 49, 73, 75, 79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 105, 115, 120, 137, 183, 185, 187, 228, 246, 262 boys: 71, 88, 149, 169–70, 200 British: 43, 85, 90–1, 99 contracts: 21, 37, 39, 86, 218 dwarf: 49

handbooks of: see zibaldoni Jewish (see Sommi): 70, 94–5 Moors: 70, 78 professionals, professionalism, models of development of professional stage: 13–15, 19–20, 29, 31– 49, 56, 62–3, 66, 68–9, 73, 75–95, 103, 106, 115, 133, 137, 154, 165, 177–9, 187–8, 195–6, 200, 204, 206, 213–14, 218, 220–1, 225–6, 243, 253–4, 259–63 consecutive model: 39–40 economic motivation: 42 permeable pyramid model: 40–1 rederijkers: see troupes stage names: see stock roles writings and publications of (see zibaldoni and individual actors): 14, 21, 40–1, 91 Adhémar, Jean: 142, 145–6, 151, 186 Aelst, Nicolas van: 114, 252 Aerts, Hendrik: Imaginary renaissance palace (plate *280): 180, 217–18, 237 Agnan: see Sarat Aix-en-Provence, Musée: 156 Alberghini: see Martinelli Album amicorum: see friendship album Alcohol: see props Alexander: see Barbeta, Visconnten Alfield, Thomas, A true reporte: 43 Aliverti, Maria Ines: 23, 28–9, 216 Allen, David: 27

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

All-male stage: see actors Alsloot, Dennis van: plates 113, 115, 275 Carnival (plate *82): 128–9, 137, 194–5, 205, 218, 222, 224, 239 Carnival at Venice: 133 Carnival in a town square (plate *135): 137, 145, 150, 224, 237–8 Carnival on the ice: 238 Fête populaire (plate *175): 181 View of a square in Antwerp (plate *117): 132, 137, 181, 224 Altoviti, Giovambattista, Bishop of Florence: 80, 82 Amateur performers: see actors Amannato: 81 Amorevoli da Treviso, Battista = ‘la Franceschina’: Canzone: 91, 251 Vittoria degli = ‘Isabella’: 206 Amsterdam Art market: plates 32, 79, 82, 126, 163, 173, 175, 225, 273 Hartveld: 154 Historisch Museum, Fodor Collection: plate 59 Rijksmuseum: plates 30c, 128–9, 279–80 Anderson, Michael: 43, 178, 182 Andreae, Johann Valentin, Turbo: 104 Andreini: 214 Francesco = Capitano Spavento del Vall’ Inferno: 17, 84, 88, 209, 214– 15, 246–7; plates 1, 335 Bravure: 214–15, 246 Giovan Battista = Lelio: 85, 89, 245 Isabella [Canali] = Isabella: 33, 84, 87– 9, 142, 206, 209, 246–8; plate 328 Rime: 206 Virginia [Ramponi] = Florinda: 89, 207, 245; plate 293 Virginia [Rotari] = Lidia Angela see stock roles

302

Anguillara Giovan’Andrea of Rome: 80–2, 93 Marchese dell’: see ‘Florence [Paolo Giordano Orsini]’ Anna Caterina see Mantua Anthonien of Bolzano: 38, 79 Anthonissone, Willem: plate 142 Antics, antiques, or Labours of Hercules: see ‘drama [acrobats: forze d’Ercole]’ Anti-theatricality: 33, 35, 37, 41–2, 80, 89–90, 92, 200–1, 263 Antwerp, Flanders, Low Countries actors and performers in: 44, 47, 103, 119–20 art and artists from and in: 119–20, 123, 126, 129–30, 137, 143, 153, 158, 164, 167, 194, 241 art market : plates 60, 63, 175 carnival, pageants: 155, 194 depicted: plates 117, 147 Entry of Ernst of Austria: 158 Koninklijk Museum: 164; plates 77, 110 Museum Mayer van den Bergh: 159; plate 205 private collections: plates 115, 180, 277, 337 Rubenianum: 133; plate 230 Violeren Rederijkers: see troupes Apollonio, Mario: 93, 186 Apuleius: 71 L’arboro della pazzia: see Stockholm Archilei, Antonio: 88 Aretino, Pietro I ragionamenti: 36, 63 Ariosto, Ludovico: 38 Aristotelian unities: 31 ‘Arlecchini’ maiolica: see Montelupo Arlecchino, Arlequin: see ‘stock roles [Harlequin]’ Arlechin comic famos: see Mantua

INDEX

Armani, Vincenza, of Venice: 33, 86–7, 246 Arms and armour: see ‘drama [dance: matachin]’, props, ‘stock roles [capitano, tedesco]’ Arrigoni, Paolo: 114 Artioli, Umberto: 46, 51, 114 Artzat und der Wiesen of Breslau, Niclaus von: plate 257 Aschengreen Piacenti, Kirsten: 54 Ashby, Thomas: 117, 252 Ash Wednesday: see carnival Askew, Pamela: 17 Asper, Helmut: 28 Astrologer: see stock roles Atellan farces: see drama Audience, spectators (see actors): 33, 75, 101, 125, 127, 132, 137, 169, 178, 180, 183–5, 196, 200 appeal, participation: 31, 35, 83, 95, 111, 187, 258 depicted: 51 expectation: 31 foreign: 38, 42, 104, 204, 213, 263 private, court: 63, 153, 179 public: 93-4 response: 21, 55, 84, 92, 96, 101 seating: 81, 122 size: 45, 83–6, 185, 196 Augsburg: actors and performers in: 79 art and artists in and from (see Heintz): 51, 54 Automaton: see Vienna Auwera, Joost vander: 129 Avercamp, Hendrick van: 173; plate 275 Avignon; actors in: 196 Avra: see stock roles

Baader, Berndt: 51, 84 Bärtl: 63

Baden, Margraf von: Ernst Friedrich v B-Durlach: 98 Georg Friedrich: 98 Bagatino: see stock roles Bailey, J R: 120 Baldesano, Guglielmo: 211 Balen, Hendrik van: 130, 155; plates 96, 203 Ball: see ‘drama [dance]’ Balli di Sfessania: see Callot Balme, Christopher: 24 Balten, Pieter: 218 Contest between the fishermen’s and butchers’ guilds, Fight between Carnival and Lent (plates *86–8): 129, 159, 194–5, 203, 205, 218, 222, 239 Dans des Werelts: 222 Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery: Three masks (plate *317): 112, 190–1, 203, 209 Balzerina: see stock roles Bamberg, Staatliche Bibliothek: Comedians on an open-air stage (plate *285): 112, 181, 192, 199, 205, 209 Banchieri, Adriano Il donativo: 101, 116 La prudenza giovenile: 185 Banquet, feast, picnic (see Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Munich, Rome, Toeput, Treviso, Venice, Vos, Vrancx; plates 29, 52, 62, 98–100, 104–5, 145, 159, 181, 202, 209, 211, 225, 241–2), depicted: 137, 167, 179 Le bararie del mondo: see Porro Barasch, Frances: 88, 114, 140, 142, 152, 230, 243 Barbatelli: see Poccetti Barbeta, Alexander: 63 Barbieri, Nicolò, of Milan = Beltrame: 245; plate 293 (‘Baltran’) Supplica: 35, 42, 104, 106, 198, 249

303

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Barendsz, Theodore (Dirk); Venetian wedding: 145, 153 Baretti, Joseph (Giuseppe): 19, 105 Bargagli, Girolamo, Pellegrina: 88 Bargrave, Robert, Masque: 72 Barocchi: see Vasari Bartholome of Venice: 79 Baschet, Armand: 37–8, 44–5, 84, 87, 246, 249 Basle (see Platter): University Library: 104, 196, 265 Bassano: Bassano family and studio: 167, 169; plate 265 Jacopo: 167, 169–70 Adoration of the Magi: 170 Leandro: 167, 169–71, 203, 222, 224 Carnival banquet (plate *242): 165, 168– 71, 203, 224 Carnival scene (February) (plate *226): 169–70, 180, 203, 225 February (plates *267–8): 169–70, 180, 203, 209, 225 Baumgärtner, Ulrich: Chessboard with comic scenes including a Zanni (plate *311): 189 Bavaria: see Munich, Landshut Bayeux, Municipal Museum: Cda performance (plate *12): 139–42, 145, 151, 168, 186–7, 205, 207, 236 Bayr, Julius: plates 250–1 Beall, Karen F: 116 Beaujean, Dieter: 126, 129 Béguin, Sylvie: 156 Beijer, Agne: 26–7, 107, 109, 113, 117, 120, 186, 227, 254 Bellange, Jacques: 212; plate 231 Mimicarum aliquot facetiarum icones, Francisquine (plates *260–1): 112, 166, 192–3, 201, 207, 231, 263 Bellini, Paolo: 114, 116–17, 188, 252 Bello Sguardo: see stock roles

304

Bellows: see props Beltrame: see Barbieri Bembo, Cardinal Pietro: 131 Bendinelli: 252 Benesch, Otto: 212 Benini, Enrica: 93, 105 Beolco, Angelo, of Padua = Ruzante: 34, 36, 96 Berbinger, Onophrius: plate 248 Bergamo: actors and musicians from and in (see Besutio, Roncagli, Terzio, Valerini): 19, 78–9 Bergamasque dialect / costume: 48, 56, 77 comedia a la Bergamasca: 36–8 Bergamasque peasant as Venetian servant of cda (see ‘stock roles [Gianni bergamasco, Zanni]’, ‘Venice [facchini]’): 33, 83, 87, 93, 96, 100, 190, 254 Berlin and Germany: artists from: see Liss art market: 127, 168; plates 119, 139, 142, 187, 222, 242 Kunstbibliothek: 111–13, 265; plates 239, 313, 321, 322 Carnival mask (plate *252): 112, 189 Ceretani o cantimbanchi (plate *254): 112, 181, 199 Mascharata Venetiana (plate *257): 112, 203, 209 Pantalone and Zanni, Masked woman (plates *250–1): 112, 203 Zanni and Pantalone serenade two courtesans (plate *249): 112, 189, 191 Kupferstichkabinett: plate 320 Chimney sweep, Sailor, Letiga di Neapolli (plates *323–5): 112, 190 Couple and three jesters in an interior (plate *336): 112, 222

INDEX

Zanni (plate *326): 191 Potsdam-Sanssouci, Bildergalerie: plate 226 private collection: plates 138, 191, 208, 268 tedesco: see stock roles Bern art market: plate 88 Bernovalla: see stock roles Bertelli: Ferrando: 193; plate 283 Franc[esc]o: Il carnevalo italiano mascherato: 108, 197 Pietro: Diversaru[m] nationum habitus (plate *319b): 116, 197, 222, 242, 250 Berthold, Margot: 50 Berti, Fausto: 235–6 Besozzo: 115 Besutio, Cerbonio & Matthias, of Bergamo: 78 Bettarini: see Vasari Bevington, David: 86 Béziers, Musee Fabregat: plate 154 Bianchi, Lodovico de’, of Bologna = Dottor Gratiano Partesano: 82, 246–7, 250 Le cento e quindici conclusioni: 82 Bibbiena, B Dovizi da; La calandria: 38 Billington, Sandra: 193, 233 Biriota, Cate Bionda: 188–9 Bizaro, Naspo: 188–9; plates 233–7 Blois, actors in: 246 Blunt, Anthony: 164, 212 Boccaccio, Giovanni: 34 Boccalini, Parnasso: 216 Bodart, Didier: 155 Boeckl, Matthias: 149 Boels, Frans: 148 Winter (plate *171): 148, 217 Winter carnival (plate *162): 147–8, 159, 172, 180, 189, 203–4

Boer, P de: 133 Boissard, Mascarades: see Gheyn Bol, Hans: 148; plate 84 Drummer and tabor-player in a village street, January (plates *167–9): 148, 175, 209, 217 Winter: 148 Bollery, Nicolas: 212 Bologna (see Paleotti): actors from and in (see Bianchi, Panzanini, Simone, ‘stock roles [Dottore]’): 19, 63–4 Archiginnasio: Scapin takes centre stage (plate *301): 185, 239 art and artists from and in: 117; plate 248 banquet in: 64 Diary reports election of Pius V: 80 Bolzano actors from and in (see Anthonien, Raber): 85 mascara in: 95 Bonanni, Francesca: 82, 93 Bongiavanni, Bartolomeo = Dotor Campanaz: 245; plate 293 Boon, K G: 66, 149, 152 Booth, Cecily: 59 Borghini, Vincenzo: 60 Borromeo, Cardinal (San) Carlo: 42, 211, 249 De histrionibus: 42 Bosch, Hieronymus: 159, 193 Bossier, Philiep: 23, 50, 107 Bosse, Abraham: Théâtre de Tabarin (plate *287): 181, 199 Bottarga, Stefanello: 194; plate 308 Botti, Giovanna: 23 Bouclon, Mathieu: plate 10 Bouffon: see buffone

305

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Bourgeville de Bras: 38 Bourgoigne, A van: Ghebreken der tonghe: plate 292 Bracciano, Duke of: see Florence Bracelli: 116 Bragaglia, Antonio: 42 Bragati, Girolamo Battista de Ser, of Padua: 39, 196 Bragato, Bragetta: see ‘stock roles [Zan Bragato]’ Brambilla, Ambrogio, of Milan: 51, 109, 114–17, 152; plate 191 Carnevale, Quaresima: 115 ‘Che diavolo e’ questo’ and cut-outs (plates *40–1, *54): 108, 116–17, 189, 192, 204–5, 251–5 Comic masks (plate *17): 115, 186, 189, 191–2, 202, 204 Cucina per il pasto de Zan Trippu, Il bellissimo ballo di Zan Trippu (plates *52–3): 114–17, 189, 191–2, 201, 204, 207–8, 217–18, 248, 257 Dei veri ritratti: 115 Gamesboard (plate *38): 116–17, 191, 205, 207, 211, 215–17, 219, 222, 234, 242, 244, 249–50 I gridi di Roma: 115 Speculum Romanae: 114, 133 Theatrum sive coliseum Romanum: 114 Brandt, Britta: 87 Brandt, Sebastian; Narrenschiff: 33 Brantôme: Recueil des dames: 38 Braunschweig: Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum: plates 28b, 311 Monogrammist of Brunswick: 151 Bravo: see stock roles Brentel, Friedrich: Febraro: 123 Townscape with comedians (plate *263): 171–2, 218 Breslau (= Wrøclaw): see Artzat

306

Breton, Richard: Recueil: plate 321 Bretschneider, Andreas: A mask at the Dresden carnival (plate *312): 189–92 Briccio, Giovanni of Rome, Pantalone imbertonao: 185, 243 Brigantin: see stock roles Brighella: see stock roles Bril, Paul: plates 243–7, 263 January and February (plate *276): 130, 166–7, 172–3 Brooks, Julian: 28 Bronzini, Giovanni Battista: 32 Brown, Howard Mayer: 23, 72 Brown, Pamela Allen: 88 Bruce, Lord: see Fife Bruegel, Jan I: 123–4, 130; plate 185 Allegory of wordly vanities (plates *69, 69b): 124, 224 Roman carnival (plate *68): 123–4, 137–8, 181 Pieter I: 158, 194; plate 326 Carnival and Lent: 159, 193 Fat kitchen: 160 Gloomy day: 218 Land of Cockayne: 192 Brunner, Herbert: 50 Bruno, Giordano: 211 Brussels: art and artists in: 143, 149 art market: plates 71, 83, 96–7, 103, 113, 121, 175, 194–5, 203, 281 Delwart Collection: 133 Gasbeek Castle Museum: plate 184 Museum voor Oude Kunste: plate 30b Bruyn, Abraham de: Habitus Variarum Gentium: ‘Sailors’ (plate *316): 190 Buchellius of Utrecht, Arnoldus: Pantalone and Zanni serenade a courtesan (plate *239): 112, 192 Buckhurst, Lord: 44

INDEX

Budapest : art market: plate 242 Karácsonyi Collection: 171 Museum of Fine Arts: 148; plate 99 Buffoni (see Cantinella, Cimador, Marcantonio, matachin, Menato, Nobili, Ruzzante, Taiacalze, Venice, Zan Polo): 15, 32, 34–7, 39–40, 63, 83–5, 93, 96, 133, 190, 214, 219–26, 241, 249, 261–2 Bufonarie: see drama Buijsen, Edwin: 126 Bull-baiting, bullfight: see drama Bunel, François the Younger: 156; plates 154–5 Burattelli, Claudia: 70, 89, 102–3, 144, 244, 248 Burattino, Burati: see stock roles Burke, Peter: 22 Butchart, David: 79 Butchers: see ‘props [food: sausages]’

Caccini, Giulio and Lucia: 72, 88 Caen, actors in: 38 Cairns, Christopher: 108, 123, 178, 225, 230 Calabria, actors from: 19 Callot, Jacques: 122, 135, 172–3, 214, 216, 238, 244; plates 271–2, 326 Balli di Sfessania (plates *2–5): 17, 76, 122, 124, 181, 213, 216, 224–6, 242, 250 Mountebanks on a stage (plate *340): 181, 199, 205 The three Italian comedians or Les trois Pantalons (plates *302–4): 25–6, 185, 213, 232, 242 Calmo, Andrea: Saltuzza: 34 Calyfe d’Egypte: 249 Calza, Compagnie della: see troupes Cambrai (see Caulery): Bibliothèque Municipale: 127; plate 75

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum: plate 84 Scene from the cda (plate *305): 185 Camilla: see Malaspina Campion, M: 43 Campos, Giulia: 234 Canigiani, Bernardo: 41, 68, 105, 246 Cantinella: Benedetto, of Venice: 36–7, 80, 82, 93 Nicoleto, of Venice (see ‘stock role [Zan Polo]’): 93 Piero: 36 Cappello, Bianca: 59, 72 Capitan Cardone: see Cortesei Capitano: see stock roles Capriccio: 125, 127–8, 138, 226 Carpenter, Sarah: 202 Caravaggio, Gypsy Fortune-teller: 212 Caravia, Alessandro: plates 233–7 Carenzano, Antonio of Rome: 114 Carlo, Carletto: 89 Carniglia, monsignor: 42 Carnival: see also Alsloot, Bruegel, February, Ferrara, Florence, Innsbruck, January, Landshut, Munich, Naples, props, Rome, ‘stock roles [Carnival, Winter]’, Venice, Winter and actors: 35, 37, 41, 83, 121, 124, 187, 195, 263 antics: see drama Ash Wednesday: 55, 69 costume: 62, 94, 121, 175, 179, 190, 209, 218, 221, 227, 240 Cuccagna, Cockayne: 160, 192–5; plates 308, 327 dates of: 69 depicted: 18, 69, 120–39, 159–60, 172–5, 181, 192–5, 217, 220, 224, 239–40, 262–3; plates 16, 27, 32, 36, 68, 70, 72–3, 76–88, 101, 113– 115, 125–6, 130–1, 135–7, 141,

307

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

147, 160, 162, 166, 177–180, 200, 202, 206–8, 220, 225–6, 242, 252– 3, 257, 264, 274–5, 307–8, 312, 319, 244 food and drink: see props fools (see stock roles): 102, 191, 227 Giovedì Grasso: 133 guild pageants: 193–4 kitchens, fat and lean: 160; plates 52, 225 Lent (see Bosch, Brambilla, Bruegel, ‘stock roles [Quaresima]’: 37, 69, 193 pursuits, revels, ritual (see ‘cda [parade]’, ‘drama [mascara, procession]’): 15, 34, 36, 40, 62, 83–4, 121, 124, 132, 137, 148–9, 154, 159, 161, 168, 179, 186, 188, 195, 204, 209–10, 218–19, 224, 227, 238–40, 253, 262 Shrove Tuesday, Shrovetide: 69, 160, 193 tournaments: see drama vices: 121, 159, 192 Cassone panel: plate 192 Castelletti, Cristoforo, I torti amorosi: 96 Cast lists: 21, 50, 84, 101, 105, 197, 216, 243, 246 Cauldron: see ‘Props [domestic, headgear]’ Caulery: L: Strolling players (plate *75): 127, 181 Louis de: 126–30, 133–4, 138, 155, 175, 218; plates 70–72, 86, 107–9, 124–6, 131–4, 143–4, 197 Carnival (plate *83): 128–9, 137, 194–5, 205, 218, 224, 239 The carnival (plate *73): 124, 126–8, 136–7, 159, 163, 193, 217–18, 224, 235 Carnival celebrations (plate *79): 128, 137, 224

308

Carnival in Flanders (plate *80): 128, 137, 204, 218, 224 Carnival in a town square (plate *78): 127–8, 137–8, 217–18, 224 Carnival on the ice (plate *77): 127–8, 137, 181 Carnival revellers in the Piazza San Marco (plate *126): 132–7, 181, 218, 223 Carnival scene (plate *76): 127–9, 137– 8, 217–18, 224 Courtyard of a palace (plate *281): 163, 219, 221, 223, 240 Crucifixion: 126 Five senses: 126 January / Carnival (plate *84): 129, 137, 159, 168, 173–4, 218 Pantalone at the gate (plate *47): 161–4, 182, 241 Piazza San Marco, Venice (plate *123): 132–3, 135–7, 181, 204, 223 Piazzetta, Venice (plates *121–2): 131–3, 135–7, 181 Piazza della Signoria, Florence, The Italian comedians (plates *102–3): 131, 137, 181 Winter landscape with Carnival and Lent (plate *85): 129 Caylus, Recueil des lazzi: 228 Cda: see commedia dell’arte Ceccarelli Pellegrino, Alba: 108 Cecchini, Pier Maria, of Ferrara = Fritellino (see plate 3): 85–6, 105, 144, 234 Frutti delle moderne comedie: 106, 233 Cervantès; La Gitanilla: 211 Cervellati, Alessandro: 26 Chambers, E K: 38 Charivari: 102 Charlatans, mountebanks, quacks, snake-charmers (see Davenant, Guarinonius, Platter, Rivani, Sonnet de

INDEX

Courval, ‘stock roles [Zan Bragato]’): 15, 32–5, 39–41, 90, 112, 131–3, 159, 168, 181, 187–8, 195–9, 205, 211, 214, 232–3, 253; plates 36, 102, 120–3, 125– 6, 146, 205, 212, 214–15, 254–5, 258, 275, 278–8, 283–7, 340 and actors: 103, 199, 238 Gille le Niais: 100, 233; plate 299a Il Monferino: 42, 198 Orviétan: plate 299 Tabarin, Tabarino (Canaglia Milanese): 197, 234; plate 287 Charles IX: see Paris Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine: see Lorraine Chatsworth: Devonshire Collection: 129; plate 314 Checo: 39 Che la bella Franceschina: 252 Cherea: see Nobili Chicot: 103 Chilton, Meredith: 28 Chimneysweep: 67, 190; plate 323 Chudzikowski, Andrzej: 128 Cicho: see stock roles Cietrulo: see stock roles Cimador = Zane: 34, 36 Cini, Giovan Battista (see Florence): 71 Cintia: see stock roles Clair, Jean: 28 Claude: see Paris Clermont, Charles-Henry de: 44 Cleve, Marten van: 151; plates 208, 225 Flemish carnival (plates *136–7): 194–5, 239 Clubb, Louise George: 96, 177, 183, 185, 242–3 Cocco, Ester: 37, 39 Cock: 160 Cockayne, Land of: see carnival La cofanaria: see d’Ambra Cohen, Gustave: 102

