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Mme de Sévigné on Vatel's Death

Mme de Sévigné on Vatel’s Death

Lettres de Mme de Sévigné

The above image is a book cover of an edition of Mme de Sévigné’s letters. (Photo credit: Google images)

Born Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sévigné‘s (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) wrote a considerable number of letters to her daughter Françoise, comtesse de Grignan (1646 – 1705). These letters now belong to the world of literature and they constitute…

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Suing President Obama: Related Posts

Suing President Obama: Related Posts

  Branch of Lilacs, by Henri Matisse, 1914 (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

My sincere apologies to anyone who found my last post offensive.

My post is not offensive, nor is it subversive. However, this new event invites serious reflection on a number of issues. The numerous attacks on the President of the United States point to behaviour that can no longer be considered reasonable and acceptable.…

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Boehner and Obama

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/30/5953325/house-of-representatives-sues-Obama

Could it be about the Affordable Care Act?

Allow me to expression profound dismay regarding Mr. Boehner’s continued assaults on President Obama. Mr. Boehner has made it very clear that he opposes the Affordable Care Act and his position regarding affordable health care has coloured his behaviour for a long time. He has also opposed President Obama’s humanitarian policies, such as extending the period during which an unemployed American may receive help from the government of his country.

The Government Shutdown: October 2013

I remember with considerable clarity, Mr. Boehner holding the citizens of the United States hostage by directing Congress to oppose raising the United States’ debt ceiling, which, of course, had to be raised. That was very silly and no one will forget. The Government shutdown of October 2013 cost the American people billions of dollars, billions that were needed to ensure the health and security of the American people and refurbishing schools. Was that responsible behaviour on the part of an elected official? It was a game, and not only did it impoverish Americans, but it also scared other nations.

Discrimination against women

If it has to do with medical care and, particularly, with whether or not birth control medication should be covered, many Republicans would have us believe that they are advocating life long celibacy for those who cannot afford birth control. These are medical issues. Moreover, it is for a woman to decide whether or not she will have a child and this can be done without recourse to an abortion. However, sometimes an abortion is necessary. Do people think women use abortions in lieu of birth control?

This is an issue I take very seriously. My mother gave birth to a child every year. Four children survived, but we buried the others. These babies did not have a chance to survive. I remember the grief, the despair, the hospital bills. I remember thinking that God did not love us.

President Truman, President G. W. Bush…

At any rate, Mr. Boehner seems to be grabbing every opportunity to criticize and vilify the President of the United States. As a result, he may run the risk of losing your credibility. No one sued President Truman. As for President G. W. Bush, he has not been accused of war crimes. He and other former Presidents socialize. Could it be that Congress does not wish for a man of colour and exceptional intelligence and dignity to be President of the United States of America. There is nothing wrong with being black or somewhat coloured. Nor is it wrong to be exceptionally accomplished.

President Obama makes us feel safe

Were President Obama not at the helm (when Congress you give him a chance), the world would not have much confidence in the United States. I am sure his predecessor meant well, but he blundered. There is such a thing as compassion and forgiveness. But suing President Obama borders on lèse-majesté, except that President Obama is not Louis XIV (Louis-Quatorze) and knows he isn’t.

Not taking sides

Please remember that President Obama cannot take sides in the Near or Middle-East without jeopardizing the safety of Americans. That’s not easy. Moreover, many decisions are collective decisions. They may come from the United Nations. Who wants another 9/11 and more wars, including Congress waging war against President Barack Obama? The United States has seldom had as good and humane a President as President Obama.

As for countries who have just escaped tyranny, they may need help, in the short-term, but I believe they are perfectly capable of building a better future for themselves. There is a difference between intervention and interference.

Conclusion

Since Barack Obama was elected to the Presidency of the United States, I have been a keen observer. I have witnessed what seems to be systematic obstructionism and scapegoating. Suing the President would be more of the same, but worse. It would be a witch-hunt. Those days are over.