Collaert family: 160, 172, 237; plates 168, 227, 269–70 Collapsible principle: see ‘cda [improvisation]’ Columbine: see stock roles Comici: see actors Commedia dell’arte (=cda, see actors, carnival, drama, music, props, stages, stock roles, & individually indexed actors, artists, authors, locations,): artistic impact (on visual arts): 19, 26, 28 censorship, criticism: see antitheatricality chivalric pursuits, mocking of: 252–3 comici: see actors commedia erudita as a source for: see drama costume: see props commercialism (see charlatan): 31, 41–2, 81, 92, 187 and dance: see ‘drama [dance]’ and dialect: 19, 31, 95 fixed types: see stock roles gestures and posture: 27, 33, 42, 87, 91–2, 135, 139, 199, 205, 208, 210, 251, 256, 261, 263 and improvisation (see ‘cda [lazzi]’): 14, 19–21, 31, 35, 39–43, 47, 63, 65, 73, 76, 80, 87, 90–1, 96, 106, 182, 258, 262 collapsible speeches: 35 itinerancy of: 34, 37–8, 103 lazzi, comic set-piece, stage routine (see ‘drama [acrobatics]’): 20–1, 31, 35, 38, 40, 106, 109, 117, 121, 197– 9, 207, 220, 243, 252–4 battle, contest, duel, fight: 55, 58, 110, 118, 221, 223, 225; plates 9, 45, 50, 58, 339 cuckolding: 118, 156; plates 56, 154

309

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

egg-hatching: 252 serenade: 55, 162, 248; plates 6, 24, 48, 233–41, 238-9, 249 tooth-pulling (see charlatans): 253 origins, rise, spread (see ‘actors [professionals]’): 15, 20, 31, 34, 37–41, 44–83, 187–9, 195, 259–60 parade (see ‘drama [procession]’): 137, 173, 178–9, 209–10, 218 physical repertoire: see ‘cda [lazzi]’, drama and popular print culture (see friendship album): 99, 112, 132, 211 scenarios, plots, plot summaries, pictorial series (see ‘Rome [Corsini, Locatelli]’, Scala): 14, 19, 21, 31, 35, 42, 55, 73–4, 92, 104, 106, 108, 114, 117–18, 156, 165, 183–4, 197, 200, 206, 213, 218–19, 243–4, 249, 252, 257–8 sources, documentary: 14, 20–5, 199–200 composite, multiple and serial images (see album, Recueil Fossard): 241–58 textual: see scenarios, individual authors visual, theatre iconography, (see plates 1-340): 13–18, 21–9, 32, 107–75, 177–8, 183, 199, 210– 11, 225–6, 241–2, 259–63 stereotyping and visual stereotyping of: 105–6, 221, 259–60, 262–3 term: 18–20, 105–6 usciti, exits and exit cues: 21, 182 Commedia erudita: see drama Compositions de rhetorique de M Don Arlequin: see Paris Compra Zavargna: see Lomazzo Concarini, Vittoria: 88

310

Confidenti troupe: see troupes Conti, Camillo, Carnevale: 101 Contracts: see actors Copenhagen: art market: plate 196 Kongelige Bibliotek: plates 260–1 Comic serenade (plate *238): 112, 191 Pantalone and a masked woman (plate *256): 112, 202 Recueil Fossard (see Stockholm): 107–8, 118; plate 130 Rosenborg Castle: plate 108 Statens Museum for Kunst: plates 106, 290 Corrain, Lucia: 50, 258 Corrigan, Beatrice: 207, 216, 224, 244, 249 Corsini scenarios: see Rome Cortesei, Valentino = Capitan Cardone: 116, 216, 245, 247; plate 38 Corsini illustrations: see Rome Coryat, Thomas, Crudities: 91, 203 Costume: see props Costume book: see friendship album Courtesan: see stock roles Court festival: see ‘drama [festival]’, Florence, Munich and other named locations Cousin, J: 142 Coviello: see stock roles Cresti, Carlo: 214 Croce, Giulio Cesare, Gran vittoria di Pedrolino: 101, 248 Crosato, Luciana Larcher: 168, 173–4, 209 Cross-dressing: see ‘props [costume]’ Cuccagna: see carnival Cuckold: see ‘cda [lazzi]’ Cucorogna: see stock roles Cucuba: see stock roles Cucurucu: see stock roles Cuilenberg, Elisabeth von: 97

INDEX

Cupid: see stock roles Cuzin, Jean-Pierre: 211

D’Ambra, Francesco: 211 La cofanaria: 61, 64–5, 71 D’Amico, Silvio: 166 Dance: see drama D’Ancona, Alessandro: 38, 41, 45–6, 69, 70, 84, 86, 92, 145, 248 Dantsek-Dayka de Pozsony Collection: 171 Davenant, William & Inigo Jones, Brittania Triumphans: 232 Davidson, Clifford: 23 Day, John, English brothers: 90–1 ‘Death’: see stock roles Decroisette, Françoise: 82, 142, 190 De Estrella, Calvete: 38 Delaune, Etienne: plate 320 Della Bella, Stefano, Royaume de cieux: 211 Delpech, F: 193 De’Rossi: see Rossi Desiosi troupe: see troupes D’Este: see Ferrara Detenbeck, Laurie: 79 Devil (see stock roles): 92, 102 Dialogues: see ‘drama [peasant and rustic dialogues]’ Diaries (see Genêtay, Pavoni, Sanudo): 21 ‘Diary’ (1565–66) and 1579 diary of Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria: (see Munich): 265 Didone, tragicommedia di: 86 Diego de Mendoza: see Troiano Diemer, Peter: 54, 61 Dijon, Musèe des Beaux-Arts: plate 85 Dionisio (= Scoto of Mantua): 90 Divels Legend: see Oxford Dives and Lazarus: plates 97–8

Donducci, Giovanni = Mastellan: 149; plate 181 Donkey: see props Don Lopez: see stock roles Dottore: see stock roles Drama and spectacle: see actors, charlatans, cda, music, props, stock roles acrobatics (see buffoni, ‘cda [lazzi]’, ‘drama [dance, matachin]’, Munich, troupes): 32, 55, 62–6, 79, 95, 104, 122, 125, 133, 159, 174, 204, 206, 214, 220–6 bull-baiting, bullfights (see ‘Venice [carnival]’): 133–6, 169, 174, 221, 223; plates 123– 8, 226, 229, 262, 267–9, 308 fencing: 65, 223 Forze d’Ercole; Antics, Antiques or Labours of Hercules (Human Pyramid): 37–8, 125, 218, 220– 1, 223, 226 hoola-hooping: 136, 221, 223 ice skating: 238 juggling: 187, 221, 223; plates 108, 281 pole-climbing: 150, 221, 224, 238; plate 135 rope dancing: 79 stilt and hand walking (see ‘stock roles [Time]’): 172, 221–5, 231; plates 3, 6, 11, 69, 69b, 264 somersaulting: 132, 136, 223, 255; plates 108, 120 vaulting: 44, 64, 220, 223 Atellan farces, classical theatre: commedia erudita, humanist comedy: 19, 31, 34–5, 39, 43, 84, 95–6, 161, 187, 200, 211, 214, 220, 227, 262 dancing: plates 53, 184, 186, 189, 193, 196–7, 199, 201, 203–4, 337

311

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

1565, Florence: 65–6 1565, Mantua: 69 1566, Ferrara: 67 1568, Munich: 47–8, 52 1589, Innsbruck: 144 Ball at the court of Henri III: 152 Balle di Macaleppo: 100 Balli di sfessania: see Callot and cda: 42, 55, 262 Dance of death: 33 depicted: 62, 76, 111, 115, 132–3, 140, 145, 147, 153–5, 157, 159, 179, 218, 232, 238–9, 248, 253–5 egg dance: 159; plates 216, 219 Garzoni on: 32–4, 221 matachin, moresco: see below stage: 55, 58, 64, 70, 73, 88 women: 204–6, 211 zanni & festino: 67–8, 93, 95 entries (see Antwerp, Florence, Mantua, Venice): plate 167 farces: 37–8, 104, 120, 186, 218, 220 festivals, court and popular, religious and secular (see carnival, named locations): plates 18–19, 28, 30, 37, 64, 71, 94–6, 106, 132, 136, 143–4, 146, 162, 175, 177, 194, 197, 228, 262, 277 hunt, horsemanship: 52, 69, 77, 97, 150, 253, 255 intermedi, musical interludes: 76, 220, 250 of 1515 (Venice): 36 of 1522 (Venice): 36 of 1525 (Venice): 104 of 1565 (Florence): 61, 64–5, 70– 3, 79 of 1565 (Mantua): 61, 69–70 of 1589 (Florence): 22, 88 Jesuit drama: 53, 55 madrigal comedy: 79

312

marketplace, fairground, itinerant, piazza, street performances and players (see buffoni, Callot, charlatans, Garzoni, Venice): 33, 39–40, 42, 64–5, 75–6, 99, 104, 121, 137–8, 178, 198, 263; plates 68–72, 121–6, 172, 289–91 mascara, masquerade, mumarie, mumming (see carnival, Gheyn, props, Venice): 36, 38–40, 45, 47– 50, 62, 65–9, 95–102, 132–3, 137, 144, 148–9, 154–5, 159, 171, 186, 194, 211, 238, 243, 245, 260; plate 130 matachin, moresco, morris, armed and sword-dance(r) (see ‘music [bell]’, ‘props [arms]’): 149–50, 155, 172, 217, 220–6, 238, 241; plates 259, 308, 319b 1546 in Geneva: 37–8 1549 in Rome: 38 1565 in Ferrara: 68 Anatolian matachin: 194, 219, 221 and cda: 76, 136, 153–4, 169–70, 195 costume: 33, 132, 136, 170, 238, 261 in intermedi: 64, 70 and Lasso: 75–6 medieval festival-based drama: 41–1 opera reale: 184 opera turchesca: 184 pastoral (‘satyric’) plays: 21, 35–6, 39, 87, 183–4, 196, 245–6 peasant dialogues: 95 procession (see ‘carnival [pursuits]’, ‘cda [parade]’): 36, 48, 97, 133, 150, 174, 195, 217–19, 262 religious drama, moralities, mystery plays: 37, 40, 85, 102, 218 tournament: 52; plates 18–19, 64, 70–72, 76, 101, 134, 304

INDEX

of 1565 (Ferrara): 61, 68 of 1568 (Munich): 45, 47–9 of 1589 (Innsbruck): 144 of 1598 (Hechingen): 47, 96–102 depicted: 121–2, 150, 253 tragedy: 36, 87, 184 tragicomedy: 21, 184 visual sources: see ‘cda [sources]’ Drausch, Valentin, of Strasbourg: 54–5 Dresden: depicted: plate 312 Gemäldegalerie: : plate 119b Kupferstichkabinett: plates 28, 167 Meissen factory: 238 Driesen, Otto: 84, 102, 140, 227, 231, 233, 243 Du Bartas, Guillaume, Deuine weekes: 220 Du Bellay, Joachim, Regrets: 82–3, 93 Dublin: plate 186 Duc d’Alencon: see ‘Paris [Francis II]’ Duc d’Anjou: see ‘Paris [Henri III]’ Duchartre, Pierre Louis (see Beijer): 26– 7, 107, 109, 117, 120, 140–1, 168, 202, 209, 227, 234, 236, 242–3, 248, 254 Duchet, Claude: 114 Dudevant: see Sand Düsseldorf, Kunstmusem: plate 340 Dwarf: see actors

Eck, Adam: Three masked men with grill and bellows (plate *223): 159 Ecouen, Chateau d’: 53; plate 24 Edinburgh: art market: plate 276 National Galleries of Scotland: 170; plate 62 Ehrenlohnzimmer: see Landshut Eitner, Robert: 75, 78 Elisabeth: see Paris Elizabeth I: see London

Elsheimer, Adam: plate 30c Emblem books: 211–12 Ember, Ildikó, 131 Enchantress: see stock roles Enden, Martin vanden: 160 Entries: see individual locations (Antwerp, Florence, Mantua, Venice) Erenstein, Robert: 23–4, 70, 142, 162, 187, 218 Erlen König: 102 Ertz, Klaus: 123 Erudite drama: see ‘drama [commedia erudita]’ Esrig, David: 110 Este: see Ferrara Estoile, Pierre de l’: 246 Eterni troupe: see troupes European Science Foundation: see Strasbourg Evans, R J W: 143

Fabio: 33 Fabri, Giovan Paolo: 198 Falavolti, Laura: 50 Fairground performances: see charlatans, ‘drama [marketplace]’, stages Falconieri, John: 37–9, 86, 89, 103, 249 Fanfirlippe: see stock roles Fantuzzi, Camillo: 64 Farces: see drama Farahat, Martha: 75–6, 185 Father Time: see ‘stock roles [Time]’ Feast: see banquet Feather Book: see Minaggio February (see carnival): 121–6, 137; plates 64–7, 129, 149, 218, 226, 241, 267–8, 270, 272–4, 276, 278–9, 333–4 Fedeli troupe: see troupes Fencing: see drama Ferdinand: see Florence, Habsburg, Munich

313

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Fermor, Sharon: 23 Ferrara: actors from and in (see Cecchini, Cortesei, Garavini, Piisimi, ‘stock roles [zanni]’): 19 1529, at banquet: 37 1577, in comedy: 105, 246 1579, in play: 95 1582, at banquet: 249 1584, Uniti: 216 carnival Zanni dancing: 67–8, 95, 190 House of d’Este: plate 25 1576 weddings: 41 Alfonso II (m. Barbara of Habsburg 1565): 41, 59, 67–9, 75, 105, 249, 260 Castello Estense: 67, 95 Lasso in: 79 Ferré, Marie: 86 Ferrone, Siro: 17, 102–3, 105, 198, 214– 15, 229, 232, 248–9 Festival (see carnival, cda, drama, individual locations), festival books and accounts: 46 of 1565 (Florence): 60–1 of 1568 (Munich): see Troiano, Wagner, Wirre of 1589 (Florence): see Pavoni of 1598 (Hechingen): see Frischlin, Platter Fetti, Domenico: Portrait of a cda actor (plate *1): 17, 214, 235 Fiamingho, Paolo: plate 276 Fife, collection of Lord Bruce: 156 Filomena: see stock roles Fiocco, Giuseppe: 17, 134 Fioretta: see Piisimi Fiorillo: Giovan Battista = Trappolino = Trastulo: 245; plate 293

314

Silvio = Capitano Matamoros, = Pulcinella: 215, 245; plates 3, 293 Firenzuola, Lucidi: 38 Fischel, Oskar: 22 Fischer-Lichte, Erika: 24 Fishermen, fishmongers: see ‘props [food: herrings]’ Fitzpatrick, Tim: 31, 43, 182 Flaminia: see stock roles Flaminia of Rome, Barbara = Ortensia (m. Giovanni Alberti Naselli): 86, 201, 246 Flasdieck, Hermann: 102 Flegel: plate 160 Fletcher, Ifan Kyrle: 162, 164 Flies, Jakob: 101 Florence (see Altoviti): 59–74 actors and musicians from and in (see Andreini, Anguillara, Caccini, Callot, Cantinella, Gabrielli, Gori, Grazzini, Lodovico, Moryson, Nobili, Pasquarello, Pellesini, Piisimi, Salimbeni, Soldino, Striggio, Venturino): 38, 59–74, 80, 85 Archivio di Stato [=ASF]: 68–9, 235, 265 art and artists from and in: see Callot, Montelupo, Paduano, Poccetti, Salvestrini, Stradanus, Sustris, Tempesta, Toeput, Vasari La cofanaria: see d’Ambra depicted: plates 64–7, 102 Entry of Johanna in 1565: 59, 61 Ferdinand of Bavaria’s journey to: 59–74 House of Medici: 59–74, 80, 260; plates 25, 335 Caterina (m. Henri II of France): 38, 140, 152 Correspondence: see Canigiani Cosimo: 60, 65, 72

INDEX

Ferdinando, 1589 m. Christine de Lorraine (see ‘drama [intermedi]’, Pavoni): 54, 59– 60, 72, 88, 204, 247, 249 Francesco, 1565 m. Johanna of Habsburg (see Borghini, ‘drama [intermedi]’); 1579 m. Bianca Cappello: 41, 51, 59–74, 79–80, 88, 247 Isabella (m. P G Orsini): 64 Luis: 65 Montegufoni cda frescoes: see Severini Orsini, Paolo Giordano (Duke of Bracciano & Marchese d’Anguillara), performances and banquet in house of: 64–5, 73, 80, 82 Orsini, Virginio: 82 Palazzo Pitti: plate *24 (Museo degli Argenti): 53, 55, 77 plates 143–4 SS.Annunziata: plate 335 Sta. Maria Novella: see plate 65 Tuscan dialect: 19 Uffizi: 189 Villa il Pozzino, Castello: 214 Florescu, Ileana: 103 Florinda: see Andreini Floris, Frans I and II: 119, 153, 158; plate 231 Allegory of rhetoric (plate *295): 182 Fontainebleau: art and artists from and in, including School of: 119, 153, 157–8; plates 209, 231–2 Lasso in: 47 Food: see props Fool: see carnival, stock roles Fools’ Staircase: see Landshut

Fornaris, Fabrizio de, of Naples = Capitan Cocodrillo: 216, 257; plates 3, 6, 8, 11, 49 L’Angelica: 216 Fornazari, Jacomo: ‘Aivtame Zanni’: plate *315c Fortuna, fortune: 212 Fortune-telling: see gypsies Fossard, Sieur: see Recueil Fossard Foucart, Jacques: 151 Fracasso: see stock roles Francatrippa: see Panzanini France: see Paris Franceschina, Francisquina: see stock role Francken clan: 152, 154–5, 239; plates 88, 93, 117, 157, 185, 187, 194, 205, 222 Ambrose I: 109, 117–20, 152, 158 Carnival diversions (plates *207–8): 151, 159, 181, 190 Comedie ou farce de six personnaiges (plate *55): 118–19, 207 Italian comedians (plate *60): 139, 142, 150–1, 156, 207, 212 Italian comedians on stage (plate *61): 139, 142, 151–2, 155, 207 Old man cuckolded, the delivery of the love letter, scene from the cda, the beating of the presumptuous lover (plates *56–9): 118–20, 150, 168, 182, 190, 207 Ambrose II & III: 152 Frans I, II, III: 145, 152, 154–5; plates 88, 93, 157, 187–8 Assorted sketches (plate *222): 159 Costume ball, Elegant company dancing at a feast (plates *204 & 204b): 154, 239–40 Court ball (plate *201): 154, 159, 209, 218 Court ball (plate *199): 155

315

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Elegant party in an interior (plate *205b): 155 Feast (plate *145): 137, 155, 164, 180, 203–4, 224, 241 Festival with Italian comedians (plates *143–4): 137, 155, 164, 180, 202–3, 241 Fête, Interior with elegant company (plates *194–5): 155, 239–40 Interior (plate *200): 155, 181 Interior (plate *142): 137, 155, 164, 180, 192, 202–3, 224, 241 Interior with couples dancing: 154 Palatial interior with dancing (plate *203): 155, 159, 204, 218, 224 Parable of the prodigal son (plate *198): 155, 239–40 Sight (plate *206): 181 Wedding party (plate *205): 155, 181, 192, 239–40 Hieronymus I: 119, 145, 151–5, 164; plates 117, 157, 193, 198, 205 Carnival ball (plate *202): 154 Comic masks (plate *192): 153–4, 186, 205, 223 Elegant company dancing at a feast: plate 204b Two comic scenes (plates *189–90): 151–3, 163–4, 207 Venetian carnival (plate *16): 62, 145, 149, 152–4, 181, 191, 204, 224 Venetian wedding: 153 Hieronymus II & III: 152–4 Ballroom with dancing couples (plate *196): 155, 239–40 Fancy dress ball (plate *186): 154, 239–40 Max and Gabriel: Masked ball (plate *193): 154, 239–40 Franco: Battista: 80–1

316

Giacomo: Ciarlatani in piazza (plate *286): 181, 191, 199, 205 Jacopo (see Bertelli): 116 Frangipani, Cornelio, Tragedia: 87 Frankfurt: actors from and in: 99 artists from and in: 143, 148 Museum für Kunsthandwerk: plate 223 Franz, Heinrich G: 143, 148–9, 148 Frey, Karl: 60 Freyberg, M v: 46, 60 Fricasso: see stock roles Friendship album (album amicorum), costume book: see Berlin, Bertelli, Breton, Bruyn, Gheyn, Vecellio): 14, 101, 112, 132–4, 166, 209, 211, 231–2, 238, 241, 263; plates 33, 36, 43, 238, 239, 248–261, 285, 317, 325, 336 Frimmel, Theodor von: 127, 148 Frischlin, Jakob: 96–102 Fritellino: see Cecchini Frölich, Heinrich: plate 253 Fruth, Mary Ann: 46 Fuchs, Christoph & Wolf: 98 Fürstenberg, Friedrich von: 98 Fugger, Hanns Jacob: 51, 61, 67 Fusenig, Thomas: 131, 146, 149, 153, 169

Gabrielli: Francesco, of Florence (= Zan Farina & Scapino): 245; plate 293 Giovanni (see plate 1), Il novo maridazzo: 17, 100 Luisa Locatelli (= Spinetta), m. Francesco: 207, 245; plate 293 Galilei, Vincenzo: 72 Galle family: plates 213, 216, 269–70 Gambelli, Delia: 102–3, 108, 142, 146, 231, 236, 245–6, 249, 251

INDEX

Gambling, games, gamesboards, gaming: 52, 180, 218; plates 38, 138– 45, 150–1, 209–10, 218, 221, 241–2, 311, 318 Ganassa: see Naselli Garden of Delights: 194 Garavini: Girolamo, of Ferrara = Capitano Rinoceronte: 105, 207, 215 Margherita Luciani = Flavia: 207, 245; plate 293 García García, Bernardo José: 21, 201, 249 Garzoni, Tomaso, La piazza universale: 32–4, 39, 84, 87, 100, 218, 221 Gasbeek: see Brussels Gehring, Rudolph: 50 Geissler, Heinrich: 148 Gelosi troupe: see troupes Genêtay, Octavien: 249 Geneva: actors in: 37 art market: plate 88 Genoa: actors in: 45, 216 Gerson, Horst: 128 Gerszi, Teréz: 148 Gesture: see cda Gheraerts, Marcus the Elder: 145; plate 158 Gheyn, Jacques de: Mascarades (plate *319): 159, 189–90, 192, 242–3 Zanni with pestle and mortar (plate *191): 115, 151–2, 189, 192 Giacomotti, Jeanne: 236 Giancarli, Gigio Artemio, La cingana: 211 Gian Farina: see stock roles Gian Fritello: see stock roles Gianni: see Zanni Gibson, Walter S: 158, 194 Gille le Niais: see charlatan

Giorgione: Adoration of the Magi: 189 Trial of Moses: 189 Gi[ov]an[ni]: see ‘stock roles [‘Zan’, ‘Zanni’]’ Gigogne: see stock roles Glauburg, Johann Adolph von: plate 249 Glonnegger, Erwin: 116 Gluttony: see sins Goldoni, 19–20 Il teatro comico: 20 Mémoires: 20 Goldsmith: see Drausch, ‘props [jewels]’, Scolari; plate 24 Goltzius, Hendrik, Venetian wedding: 145, 153 Julius, Magnificus, Scoztum, Zani (plate *240): 190–1, 204, 208–9, 237 Gondola: see ‘props [jewels]’, Venice; plate 24 Gonzaga (see Mantua): Curzio, Gli inganni: 177, 185, 242-3 Ferrante: 47 Gordon, Mel: 117 Gori, Domenico: 92, 201 Gosson, Thomas: 230 Grassi, Bartolomeo: 115 Gratiano, Gracian: see stock roles Graz Museum: 155 Schloss Tausendlust: 51 Grazzini, Antonfrancesco (= Il Lasca): 214 Descr. Degl’Intermedii: 64, 72 Di Zanni: 41, 80, 82–3, 93 In lode di Zanni: 80, 82 La strega: 31–2 Gregory XIII, Pope: see Rome Griffiths, Anthony: 108 Grill, grillpan: see props

317

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Grimmer, Abel: plates 169, 276 Grinberg, Martine: 160, 195 Gros Guillaume: see Guerin Guadalajara: see Madrid Guardenti, Renzo: 23–4, 107, 226 Guarini, Giambattista, L’idropica: 89 Guarinonius, Hippolytus, Grewel: 196– 8, 252 Guatsetto: see stock roles Gudlaugsson, S J: 27, 128 Guercino: 116 Satirical subject from the cda (plate *314): 189, 192 Guillemette: plate 10 Guiomar, Paule: 56, 74 Guitar: see music Gypsies and fortune-telling (see Piisimi): 130, 211-12; plates 38, 65, 92–5, 231–2, 244, 284, 292, 308, 332 Church opposition to: 211 costume: 33, 122, 160, 205, 209–13 fortune-telling: 44, 130, 211–12 on stage: 88, 200, 211–12, 220

Habsburg, House of: plates 18–19, 25, 35–6 Actors at courts of: 79 Anna (see Munich): 59, 260 Artists at court of: 150 Barbara (see Ferrara): 59, 61, 67, 69– 70, 260 Eleanor (see Mantua): 59, 61, 69, 144, 260 Elisabeth: 141, 260 Ernst: 143, 158 Ferdinand I: 59 Ferdinand II of Tyrol: 45–6, 48–9, 53–4, 59, 93–4, 144, 260; plates 18–19 Ferdinand II of Graz: 54

318

Johanna (see Florence): 59–61, 69– 70, 260 Karl: 49, 54, 59, 144 Matthias: 141, 143–4 Maximilian I: 152 Maximilian II: 45, 59–60, 64, 75, 143 Rudolf: 141, 143–4 Hackenbroch, Yvonne: 53–4, 74; plate 24 Haecht, Tobias ver: Celebrating figures in a procession (plate *163): 209, 224 Nox (plate *331): 209, 219, 224 Härting, Ursula: 154–5, 169 Hague: Mauritshuis: 134 Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (= RKD [Netherlands Art Institute]): 128, 148, 155; plates 206, 274 Schneider Collection: 134–5; plate 126c Hailer, Max: 50; plate 21a Hake, H M: 146 Hakewill, George, Apologie: 220 Hall, Joseph: 223 Hallar, Marianne: 27, 110, 142, 151, 164, 186, 191, 231; plate 11 Hals, Dirk: plate 140 Hamburg, Kunsthalle: plate 73 Female carnival with twelve dancing Zannis (plate *166): 147, 191–3, 222 Hansen, Günther: 28, 99, 104, 232 Harlekin, Harlequin, Arlecchino, Arlequin, Arliquin: see ‘stock roles [Harlequin]’ Harmsdorffer (see Nürnberg): plate 33 Harsnet, Samuel, Declaration: 90, 217 Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum: plate 78 Hartveld: see Amsterdam Haskell, Francis: 22

INDEX

Haverkamp-Begemann, Egbert: 167, 173 Hechingen, Hohenzollern, House of: Eitelfriedrich: 47, 97, 101 Eleonora see Truchseß Jacoba see Truchseß Johann Georg, m Franziska zu Kyrburg, 1598: 47, 59, 96–102, 260 Karl I: 47 Karl II (m. Cuilenberg): 47, 59, 96–8, 101 Heck, Thomas F: 21, 23–4, 45, 130, 147 Heckelsberger, Jacob: plate 238 Heintz, Giuseppe / Joseph: 133, 153 Helfenstein, von: Frobenius: 98 Georg : 98 Hell: see underworld Hellequin: 102, 226–7 Hemessen, Jan van: 151 Henke, Robert: 36, 43, 80, 93, 100 Henri II and III: see Paris Henri duc de Guise: 140 Herbert, Lord Edward: 91 Hercules, Antics or Labours of: see drama Herrmann, Max: 22 Hlyboka Castle: 170 Hoefnagel, Georg: 148, 173 Hogenberg Franz: 148, 194 Johann: 111–12 Hohenzollern: see Hechingen Holach, Graf von: 97 Hollar, Wenzel: 232 Hollstein, F W H: 172 Holm, Bent: 23, 108, 227, 243 Hopfer, Daniel: 222 Horatio (Florentino): see Nobili Humanist comedy: see drama Hummelberger, Walter: 143

Hummelen, W M H: 24, 127, 142, 149, 177, 180–1 Hunt: see drama Huon, Antoinette: 195

Ianet, Iannette: see stock roles Iconography, Images (see ‘cda [sources, visual]’ & plates): Improvisation: see cda, Goldoni Gli inganni: see Gonzaga Inamorata, inamorato: see stock roles Innsbruck: 1565 wedding: 59 1582 wedding: 144 actors from and in: 49, 144 carnival of 1589: 144 Castle Ambras: 45, 53, 144 Ferdinand: see Habsburg Instruments: see music Intermedi: see drama Intronati Academy: see troupes Irmscher, Günter: 149 Isabella: see Andreini Ivaldi, A F: 29

Jaffei, Giovanni: 102, 104, 229, 243 Jamnitzer, Christoph: 149 Jannaco, Carmine: 35 Jansen, Reinhard: 28 January: 121; plates 84, 89, 127–8, 168– 170, 265, 269, 271, 274, 276 Jarro: 103 Jerusalem: plate 176 Jewels: see Drausch, ‘props [jewels]’, Scolari; 53–4; plate 24 Jewish actors: see actors, Sommi Jode, Pieter de: 145; plates 120, 130 Johann of Mantua: 79 Johannes Romanus: 223

319

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Jones, Inigo see Davenant Jonson, Ben: 120 Masque of Gypsies: 211 Volpone: 90, 100 Joullain, François: 25–6, 242 Jowers, Sidney Jackson: 24 Juggling: see drama Julien: plate 10 Julius Parmensis: 223

Kaltenbrunner, Regina: 116 Karácsonyi Collection: see Budapest Karlsruhe: Gemäldegalerie: plate 193 Kunsthalle, Brentel albums: 123, 265; plate 263 Kashbasti see ‘props [costume]’ Kauffmann, C M: 130 Kaufmann, David: 70 Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta: 173 Keersmaekers, A: 129 Keiser, Rut: 196 Kellein, Thomas: 28, 50, 107, 140, 152, 226 Kemp, William: 90–1 Kendall, Yvonne: 220 Kenilworth Castle, actors in see plate 158 Kenley, McDowell Eugene: 170 Keppel, Niclausz: plate 317 Kindermann, Heinz: 232 Kirchner, Johann Gottlieb: 238 Kirkendale, Warren: 72 Kitchen, utensils: see ‘props [domestic]’ Klessmann, Rüdiger: 135 Köln: art market: plates 137b, 182 Wallraf-Richartz Museum: plates 147, 161, 176 Kowzan, Tadeusz: 23 Kremsmünster: 150 Krengel-Strudthoff, Inge: 121

320

Krogh, Torben: 144, 185, 243, 248 Krummper, Hans: 51 Kunzle, David: 187 Kutscher, Artur: 50 Kyrburg, Wild- und Rheingraf / gräfin zu: Adolf: 97 Franziska (m Johann Georg von Hohenzollern 1598): 96–8 Juliana: 97 Otto: 97

Lachrimoso lamento, see Simone Lafrery, Antonio: 114 La Gorce, Jérôme de: 17, 23, 108 Landshut and Trausnitz Castle (see Drausch, Munich): 1573 carnival at: 209 actors at: 62–3, 77–8 artists in and depicted: 148 court of Wilhelm V of Bavaria at: 50– 4, 62–3, 77–8 Ehrenlohnzimmer frieze (plates *22, *23): 50–4, 78, 149, 152, 191, 204– 5, 215, 217, 222, 225, 244, 260 Narrentreppe, Fools’ Staircase (plates *20, *21): 50–4, 148–9, 152, 205, 215, 233, 244, 257–8, 260; plates 164–5 Larchier, Karl: 143 Lasso (Lassus) Ernst di: 78 Orlando di (= Magnifico ‘Pantalone di Bisognosi’, = Zanni): 47, 53–8, 61, 63, 72, 74–9, 82–3, 190 Lastman, Pieter: plate 30c Lavinia: see stock roles Lawner, Lynne: 28, 50, 107, 140, 152, 244 Lawrence, University of Kansas Museum of Art: plate 80

INDEX

Lazarus: see Dives Lazzi, comic set-pieces: see cda Lea, Kathleen M: 34–8, 44, 58, 62, 78, 84, 90–1, 93, 96, 102–3, 105, 166, 185, 216, 223, 233, 243, 249 Leandro: see stock roles Lebègue, Raymond: 37–8, 142, 145, 151, 218, 220, 247, 249 Leeflang, Huigen: 153 Legrand, Francine-Claire: 119, 129, 133, 145–6, 153–5, 168 Leibbrand, Jürgen: 227 Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of: 146 Leiden actors in: 218 artists in: 119 Leik, Angelika: 17, 28, 50–1, 54, 108, 111, 114, 119, 140, 142, 145–6, 152, 162, 164, 212, 226, 233–6, 241, 243 Leinberger, Hans, Dance Contest: 222 Leipzig, University Library: plate 312 Le Jars, La Lucelle: 219 Lelio: see Andreini, ‘stock roles [Lelio]’ Lent: see carnival Leoni, Silvia: 228 Leopard: see ‘props [animals]’ Leuchtmann, Horst: 45, 47, 55, 65, 75, 252 Leuschner, Eckhard: 28 Leuven, Louvain: 143 Leyva, Aurelia: 250 Licetta: see stock roles Lidia: see Andreini, stock roles Liefrinck, Hans: 118–20; plate 55 Lietzmann, Hilda: 46, 53–4, 144 Lijs: see Liss Lilia: see stock roles Lill, Georg: 51 Lima, Cathedral: plate 265 Limpurg-Sontheim, Heinrich von: 97 Lincoln, Earl of: 44

Linköping, Löfstads Castle: Cda scene (plate *224): 159, 186, 190, 192, 223 Linz, actors and artists in: 143–4 Lira: see music Liss (Lijs), Johann: 134–5; plates 124, 126 Carnival bullfight in the Piazza San Marco, Venice (plates *126b&c): 134– 5, 223 Listri, Massimo: see Cresti Livizzano, Carlo: 57, 77 Locatelli: see Gabrielli, Rome Lodovico da Bologna: see Bianchi Löcher of Nürnberg, Michael: plate 252 Lötscher, Valentin: 99 Lomazzo, Giovan Paolo = Compra Zavargna: Trattato dell’arte: 115 Lomer, Gerhard: 244 London and UK: actors from and in: 89–91, 103, 204 art market: 130, 132–3, 143, 153; plates 44–46, 56–58, 69b, 70, 86, 92, 95, 102, 104, 105, 111–114, 116–118, 121b, 122–6, 131–4, 142, 146–8, 150, 158, 162, 169, 173, 181, 194, 196, 200, 202–4, 209, 211, 229, 232, 241, 276, 289 Masquerade scene (plate *307): 186 Venetian quayside: 132 Venetian wedding: 153 British Library and Museum: 108, 193, 204, 232, 265; plates 27, 31, 38, 54, 271–2, 286 Duelling Magnifico and Zanni (plate *339): 242 Trionfo de carnavale (plate *308): 188, 192–4, 211, 219, 221–2 Courtauld Institute: 120; plates 213, 217, 227, 315 Elizabeth I: 90, 146; plate 158

321

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Hampton Court, Royal collection: 195 National Gallery: 189 National Portrait Gallery: 146 private collection: plate 51 Victoria and Albert Museum: plate 107 Witt Library: plates 168, 215 Longman, Stanley: 51 Lope de Vega: 250 Lorraine: art and artists from and in (see Callot): 225; plate 231 House of: Charles, Cardinal de: 140–1 Charles II de: 88, 141 Christine de: see Florence Elisabeth de: see Munich Renée de: see Munich Losi, Carlo, of Rome: 187 Lossen, Max: 59 Louvain: see Leuven Low Countries: see Antwerp Lucca (see Nobili), actors in: 248 Lucchesi, Angela = Rizzolina: 207, 245; plates 3, 293 Lucia, Lucilla, Lucio Pulcinella: see stock roles Luciani: see Garavini Lucretia (see stock roles) of Siena: 86 Lugano, art in: 53 Lyon, actors in: 38, 44

Machiavelli, Niccolò, Mandragola: 36 MacNeil, Anne: 87, 89, 94, 204, 206 Madrid and Spain: 1582 Guadalajara wedding: 21 actors in (see Flaminia, Ganassa, Martinelli, Nobili, Portalupo): 37–9, 44, 74, 84, 89, 103, 201, 249 Palacio de Velazquez: 127 Philip II: 141

322

private collection: plates 68, 76 Spanish captain: see stock roles Madrigal comedy: see drama Magni, Maria: 36, 82, 96, 100 Magnifico: see stock roles Maiolica: see Montelupo Malahide, Castle: plate 199 Malaspina Marchese di = innamorata ‘Camilla’: 55, 57–8, 74, 77 Marchese Octavio di: 77 Malherbe, François de: 249 Malines:, artists from: 148 Mallery: see plate 213 Mamczarz, Irène: 226 Mamone, Sara: 17, 24, 107, 214, 226, 230, 232 Manderscheid, Claudia von: 97 Mannini, Maria Pia: 214 Mantegna, Andrea, Triumphs of Caesar: 195 Mantua: 1566 Entry of Ferdinand of Bavaria: 77 1581 wedding: 41 1608 wedding: 88 actors and performers from and in (see Armani, Dionisio, Flaminia, Johann, Lasso, Martinelli): 47, 61, 69–70, 76, 86, 88–9, 103, 144, 216, 246, 248, 250 described in Diary: 61, 69–70, 77 Jewish troupe (see Sommi): 70, 94–5 art and artists from and in: 148 House of Gonzaga: 59, 144, 198, 260; plate 25 Anna Caterina: 144 Correspondence with: see Rogna Ferdinando: 105 Francesco (m. Margherita of Savoy): 88

INDEX

Guglielmo: 59, 69, 144, 248, 250 Vincenzo I: 41, 144, 248 Museo del Palazzo Ducale: Arlechin comic famos: 229 Palazzo Berla, Palazzo Aldegatti: 51 Maphio: see Re Maramao: see stock roles Marcantonio = Zanni: 93 Margherita Farnese: 41 Marguerite de Valois: see Paris Marie, Anthoine of Venice: 44 Mario, Johan of Rome: 63 Marketplace performances: see charlatans, drama Marston, John, Scovrge of villanie: 90 Martin, Willem: 134 Martinelli: Angelica [Alberghini]: 89–90, 144, 216, 235 Caterina: 88 Drusiano of Mantua: 44, 89–90, 103, 120, 144, 216, 245 Lucia: 103 Tristano of Mantua = Arlecchino: 17, 44, 89–90, 102–4, 144, 146, 215, 228–30, 232, 234–5, 240, 242, 249–50; plate1 Martino, Alberto: 198 Mascara, masquerade: see drama Mask: see ‘props [costume]’ Massacre of St Bartholomew: 141 Mast, Herman van der: plate 184 Mastellan: see Donducci Mastropasqua, Fernando: 109–11, 113, 258 Matachin: see ‘drama [dance]’ Matham, Jacob: 173; plates 98, 274 Matthias: see Habsburg Maurer, Jakob: 101 Mauro, Aniello di of Naples = Cola: 224, 245; plate 293 Maximilian II: see Habsburg

Mazzoni, Stefano: 17, 206, 214 McDowell, John Huber: 27, 109, 111, 113, 117, 142, 151, 178, 181, 187, 236, 243 McGill, Kathleen: 43, 87 Medebach troupe: see Goldoni Medici family: see Florence Meijer, Bert: 168, 171, 172 Meissner, Johannes: 79 Melancholicus: see stock roles Menato: 34 Menegazzi, Luigi: 165, 167, 171, 173 Mercenary: see ‘stock roles [capitano, tedesco]’ Merling, Mitchell: 212 Mercury: see stock roles Messisbugo, Cristoforo da: 37 Mestolino: see stock roles Mezzetin: see stock roles Michel, Édouard: 126–8, 138 Michelangelo the younger, La fiera: 104, 216 Michiela: 36 Middleton, Thomas: 211 Mielke, Hans: 119 Mielich, Hans: 52; plate 37 Milan: 101–2 Accademia della Val di Blenio and other actors, musicians and writers from and in (see Barbieri, Bianchi, Lasso, Lomazzo, Pasquati, ‘stock roles [Tabarino]’): 19, 47, 79, 101, 115, 244, 248, 254 art and artists from and in (see Brambilla, Minaggio): 54 art market: plate 157 Duke of Milan: 244, 248 Raccolta Bertarelli: 193 Scala Theatre Museum: 151, 206; plate 17 Milano, Alberto: 116

323

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Minaggio of Milan, Dionisio, Feather Book (plates *293–4): 182, 206–8, 215– 16, 219, 224, 234, 242, 244–51 Minturno, Antonio Sebastiano, L’arte poetica: 76, 83–5 Mirimonde, A P de: 128, 155, 168 Modern, Heinrich: 59 Moland, Louis: 229 Molière: 211 Molinari, Cesare: 20, 23–4, 37, 50, 117– 18, 162, 186, 244 Momper, de: Frans: 173, 175; plate 229 February (plate *273): 173, 224 Joos: 126, 130, 167, 171–5; plates 84, 263 January, February (plates *128–9): 136–7, 147, 171–5, 181, 201, 218, 223, 237, 242 January, February (plates *269–72): 135, 172, 181, 191, 201, 237, 242 Pantalone, Four Italian comedians (plates *164–5): 147–9, 192 Monaco, art market: plates 47, 264 Monaldini, Sergio: see Fabbri Monbeig Goguel, Catherine: see La Gorce Monogram: see Braunschweig, REM Montaigne: 100 Monte, Gaspare di: 249 Montelupo, art and artists from and in: 235–6 Montlhéry, actors in: 104 Montreal, McGill University, Wood Library of Ornithology, ‘Feather Book’: see Minaggio Moralities: see drama Morari, Hieronymus: 78 Morelli, Renato: 240 Moresco: see drama Morley-Fletcher, David: 238 Mortimer, Ruth: 114, 188

324

Moryson, Fynes, Itinerary: 91, 201, 266 il Mosca: see stock roles Moser, Dietz-Rüdiger: 193 Mountebanks: see charlatans Mumaria, mummers, mumming: see ‘drama [masacara]’ Munday, Anthony: 43 Munich and Bavaria (see Landshut): 44–83 1568 wedding (see festival books): 43, 44–83, 84, 96, 101, 105, 187, 190, 219, 249, 252, 259–60; plates 18–19 actors from and in: also see Lasso, Livizzano, Malaspina, Mario, Ori, Scolari, Silvester, Terzio, Troiano, Venturin, Visconnten Alte Pinakothek: 192; plates 68; 177 art market: plates 93, 174 Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv [=BHStA]: 45–7, 52, 54, 59–61, 63–71, 73, 75, 77–80, 94, 144, 265–6, 190, 204 Korr.Akt.924 (=1565–66 ‘Diary’ of Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria, see Bologna, Florence, Mantua, Trent): 46, 56, 59, 61–74, 77, 80, 82–3, 93, 190, 204, 260, 265 Korr.Akt 925 (=1579 Diary of Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria see Venice): 54, 61, 94–5, 260, 265 Bayerisches Nationalmuseum: plate *255: 112, 181, 191, 199, 205 February: plates *333–4 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek [= BStB]: 45, 49, 266 plate *18 (Rar.1023): 48 plate *19 (Rar.633): 48 plate *253 (Cod.germ.3272): 112, 189, 191

INDEX

plates *258–9 (Cod.germ.3291): 112, 181, 191, 199, 222 Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen: plates 177–8, 295 carnival legislation: 69 depicted: 148 Deutsches Theater Museum (DTM): 193 House of Bavaria (see Landshut): 144; plates 25–26 Albrecht IV (m. Anna of Habsburg): 47, 52, 59–61, 75 Ferdinand: 47, 54, 56, 59–74; 77, 80, 83, 88, 93–5, 144, 190, 204; plate 26 Maria: 54 Maria Anna: 53–4 Maximilian I (m. Elisabeth de Lorraine): 47, 52, 88, 97 Trausnitz Castle: see Landshut Wilhelm V, ‘der Fromme’ (m. Renée of Lorraine, 1568): 45– 60, 62–3, 69, 74–5, 77–80, 88 private collection: 53 Residenz, Miniaturenkabinett: 148 Staatliche Graphische Sammlung: plates 21a, 135, 164–5 music, musical instruments (see ‘cda [serenade]’, drama, props): 62; plates 181; 230, 266 bagpipes: 49, 191; plate 27 bells, morris bells, bell-hammer: 170, 191, 216–18, 222–3, 232; plates 2– 5, 35, 73, 108, 125, 166, 218, 224, 226, 259, 267–8, 318 cello: 191, 225, 238 colascione: 205 cornetti: 64, 221 cymbals: 122, 205; plate 65 drum: 65, 129, 191, 217–18, 221, 223, 239; plate 167 fiddle: see violin

flute: 64 guitar: 39, 147, 191 grill and tongs: see props harp: 205 hunting horn: 191 lira: 39, 71, 255 lute: 49, 55, 58, 75, 118, 122–3, 127, 131, 145, 147, 149, 153, 158, 168–9, 171–4, 188, 191, 205, 217, 223–5, 234, 238, 248, 250, 253; plate 293 organ: plate 309 pipe and/or tabor: 115–16, 191, 217, 257; plates 52, 167 rommelpot (friction drum): 191, 217– 18, 239 singing, concerts: 36, 39, 43, 55, 58, 64, 70–3, 75, 77, 87–9, 95, 147, 153, 157, 179, 196, 204, 206, 211, 253, 255; plates 130, 266 strings: 71, 77–8, 132, 136–7, 159, 205, 215, 224, 237–8 tabor: see ‘music [pipe]’ tambourine: 128–9, 191, 205, 218, 224, 239–40 trombone: 64, 71 violin: 49, 62–3, 71, 75, 78–9, 90, 104, 132, 146, 157, 174, 191, 205, 232, 249; plate 293 virginals: 149; plate 183 wind: 49, 63 xylophone: 127, 235 Mussolino, Benito: 134 Mutio ‘italiano de la comedia’: 37 Mystery plays: see drama

Nagler, A M: 166, 183 Nagler, G K: 114, 164 Naples: 1588 carnival: 225, 250 Actors, performers and writers from and in (see Fornaris, Lasso, Mauro,

325

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Soldano, ‘stock roles [capitano]’, Trastulo, Troiano): 19, 47, 55, 74–7, 82–3 Neapolitan influence on cda: 74–7, 82–3, 225, 255 carnival of 1588: 222, 246 cuccagna: see carnival depicted: plate 325 porters: plate 325 Narrenstieg, Narrentreppe: see Landshut Nash, Thomas, Pierce Penilesse: 89–90 Naselli, Giovanni Alberto = Zan Ganassa (m. Barbara Flaminia): 21, 39, 44–5, 69, 86, 141, 201, 230, 236, 249–50 Nelli, Nicolò: Naspo Bizaro (plates *233–7): 187–90 Cuccagna (plate *327): 192–4 Libro de marchi de cavalli: 188 Portrait of Troiano: 188 Proverbii: 188 Neptune (see stock roles): 130–1 Nespola: see stock roles Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS): see Wassenaar New Haven, Conn, Yale University Library, Rare books: Recueil Fossard variants: 111–13 plate *36: 62, 69, 112, 181, 199, 217, 223 Yale University Art Gallery: plate 127 Newton, Stella Mary: 243 New York: art market: 126, 168; plates 94, 100, 135, 140, 145, 159, 185, 187, 198, 204–5, 209, 275–6 Metropolitan Museum: 53, 156 Private collections: 53, 156 Public Library, Spencer Collection, Repertorio di una compagnia della cda: 183 Neyt, Herman de: 167