We all make mistakes, but is it possible for President Obama to make as many mistakes as extremist Republicans would want people to believe? This is becoming a witch-hunt. The Affordable Health Act will be costly and many of the rich do not want to pay taxes. But the days when cancer was considered a pre-existing condition have ended. It seems to me that insurance company should not shorten  someone’s life. It is also my opinion that it is not for the Supreme Court to rule on what type of medication should be covered. This could turn into a circus.

Wishing all of you a fine week.

Sources and Resources

The New York Times

The Washington Post

The Guardian UK

Le Monde diplomatique EN

http://www.pi-news.org/category/libya/

http://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/c1p1/

Treaty of Paris 1883 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  © Micheline Walker

August 3, 2014

WordPress

    Suing President Obama!

Could it be about the Affordable Care Act? Allow me to expression profound dismay regarding Mr.

Suing President Obama! Could it be about the Affordable Care Act? Allow me to expression profound dismay regarding Mr.

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  Sitting Couple, by Jean-Antoine Watteau

“Galant” Style

aesthetics

empfindsamer Styl

Empfindsamkeit

composers

the classical era

  Traditionally, the “galant” style has been associated with music. It was the music composed by Carl Philipp Emmanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, two of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750) sons.

In music, “galant” aesthetics called for a freer style than the contrapuntal (interwoven lines) music of the Baroque era. The “galant” style emphasizes melody expressed in shorter phrases. Empfindsamkeit and empfindsamer Styl are terms used to describe “galant” music. They call for a sentimental style. Composers using the “galant” style are Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz and Jiří Antonín Benda.[i] 

However, other composers could be added to this list. André Campra (4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744 in Versailles) composed L’Europe galante (1697), an opera with four “entrées” (called acts in the theatre) and Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764), is the composer of Les Indes galantes, an opera-ballet, an opera-ballet we have already discussed.

Empfindsamkeit culminated in the “classical era.” Its most prominent composers are Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. However, the classical era comprises a larger number of composers. Moreover the word “classical” is also used to differentiate “classical” music, jazz or other musical forms, from popular music.

Seated Woman, by Watteau

Three Studies of a Lady with Hat

Gallant Aesthetics in Literature

the “Mercure galant”

l’honnête homme

la Préciosité

  Although Empfindsamkeit, or the “galant” style, is associated with music, the term “galant” permeated the literary and journalistic world at an early date. It was used before Watteau’s Fêtes galantes and is inextricably linked with the commedia dell’arte in both Watteau’s Fêtes galantes and Paul Verlaine‘s 1869 collection of poems entitled Fêtes galantes.

Yet, the term “galant,” later spelled “gallant,” was used in France during the seventeenth century. In 1672, journalist Jean Donneau de Visé (1638 – 8 July 1710) founded Le Mercure galant, a literary gazette that had been called the Mercure françoys, when it was first published, in 1611. Le Mercure galant is now owned by the Éditions Gallimard.

Moreover, Précieux and Précieuses proned “galanterie.” At one point, Préciosité advocated platonic love which was unrealistic. In 1659, Molière produced his successful one-act Précieuses ridicules.

When Gorgibus, the heavy bourgeois father of the play, informs his niece Cathos and daughter Magdelon that he plans for them to marry the fine young men who have just visited but have been sent away, Cathos explains that the very thought of sleeping next to a truly naked man is insufferable:

“Comment est-ce qu’on peut souffir la pensée de coucher contre un homme vraiment nu ?” (sc. iv)

(How can one suffer the thought of sleeping next to a truly naked man?)

    Cathos and Magdelon want to be courted according to the rules of Mademoiselle de Scudéry‘s Carte du Tendre (also called “de” Tendre). No woman would mind spending a little time in the locality called Petits Soins (tender, loving care). However, although Platonic love constitutes effective birth control, couples seldom, if ever, choose celibacy.

Moreover, “galanterie” was expected of l’honnête homme and Préciosité FR demanded gallant behaviour and expression of sentiments.