326

NIAS: see Wassenaar Nichols, Tom: 167 Nicoll, Allardyce: 44, 84, 142, 144, 150, 162, 168, 192, 234, 248, 250–1 Nieulandt, Willem van: plate 276 Nobili, Cesare de = Francesca: 201 Francesco de, of Lucca = Cherea: 34, 36 Orazio (Horatio), of Florence or Padua = inamorato: 243, 246; plate 6 Nodet le Tavernier: plate 11 Noë, Ulrike: 28, 151, 187 Nogent-Le-Roi, actors in: 44 Nördlingen, actors in: 38, 79 Norton, Thomas: 204 Norwich, actors in: 37–8 Nudity: see ‘props [costume]’ Nürnberg (see Löcher): Actors in: 38 artists in: 148 Germanisches Nationalmuseum: plate 183 Ein köstlich bewerte ‘Præser-uatiua’ (plate *34): 62, 69 Four masks (plate *33): 62, 69, 112, 191–2, 209 Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve (plate *310): 189, 191, 230 Three masks (plate *248): 112, 190– 1, 209 Stadtmuseum: 51

OED: 220–1, 223, 266 Ordine, et dechiaratione: 105, 265 Orgel, Stephen: 233 Ori, Giorgio d’, of Trento: 57, 77 Orlando: see Lasso, stock roles Orsini: Paulo Giordano: see Florence Troilo: 80 Ortolani company: see troupes

INDEX

Orvietan: see charlatan Osthoff, Wolfgang: 72 Ostrow, Stephen: 174 Ottobeuren, Benediktinerabtei: 150; plate 180 Ottonelli, Giovan Domenico: 198 Oultre, Pierre de la: 37 Oxford: Ashmolean Museum: 172; plates 53, 64, 98, 120, 153, 218 Bodleian Library: 266; plate 316 Divels Legend (plate *310): 187–9, 227 Corpus Christi College Library: 91, 202, 266 Douce Collection: 160, 211, 266; plates 29, 30, 66–7, 151–2, 210, 212, 214, 216, 233–7, 269–70, 282, 288, 319, 331 Deceitful people (plate *292): 181, 192, 211 Gioco della campana (plate *318): 191–2 Ianuari (plate *170): 217 Larvis ac tragicis (plate *338): 224 Recueil Fossard variants (plate *43): 111–13, 162, 231 Teatre de Gille le Niais (plate *299a): 100, 233 Triomfo del Carneval (plate *220): 159, 188, 191–3, 195, 222

Padelle: see stock roles Padua actors from and in (see Beolco, Bragati, Pasquati, Re): 197 courtesans of: 201 Paduano Alessandro: 51; plates 20–23 Brigida, m. Friedrich Sustris: 51 Paenderen, Egbert van: 209; plate 331

Paggi: plate 231 Paleotti, Cardinal of Bologna: 42, 92 Paliaga, Franco: 114–15, 151 Pallago, Carlo: 51 Pandolfi, Vito: 21, 28, 58, 82, 87, 92, 100–1, 116, 145, 168, 185, 197, 219, 228, 242, 246 Panigon, Pantalone: see stock roles Pantomime donkey: see props Panzanini, Gabriele, of Bologna = Francatrippa: 99, 101, 105, 111, 146, 243, 246–7, 249; plates 3, 6, 9, 11, 38, 43, 319b Panzera, Battista, of Parma: 116 Parabosco, Il Pellegrino: 214 Parasol: see props Paris and France: actors from and in (see Fornaris, ‘stock roles [Harlequin]’, Martinelli, Riccoboni, Romano, Sarat): 25, 37, 44, 91, 102–4, 120, 164, 216, 218, 246, 249; plates 10, 11 art, artists and writers from and in (see Joullain): 25, 103, 153, 230 art market: 130; plates 81, 101, 109, 179, 209, 266 Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal: 243, 266 Bibliothèque de l’Opéra: 195, 231, 266 Bibliothèque Nationale [= BN]: 160, 222, 231, 242–3, 266; plate 287 Compositions de rhetorique de M Don Arlequin (plates *14–15): 27, 181, 215, 229–32, 242 Scéne de Comédie, Hennin collection (plate *13): 142 Scene from the cda (plate *306): 185 Théâtre et boutique de l’Orviétan (plate *299): 181, 184, 199, 234 Carnavalet Museum: 151; plate 61 Comédie Française: plates 189–90

327

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Comédie Italienne: 25 École des Beaux-Arts: plate 212 Frenchman: see stock roles Hôtel de Bourgogne: 186–7, 249 Musée de Cluny: plate 24 Musée du Louvre: 126–7, 152, 249 private collections: 139, 151, 156; plate 72 A cda company in performance (plate *156): 142, 151–2, 186, 207, 217 Royal House: 139–40 Charles IX: 44–5, 140–1 Elisabeth: 141 Francis II (Duc d’Alencon): 140 Henri II: 38 Henri III (Duc d’Anjou, see Venice): 87, 102–3, 140, 152–3 Louis XIV: 107 Marguerite de Valois: 140 Parma (see Julius, Panzera), Villa Colorno: 131 Pasquerello, Giovan Pietro of Florence: 249–50 Pasquariello Truonno: see stock roles Pasquati, Giulio, of Padua = Pantalone: 69, 87, 146, 246, 248 Passe, Crispin de: 242, 263; plates 151, 152, 217–18, 260–1 Venetian couple (plate *153): 132, 137, 242 Pastoral plays: see drama Paulovicchio, Giovanni: see ‘stock roles [Zan Polo]’ Pavoni, Giuseppe: 247, 249 Pax: see stock roles Pazzia (see ‘stock roles [madwoman]’): L’arboro della pazzia: plate 283 La gran pazzia di Orlando: 166, 184; plate 243 La pazzia di Isabella: 88, 247 Peasant dialogues: see drama Pedant: see stock roles

328

Pedrolino: see Pellesini Pegasus: 131 Pellesini, Giovanni, of Reggio = Pedrolino (m. Vittoria Piisimi): 33, 41, 99, 101, 234, 247–9; plate 38 Pellicer: 84 Peltzer, R A: 169, 171 Performers: see actors Peri, Jacopo: 72 Pernovalla: see stock roles Peronne: plate 10 Perret, Young lovers: 156 Perrucci; Dell’arte rappresentativa: 106 Pestle and mortar: see props Petrarchan triumphs: 195 Philip II: see Madrid Philipin: see ‘Stockholm [Recueil Fossard]’, ‘stock roles [frenchman]’ Philippot, P: 152 Piazza performances: see ‘drama [market-place]’ Picasso, Pablo: 26 Piccolomini, Alessandro: 43 Picnic: see banquet Pierce, Glenn Palen: 115 Pieri, Marzia: 150 Piisimi, Vittoria, of Ferrara = Fioretta (m. Giovanni Pellesini): 33, 41, 87–8, 247– 9 Pineda, Juan de: 92 Pipe: see Cecchini, music Pirrotta, Nino: 75 Pisa, actors in: 100, 248 Pistoia, actors in: 248 Pius V, Pope: see Bologna, Rome Platter, of Basle Felix: 96–101, 196 Thomas II: 104, 196–8 Plautus: 34 Miles Gloriosus: 36 Playbills: 20 Plays: see cda, drama, prologues

INDEX

Plot summaries: see cda, scenarios ‘Poccetti’ (Bernardino Barbatelli): Figural group including actors (plate *335): 206, 214 Poensgen, Georg: 66, 168 Poiana Maggiore: 51 Policinelle: see ‘stock roles [Pulcinella]’ Polidoro: see Troiano Ponti, Diana: 91, 248 Ponzano, Antonio: 51 Popes: see Rome Poppi, Cesare: 240 Porcacchi, Tomaso: 84, 87 Porro, Hieronymus: Le bararie del mondo (plate *284): 181, 199, 211–12 Portalupo, Giacomo = Isabella: 201 Posner, Donald: 225–6, 250, 261 Pourbus family: 140–1; plates 12 (see Bayeux), 60, 63 Povoledo, Elena: 27, 82, 93, 110, 151, 190, 193, 214, 221, 225 Pozzoserrato: see Toeput Preti, Baldassare de: 86 Primaticcio: plate 231 Procession: see drama Prodigal son: plate 198 Professional performers: see actors Prologue (see Briccio, Castelletti, Grazzini, Scala, stock roles, Troiano): 21, 71 Props (see music): 31, 56, 137, 139, 159, 191–2, 204–5, 207, 243, 251, 256, 261, 263 alcohol (in barrel, bottle, butt, flask, fountain, glass, goblet, see Bacchus, carnival): 105, 129, 160, 193–4, 217, 254 animal: bird, owl: 71, 136, 150, 173, 205, 207, 212, 253 boar: 194 bull: see drama

camel: 238 dog: 169, 217 donkey, mule, pantomime donkey: 122, 124–5, 127, 147, 150, 162, 188, 212, 224, 253, 255; plates 42, 69, 70–2 leopard: 63 monkey: 170, 238, 245; plates 38, 226, 242 snake: 159 arms & armour (bat, blunderbuss, bow & arrows, breastplate, cudgel, dagger, hammer, helmet, knife, lance, mallet, pick-axe, sabre, shield, spear, stick, sword and/or scabbard): 58, 110, 118, 124, 132, 140, 151–2, 155, 163, 191–2, 194, 215–17, 219, 221–3, 227, 240 castles, wood and snow: 68, 145, 209 costume: see stock roles actresses: 199–213 bag, hip-pouch, purse: 118, 152, 163, 191–2, 205, 207, 238 codpiece: 141, 157, 159, 189, 217, 232 costume books and series: see friendship album cross-dressing (see Amorevoli, Checo, Cimador, Malaspina, Nobili, Portalupo, Terzio, Venturino): 69, 200–2, 256 crown: 218 eastern, exotic (see ‘stock roles [Turk]’): 122, 132, 136–7, 145, 154, 171–2, 205, 209–11, 213, 217–19, 237 ecclesiastical: 69 eye-glasses: 192 fan: 74, 154, 205, 207, 210 gloves: 192, 203, 208, 215 hats, headgear (see below: kashbasti, mask, turban, veil):

329

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

97, 122, 140, 147, 152, 154–7, spoon, spatula: 140, 159, 192, 164–5, 172, 191, 202–3, 216– 207, 222, 254 17, 219, 222, 227, 232–3, 236, food (see alcohol): 192–4, 207 239, 248 cake, pancake: 193, 253, 255 jewellry: 58, 156–7, 201, 204, cheese: 192–3 208, 260 eggs, egg-seller: 122–5, 153, 159, kashbasti: 209–10 191, 240, 252; plates 64, 216, kerchief: 203, 205 218, 319b make-up (see also mask, below): herrings, carnival fish, fishermen, 97, 203 fishmongers: 193, 220; plate 86 masquerade: see ‘drama [masmacaroni, ravioli: 57, 194, 254–5 cara]’ oranges: 223 Moorish: 38, 48, 105 sausages, carnival meats, nudity: 90, 156–7, 200–1, 204 butchers, fowl, pigs’ trotters: parasol: 149, 172 160, 192–5, 217, 222, 224, 239, peasant, porter, docker (see 254; plates 52, 73, 86–8, 161, ‘Venice [facchini]’): 190 220, 226, 267–8 sailor: 67, 71, 83, 190, 192; waffles: 160 plates 316, 324 letter and/or money: 50, 118, 156, slippers, footwear: 124, 147, 155, 192, 205; plate 57 157, 162–3, 191, 202, 215, 219 mask: 19–20, 35, 56, 63, 97, 104, turban: 171, 191, 202, 205, 208, 217, 329–30; plate 1 219 carnival, masquerade: 48–9, 67– veil: 156–7, 159, 164, 202–5, 210 9, 97, 101–2 zanni: 189–90 depicted: 123, 132, 141, 157, domestic (basket, bowl, box, bucket, 163, 170, 191, 195, 202–4, 208, jug, grater, pan, phial, sack, 217, 219–25, 227, 230–4, 236 scissors): 122–5, 191–2, 205, 207, loup: 202 239; plate 52 moorish: 48 bellows: 192; plate 223 ties: 191, 203 chamber pot: 258 medical (chest, comb, stick, syringe, ‘headgear’ (cauldron, funnel, oilwares): 192, 196, 205, 254 lamp, pot, spoon): 159, 164, property lists: 183 191, 217–18 rope: 152, 192 ‘musical instruments’ (grill, rosary: 205 grillpan and/or fire tongs): 147, sleigh: 144, 174 151, 154, 159, 191, 223; plate torch: 48–9, 69, 154–5, 181, 192, 223 224; plates 117, 163, 177, 331, 338 pestle and mortar: 189, 192; wagon: 48–9; plates 18–19 plates 52, 191, 237, 249 Providence, Rhode Island School of spindle: 202, 207, 251 Design Museum of Art: plate 228 spinning top: 212 Prudenzia of Verona: 246

330

INDEX

Pulcinella, Pullicienello: see stock roles PWU = present wherabouts unknown

Quack: see charlatan

Rabb, Theodore: 23 Rabel, Daniel: 211 Rabelais, François: 194–5 Sciomachie: 38, 221 Raber, Vigil: 85 Rado Stizoso: see Zan Polo Rainsdorff, Christoff von: 62–3 Ramponi: see Andreini Raparini, Giorgio Maria, L’arlichino: 99, 227–8, 234 Rappolstein, Scipio von: 98 Rappresentazioni sacre: see drama Rasi, Luigi: 26, 229, 247, 250 Ratso: see stock roles Rauhut, Franz: 50, 233 Ravenna, actors from and in: 43 Razer, Andrea: 36 Razullo: see stock roles Re, Emilio: 37, 80, 82, 86, 93 Re: Angela ‘a comedis’: 86 Ser Maphio or Maffeo del, of Padua = Zanini (d.1553): 37, 39, 86, 196 Recueil Fossard: see Stockholm, also Brambilla, Copenhagen, Francken, London, New Haven, Oxford Rederijkerskamer (Chambers of Rhetoricians): see troupes Reggio: see Pellesini Reinhardt, Max: 243 Reitmorin, Anna: 49 REM (monogrammist): Flemish kermess (plate *291): 181 Renger, Konrad: 66, 123, 142, 149, 160, 168, 171

Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts: plate 155 Renson, G: 146 Ricci, Benedetto = Leander: 244 Federico = Pantalone: 245 Riccoboni, Luigi = Lelio: Histoire du thèâtre italien: 19, 25, 227, 229, 242 Richards, K & L: 36, 58, 168, 196, 202, 246–7 Ricolina, Riciulina, Rizzolina: see Lucchesi Ridder, Liselotte de: 75–6 Rigo, Mo: see stock roles Rinaldo: 87 Rinuccini, Ottavio, Arianna: 88 Rivani, Giovanni = Dottor Graziano Campanaccio da Budri: 198 Rivo, Giulio de: 48 RKD: see Hague Robinson, William: 148 Roeck, Bernd: 54 Rogna, Luigi: 86 Romanino, Girolamo: Masked dance (plate *337): 224 Romano, Giovanni-Antonio = ‘Valfeniere’: 37, 218 Rome and Italy (see Altoviti, Orsini): 80–2 actors and musicians from and in (see Caccini, Flaminia, Johannes, Mario, Tibertinus): 19, 223, 254 at 1549 banquet: 38, 221 in 1574 comedy: 42 Anguillara’s troupe: 80–2, 93 Briccio’s troupe: 185 Cantinella’s troupe: 36, 80, 82, 93 Diana’s troupe: 91 and Hakewill: 220 Lasso in: 47, 75, 82 Lucretia’s troupe: 86

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and Kemp: 90 Maphio’s troupe: 86 Marcantonio’s troupe: 93 art, artists, printers, writers from and in: see Aelst, Anguillara, Carenzano, Du Bellay, Duchet, Grassi, Lafrery, Losi, Panzera, Rossi, Scalzi, Vaccari Ammanato: 81 Brambilla: 114–15, 133 Bril: 130, 166–7 Bruegel, Jan I: 123–4, 138; plate 68 Carenzano: 114 Franco: 80–1 Liss: 134 Stevens: 173; plates 276–9 Toeput: 167 Valckenborch, F v: 148 Vrancx: 129–30, 132, 167; plate 120 Biblioteca Casanatense: Basilio Locatelli, Della Scena de’ Soggetti Comici e Tragici: 166–7, 216 Biblioteca Corsiniana: Corsini scenarios (plates *243–7): 105, 116, 130, 165–7, 173, 181, 183–4, 202, 205–9, 211, 215, 217, 219, 224, 243, 248 Biblioteca Teatrale il Burcardo: 26, 111, 113; plate 52 carnival: 42, 93, 124, 224; plates 68, 131–3, 276–9 depicted: 114; plates 68, 69c, 120, 131–3, 276–9 Museo NATP: 195 Piazza del Popolo: 123 Piazza Navona: 251 popes: Gregory XIII: 42 Paul III: 223 Pius V: 42, 80 Santo Apostolo: 81

332

S. Biagio: 81 S. Giuliano: 117 Strada Giulia: 81–2 Vatican Swiss guards (see ‘stock roles [tedesco]’): Roncagli: see Valerini Rosenberg, Pierre: 212 Rossetti, G B; Dello Scalco: 249 Rossi: 114, 251–2 Giovanni Battista de’, of Rome: 251– 2, 255 Giovanni Giacomo de’: 114 Nicolò, Discorsi sulla commedia: 96, 100 Rotari: see Andreini Roxelana (Hurrem Sultana): 210 Royalton-Kisch, Martin: 147 Rozzi: see troupes Rubens, Peter Paul: 124; plate 69 Rudolf: see Habsburg Ruffiana: see stock roles Ruzante: see Beolco Ryck, C P van: plate 160

Sabbioneta; Teatro all’Antica: 51 Sackville, Thomas: 99 Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum: plate 278 Sadeler family: 122, 158; plates 29–30, 66–7, 210, 212, 276, 279 Christus adventus: 158 Isabella Andreini (plate *328): 206 Sailor: see ‘props [costume]’ St Petersburg, Hermitage: plate 1 Salamanca workshop: 252 Salimbeni, Girolamo, of Florence = Piombino & Zanobio: 245–6; plate 293 Salomona, Angela: 89 Salvestrini, Piero of Castello: 214 Salzburg depicted: 148

INDEX

Leopoldskron: plate 319 Sand, George: 25–6 Maurice (Dudevant), Masques et bouffons: 25–7, 119, 140 Sandberger, Adolf: 46, 52, 63, 75–6, 78, 250 Sanesi, Ireneo: 142 Sannio: see stock roles Sanudo of Venice, Marin, Diaries: 35–7, 39, 93, 104, 133 Sanz Ayán, Carmen: 21, 201, 249 Sarasota, Ringling Museum: plate 231 Sarat, Agnan: 103, 220, 231; plate 10 Saslow, James: 88 Sausages: see ‘props [food]’ Savoy, House of: Margherita: see Mantua Maurizio, Cardinal: 166 Scala, Flaminio = Flavio: 196 Il finto marito: 35 Il teatro: 21, 104, 182, 198, 201, 216, 219 Scalzi, Alessandro, of Rome: 51 Scapin, Scapino: see stock roles, Gabrielli Scaramuzia, Scaramouche: see stock roles Scenario: see cda Scenery: see stages Schapelhouman, Marijn: 119 Scheicher, Elisabeth: 45 Scherisepho: see stock roles Le schiave: see Verucci Schiavone, Giovanni = il Meldolla: 171; plate 242 Schindler, Otto G: 64, 140, 142, 144, 148, 150, 197, 226 Schleier, Reinhart: 151, 170 Schlosser, Julius von: 53, 144; plate 24 Schmid, Ernst Fritz: 99, 101 Schneede, Uwe M: 129 Schneider: see Hague

Schöne, Günter: 50, 75 Schornstetten, Carl von: 98 Schrade, Leo: 60 Schrickx, Willem: 44, 103, 120 Schröder, Thomas: 172 Schwarz, Christoph: 52, 224; plates 22, 23, 37, 305–6 Schwarzdorfer, Johan Wolfgang: plates 258–9 Schwoll, Joachim von: 209, 217 Costumed carnival revellers (plate *27): 62, 68, 180–1, 190–2, 201–2, 209, 217 Six dancing masks and a dying Pantalone (plate *31): 62, 68, 159, 191–2, 217, 219 Masked revellers (plate *32): 62, 68– 9, 191 Scolari, Giovanni Battista, of Trento = Zanni: 53, 57, 63, 77–8, 84; plate 24 Scolnicov, Hanna: 87, 200 Scoto of Mantua: see Dionisio Scott, Virginia: 86, 88 Scrase, David: 168 Seebass, Tilman: 23 Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve: see Nürnberg Seragnoli, Daniele: 43 Serenade: see cda Serlio, Sebastiano; Architettura, stage settings (plates *296–8): 181–6 Ser Maphio: see Re Servant–master–female trio: see actors Servant-master pair : see stock roles Sets and settings: see stages Severini, Gino: 26 Sewter, A C: 145–6 Sfessania: see Callot Shakespeare, William: 90, 120 Hamlet: 90 Henry IV pt.2: 90 Sheba, Queen of: plate 176

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Shergold, N D: 21, 39, 44, 84, 250 Shirley, Robert, Thomas & Sir Anthony: 90 Shrove Tuesday: see carnival Sibilot: 103 Sibiu; Museum Brukenthal: 153 Sidney, Philip: 146 Arcadia: 221 Siena actors from and in: see Lucretia, ‘troupes [Rozzi]’ Pinacoteca: 235 Siguret, F: 29 Silvester of Treviso: 63 Silvia, Silvio: see stock roles Simon: 39 Simone da Bologna = Zan Panza da Pegora: 82, 84, 87, 100, 229, 246 Lachrimoso lamento: 82 Singing: see music Sins, vices: 121, 159–60, 218 Skoklosters Slott: see Stockholm Slave: see stock roles Smaraolo: see stock roles Smith, Sir Thomas: 223 Snake, snakecharmer: see charlatan Snayers, Pieter: plate 116 Soldano, Aniello, of Naples = Dottore Spacca Strummolo (plate *300): 185 Soldier: see ‘stock roles [capitano, tedesco]’ Soldino of Florence: 44 Solerti, Angelo: 41, 68, 105, 235 Solis, Nicholas: 48; plate 19 Sommi, Leone de’: 70, 94 Sonnet de Courval, Thomas, Satyre contre les charlatans: 104 Spacca Strummolo: see Soldano Spain: see Madrid Spavento, Capitano: see Andreini Spectacle: see drama Spectators: see audience

334

Spineta, Spinetta: see Gabrielli Spinosa, Aloizio: 144 Sponsler, Claire: 20 Sprengel, Peter: 198, 233 Squaquara: see ‘stock roles [Meo Squaquara]’ Stage names: see stock roles Stages, sets and scenery (see cda, drama, props, troupes): 177–87 Actresses on stage: 200–1 booth and curtained stages: 181–7 cleared space and natural stages: 179– 80 Cucagna stages: 194 depicted: 18, 121, 123, 137, 139, 143, 149–51, 153, 159, 162, 199, 261 Hôtel de Bourgogne: see Paris Jewish comedy: 95 perspective sets (see ‘Rome [Corsini]’, Serlio): 64, 182–7 rederijker stages: see troupes Santo Apostolo: see Rome stanze: 39, 41, 45, 81 tennis court stage: 196 theatres (see Sabbioneta): 42, 70, 81, 91, 94–5 trestles, benches (see charlatan): 131– 3, 135, 159, 174, 180–1, 187, 196, 199, 211, 232–3 Stanze: see stages Stefanello: see Bottarga Steenwijk, Hendrik: 145 Steinbart, Kurt: 134–5 Stephanus: 39 Sterling, Charles: 18, 27, 116, 139–75, 192, 236, 259–60 Stevens, Pieter: 173, 191, 209; plate 276 February (plates *278–9): 173, 181 Festival with comedians (plate *277): 173–4, 181, 189, 191 Winter carnival (plate *275): 172–3, 181, 199, 209

INDEX

Stiltwalking: see ‘drama [acrobats]’ Stockholm: art market: plate 97 Drottningholm Theatre Museum: Comedians on a Venetian terrace (plate *221): 159, 164, 180–1, 203, 237, 241 The comic duel (plate *50): 161–4, 207, 231, 238, 241–1 The comic serenade (plate *48): 55, 124, 146, 161–4, 182, 205, 231, 238, 241 Five actors on a stage (plate *188): 151, 155, 207 Harlequin disguised, (plate *49): 139, 161–5, 205, 208, 216, 231, 238, 241 Itinerant entertainers at an alpine Germanic court (plate *37): 180, 223 Nationalmuseum: plate 171 Printroom: L’arboro della pazzia (plate *283): 181, 187, 191, 199 Il carnevale italiano: 108 Recueil Fossard (NM2189 – 2272/ 1904, see Brambilla, Caulery, Francken, Vrancx): 26–7, 107–20, 186, 242; plates 40–1, 55 plate *6: 105, 108, 110, 113, 145, 158–62, 164–5, 191, 201–2, 204–8, 216, 220, 223, 231–2, 237, 242, 245, 249, 257 plates *7–9: 108–10, 162, 231–2, 237, 240, 242 plate *10 (see Sarat): 108, 220, 231 plate *11: 108, 207–8, 220, 231 plates *39, *42: 107, 109 private collection: 150 Skoklosters Slott, Hallwylska Museet (plate *35): 62, 69, 189–92, 222–3

Stock roles, fixed types, stage names, mythological , fictional and stage characters (see actors; individually indexed actors): 19–20, 29, 31–2, 40, 83–106, 187–258 Angela: see Lucchesi, Re, Salomona Angelica (see Fornaris, Martinelli): 208 Arlecchino, Arlequin: see ‘stock roles [Harlequin]’, Martinelli Astrologer: 201, 230–1, 246; plates 38, 310 Aurelio: see Valerini Avra: 231; plate 260 Bacchus (see Carnival): 105, 218, 246; plate 38 Badello, Badil: see Zan Padella Bagatino, Bagolino: 234, 245; plates 3, 294 Baltran: see Barbieri Balzarina: 115, 207, 257; plate 52 Beggar: 200 Bello Sguardo: plate 3 Beltrame (see Barbieri): 19 Bergamasco (see ‘stock roles [Gianni Bergamasco]’): 98 Bernovalla: plate 2 Bertolino: 184, 234 Bragato, Braghetta: see ‘stock roles [Zan Bragato]’ Bravo (see Capitano): 36, 100, 170 Brigantin: 234; plate 299 Brighella: 19, 140, 235–6, 243 Buffone: see buffone Burati, Burattin, Burattino: 32–3, 84, 115–16, 190, 247–8, 257; plates 52–3, 319b Camilla: see Malaspina Cantarina: 206 Capitano, captain, mercenary, soldier (see also bravo, Callot, ‘stock roles [tedesco]’): 104–5, 144, 206, 213–

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

20, 236; plates 3, 6, 14, 20–3, 38, 49, 51, 200–4, 208, 224, 230–1, 237, 303–4 Babeo: plate 3 Bellavita: plate 3 Bonbardon: plate 3 Cardone: see Cortesei Cerimonia: plate 3 Cocodrillo: see Fornaris Deluvio: 100 Don Diego de Mendoza: see Troiano Esgangarato: plate 3 Grillo: plate 3 Mala Gamba: plate 3 Matamoros: see Fiorillo Rinoceronte: see Garavini Spanish: 55, 74, 105, 213ff, 258 Spavento (see Andreini): 19 Spessa Monti: plate 3 Zerbino: plate 3 Carnival: (see Brambilla): 115, 129, 193–5; plates 85, 220, 308 Charon: 57, 71 Chocholi: 245; plate 293 Chola: see Mauro Cicho Sgarra: plate 3 Cietrulo: 245; plate 294 Cingana: see gypsy Cintia: 208 Ciurlo: plate 3 Claudia: 208 Cola: see Mauro Collo Francisco: plate 3 Columbine, Columbina: 19, 52, 140 Compra Zavargna: see Lomazzo Corinto: see Andreini Cornelia: 208, 257; plates 6, 11 courtesan (see Berlin, Buchellius, Malaspina, Padua, Venice): 89–91, 153, 201–5, 208–10, 257–8; plates 6, 11, 27, 29, 49, 53, 62–3, 65, 84,

336

107–8, 154–5, 209–10, 238–40, 245, 249 Coviello: 19, 26, 209, 219; plate 3 Cucagnesi: see ‘carnival [Cuccagna]’ Cucorogna: plate 3 Cucuba: plate 3 Cucurucu: plates 2, 4 Cupid: 52, 71, 169, 246; plate 38 Death: 33; plates 29, 62 Devil (see Devil): 102, 227 Don Diego de Mendoza: see Troiano Doralice: 58, 202, 208–9 Dottore (see Cecchini, charlatan): 19, 83–4; plates 16, 29, 130, 158, 184, 192, 220, 245–7 Dotor Campanaz : see Bongiavanni Dottore Gratiano da Bologna, Gratiano, M. Gratian: 32–3, 115–16, 248; plates 38, 52–3 Dottor Graziano Campa-naccio da Budri: see Rivani Dottor Gratiano Partesano: see Bianchi Dottore Gratiano Scatalone: 101 Dottore Spacca Strummolo: see Soldano Messere Dotour: 242 Elisa: 208–9 Emilia: 208 enchantress: 205 Europa: 201 Fabio: see Fabio Fabrizio: 57, 219 facchino Bergamasco:see Simone, ‘Venice [facchini]’ Fagottino: 234 Falsirone: see Andreini Fanfirlippe: plate 55 Filomena: 50, 115, 257; plates 21a, 53 Fioretta: see Piisimi

INDEX

Flaminia (see Flaminia): 33, 205, 208 Flavia: see Garavini Flavio: see Scala Florinda: see Andreini fool, matto (see carnival): 233; plates 38, 161 forestieri: 35 Fracasso: plate 3 Francatrippa, Franquatripa (see Panzanini): 98, 232 Francesca, Franceschina, Francisquine (see Amorevoli, Nobili, Valerini, Venturin): 63, 89, 201, 207, 243, 247, 252, 255; plates 4, 6, 38, 43, 50, 53, 55, 247, 260–1 Francese, Frenchman: 57, 105, 196, 213, 219 Francia: plate 288 Fricasso: plate 3 Frimocollo: see Zan Frogniocola Fritellino: see Cecchini Ganassa: see Naselli Gazelle: plate 299a Gelsomino: 19 Gian Farina: plate 4 Gian Fritello: plate 3 Giangurgolo: 19 Gianni bergamasco: 98, 100 Gigogne: plate 55 Gradella: 100 Gratiano: see Dottore Grillo: 32 Guatsetto: plate 3 Gypsy: see gypsies Hans Latz: see ‘stock roles [Zan Bragato]’ Harlequin: 102–4, 161–5, 226–41, 242–3, 261; plates 6–11, 14–15, 43–6, 48–51, 71–2, 81–3, 101, 105, 107, 125, 157–8, 184, 205, 221, 260, 264, 299a, 310 Arlecchino (see Martinelli): 19

L’Arlichino: see Raparini Arlequin: see Paris [Compositions de rhetorique de M Don Arlequin] in Corsini scenarios: 166 erroneously identified: 52, 84, 99, 140, 229–30, 233 and costume: 127, 154–5, 223, 250 and French actors: see Chicot, Sarat, Sibilot Harlekin: 104 and maiolica: 235 and plate 12: 140–1, 236 in Recueil Fossard: see Stockholm Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve: see Nürnberg and Spain: 21, 84 Horatio, Horacio: see Nobili Ianet, Iannette: plate 260 inamorata, inamorato (female and male lover, see individual actors and roles): 85–92, 199–213, 256–8; plates 6, 9, 44, 51, 55–8, 81–3, 105, 125, 154–5, 189–90, 209, 211, 220–1, 226, 304 and actresses: 200 and Baretti: 19 costume: 166 in Diary: 73–4 and Garzoni: 33 and Gelosi: 246–7 and Riccoboni: 229 Young lovers: see Perret Isabella (see Andreini, Portalupo): 201, 206, 208–9, 232, 242 Italia: plate 282 Jean Potage: 99 Jhan Fourmage: 98–9 Jupiter: 70 Lanora: 208

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Lavinia: 208; plate 3 Leander, Leandro (see Ricci): 111, 165, 208, 216, 257; plates 6, 43–4, 51, 293 Lelio (see Andreini, Riccoboni): 215 Lent: see Quaresima Licetta: 111, 207, 257; plates 6, 43 Lidia (see Andreini): 33, 208 Lilia, Lilla: 164–5; plates 44, 51 Luchea, Lucia: 156, 162–3, 165, 207–8, 25; plates 2, 3, 6, 8, 44, 48– 9, 51 Lucretia (see also Lucretia): 205, 257; plates 3, 6 Madwoman, pazzia, (see Andreini): 201, 208 magician, see Falsirone, ‘stock roles [enchantress]’ Magnifico, Venetian (see Andreini, Cecchini, Pasquati, ‘stock roles [Pantalone]’): plates 24, 233–7, 240, 319b, 339 1568 in Munich (see Lasso): 48– 9, 62, 73, 79, 82–3 and Du Bellay: 83, 93 in Ferdinand’s diaries: 65–6, 95 and Garzoni: 32–3, 84 and Grazzini: 80, 83, 93 in jewels: 54 at Sabbioneta: 51 Venturino as: 63 Maid, servetta (see Roncagli): 205– 10; plates 6, 20–1, 38, 49–50, 52, 55–8, 60, 293, 315 1568 in Munich: see Malaspina, Terzio and Baretti: 19 cross-dressed (see Cimador): 200; plate 315 in Harlequin costume: 234 Maramao: plate 3 Mario: 245; plate 293a

338

master-servant pair: see ‘stock roles [servant]’ matachin: see ‘drama [dance]’ Matto: see fool Melancholy: plate 212 Meo Squaquara: plate 5 mercenary: see ‘stock roles [capitano, tedesco]’ Mercury: plates 214–215 Mestolino: plate 3 Mezetin, Metzetin, Mezzetino: 234; plate 3 Muses (see Vos): 48 national types (see Capitano, Frenchman, tedesco, Turk): 104–6, 213–20 Neptune (see Neptune): 70 Nespola, Nespolino: 115, 207, 234, 257; plates 52–3 Nimphe: plate 10 Olimpia: 208 Orazio (see Nobili): 219 Orlando: plate 243 Ortensia (see Flaminia): 201, 206, 208 Padelle: see ‘stock roles [Zan Padella]’ pageboy: 201, 258 Panigon: 192, 194–5; plates 308, 327 Pantalone (see ‘props [clothes: slippers]’, ‘stock roles [Magnifico]’, Pasquati, Ricci): 92–6, 187–99; plates 6, 11, 31, 38, 42–3, 45–8, 50, 164–5, 239, 249–251, 256, 302, 308, 310 1567–8 in Mantua: 86 1582 in Ferrara: 249 1588 in Naples: 250 1598 in Avignon: 196 and Baretti: 19 and Callot: 25 and Castelletti: 96

INDEX

in Corsini album: 184 cross-dressed: 202; plate 315 depicted: 150, 153 Doctour Pantaloun: see Oxford erroneously identified: 212 in Gli inganni: 242 and Joullain: 25 at Landshut: 52 and maiolica: 236 and Nash: 90 Pantalone di Bisognosi: see Lasso Pantalone imbertonao: see Briccio Pantalon inamorato: 242 and plate 12: 140–1 at Sabbioneta: 51 and Sand: 25 Segnor Pantalon: 242 and Vrancx: 136–7, 210 wife of: 57, 205 Parasite: 83, 95 Pascariello (Pettola), Pasquariello (Truonno): 185, 219, 250; plates 4, 319b Passerino: 234 Peace: plate 213 peasant (see Bergamo, Troiano): plate 38 Pedant: 84 Pedrolino, Peterlino (see Pellesini): 98, 100 Pernovalla: see Bernovalla Philipin: 105, 160, 190, 219–20, 257; plate 6 Pickelhering: 232 pilgrim (see Bargagli, Parabosco): 105, 200, 206 Piombino: see Salimbeni Pipe: see Cecchini Pluto: 70 Polichinelle: see Pulcinella Polidoro: see Troiano

Polpettino: 234 portrait series of (see Brambilla, Joullain, Minaggio, Sand): 25; plates 38, 293–4 Prologue: see Troiano Prudenzia: see Prudenzia Psyche: 71–2 Pulcinella, Pullicinella, Pulliciniello, Polichinelle, Policianelo (see Fiorillo): 19, 172; plates 3, 293a, 299 Quaresima (= Lent): 115, 159–60, 193–5; plates 85, 87–8, 225 Rado Stizoso (Slav mercenary): see Zan Polo Ratsa di Boio: plate 3 Razullo: plate 4 Rhetorica: plate 295 Riciulina, Ricolina, Rizzolina: see Lucchesi Rigo, Mo: 115; plate 53 Ruffiana: 83, 118, 205, 245, 251, 258; plates 38, 319b Ruzante: see Beolco Saltarino: 222, 245; plate 38 Sancho Panzo: 100 Sannio: 227 Sardellino: 219 Scapino, Schapin (see Gabrielli): plates 3, 293a, 301 Scaramouche, Scaramucia, Scaramuzia,: 52, 140; plate 3 Scartoccio: 219 Scatolin: 100 Scherisepho: 98, 100 servant-master duo (see Zanni, Pantalone): 15, 62, 65, 80, 95–6, 121, 187–9 servant–master–female trio: see actors Silvio: 215 slave: 201, 208–9

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THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Smaraolo cornuto: plate 3 Smeraldina: 19 soldier: see ‘stock roles [capitano, tedesco]’ Spacca Strummolo: see Soldano Spaniard (see ‘stock roles [Capitano]’): 32, 84 Spilletta, Spineta, Spinetta (see Gabrielli): 19 Stefanello: see Bottarga Tabarino see charlatan Taglia Cantoni: plate 3 Talacchino: 234 tedesco (German mercenary, see also ‘stock roles [capitano]’): 105, 213– 20, 242, 247; plates 22, 27, 31, 38, 53–4, 68, 105, 125, 308 Temellino: 234 Tifeta: 204; plate 11 Time: 129, 218, 246; plates 38, 217 Tofano: 201 Traccagnino: 234 Trap(p)olin(o) (see Fiorillo): 219, 234, 244; plate 293a Trastulo (see Fiorillo): 116, 219, 234, 245, 249–50; plates 3, 38, 293a Trivelin, Trivellino: 234 Trufaldino, Trufaltin: 234 Turchetta: 208–9 Turks and Turkish costume: 96–7, 105, 202, 208–10, 213, 218–19, 246; plates 38, 65, 130, 157, 308 Vecchio (see Pantalone, Dottore): 48, 96, 156 older women: 205; plates 20–1, 38, 60, 231, 315 Venturina: 115, 208, 257; plate 53 Venus: 71; plate 309 Viloti: plate 319b Vittoria: see Piisimi Winter: 174; plate 228 Zachagna: see Zan Zaccagni

340

Zan Bragato, Bragetta: 196–7; plate 319b Zan Capella: 101, 196 Zan Farina: see Gabrielli Zan Fritada: 47, 98–9, 100–1 Zan Frogniocola, Frignocola: 98–101 Zan Ganassa: see Naselli Zanini: see Re Zan Muzzina: 234 Zanni, Zani, Zanie, Zanne, Zany (see Bergamo, Ferrara, Gi[ov]anni, Lomazzo, Marcantonio, Platter, Simone, ‘stock roles [facchino bergamasco, servant master pairs]’, Venice, Venturin): 83, 92–102, 187– 99; plates 6, 11, 24, 42–3, 45, 166, 191, 239–40, 249–251, 303, 308, 310–11, 313, 315, 319b, 326, 339 1568 in Munich (see Lasso, Scolari): 45–9, 54–8, 62, 73–4, 77, 79 1590s in Padua: 197–8 1598 in Avignon: 196–7 1598 in Hechingen: 96–102 and Alberghini: 235 and Briccio: 185 carnival costume: 67–9, 95 in Diary: 65–7, 73–4, 190 in Divels legend: 230 and Garzoni: 32–3, 84 and Grazzini: 32, 41, 80, 93 in Gli inganni: 242 in jewels: see Drausch and Jones: 233 and Kremsmünster panel: 150 at Landshut (see Venturino): 62–3 and maiolica: 235–6 and Nash: 90 in Rome (see Anguillara, Vasari): 80–1, 83 at Sabbioneta: 51 and sannio: 227

INDEX

in Spiegel: 144 and Varchi: 96 in Venetian wedding: 153 in Venice: 82–3 Zanni [or Gianni] Bergamasco: 96, 100 Zanni–master–actress trio: see actor Zanobio: see Salimbeni Zan Padella, Padelle: 98, 100–1, 233; plate 299a Zan Panza di pegora: see Simone Zan Polo, Rado Stizoso (perhaps Liompardi, Nicoletto Cantinella or Giovanni Paulovicchio): 36, 93, 104–5, 188–9; plates 233–7 Zan Salcizza: 100 Zan Trippu: 115–16; plates 52–3 Zany Corneto: 242–3; plate 6 Zan Zaccagni, Zaccagnino: 115–16, 234; plate 52 Stradanus = Jan van Straet: 152 Allegory of riches, Death at the feast (plates *62–3): 121, 163, 181, 204, 234 Death at the feast (plate *29): 62, 74, 121, 181, 204, 234–5 Strasbourg: actors in: 223 artists from and in: see Drausch, Brentel European Science Foundation (ESF): 24 Straube, Beverly: 235 Street players: see ‘drama [marketplace]’ Striggio, Alessandro: 55, 71–2, 79 Subilot: plate 11 Sulz, Elisabeth von: 98 Sustris: Friedrich: 51, 148, 152; plates 164–5 Lambert: 51; plates 22–3 Cda characters on a painted organ (plate *309): 85, 204

Swanenburgh, Isaak van: Flemish kermess (plate *289): 181 Sweep: see chimney-sweep Syamken, Georg: 225

Tabarin: see charlatan Taglia Cantoni: see stock roles Tajacalze, Domenego: 36 Takács, Marianne: 131, 167, 171 Talbot, Michael: 73 Tansillo, Luigi: 76 Tarbes, Museum: plate 119c Tatenhove, J van: 119 Taviani, Ferdinando: 24, 28–9, 35, 42–3, 92, 198, 201, 211, 226, 246 Tedesco: see stock roles Tempesta, Antonio: 120–39, 172, 260 Febraro, Februarius (plates *64–7): 122–3, 125, 127–30, 138, 162, 180, 188, 191–2, 205, 210, 223, 237, 240 Fountain in a palace courtyard (plate *74): 126, 137 Gennaro, Aprile, Maggio (plates *89– 91): 130–1, 138 Winter: 122 Terence: 34 Ternois, Daniel: 28, 116, 168, 212 Terrasse, Charles: 158 Terzio: Ercole: 57, 78–9 Lucio, of Bergamo: 78 Tessin, Carl Gustav: 109 Theatre: see drama Theatre iconography: see ‘cda [sources, visual]’ Thiéry, Yvonne: 148 Thomsen, Christian: 243 Thonauer, Hans: 51 Tibertinus, Giovanni Battista: 75 Tichy, Susanne: 133 Tietze-Conrat, E: 85

341

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Tilmouth, Michael: 72 Tintoretto: 158, 167 Toeput, Lodewyk = Pozzoserrato: 129, 158, 165–75, 209; plates 57–8, 84, 104, 148, 159, 242, 263 Allegory of January (plate *127): 136–7, 160, 168, 173–5, 218 Allegory of winter, Winter, Winter landscape with carnival procession (plates *228–9): 160, 168, 171, 173–5, 218 Banquet: 168 Concert (plate *266): 168, 171, 180 Harlequin greeting Lilia (plate *44): 161, 164, 207, 231, 241 Landshut: 148 Masked fête: 168 Masquerade (plate *130): 136, 137, 145, 149, 168, 171–5, 180, 192, 201, 203, 210, 218–19, 222–3, 237 The month of January (plate *265): 168– 73, 191, 235 Outdoor feast (plate *211): 137, 156–9, 168, 179, 191, 201–2, 205 Piazza San Marco, Venice (plate *124): 132–7, 171, 173–4, 202, 218, 223 Treviso: 173 Village at carnival time (plate *264): 172, 224 Winter (several): 168, 173 Winter scene (plate *262): 168, 171, 173– 5, 218, 223 Törring, Anna Maria von: 97 Torch: see ‘props [domestic]’ Toschi, Paolo: 116, 193, 195 Touchet, Marie: 141 Tournament: see drama Trapani; actors in: 198 Trappolino, Trastulo: see Fiorillo, stock roles Trausnitz Castle: see Landshut

342

Trautmann, Karl: 38, 46, 50–2, 62, 70, 79, 144, 223 Travel accounts (see diaries, friendship albums, Thomas Platter): Trent: 59 actors from and in (see Ori, Scolari): 63–5, 204 Castello del Buon Consiglio: 121 Trestle-stage: see stages Treviso: actors from and in (see Amorevoli, Silvester): 36 art and artists from and in (see Toeput): 167, 173 Triumphanti: see troupes Troiano of Naples, Massimo (= Polidoro, Don Diego de Mendoza): 43–58, 61, 74–7, 80, 83–4, 105, 190, 215, 219, 252 Portrait of: 188 Troupes, Academies, Rederijkerkamers: 31–43 Compagnie della Calza: 133 Confidenti: 41, 89, 204, 216, 245, 248 Desiosi: 91, 100 Eterni: 35 Fedeli: 89, 198 French: see Sarat Gelosi (see Andreini, Panzanini, Pasquati, Simone): 246–51, 262; plate 38 1571 in France: 44 1576 at Venice Carnival: 41 1577 in France: 246 1579 at Venice Carnival: 54, 93– 4 1584 in Venice: 87 1589 in Florence: 54, 88, 247–9 1604 in France: 249 in Bravure: 214–15, 246 and Estoile: 246–7 in Genoa: 45

INDEX

and Grazzini: 41 and plate 51: 164 and plate 61: 142 and plate 158: 146 and Porcacchi: 84, 87 and the Recueil Fossard: 245 Intronati Academy: 43 Medebach troupe: 20 Ortolani: 35 Rederijkerskamer: 119, 130, 137–8, 158, 177 Rozzi: 115 Triumphanti: 35 Uniti: 198, 206, 216, 247–9 Val di Blenio, Accademia della: see Lomazzo Truchseß, family: 98 Frobenius: 47, 97–8 Tufo, Giovan Battista del: 246 Tula, art in: 170 Tumbling: see ‘drama [acrobats]’ Turk: see stock roles Tylus, Jane: 88, 200

Ughi, Stefanella: 246–7, 250 UK: see London Underworld, Hell (see Charon, Hellequin): 70–1, 102 Uniti troupe: see troupes USA: private collection, plates 149, 219 Utrecht: see Buchellius

Vaccari, Lorenzo: 117, 252 Valckenborch, van: 142–50 Frederick and Gillis: 143, 203 Banquet with masked musicians (plate *181): 149, 180, 192, 203 Carnival (plates *178–9): 234, 250 Carnival festival (plate *177): 149, 182, 223, 234

Fantastic procession of fools (plate *161): 149, 192–3, 217–18, 222–4 Group in front of ruins: plate *182 Kremsmünster carnival: 150 Market scene with carnival procession (plate *160): 147–8 Masked procession (plate *320): 149, 190, 192, 222–3 Nocturnal carnival (plate *180): 149 Queen of Sheba’s entry into Jerusalem (plate *176): 149 Winter (plate *183): 149, 209, 218– 19 Lucas: 142–50; plates 162, 187 Archduke Matthias at the vintage: 143 Dance in a palace garden, elegant company (plates *184–5): 146–7, 237 Dance on a palace terrace: 145 Elegant company disporting in a loggia (plate *159): 137, 147, 159, 168–9, 179, 190 Italian comedians entering a château (plate *157): 137, 142, 145, 147, 171–2, 180, 219, 237 Pastoral pleasures (plate *187): 145 ‘Queen Elizabeth and her court at Kenilworth’ (plate *158): 137, 142, 145–7, 237 Marten: Kirmess, Winter, Venetian masquerade (plates *172–4): 143, 181 Valentin, Jean-Marie: 198 Valerini: Adriano, of Verona = Aurelio: 86, 246, 248–50 Silvia [Roncagli] of Bergamo = Franceschina: 246, 250–1 Valfeniere: see Romano Valkenburg, C van: 143 Valladolid, actors in: 38

343

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Valle Ojeda Calvo, María del: 84 Valsecchi, F: 194 Vandenbroeck, Paul: 190 Varchi, Benedetto: 80 L’ercolano: 96 Vasari, Giorgio: 152 Medici wedding of 1565: 51, 74 Vita de Battista Franco: 80–2, 92–3 Vecchi, Orazio, L’anfiparnasso: 101, 185, 216, 243, 248 Vecellio, Cesare: De gli habiti: plates *322 (‘Facchino’), *329–30 (‘Peasant woman’, ‘Favourite of the Sultan’), *332 (‘Asian Gypsy woman’): 152, 190, 210 Veil: see ‘props [costume]’ Velde, Carl van de: 126, 129 Venice and the Veneto: actors and writers from and in (see Anthonien, Armani, Bartholome, Cantinella, Cherea, Cimador, Giulio, Marie, Ruzzante, Taiacalze, Zan Polo): 38, 74, 263 buffoni: 34–7, 93 Coryat on: 91 Garzoni on: 32–4 Gelosi in 1579: 54, 93–4 Sanudo on: 35–7 Simone in: 84 Zanni and Pantalone, origins of in: 19, 82–3, 93, 188–9 art and artists from and in: see Barendz, Bassano, Heintz, Liss, Nelli, Serlio, Toeput, Vecellio, Vrancx, Ziletti Venetian wedding: 145, 153 carnival and festival (see Alsloot, carnival, ‘Venice [depicted]’): 32–3 Giovedì Grasso festival: 133 1523 (Doge’s banquet): 36 1572: 105 1576: 41

344

1579: 54, 93–5 1581: 41, 94 Civico Museo Correr: plate 126b courtesan: 201–2; plate 240 depicted (see friendship album): 112, 132–6, 152–3; plates 16, 107–9, 121–6, 130; 153, 174, 212, 221, 257, 319, 322, 329 facchini (dockers, porters, servants): 33, 83, 95, 190; plate 322 glass (Murano figurines): 144 gondola: 53–4, 94, 132, 168, 188; plate 24 Henri III in: 87 Lasso in: 79, 82 matrons: 152 merchant: see ‘stock roles [Magnifico, Pantalone]’ Museo Civico: plate 126 occupations: see Garzoni peasant woman: plate 329 San Marco: plates 121–6 Teatro Michiel: 94 Teatro Tron: 94 Troiano in: 61 Venne, Adriaen Pietersz. van der: 132; plates 101, 117, 166 Carnival scene (plate *81): 128–9, 137– 8, 194–5, 205, 218, 222, 224, 239 Venturelli, Paola: 53–4 Venturino, Caspar = Magnifico, Zanni, Franceschina, m. Florentine wife: 62–3 Venturina: see stock roles Verhaecht: see Haecht Verona: actors from and in (see Prudenzia, Valerini): 67 Belfiore, Villa Moneta: 51 Verucci, Vergilio: Le Schiave: 197 Vianello, Daniele: 35–6, 50 Vices: see sins

INDEX

Vicenza, Longa di Schiavone: Villa Chiericati-Mugna: plate 262 Vico, Enea: Le labourer (plate *321): 190 Vienna: 60 actors from and in: 63, 143, 245 Albertina: 149, 222; plate 137a art market: plates 136, 160, 172, 207, 229b Gathering in a palace (plate *197): 155 Hofmuseum, gondola jewels: 53 Kunsthistorisches Museum: 147, 159, 218; plate 267 Bell Tower automaton: 53–4 ‘Mora’ players (cda figurines): 144 Villegas, Juan: 24 Vincenza: see Armani Vincenzo: see Mantua Vinckeboons, David: plates 94–5 Kermess (plate *290): 181 Violeren: see troupes Violin: see music Virginia: see Andreini Virginia, US: 235 Vischer, C: plates 282, 288 Visconnten, Alexander: 62 Vittoria: see Piisimi Vleiß, Conrad: 209 Vocelka, Karl: 59–60 Volk-Knüttel, Brigitte: 51, 149 Vos, de: Marten: 120, 155–61, 168; plate 208 Apollo and the Muses: 164 Christus adventus: 158 Eggdance outside a tavern (plates *216 & 219): 159 Feast (plates *209–10): 156–9, 180, 190–1, 201, 203–5, 212 Februarius (plate *218): 159, 189, 191, 204

Harlequin disguised (plate *51): 156, 161–5, 207, 216, 231, 241 Hiems (plate *227): 160, 172–3 Lent surprising revellers at their meal (plate *225): 160 Melancholicus (plate *212): 159, 181 Mercury (plate *214–15): 159, 181, 199 Music-making couple between two cda servants (plate *230): 157, 205, 234 Pax (plate *213): 159, 181, 223 Players of the cda (plate *231–2): 160–1, 211–13 Time with virtues and vices (plate *217): 159, 217–19 Troupe of Italian comedians (plate *154): 139, 150–1, 155–6, 201, 203, 212 Woman between two ages (plate *155): 139, 155–6, 201 Simon: Carnival gathering (plate *141): 137, 155, 164, 180, 202–3, 241 Vrancx, Sebastian: 129–39, 167, 210; plates 102, 136, 219, 242, 244–7, 276 Arreptus fidibus (plate *152): 132, 180, 224, 242 Banquet in an artificial grotto (plate *100): 130–1, 136–7, 163, 180, 201, 204, 215, 223 Banquet in an ornamental setting (plate *104): 130, 137, 168–9, 222–3 Bullbaiting in Piazza San Marco: 133 Busy market scene (plate *146): 131–2, 137, 181, 199 Carnival (plate *101): 130–1, 137, 180, 201, 222, 238, 240 Carnival diversions, Winter scene (plates *113–16): 132, 137, 218, 239–40 Carnival in the Piazza San Marco, Venice (plate *125): 132–7, 163, 171, 181, 199, 210, 223, 237, 241

345

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Carnival revellers (plate *70): 124–6, 128, 137–8, 162–3, 179–80, 205 Carnival revellers at a tourney (plate *72): 124–5, 128, 137–8, 179, 215, 223, 240 Comedians entering a domestic interior, The surprised lovers, The masque (plates *138–40): 137, 155, 164, 180–1, 202–3, 224, 241 Comedians in a venetian palace garden (plate *109): 131, 137, 219, 223 The comic duel (plate *45): 161, 231, 241 Comic masks beside the Tiber (plate *69c): 124, 130, 133 Cda figures outside a palace (plate *148): 132, 137, 168 Court of a venetian palace (plate *107): 130, 136–7, 163, 218–19, 237–8, 241 Dives and Lazarus, (plates *97–8): 130–1, 136–8, 179, 189, 191, 215, 222–3 February and March (plate *149): 132, 137 Festival in a palace garden (plate *106): 130, 136–7, , 215, 223 Harbour scene (plate *119): 132, 137, 181 Harlequin and his children (plate *46): 161, 231, 238, 241 Interior with masked figures and backgammon players, Personas gerimus fictas (plates *150–1): 132, 137, 180, 204, 242 Joust in a town square (plate *134): 133, 137 Masquerade at Antwerp Cathedral (plate *147): 132, 137, 204 Mountainous landscape: 130 Outdoor banquet (plate *99): 130–1, 136– 7, 163, 180, 192, 222–23 Outdoor pleasures, Outdoor diversions, The fête, Fête champêtre, Summer fête (plates *92–6): 130, 137, 179, 211, 223 Revellers in a park (plate *105): 130, 136–7, 179, 190, 215, 237, 241

346

Roman carnival scenes (plates *131–3): 132–3, 137, 222–4 Roman couple (plate *120): 132, 136–7, 181, 199, 204 Roman sketchbook: 129 Venetian jugglers (plate *108): 130, 136– 7, 180, 222–3 Village and party (plate *71): 124–9, 131, 137–8, 163, 179, 215, 223, 240 Winter (plates *110–12): 132, 137, 215 Winter, spring, summer, autumn (plate *118): 132 Vries: Dirck de: 171; plate 242 Hans Vredeman de, Scenographiae: 129 Lyckle de: 24

Waddesdon Manor: 53 Wadum, Jørgen: 130, 132 Wagner, Hans: Kurtze Beschreibung, 45–9, 55; plate 19 Warburg, Aby: 22 Warncke, Carsten-Peter: 51 Wassenaar; NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study): 23 Watanabe-O’Kelly, Helen: 46, 60 Weapons: see ‘props [arms]’ We are seven: 212 Weddings (see ‘drama [festival]’, Ferrara, Florence, Hechingen, Madrid, Mantua, Munich, Venice): 44-83, 260; plates 6, 18–19, 52–3, 169, 205, 237 Spozalizio del Gobbo Nan: 248 Wegner, Wolfgang: 123, 149, 168 Weimar, art in: 148 West, Shearer: 23 Weyer, Gabriel: Zanni with jug (plate *313): 189, 191–2 Whetstone, George, Heptameron: 43

INDEX

Wied, Alexander: 143, 145 Wildens, Jan: February (plate *274): 173, 224 Wilson, Timothy: 236 Wind, Barry: 115, 160, 193, 212 Windsor, Royal Library: plates 284, 327 Dutch Drolls: ‘Bvrlette et Schersi di Commedie’ (plate *315): 189, 191–2, 202, 207, 251–5 Winghe, Joos van: Night Festival (plates *28, *30): 62, 66, 159, 180–1 Winkler, Friedrich: 129 Winspeare, Fabrizio: 60 Winter, Winter (see Boels, carnival, Caulery, February, January, Stevens, stock roles, Tempesta, Toeput, Valckenborch, Vrancx): 121; plates 77, 85, 110–112, 116, 118, 171, 173, 183, 227–9, 262, 275 Wirre, Heinrich: Ordentliche Beschreybung: 45–9, 55, 249; plate 18 Stam und Wapenbuchlin: 111–12 Witt, Sir Robert: 120 Wolfenbüttel, actors in: 99 Wolff, Martha: 66 Wolff, Max J: 43, 246 Wouwer, Abraham: plate 142 Wyntges, Evert: Pisces, a feast scene: plate *241

Zielske, Harald: 24, 216, 226, 244 Zan Farina: see Gabrielli Zanini: see Re Zanni, Zany: see stock roles Zan Polo: see stock roles Zeiningen, Graf von: 97 Zibaldoni (actors’ handbooks): 21, 43 Ziletti of Venice: plate 220 Zima: 66 Zimmern, von, sisters: 97–8 Anna m. Fürstenberg Apollonia m. Helfenstein Eleonora m. Limpurg Johanna m.Truchseß Sybilla m. Hohenzollern Zingara: see gypsies, ‘Rome [Corsini]’; plate 38 La cingana: see Giancarli la Zengara: 184 la Zingara: 88 Zingaresche: see drama Zuan Maria: 36 Zuanne: 39 Zwolle: see Schwoll Zwollo, Von An: 173 Zülch: 143, 148

Xylophone: see music

Yale: see New Haven Yates Thompson Collection: plate 19

Zachagna: see stock roles Zängel, Narzissus: 101 Zampelli, Michael A: 88

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PLATES

Notes to plates The author and publishers wish to express their gratitude to David Allen, David Ekserdjian, Tom Heck, NIAS, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and numerous public collections, private owners and others who have helped with the photographs used for these plates. Every effort has been made to acknowledge copyright holders. The author and publisher apologize for omissions, and are happy to acknowledge in future editions holders of copyright who bring relevant information to their attention. Indexing of plates Where possible, this is by artist or location. Reference plates Excellent reproductions of many of the most important groups of pictures here discussed are readily available elsewhere, but only exceptionally are they complete. Purely for study purposes, for use in conjunction with the better reproductions available elsewhere, sets of reference images are provided of the following (*complete): Various Recueil Fossard *Plates 3-5 Callot, Balli di Sfessania *Plates 20-23 Trausnitz Castle stair and ceiling frescoes *Plates 233-7 Naspo Bizaro *Plates 243-7 Corsini Album *Plate 260 de Passe, Mimicarum aliquot *Plates 293-4 Feather book: ‘Li chomezi’ *Plates 297-8 Serlio, Stage settings *Plate 302-4 Callot, Three Italian comedians *Plate 319 de Gheyn, Mascarades *Plate 319b Bertelli, Diversarum nationum habitus: ‘carnival suite’ Attributions These draw on various sources: published, and given by or via private owners, the art market, photographic librarians or museum curators. Citing them without comment does not necessarily indicate their acceptance here. New attributions are designated by capitals, rejected attributions by placing them in curly brackets. Abbreviations (see also bibliographies and index) PWU present whereabouts unknown RKD Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague Witt The Witt Library, Courtauld Institute, University of London MI, MII, NMB, PQ, RS, TRI: Their use directly following plate numbers refers to previous publication in my pre1994 publications (RS & PQ = Katritzky 1987; NMB = 1988, MI = 1989; TRI = 1991; MII = 1992).

PLATES

1 Domenico Fetti, Portrait of a commedia dell’arte actor, c.1621, oil on canvas, 105 ⫻ 81 cm. Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv.no.153)

2 Jacques Callot, Balli di Sfessania, title page, c.1621, engraving, 7 ⫻ 9 cm.

351

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

352

PLATES

3–5 Jacques Callot, Balli di Sfessania, c.1621, 24 engravings, 7 ⫻ 9 cm.

353

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

354 *6 [⫽NMB/1] Composite prepared from reproductions of eighteen woodcuts, arranged in a 3 ⫻ 6 format to reflect a three act commedia dell’arte performance, each act represented by six pictures. Woodcuts, individual dimensions, 24 ⫻ 28 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard).

PLATES

*7 [⫽MI/11] Harlequin, woodcut, c.12 ⫻ 18 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard f.47r, NM 2272/1904).

355

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*8 [⫽MI/I] Harlequin disguised, handcoloured woodcut. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard f.23r, 2224/1904).

*9 [⫽NMB/5] The comic duel, woodcut, 35.5 ⫻ 33 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard f.17, NM 2218/1904).

356

PLATES

10a Harlequin with Agnan’s troupe, woodcut, c.28 ⫻ 23 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard f.4, NM 2193/1904). [10b–f: see overleaf].

11 Harlequin with French actors, woodcut. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (reconstruction from three Recueil Fossard prints, after Hallar 1977, fig. 25).

357

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

358

PLATES

359

10b–f The troupe of Agnan Sarat, woodcuts, each c.28 ⫻ 23 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard ff.4–6, NM 2192, 2194–7/1904). [10a, 11: see page 357]

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

12 {Frans I Pourbus}, Commedia dell’arte performance, oil on panel, 83 ⫻ 85 cm. Municipal Museum, Bayeux.

13 Facétie. Scéne de comédie, c.1599?, watercolour. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Hennin G151510).

360

361

PLATES

14–15 Harlequin standing and kneeling; Harlequin with children, Captain, Pantalone, woodcuts (from a book of largely blank pages, publication attributed to Tristano Martinelli c.1601). Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

16 [⫽TRI/IV] Hieronymus I Francken, Venetian Carnival, signed in monogram and dated 1565, oil on panel, 42 ⫻ 65 cm. Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen.

17 STYLE OF BRAMBILLA {ANON}, Comic masks, oil, Scala Theatre Museum, Milan.

362

PLATES

*18 [⫽MII/30–1] Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol’s triumphal wagon, 1568, fold-out woodcut from Wirre’s festival book of 1568 (top: LHS, below: RHS). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München (Rar.1023, ff.37–8).

363

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*19 [⫽MII/32] Nicholas Solis, Archduke Ferdinand’s wagon at the tournament parade of 24 February 1568, coloured engraving from Wagner’s festival book of 1568. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München (Rar.633, directly following f.40).

364

PLATES

*20a&b [⫽MII/33] Alessandro Paduano & Friedrich Sustris, Commedia dell’arte scenes, c.1578, lifesize fresco. Narrentreppe, Burg Trausnitz, Landshut (from walls North 6 and East 5).

365

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

366

PLATES

367

21 Landshut staircase frescoes: orientation diagram based on Max Hailer’s watercolours of 1841 (Staatliche Graphische Sammlungen, München) and personal inspection.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

Wall East 1 Wall North 2

ROOF

SECOND FLOOR

Wall North 6 Wall North 10

FIRST FLOOR

Wall North 14 GROUND FLOOR (courtyard level)

Wall North 18

TERRACE (West terrace level)

Wall North 26

Wall North 22

Wall East 29 Wall North 30

CELLARS 21b Landshut staircase frescoes: section through the six-floor staircase.

North 30

openings

down Wall 32

East 29

Wall 31

down

South 28 21c Landshut staircase frescoes: floor plan of cellar staircase (which diverges from the rectangular plan of the previous five floors), showing positions of the damaged walls 28–32. Wall South 28: A zanni squatting above a grilled opening aims a pewter plate at a drunken zanni lying on the stairs below him, who is being beaten with a slipper by Pantalone. To their right a door opening; Wall East 29: Zanni carries Pantalone on his back. To their right a door opening. Wall North 30: Two men, perhaps nude, to their right two dogs, one seated and one balanced on its hind legs. Between the two scenes, a door opening; Wall West 31: A full-length figure; Wall South 32: Zanni holds a dagger above his head.

368

PLATES

*24 [⫽ TRI/II] Giovanni Battista Scolari (?), Magnifico and Zanni serenading two lovers in a gondola, enamelled gold and jewelled pendant, 6.5 ⫻ 5.5 cm. Museo degli Argenti, Pitti Palace, Firenze. [22–23: see overleaf]

369

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

370

PLATES

22–3 CHRISTOPH SCHWARZ & PUPILS {Paduano and Sustris}, Commedia dell’arte scenes, 16-scene ceiling frieze, signed and dated 1576, fresco. Destroyed by fire in 1962, formerly Ehrenlohnzimmer, Burg Trausnitz, Landshut. [24: see previous page]

371

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*25 [⫽MII/24] Family tree showing the relationship between the Dukes of Bavaria, the Habsburgs and the ruling houses of Ferrara, Florence and Mantua in the mid-sixteenth century.

*26 [⫽MII/35] Ferdinand of Bavaria’s route from Munich to Florence, 1565–6.

372

PLATES

373

28b Joos van Winghe, Night festival, ink and wash, 37 ⫻ 46 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Musem, Braunschweig.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*27 [⫽TRI/V] Joachim van Schwoll, Costumed carnival revellers, ink, 42.5 ⫻ 56 cm, leaf from a sketchbook. British Museum, London.

28 Joos van Winghe, Night festival, ink with white body colour, 36 ⫻ 46 cm, Staatliches Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden.

374

PLATES

*29 [⫽MII/29] Raphael Sadeler after Stradanus (⫽Jan van der Straet), Death at the feast, signed engraving, 22 ⫻ 28.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

*30 [⫽MI/37] Jan I Sadeler after Joos van Winghe, Night Festival, engraving, 37 ⫻ 45 cm. Signed and dated 1588 in the plate. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

375

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

376

PLATES

377

30b&c By or after Joos van Winghe, Night festival (b: oil on metal, 36 ⫻ 47 cm, Museum voor Oude Kunste, Brussels; c: oil on panel, 117 ⫻ 154.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, variously attributed to Lastman or Elsheimer).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*31 [⫽MII/39] Joachim van Schwoll, Six dancing masks and a dying Pantalone, ink, 30 ⫻ 20 cm. British Museum, London.

32 Joachim van Schwoll, Masked revellers, ink, 19 ⫻ 31 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam, 1939).

378

PLATES

33 Four masks, dated 1579. Friendship album of Wolfgang Harmsdorffer, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Bibl.HS32900, f.37r), Nürnberg.

34 ‘Derhalb so lern hie Jung und Alt’. Top right-hand scene from ‘Zwölf Regeln nicht arm zu werden’, broadsheet, 1619, 41 ⫻ 28 cm. Germanisches Nationalmuseum (K1292a, HB 24864), Nürnberg.

379

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

35 Augsburg craftsman, Five comic masks and two dogs, ivory inlay panel on ebony chest (4th drawer down on RHS), Uvrustkammaren, Hallwylska Museet, Skoklosters Slott, near Stockholm.

36 Carnival scenes, ink and colour, folio size: 19 ⫻ 13 cm. Friendship album, Yale University Library, Rare Books (Loebel), Harvard, New Haven.

380

PLATES

381

*37 [⫽TRI/III] Itinerant entertainers at an Alpine court festival, oil on panel. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

382 *38 [⫽PQ/173] AMBROGIO BRAMBILLA, Gamesboard featuring commedia actors, signed and dated 1589, print, 40.5 ⫻ 52.5 cm. British Museum, London.

PLATES

*39 [⫽MI/1] Title page, pen and ink. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard f.2).

383

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

384 *40–1 [⫽PQ/174–5] {anon}, Recueil Fossard, folios 34r and 35r, showing ten prints, nine of them cut-outs from an etching by Ambrogio Brambilla (see also plate 54). Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

PLATES

*42 [⫽MI/10] Le docteur est remply, Pantalon despite de quelque menterie, Pantalon chez sa Dame, prints, each c.27 ⫻ 20 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard, f.15 [both prints], f.16 [top print], NM 2214–2216/1904).

385

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

386

PLATES

387

*43 [⫽NMB/6–10] Variants of five Recueil Fossard woodcuts, engravings, each 11 ⫻ 8 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

388 44 {Follower of Lodewyk Toeput}, Harlequin greeting Lilia, with Leandro and Lucia in attendance, oil on panel, 28.5 ⫻ 46 cm. PWU (art market, London 1986).

389

PLATES

45 Sebastian Vrancx, The comic duel, oil on panel, 21.5 ⫻ 46 cm. PWU (art market, London 1973).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

390 46 Sebastian Vrancx, Harlequin and his children, oil on panel, dated 1623, 27 ⫻ 37 cm. PWU (art market, London 1978).

PLATES

391

47 Louis de Caulery, Pantalone at the gate, oil on panel, 24 ⫻ 36.5 cm. PWU (art market, Monaco 1991).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*48 [⫽NMB/2] The comic serenade, oil on panel, c.33 ⫻ 44 cm. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

*49 [⫽NMB/3] Harlequin disguised, oil on panel, c.33 ⫻ 44 cm. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

392

PLATES

*50 [⫽NMB/4] The comic duel, oil on panel, c.33 ⫻ 44 cm. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

51 Circle of Marten de Vos? {anon. French}, Harlequin disguised, oil on panel, c.52 ⫻ 66 cm. Private collection, UK.

393

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*52 [⫽PQ/171] AMBROGIO BRAMBILLA {anon.}, Cucina per il pasto de Zan Trippu, signed and dated 1583, print. Biblioteca Teatrale del Burcardo, Rome.

*53 [⫽PQ/172] AMBROGIO BRAMBILLA {anon.}, Il bellissimo ballo di Zan Trippu, dated 1583, print, 20 ⫻ 34 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

394

395

PLATES

*54 [⫽PQ/176] AMBROGIO BRAMBILLA {anon.}, Che diavolo e’ questo, signed in monogram, print, 39 ⫻ 48 cm. British Museum, London.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*55 [⫽MI/5] AFTER AMBROSE I FRANCKEN {H. Liefrinck}, Comedie ou farce de six parsonnaiges, engravings (top: 34 ⫻ 25 cm, below: 41 ⫻ 31 cm). Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (Recueil Fossard, f.45r, NM 2267–2268/1904).

396

PLATES

397

*56 [⫽RS/4] AMBROSE I FRANCKEN {French school, c.1600}, A scene from a play: an old man cuckolded, panel, 25 ⫻ 34 cm. PWU (art market, London 1980).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

398 *57 [⫽RS/1] AMBROSE I FRANCKEN {Lodewyk Toeput}, The delivery of the love letter, tempera on card mounted on panel, 24.5 ⫻ 37 cm. PWU (art market, London 1970).

PLATES

399

*59 [⫽RS/3] Ambrose I Francken, Scene from the commedia dell’arte, signed, pen and ink, 23 ⫻ 35.5 cm. Fodor Collection, Historisch Museum, Amsterdam [58: see overleaf ].

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

400 *58 [⫽RS/2] AMBROSE I FRANCKEN {Lodewyk Toeput}, The beating of the presumptuous lover, tempera on card mounted on panel, 24.5 ⫻ 37 cm. PWU (art market, London 1970) [59: see previous page].

PLATES

60 Circle of Ambrose I Francken? {Pieter Pourbus, F. Pourbus the younger}, Italian comedians, oil on panel, 54 ⫻ 73 cm. Private collection, Paris (art market, Antwerp 1928–33).

61 Circle of Ambrose I Francken? {anon. French}, Italian comedians on stage, oil on canvas, 95 ⫻ 147 cm. Carnavalet Museum, Paris.

401

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

402 *62 [⫽TRI/VI] After Stradanus {Flemish sixteenth century}, Death at the feast, oil on panel, 94 ⫻ 132 cm. Private collection, photo courtesy National Galleries of Scotland.

PLATES

403

63 After Stradanus {Pourbus}, Allegory of riches, oil on panel, 120 ⫻ 150 cm. PWU (art market, Antwerp 1934).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*64 [⫽PQ/160] Antonio Tempesta, Febraro, from The Months I, 1599, engraving, 20 ⫻ 27.5 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

65 Antonio Tempesta, Febrarius, from The Months II, engraving, 12.5 ⫻ 18 cm.

404

PLATES

66 Iust. Sadler after Tempesta, Febraro, signed, engraving, 20 ⫻ 27.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

67 Marco Sadeler after Tempesta, Februarius, signed, engraving, 13 ⫻ 18 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

405

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

68 Jan I Bruegel, Roman carnival, oil on copper, diameter 12 cm. Alte Pinakothek, München.

406

407

PLATES

69 Jan I Bruegel and Peter Paul Rubens, Allegory of worldly vanities, oil on canvas, 62 ⫻ 102 cm. Private collection, Spain.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

408 69b Jan I Bruegel and an unidentified collaborator, Vanitas allegory (detail), oil on panel, 64 ⫻ 106 cm. PWU (art market, London 1993).

PLATES

409

69c Sebastian Vrancx, Comic masks beside the Tiber, oil on panel, 56 ⫻ 82 cm. Private collection.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

410 70 CIRCLE OF SEBASTIAN VRANCX {Louis de Caulery}, Carnival revellers at a tourney, oil on panel, 55 ⫻ 73 cm. PWU (art market, London 1985).

PLATES

411

71 SEBASTIAN VRANCX {Louis de Caulery}, Village and party, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 70 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1979, 1982).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

72 CIRCLE OF SEBASTIAN VRANCX {Louis de Caulery}, Carnival revellers at a tourney, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 71 cm. PWU (art market, London 1996).

*73 [⫽RS/12] Louis de Caulery, The Carnival, signed, oil on panel, 55 ⫻ 90 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

412

PLATES

74 Antonio Tempesta, Fountain in a palace courtyard, engraving, 12.5 ⫻ 17.5 cm.

75 L. Caulery, Strolling players, 1598, coloured drawing. Bibliothèque Municipale, Cambrai.

413

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

76 Louis de Caulery, Carnival scene, oil on panel, 53 ⫻ 74.5 cm. Private collection, Spain.

77 Louis de Caulery, Carnival on the ice (detail and whole), 59 ⫻ 98 cm. Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp.

414

PLATES

415

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

78 Louis de Caulery (workshop), Carnival in a town square, oil on panel, 100 ⫻ 134 cm. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.

79 Louis de Caulery, Carnival celebrations, oil on panel, 36.5 ⫻ 60 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1955, 1972).

416

PLATES

80 Louis de Caulery, Carnival in Flanders, dated 1.1.1604, oil on panel, 54 ⫻ 71 cm. University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence.

81 Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne, Carnival scene, oil on panel, 77 ⫻ 105 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1908).

417

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

418 82 Dennis van Alsloot, Carnival, oil on panel, 77 ⫻ 108 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1926).

PLATES

419

83 Circle of Louis de Caulery? {Anon. Flemish}, Carnival, dated 1605, oil on panel, 125 ⫻ 186 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1930).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

420 *84 [⫽RS/9] Circle of Louis de Caulery? {H.Bol/ Momper/ Toeput}, January/Carnival, pen, ink and wash, 22 ⫻ 35 cm. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

PLATES

421

85 Louis de Caulery, Winter landscape with Carnival and Lent, oil on panel, 62 ⫻ 87 cm. Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts (no.190).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

422 86 Circle of Pieter Balten? {Louis de Caulery}, A contest between the fishermen’s guild and the butchers’ guild, oil, 70 ⫻ 105 cm. PWU (art market, London 1978).

PLATES

423

87 Pieter Balten, Fight between Carnival and Lent, oil. Private collection.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

88 PIETER BALTEN {Flemish school/ Frans Francken}, Fight between Carnival and Lent, oil on panel, 98 ⫻ 125 cm. PWU (art market, Bern 1935, Geneva 1935).

89–91 Antonio Tempesta, Gennaro, Aprile, Maggio, from The Months I, 1599, engravings, each 18.9 ⫻ 27.4 cm.

424

PLATES

425

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

92 Sebastian Vrancx, Outdoor pleasures. PWU (art market, London 1946).

93 Circle of Sebastian Vrancx? {Frans II Francken}, Outdoor diversions, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 64.5 cm. PWU (art market, Munich 1911).

426

PLATES

94 Circle of Sebastian Vrancx? {David Vinckeboons}, The fête, 106 ⫻ 134 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1931).

95 Circle of Sebastian Vrancx? {David Vinckeboons}, Fête champêtre, oil on copper, 51 ⫻ 66 cm. PWU (art market, London 1925).

427

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

96 Circle of Vrancx and Balen? {Hendrik van Balen}, Summer fête, signed in monogram, oil on copper, 45 ⫻ 66 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1966).

97 Sebastian Vrancx, Dives and Lazarus, signed in monogram, oil on copper, 49 ⫻ 67 cm. PWU (art market, Stockholm 1975, Brussels 1976).

428

PLATES

*98 [⫽RS/27] Jacob Matham after Sebastian Vrancx, Dives and Lazarus, signed and dated 1606, engraving, 40 ⫻ 53 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

*99 [⫽RS/24] Sebastian Vrancx, Outdoor banquet, signed in monogram, oil on panel, 91 ⫻ 126 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

429

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

100 Sebastian Vrancx, Banquet in an artificial grotto, signed in monogram, oil on canvas, 94 ⫻ 122 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1947).

101 Circle of Sebastian Vrancx? {Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne}, Carnival, oil on panel, 55 ⫻ 83 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1955).

430

PLATES

102 Circle of Sebastian Vrancx/ Louis de Caulery, The Piazza della Signoria Firenze, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 72 cm. PWU (art market, London 1983, 1984).

103 Louis de Caulery, The Italian comedians, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 70 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1954).

431

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*104 [⫽RS/23] Circle of Sebastian Vrancx {Lodewyk Toeput}, A banquet in an ornamental setting, oil, 96.5 ⫻ 125 cm. PWU (art market, London 1973).

*105 [⫽RS/25] Sebastian Vrancx, Revellers in a park, oil, 45.5 ⫻ 88 cm. PWU (art market, London 1972).

432

PLATES

433

*106 [⫽RS/26] Sebastian Vrancx, A festival in a palace garden, oil on panel, 72 ⫻ 106.5 cm. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

434 107 CIRCLE OF VRANCX {Louis de Caulery}, Court of a Venetian palace (whole and detail), oil on panel, 47.5 ⫻ 70 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

PLATES

109 Circle of Vrancx and Caulery {Louis de Caulery}, Comedians in a Venetian palace garden, oil, 48.5 ⫻ 70.5 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1956). [107: Top, 108: see overleaf].

435

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

436 108 Circle of Vrancx and Caulery {anon. Flemish}, Venetian jugglers, dated 1613, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 65 cm. Winter Room, Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.

PLATES

110 Sebastian Vrancx, Winter, signed with monogram, oil on panel, 51 ⫻ 65 cm. Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp (inv.no. 613).

111 Sebastian Vrancx, The seasons: Winter, pen and wash, 22 ⫻ 32.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1951).

437

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

112 Sebastian Vrancx, Winter, signed in monogram and dated 16[?]8, oil on panel, 52 ⫻ 66 cm. PWU (art market, London 1983).

113 Sebastian Vrancx {Dennis van Alsloot}, Carnival diversions, oil on panel, 74 ⫻ 126 cm. PWU (art market, London 1947 & 1964; Brussels, 1965).

438

PLATES

114 Sebastian Vrancx, Carnival diversions, signed in monogram, oil on panel, 100.5 ⫻ 160.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1995).

115 Dennis van Alsloot and/or Sebastian Vrancx, Carnival diversions, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 90 cm. Private collection, Holland.

439

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

116 Peter Snayers and/or Sebastian Vrancx, Winter scene, oil, 100.5 ⫻ 161.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1971).

117 Dennis van Alsloot? {Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne/ circle of H. I Francken}, A view of a square in Antwerp, signed with a monogram and dated 1631, oil on panel, 40.5 ⫻ 60.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1964).

440

PLATES

118 Sebastian Vrancx, Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, oil on panel, 84 ⫻ 143 cm. PWU (art market, London 1976, as Autumn).

119 Sebastian Vrancx, Harbour scene, signed, oil on canvas, 76 ⫻ 117 cm. PWU (art market, Berlin 1927).

441

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

442

PLATES

443

119b&c Sebastian Vrancx, Harbour scene (details: see over), oil on canvas (b: 77.5 ⫻ 118 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden (monogrammed ‘S.V.’); c: 74 ⫻ 115.5 cm, Musée Massey, Tarbes).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

119b&c: details [for whole paintings, see previous page].

444

PLATES

120 Pieter de Jode after Sebastian Vrancx, Roman couple, engraving. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

445

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

121 Louis de Caulery, The Piazetta, Venezia, oil on panel, 52 ⫻ 75 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1967).

121b Louis de Caulery, The Piazzetta, Venezia, oil on panel, 46 ⫻ 145 cm. PWU (art market, London 1982).

446

PLATES

447

122 Louis de Caulery, Venezia: The Piazza di San Marco, oil on panel, 41 ⫻ 54 cm. PWU (art market, London 1990).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

123 Louis de Caulery, The Piazza di San Marco (whole and detail), oil on panel, 43 ⫻ 72 cm. PWU (art market, London 1984).

448

PLATES

449

124 Circle of Toeput? {Louis de Caulery}, The Piazza di San Marco, Venezia, oil on panel, 46.5 ⫻ 77.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1978, 1982).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

450 125 SEBASTIAN VRANCX {Louis de Caulery}, A carnival in the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 74 cm. PWU (art market, London 1979).

PLATES

451

126 Louis de Caulery, Carnival revellers in the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 70 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1990).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

452 126b Circle of Johann Liss?, Carnival bullfight in the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia, oil on panel, c.45 ⫻ 65 cm. Civico Museo Correr, Venezia (V2316).

PLATES

453

126c Johann Liss, Carnival bullfight in the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia, oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 74 cm, signed and dated ‘Johann Lijs fecit 16**’. PWU (ex Swiss private collection; collection Dr Hans Schneider, The Hague; London art market 1997, as ‘property of a Lady’).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

454 *127 [⫽RS/7] Lodewyk Toeput, Allegory of January, pen, ink and wash over pencil, 27.5 ⫻ 41.5 cm. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

PLATES

*128–9 [⫽RS/10–11] Joos de Momper, January and February, ink and wash, 20 ⫻ 26.5 & 18 ⫻ 26 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

455

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*130 [⫽RS/18] Pieter de Jode after Toeput, Masquerade, signed in the plate, engraving. Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek (Recueil Fossard).

131 Circle of Vrancx and Caulery {Louis de Caulery, Sebastian Vrancx}, A view in Rome at carnival time (whole and detail), oil on panel, 50 ⫻ 76 cm. PWU (art market, London 1967, 1973).

456

PLATES

457

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

458 132 Circle of Vrancx and Caulery {Louis de Caulery}, A festival in Rome, oil on panel, 57 ⫻ 91 cm. PWU (art market, London 1978).

PLATES

459

133 Circle of Vrancx and Caulery {circle of Louis de Caulery}, A square in an imaginary Italian town, oil on panel, 73 ⫻ 105 cm. PWU (art market, London 1983).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

134 Louis de Caulery/ Sebastian Vrancx, A joust in a town square, oil on panel, 47 ⫻ 62 cm. PWU (art market, London 1979, 1980). [135: see overleaf]

136 Sebastian Vrancx, Flemish carnival, oil on panel, 72 ⫻ 106 cm. PWU (art market, Vienna 1952).

460

PLATES

137 M v Cleef, Flemish carnival, ink and wash (31 ⫻ 44 cm, Albertina, Wien) & oil on panel 74 ⫻ 112 cm, PWU (art market, Cologne, 1929, as ‘Flemish master c.1580’).

461

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

462 135 Follower of Dennis van Alsloot, Carnival in a town square, oil on canvas, 103.5 ⫻ 145.5 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1990; formerly: Graphisches Kabinett, München). [136–7: see previous page]

PLATES

138 {S.Vrancx}, Comedians entering a domestic interior, oil, 34 ⫻ 47 cm. Private Collection, Germany.

139 Sebastian Vrancx, The surprised lovers, oil. PWU (art market, Berlin pre-1964).

463

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

140 Dirk Hals/ Sebastian Vrancx, The masque, oil. PWU (art market, New York 1929).

141 Simon de Vos, Carnival gathering, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 89 cm. PWU (reproduced: Die Weltkunst, 15.8.62).

464

465

PLATES

142 Anon. Flemish/ Frans II Francken/ Willem Anthonissone/ Abraham Wouwer/ Wouter Abts, Interior, signed with a monogram (WA?) and dated 1628, oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 93 cm. PWU (art market, Berlin 1904; London 1995).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

466 143 Circle of Frans II Francken/ Louis de Caulery, Festival with Italian comedians (one of a pair), oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 92 cm. Palazzo Pitti, Firenze.

PLATES

144 Circle of Frans II Francken/ Louis de Caulery, Festival with Italian comedians (one of a pair), oil on panel, 48 ⫻ 92 cm. Palazzo Pitti, Firenze.

145 Frans III Francken, The feast, oil on panel, 48.5 ⫻ 94 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1950).

467

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

468 147 Sebastian Vrancx, Masquerade at Antwerp Cathedral, this page: oil on panel, 30.5 ⫻ 41 cm, PWU (art market, London 1983). Facing page: ink and wash, 11 ⫻ 15 cm, PWU (art market, London 1979) & oil on panel, 27 ⫻ 38 cm, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln. [146: see overleaf ]

PLATES

469

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

470 146 Sebastian Vrancx, Busy market scene, ink, 27.5 ⫻ 38 cm. PWU (art market, London 1977). [147: see previous page]

PLATES

*148 [⫽RS/29] SEBASTIAN VRANCX {Lodewyk Toeput}, Commedia dell’arte figures outside a palace, chalk, ink and wash, 12 ⫻ 19 cm. PWU (art market, London 1984).

149 Sebastian Vrancx, February and March, chalk, ink and wash, 17 ⫻ 25 cm. Private collection, USA.

471

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

472 150 Sebastian Vrancx, An interior with masked figures and backgammon players, ink, 13 ⫻ 17 cm. PWU (art market, London 1975).

PLATES

473

151 Crispin de Passe after Sebastian Vrancx, Personas gerimus fictas, engraving, 9.5 ⫻ 13.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

152 Crispin de Passe after Sebastian Vrancx, Arreptis fidibus, noctu grassantur, engraving, 23 ⫻ 35 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

153 Crispin de Passe, Venetian couple, engraving. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

474

PLATES

154 Circle of Marten de Vos? {François Bunel the Younger?}, A troupe of Italian comedians, oil on canvas, 119 ⫻ 170 cm. Musée Fabrégat, Béziers.

155 Circle of Marten de Vos? {French school/ anon/ François Bunel the Younger?}, The woman between two ages, oil on canvas, 117 ⫻ 170 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes.

475

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

476 156 A commedia dell’arte company in performance, oil. Private collection, France.

PLATES

477

157a&b LUCAS VAN VALCKENBORCH {Hieronymus I or Frans I Francken}, Italian comedians entering a château, oil on panel, above: private collection Paris; below: variant, 73 ⫻ 205 cm, PWU (art market, Milan 1928).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

478 158 LUCAS VAN VALCKENBORCH {Marcus Gheraerts the Elder}, ‘Queen Elizabeth and her court at Kenilworth Castle’, oil on panel, 109 ⫻ 254 cm. PWU (art market, London 1991).

PLATES

479

*159 [⫽RS/28] Circle of Lucas van Valckenborch? {Lodewyk Toeput}, An elegant company disporting in a loggia and garden, oil on canvas, 85 ⫻ 125.5 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1982).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

480 160 F. van Valckenborch {C.P. van Ryck/ Flegel}, Market scene with carnival procession, oil. PWU (art market, Vienna 1985).

PLATES

162 FRANS BOELS {Lucas van Valckenborch}, Winter carnival (whole and detail), gouache and watercolour, 16 ⫻ 22 cm. PWU (art market, London 1980). [161: see overleaf]

481

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

161 Frederick van Valckenborch/ Christoph Jamnitzer, Fantastic procession of fools, ink, 23 ⫻ 62 cm. Wallraf-Richartz Museum (inv.nr.1400), Köln.

163 Tobias ver Haecht, Celebrating figures in procession, ink and wash over chalk, 16.5 ⫻ 21 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1975; see also plate 331). [162: see previous page]

482

PLATES

*164–5 [⫽MII/34] Circle of Joos de Momper or Frederick van Valckenborch? {Friedrich Sustris}, Pantalone, Four Italian comedians, sketches after Landshut staircase frescos (see plates 20–1, above), ink over chalk, each 32.5 ⫻ 20.5 cm. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, München.

483

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

166 {Adriaen Pietersz van der Venne}, Female Carnival with twelve dancing Zanni, pen and wash over pencil, 25.5 ⫻ 41.5 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg (no.21564).

167 Hans Bol, Drummer and tabor player in a village street, signed and dated 1573, ink and wash, 17.5 ⫻ 22.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden (nr. C881).

484

PLATES

168 Hans Bol, The twelve months: January, c.1580 (February is signed and dated 1580, some of the later months are dated 1581), ink and wash, diameter 14 cm. Private collection.

485

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

168b Adriaen Collaert after Hans Bol, Januarius, engraving.

486

PLATES

169 Abel Grimmer after Hans Bol, January: a wedding procession, signed and dated 1599, oil, diameter 13 cm. PWU (art market, London 1969).

170 Ianuari, print, 20 ⫻ 24 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

487

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

171 Frans Boels, Winter, signed and dated 1594, gouache on parchment, 15 ⫻ 22 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

172 Marten van Valckenborch, Kirmess, oil on panel, 85 ⫻ 120 cm. PWU (art market, Vienna 1904).

488

PLATES

173 Marten van Valckenborch, Winter: village scene, oil. PWU (art market, London 1936; Amsterdam 1979).

174 {Marten van Valckenborch}, Venetian masquerade. oil on panel, 31 ⫻ 46 cm. PWU (art market, Munich 1931).

489

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

175 Dennis van Alsloot / Flemish school XVII century, Fête populaire, oil on canvas, 115 ⫻ 210 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1932, 1933; Amsterdam 1949; Antwerp 1979).

176 Gillis van Valckenborch, The Queen of Sheba’s entry into Jerusalem, oil on canvas, 47 ⫻ 74 cm. Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln.

490

PLATES

491

177 Frederick van Valckenborch, Carnival festival, oil on canvas, 52 ⫻ 88 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, München (nr.7118). [179: see page 495]

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

492 178 Frederick van Valckenborch, Carnival, oil on canvas. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, München (nr.5763).

179 Frederick van Valckenborch, Carnival, oil on canvas, 131 ⫻ 255 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1973, 1974).

PLATES

493

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

494 181 FREDERICK VAN VALCKENBORCH {Giovanni Donducci/ Mastellan}, Banquet with masked musicians, oil, 112 ⫻ 160 cm. PWU (art market, London 1961, 1962).

PLATES

180 Frederick van Valckenborch, Nocturnal carnival, signed in monogram, dated 1597[?], oil on canvas, 48 ⫻ 83.5 cm. Private Collection, Netherlands.

182 Frederick van Valckenborch, Group in front of ruins, oil on canvas, 95 ⫻ 116 cm. PWU (art market, Cologne 1939)

495

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

183 Frederick van Valckenborch, Winter, detail of painted virginals lid, dated 1619, oil on wood. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg.

184 Circle of Lucas van Valckenborch? {Anon, sixteenth century Netherlandish}, Dance in a palace garden, oil on panel, 135 ⫻ 193 cm. Gasbeek Castle Museum (no.573), near Brussels.

496

PLATES

185 Circle of Lucas van Valckenborch? {Jan I Bruegel/ Art des H. I Francken}, Elegant company, oil on panel, 22 ⫻ 32 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1949).

187 Lucas van Valckenborch {Frans II Francken}, Pastoral pleasures, signed and dated 1590, oil on canvas, 107 ⫻ 147 cm. PWU (art market, Berlin 1904; New York 1927). [186: see overleaf]

497

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

498 186 Hieronymus II Francken, Fancy dress ball, oil on panel, 49.5 ⫻ 72 cm. PWU (art market, Dublin 1986). [187: see previous page]

PLATES

499

188 Circle of Frans I Francken? {Anon}, Five actors on stage, oil on panel, 64 ⫻ 75 cm. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

500

PLATES

501

189–90 Circle of Hieronymus I Francken? {Anon}, Two comic scenes, oil on copper (189: 28 ⫻ 35 cm, 190: 30 ⫻ 45 cm). Comédie Française, Paris.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

191 Circle of Ambrogio Brambilla? {Jacques de Gheyn}, Zanni with pestle and mortar, ink and chalk on paper, 20 ⫻ 14 cm. Private collection, Germany.

502

192 Circle of Hieronymus I Francken? {Venetian school c.1700}, Comic masks, oil on panel. PWU (Yates Thompson Collection).

PLATES

503

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

504 193 Max and Gabriel Francken/ Hieronymus I Francken, Masked ball, oil on panel, 51.5 ⫻ 68 cm. Gemäldegalerie Karlsruhe (no.169).

PLATES

505

195 Frans II Francken, Interior with elegant company, oil on panel, 54 ⫻ 77 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1974). [194: see overleaf]

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

194 Frans I or II Francken, The fête, oil on panel, 52 ⫻ 79 cm, signed. PWU (art market, London 1925; Brussels 1958, 1961).

196 Hieronymus II Francken, Ballroom with dancing couples, oil on panel, 58.5 ⫻ 86 cm. PWU (art market, Copenhagen 1979; London 1979). [195: see previous page]

506

PLATES

197 {Louis de Caulery}, Society gathering in a palace, oil on panel, 54 ⫻ 82 cm. PWU (art market, Vienna 1962).

198 Hieronymus or Frans Francken, Parable of the prodigal son, oil on copper, 53.5 ⫻ 76 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1965).

507

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

199 Frans II Francken, A court ball, signed, 19.5 ⫻ 27 in. Collection of Lord Talbot of Malahide, Malahide Castle.

200 Frans II Francken, Interior, oil on panel, 13 ⫻ 14 cm. PWU (art market, London 1969).

508

PLATES

509

201 Frans II Francken, A court ball, oil, 45 ⫻ 35 cm. PWU (formerly, Khanenko Collection, Kiev).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

510 202 Hieronymus I Francken, Carnival banquet, oil. PWU (art market, London 1950).

PLATES

511

203 Frans II Francken /circle of Hieronymus I Francken {Hendrik van Balen}, Palatial interior with dancing, oil on copper, 49 ⫻ 66 cm. PWU (art market, London 1932 [Ramsden Sale], 1974; Brussels 1974).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

512 204 Frans II Francken, A costume ball, indistinctly dated 1608, oil on panel, 47 ⫻ 70 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1989).

PLATES

513

204b Follower of Hieronymus Francken, An elegant company dancing at a Feast, dated ‘1.6.1.6’, oil, 28.5 ⫻ 38 in. PWU (art market, London 1991).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

514 205 Frans I Francken {Hieronymus I Francken/ anon. Flemish}, Wedding party, oil on panel, 49 ⫻ 66 cm. Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp.

PLATES

205b Circle of Frans Francken, Elegant party in an interior, oil on canvas, 23 ⫻ 34 in. PWU (art market, New York 1988).

206 Studio of Frans II Francken, Sight, oil. Private collection.

515

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

516 207 Flemish artist c.1600 from the circle of Ambrose I Francken, Carnival diversions, oil on panel, 43 ⫻ 72 cm. PWU (art market, Vienna 1938).

PLATES

517

208 Circle of Ambrose I Francken? {Flemish school c. 1580 / M. van Cleef}, Carnival diversions, ink, 22.5 ⫻ 29.5 cm. Private collection, Germany.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*209 [⫽RS/21] MARTEN DE VOS or follower {Second School of Fontainebleau}, A feast, oil on canvas, 105.5 ⫻ 148 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1939, New York 1940, London 1971, 1974, 1986).

*210 [⫽RS/22] Johannes Sadeler I after M. de Vos, Crapula et Lascivia, engraving, 21 ⫻ 27 cm, signed in the plate. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

518

PLATES

*211 [RS/20] Lodewyk Toeput, Outdoor feast, oil on panel, 39.5 ⫻ 54.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1968).

212 Raphael I Sadeler after M. de Vos, Melancholicvs, engraving after a drawing signed and dated 1583 (Paris, École des Beaux-Arts), 19 ⫻ 24 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

519

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

213 Galle and Mallery after M. de Vos, Pax, engraving. Witt Print Collection, Courtauld Institute, London.

215 Sadler after M. de Vos, Mercury (detail), engraving. British Museum, London.

520

PLATES

214 Marten de Vos, Mercurius, engraving, 24 ⫻ 24 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

521

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

216 Jean Galle after Marten de Vos, Eggdance outside a tavern, engraving, 23 ⫻ 30 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

217 Crispin de Passe after M. de Vos, Time with Virtues and Vices: III Negligentie et Socordie Typ., engraving. Witt Print Collection, Courtauld Institute, London.

522

PLATES

218 Crispin de Passe after M. de Vos, Februarius, engraving, diameter 12 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

219 MARTEN DE VOS {Sebastian Vrancx}, Eggdance outside a tavern, ink and wash over chalk, 20 ⫻ 29 cm. Private collection, USA.

523

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*220 [⫽PQ/170] Il Triomfo del Carneval, woodcut published by Ziletti (Venegia), 28 ⫻ 37.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

524

PLATES

525

221 Comedians on a Venetian terrace (whole and detail), oil on panel, 49 ⫻ 81 cm. Drottningholm Theatre Museum, Stockholm.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

526 222 Frans II Francken, Assorted sketches, ink, 17.5 ⫻ 26 cm. PWU (art market, Berlin 1930). [223–224: see overleaf]

PLATES

225 MARTEN DE VOS {Marten van Cleef}, Lent surprising revellers at their meal, ink and wash, 18 ⫻ 27.5 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1929, 1971).

*226 [⫽RS/15] Leandro Bassano, Carnival scene (February), oil on canvas, 140.5 ⫻ 166 cm. Bildergalerie, Potsdam-Sanssouci.

527

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

223 Adam Eck after de Gheyn (see plate 319, no.3), Three masked men with grill and bellows, Egerer Kabinettschrank, wooden relief scene. Frankfurt, Museum für Kunsthandwerk (inv.no. 7109).

528

PLATES

529

224 Wooden cabinet and detail of inlay work on inside door: Commedia dell’arte scene, c.1640s. Löfstads Castle Museum, near Linköping. [detail: opposite below; 225–6: see previous page]

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

530 227 Collaert after M. de Vos, Hiems, engraving. Witt Print Collection, Courtauld Institute, London.

PLATES

*228 [⫽RS/5] Lodewyk Toeput, Allegory of Winter, oil on panel, diameter 52 cm. Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence.

531

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

532 *229 [⫽RS/8] LODEWYK TOEPUT {Frans de Momper}, Winter, oil on panel, oval 44 ⫻ 58.5 cm. PWU (art market, London 1972).

PLATES

229b Lodewyk Toeput, Winter landscape with carnival procession, oil on canvas, 84 ⫻ 134 cm. PWU (art market, Vienna 1994).

230 [⫽MII/26] Anon. sixteenth century Netherlandish, A music-making couple between two commedia dell’arte servants, oil on panel. Private collection.

533

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

534 231 Circle of Marten de Vos or Jacques Bellange? {anon. Franco-Flemish, Italian, French or Flemish; Circle of Primaticcio; Genoese, possibly Paggi; Floris the younger; School of Fontainebleau; School of Lorraine}, Players of the commedia dell’arte, oil on canvas, 118 ⫻ 148 cm. Ringling Museum, Sarasota.

PLATES

535

232 Circle of Marten de Vos or Jacques Bellange? {School of Fontainebleau}, A scene from the commedia dell’arte, 65 ⫻ 81 cm. PWU (art market, London 1974).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*233–6 [⫽PQ/161–4] Nicolò Nelli, four of the five plates of Alessandro Caravia’s Naspo Bizaro, Venezia 1565, engravings, 17 ⫻ 13, 15.5 ⫻ 13, 16 ⫻ 13, 20.5 ⫻ 14.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

536

PLATES

237 [⫽PQ/165] Nicolò Nelli, the fifth plate of Alessandro Caravia’s Naspo Bizaro, Venezia 1565, engraving, 15 ⫻ 13 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

*238 [⫽MI/V] Comic serenade, dated on verso 1573, coloured drawing. Friendship album of Jacob Heckelsberger, f.84r. Kongelige Bibliotek (Thott.1282), Copenhagen.

537

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

538 *239 [⫽ MII/25] A[rnoldus?] B[uchellius?], Pantalone and Zanni serenade a courtesan, monogrammed A.B. and dated 1593, coloured drawing. Friendship album (Cg.57 f.74r) of Arnoldus Buchellius (1565–1644). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

PLATES

539

240 Julius Goltzius, Magnifico, Courtisane, Zani, engraving, hand-coloured, signed and dated 1581 in the plate.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

540 241 Evert Wyntges, Pisces, a feast scene, ink and wash, 15 ⫻ 19.5 cm., from a series dated ?1614. PWU (art market, London 1973, 1974).

PLATES

541

*242 [⫽RS/13] Leandro Bassano and/or Dirck de Vries {Lodewyk Toeput/ Giovanni Schiavone il Medolla}, Carnival banquet, oil on canvas, 128 ⫻ 160 cm. PWU (art market, Berlin 1930; Budapest 1937).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

243 PAUL BRIL {anon.}, La gran pazzia di Orlando, illustration to the first Corsini scenario, ink and wash. Corsini Album, Biblioteca Corsiniana, Rome (see also 244–7 & 276).

542

PLATES

*244 Workshop of Paul Bril?, Il prencipe d’Alta Villa, La gran pazzia di Orlando, La schiava, Il tradito, Li dvi Pantaloni, title-pages to scenarios 81 and 1–4, watercolour. Corsini Album, Biblioteca Corsiniana, Rome.

543

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

245: title pages to Corsini scenarios 5–20 (LHS) & 21–36 (RHS).

544

PLATES

545

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

246: title pages to Corsini scenarios 37–52 (LHS) & 53–68 (RHS).

546

PLATES

547

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

247: title pages to Corsini scenarios 69–84 (LHS) & 85–100 (RHS).

548

PLATES

549

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

248 Three masks, dated and located Bologna 1575, coloured drawing. Friendship album of Onophrius Berbinger. Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Bibl. HS461, f.49v), Nürnberg.

550

PLATES

249 Zanni and Pantalone serenade two courtesans, c.1577, coloured drawing. Friendship album of Johann Adolph von Glauburg (Db.3, f.78r). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

551

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

250–1 Pantalone and Zanni, c.1582/3; Masked woman, c.1580, coloured drawings. Friendship album (1577–92) of Julius Bayr (Db.4, ff.42, 18r). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

552

PLATES

252 Carnival mask, c.1587, coloured drawing. Friendship album (1587–1616) of Michael Löcher of Nürnberg (Db.8, f.45v). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

253 Carnival mummer, coloured drawing, 1619. Friendship album (1610–30) of Heinrich Frölich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Germ.3272, f.36r), München.

553

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

254 Ceretani o cantimbanchi, coloured drawing. From a sketchbook of Italian costumes, c.1580–1609. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

255 Zarlatani montano in Banchi, coloured drawing, from a sketchbook of Italian costumes (Hs.3659 F520 f.41r). Bibliothek, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, München.

554

PLATES

256 Pantalone and a masked woman, coloured drawing. Friendship album (Thott 1283, f.18r). Kongelige Bibliothek, Copenhagen.

257 Mascharata Venetiana, 1652, ink and colour. Friendship album of Niclaus von Artzat und der Wiesen of Breslau (Ja.5, f.108r). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

555

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

556

PLATES

*258–9 [⫽MII/46, 43] Charlatans on a raised stage, Two matachins, both dated 1583, ink, wash and body colour. Friendship album (1581–8) of Johann Wolfgang Schwarzdorfer (Germ.3291 ff.115r, 94r). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München.

557

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

260 Crispin de Passe after Jacques Bellange, Five scenes from the Italian comedy (title page: c.11 ⫻ 18 cm, Jeannette: 11 ⫻ 13 cm, The letter: 11 ⫻ 12 cm, Avra: 12 ⫻ 14 cm, Francisquine: 11 ⫻ 12.5 cm, The Cuckold: 12 ⫻ 14 cm). Private collection; and friendship album (Thott.403), Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen.

558

PLATES

261 After Bellange and de Passe, Francisquine, ink and colour. Friendship album (Thott.1283, f.30r), Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen.

*262 [⫽RS/6] Lodewyk Toeput, Winter scene, fresco. Villa Chiericati-Mugna, Longa di Schiavone, near Vicenza.

559

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

263 ?Friedrich Brentel after an unidentified drawing in the style of Bril, Toeput or Momper, Townscape with comedians, ink and wash sketch, Klebeband Brentel (c.1596–1621) II, f.88r. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle

264 Anon. Netherlands School/ Circle of Lodewyk Toeput, A village at carnival time, oil on copper, 21.5 ⫻ 31 cm. PWU (art market, Monaco 1987).

560

PLATES

*265 [⫽RS/14] Circle of Lodewyk Toeput? {School of Bassano}, The month of January, oil on canvas. Cathedral, Lima.

*266 [⫽RS/19] Circle of Lodewyk Toeput? {école française (?)}, The concert, oil on panel, 49 ⫻ 55 cm. PWU (art market, Paris 1903).

561

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*267 [⫽RS/16] Leandro Bassano, The month of February (Carnival), oil on canvas, 145 ⫻ 211 cm, signed. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien.

*268 [⫽RS/17] Leandro Bassano, The twelve months: February, signed, chalk and watercolour on paper, c.300 ⫻ 430 cm. Private collection, Germany.

562

PLATES

269 Adrian Collaert and Phillip Galle after Joos de Momper, January, engraving, 19.5 ⫻ 26.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

270 Jan Collaert and Phillip Galle after Joos de Momper, February, engraving, 19 ⫻ 26.5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

563

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

564

PLATES

565

271–2 Jacques Callot after Joos de Momper, January and February, engravings, 20.5 ⫻ 26 and 20 ⫻ 26 cm. British Museum, London.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

273 Frans de Momper, February, oil, 63 ⫻ 87 cm. PWU (art market, Amsterdam 1953).

274 Jacob Matham after Jan Wildens, The twelve months: February, Pleasures of the Carnival (‘January’ of this series is dated 1614), engraving, 27 ⫻ 43 cm.

566

PLATES

567

276 Paul Bril and studio assistants, perhaps Sebastian Vrancx and/or Willem van Nieulandt (see also plates 244–7) {Paolo Fiamingho/ A. Grimmer/ Pieter Stevens/ Sebasian Vrancx after Bril}, January and February, oil on poplar panel, 78 ⫻ 103 cm (recorded as being shipped from Rome to England in 1615, the year of Aegidius Sadeler’s dated engraving of 1615 after Bril of this composition). PWU (art market, London 1938, 1948, Edinburgh 1943, New York 1951). [275: see overleaf ]

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

568 275 PIETER STEVENS (c.1567–after 1624) {Hendrick van Avercamp/ Dennis van Alsloot/ anon. Flemish}, Winter carnival, oil on panel, 45 ⫻ 78.5 cm. PWU (art market, New York 1929). [detail: see next page; 276: see previous page]

PLATES

277 Pieter Stevens, Festival with comedians, ink, water- and body colour, 22 ⫻ 31.5 cm. Private collection, Holland.

569

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

570 278 Pieter Stevens, The month of February, ink and brown wash on paper, 20.5 ⫻ 28 cm. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento (no.1871.141).

571

PLATES

279 Egidius Sadeler after Pieter Stevens, The twelve months: February (detail: overleaf), engraving, dated 1607. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

279b Egidius Sadeler after Pieter Stevens, The twelve months: February, engraving, dated 1607. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. [whole: see previous page]

572

PLATES

573

280 Hendrik Aerts, Imaginary renaissance palace (whole and detail), signed and dated 1602, oil on canvas, 93 ⫻ 127.5 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (A.2528).

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

574

PLATES

281 Louis de Caulery, Courtyard of a palace (whole and detail), oil on copper, 48 ⫻ 65 cm. PWU (art market, Brussels 1974).

282 C. Vischer after Hans von Aachen, Italia (whole and detail), dated 1616, engraving, 22.5 ⫻ 26 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford (see also 288, below).

575

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

576 *283 [⫽PQ/167] L’arboro della pazzia, dated 1568, etching, 37 ⫻ 53 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

PLATES

577

*284 [⫽PQ/166] Hieronymus Porro, Le bararie del mondo, engraving, 38.5 ⫻ 50 cm., signed in the plate. Royal Library, Windsor.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

285 Comedians on an open-air stage, watercolour. Staatliche Bibliothek, Bamberg (I.Qc.75).

286 Giacomo Franco, Ciarlatani in Piazza, engraving, 1610. British Museum (1868-8-22-8573), London.

578

PLATES

287 Abraham Bosse, Théâtre de Tabarin, engraving, c.16 ⫻ 38 cm, c.1620. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Hennin, vol.XXI).

288 C. Vischer after Hans von Aachen, Francia (whole and detail), 1616, engraving, 22.5 ⫻ 26 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford (see also 282, above).

579

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

289 Isack van Swanenburgh, A Flemish kermess, oil, 106 ⫻ 214 cm, signed and dated 1608. PWU (art market, London 1971).

291 Monogrammist ‘REM’, Flemish kermess, oil on wood, 51 ⫻ 81 cm, signed in monogram and dated 1602. PWU.

580

PLATES

581

290 David Vinckeboons, A kermess, ink and watercolour, 45 ⫻ 71 cm, dated ?1602. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

292 Deceitful people, engraving (from A. van Bourgoigne, Ghebreken der Tonghe, Antwerp 1631, 112), 7 ⫻ 5 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

582 293 Dionisio Minaggio (left to right, top to bottom): f.77 (violinist); f.111 (unnamed pair); f.80 (lutenist); f.100 (‘Li chomezi’ [The comedians]); f.101 (Trapolino, Baltran); f.102 (Policianelo); f.103 (Dotor Campanaz); f.104 (Trastulo, Ricolina); f.105 (Mario, Flavia); f.106 (Florinda); f.107 (Pombino); f.108 (Chapitan Mata-mor); f.109 (Chola Napolitano); f.114 (Chocholi). Colour and cut feathers glued to a paper foundation, each c.50 ⫻ 33 cm, title page signed, dated and located Milan 1618. From a dismembered volume of 156 feather pictures, including fourteen depicting actors, Blacker-Wood Library of Ornithology, McGill University, Montreal [For ff.110, 113: see 294, overleaf ]

PLATES

583

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

294 Dionisio Minaggio, Schapin and Spineta, Cietrulo and Bagatino, each c.50 ⫻ 33 cm. Folios 110 and 113 of McGill Feather Book, Montreal.

584

PLATES

585

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

586 295 Frans Floris, Allegory of Rhetoric, oil on canvas. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (no.3659), München.

PLATES

296–8 Sebastiano Serlio, Tragic, Comic and Satyric (or Pastoral) stage settings (from Serlio’s Architettura, Paris, 1545).

587

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

588 299a Teatre de Gille le Niais, print, 20 ⫻ 34 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

PLATES

299 Théâtre et Boutique de l’Orviétan, print, 22.5 ⫻ 34 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

300 Aniello Soldano as Spacca Strummolo Napolitano, title page woodcut, 1610.

589

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

301 Scapino takes centre stage, engraving. Archiginnasio, Bologna.

302–4 Jacques Callot, Three Italian comedians: Pantalone, Zanni, Captain/ Innamorato, c.1618–20, etchings with engraving, each 22 ⫻ 15 cm. Private collection.

590

PLATES

591

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

592 305 ?French School c.1575–1600, Scene from the commedia dell’arte, ink and wash, 26 ⫻ 36 cm. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (no.2259).

PLATES

593

306 Anon French, late sixteenth century, Scene from the commedia dell’arte, ink. Cabinet des Éstampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

594 307 Venetian school seventeenth century, Masquerade scene, ink and wash, 27 ⫻ 41 cm. Private collection (art market, London 1920).

PLATES

595

*309 [⫽MII/28] Lambert Sustris, Commedia dell’arte characters on a painted organ lid (detail from Venus with the organ-player), dated 1578, oil on canvas. PWU [308: see overleaf ].

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

596 *308 [⫽PQ/169] Il trionfo de Carnavale nel paese de Cvcagna (whole and details), engraving, 38.5 ⫻ 47.5 cm. British Museum, London [309: see previous page].

PLATES

597

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

310 Doctour Pantaloun and Zanie his Pupill, woodcut broadsheet bound in with a copy of The Divels Legend and an unillustrated companion pamphlet: A new pleasant and delightfull Astrologie, invented by reverend Maister Harlequin the royall Astrologer (all: London, 1595). Bodleian Library, Oxford.

598

PLATES

310b Astrologie Novvelle recreative et plaisante dv Seignevr Harleqvin Astrologve Roial, woodcut broadsheet. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg.

599

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

311 Workshop of Ulrich Baumgärtner, Chessboard with comic scenes, including a Zanni (7th row down, 3rd scene from left), incised inlay work, dated 1616. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum (no.Moe 85), Braunschweig.

600

PLATES

312 Andreas Bretschneider, A mask at the Dresden carnival, body colour, dated 1610. Bibliotheca Albertina, Universität, Leipzig.

313 Gabriel Weyer, Zanni with jug, signed in monogram and dated 1615, ink. PWU (Böhm 14/33).

601

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

602 314 Guercino, Satirical subject from the commedia dell’arte, pre-1621, ink and wash, 18 ⫻ 27 cm. Devonshire collection, Chatsworth (no.513).

PLATES

603

*315 [⫽PQ/177] Bvrlette et Schersi di Commedie, engraving, 37.5 ⫻ 49 cm. Royal Library, Windsor.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

604

PLATES

605

315b&c Printed variants of the 15th scene: German copyist, ‘Liber HER fall auf mich’, private collection; Jacomo Fornazari, ‘Aivtame Zanni’, Courtauld Institute, London.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*316 [⫽MII/45] Abraham de Bruyn, European sailors, engraving (from Habitus Variarum Gentium, Köln, 1577), 12 ⫻ 27 cm. Bodleian Library (1.⌬.643, plate 15), Oxford.

317 Niclausz Keppel, Three masks, c.1588, coloured drawing. Walters Art Gallery (ms.477, f.16), Baltimore.

606

PLATES

318 Il novo et dilettevole gioco della campana, dated 1604, woodcut, 35.5 ⫻ 50 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

607

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

608

PLATES

609

319 Jacques de Gheyn, Mascarades, engravings, each c.22 ⫻ 16.5 cm, c.1600 (opposite page: nos.1–3, 5–8, 10 from the original series of 10; this page: copies after prints 4 and 9, from a series of 9 omitting the original title page). Leopoldskron, Salzburg & Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

319b Fourteen costume plates from Pietro Bertelli, Diversaru[m] nationum habitus, iconibus in œre incisis, 3 vols, Padua 1589, 1591, 1596. Vol.II, plates 65–78 (plate 65 signed in the plate: ‘[Jacopo] Franco f[ecit]’).

610

PLATES

320 Frederick van Valckenborch (?) or Étienne Delaune, Masked procession, ink. Kupferstichkabinett (no.4557), Berlin.

611

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

*321 [⫽MII/40] Enea Vico, Le laboureur, woodcut (from Richard Breton, Recueil de la diversité des habits. Paris, 1562). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Aa.5), Berlin.

612

PLATES

*322 [⫽MII/41] Cesare Vecellio, Venetian docker, woodcut (De gli Habiti antichi et moderni di Diverse Parti del Mondo, Venezia, 1590, no.138), c.12 ⫻ 8 cm (excluding frame). Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Aa.33), Berlin.

*323 [⫽MII/44] A chimney sweep, coloured drawing from a manuscript volume of costume studies. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Aa.4, f.10r), Berlin.

613

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

324 Sailor, woodcut from costume book. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Aa.14), Berlin.

614

PLATES

615

325 Letiga di Neapolli, ink and colour. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Ja.2), Berlin.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

326 Callot/ Pieter I Bruegel/ Netherlandish master c.1600, Zanni {masked man}, ink, 25 ⫻ 9.5 cm. Kupferstich Kabinett (KdZ 4637), Berlin.

616

PLATES

617

*327 [⫽PQ/168] Nicolò Nelli, Cucagna, engraving, 40 ⫻ 54 cm, signed and dated 1564 in the plate. Royal Library, Windsor.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

328 Raphael Sadeler, Isabella Andreini, signed and dated 1602, title page engraving.

329–30 Cesare Vecellio, Peasant woman from outskirts of Venice as seen in town on Ascension Day 12 ⫻ 6 cm excluding frame, The favourite of the Sultan (wearing a kashbasti) 12.5 ⫻ 7 cm excluding frame, woodcuts 140 and 365 from Habiti antichi, et moderni di tutto il Mondo, Venezia 1598 (see also plates 322, 332).

618

PLATES

331 Egbert van Paenderen after Haecht, Nox, 19 ⫻ 22 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford (see also plate 163).

332 Cesare Vecellio, Asian Gypsy woman, woodcut 466 from Habiti antichi, et moderni di tutto il Mondo, Venezia 1598, 12 ⫻ 6 cm excluding frame.

619

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

620

PLATES

621

333–4 Netherlandish, February: carnival scene with sleigh, details from two 16th century embroideries (T1663; T1665: tablecloth depicting Beheading of St John the Baptist, and the twelve months). Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, München.

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

335 Poccetti (Bernardino Barbatelli), Figural group including members of the Andreini family, 1604, fresco. SS. Annunziata, Firenze.

336 Couple and three jesters in an interior, ink and watercolour, page from a sketch-book of Italian costume c.1580–1600. Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.

622

PLATES

337 Girolamo Romanino, Masked dance, ink, 20 ⫻ 32 cm. Private collection, Belgium.

338 Larvis ac tragicis, engraving, 12 ⫻ 7 cm. Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

623

THE ART OF COMMEDIA

624

*339 [⫽TRI/I] Duelling Magnifico and Zanni watched by il Dottore, painted glass goblet, 19 cm. high. British Museum, London.

PLATES

625

340 After Callot, Mountebanks on a stage, ink and wash. Kunstmuseum (inv.nr.FP4539), Düsseldorf.