“… précieuses such as Madeleine de Scudéry were responsible for introducing a new subtlety into the language, establishing new standards of delicacy in matters of taste, and propagating advanced ideas about the equality of the sexes in marriage. Their aims thus ran parallel to those of the honnêtes gens, and the ideal of the educated, emancipated woman was the female counterpart of the masculine ideal defined above.”[ii]

As well, although the Comédie italienne, or Comédie-Italienne, was banished from France in 1697 because the Fausse-Prude, a play that was considered to Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s second wife, galanterie, no sooner did Louis XIV die, in 1715, than the Italian actors were invited back to France. Italian comedy is part of galanterie. The Fêtes champêtres were a form of entertainment and made one believe one had escaped various limitations.

Expressing  Sentiments

comédie larmoyante (tearful comedy) (Nivelle de la Chaussée)

Bourgeois drama (Denis Diderot and Beaumarchais) 

reason vs sentiment 

morality

  We know, moreover, that Denis Diderot (5 October 1713 – 31 July 1784) and Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) attempted to create a bourgeois drama, thereby making room for the expression of sentiment. Diderot’s Fils naturel (1757) and Beaumarchais’ The Guilty Mother (1792) are examples of bourgeois drama which followed Nivelle de la Chaussée’s (14 Feb 1692 – 14 May 1754) comédie larmoyante (tearful comedy).

Diderot wrote a treatise on his Fils naturel (1771) entitled Entretiens sur le Fils Naturel, ou les Épreuves de la vertu (1771), reminiscent of Samuel Richardson‘s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740). In 1767, Beaumarchais’ Essai sur le genre dramatique sérieux (online BnF) FR, also militated in favour of the expression of sentiment. However Diderot and, to a lesser extent, Beaumarchais were opposing sentiment to reason and their plays were also moralistic. Diderot took I should also note that Diderot was influenced by Laurence Sterne‘s (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) novels, both The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1762 – 1767) and A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768) and that he took an interest in Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury‘s 1699 Inquiry concerning Virtue (L’Essai sur le mérite et la vertu).

The above may apply to the long debate that opposed reason and sentiment (instinct), that began with the publication of René Descartes’ Discours de la Méthode, in 1637. If galanterie is to be linked to the literature of seventeenth-century France, we must re-enter the Salons and revisit both préciosité (its moderate form) and honnêteté. Moderation is “a,” if not “the” keyword in seventeenth-century ethics and aesthetics. In fact, as Philinte says in Molière’s Misanthrope, too much sincerity could be unacceptable, not only at court but elsewhere.  Should one tell a lady that she put on too much powder or too many “mouches” (a black point, not a fly) on her face? Molière was an honnête homme.

The Serenader, by Watteau

Two Dancers (see Images, below)

The Fête Galante

Salons,

Préciosité 

Fêtes champêtres, le cadeau

honnêteté

  There were real Fêtes champêtres. Many took place at Versailles. At times, an orchestra played, hidden behind trees. But the setting was intimate and it allowed badinerie (light conversation), a term used in music, as well as playful and refined flirtation, and a little silliness: “folletées.” Fêtes champêtres were a form of garden party and one could play shepherds and shepherdesses. This July, a few weeks ago, there was an exhibition, in France, of the art of Watteau, Pater, Lancret, Fragonard and Boucher. The link to the website is De Watteau à Fragonard  (just click).

As you know, in the Salons, the subject placed under scrutiny was love and the main activity of salonniers and salonnières was literature. They wrote. Sometimes, one was given rhymed ends that had to be filled in.  These were called “bouts-rimés” and demanded an excellent command of the French language and considerable ingenuity.

Our salonniers and salonnières wrote books, from the somewhat frivolous, but exquisite, Guirlande de Julie to Madeleine de Scudéry’s Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus (1649 – 1653) and Clélie, histoire romaine (1654 – 1660). Moreover, the fairy tale as we know it is a product of the Salons of the second half of the seventeenth century. However, the fairy tale was first developed in Italy from oral tales (Straparola and Basile). They were refined by Charles Perrault, in the manner La Fontaine recreated Æsop, but not so brilliantly.

L’Embarquement pour Cythère, by Watteau, 1717, Louvre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pilgrimage to Cythera, by Watteau, 1718, Charlottenburg (Berlin) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jean-Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau‘s (1694 – 1721) Fêtes galantes, bring to mind courtly love, the Roman de la Rose (c. 1230 – 1275), countless love poems, and the love songs (la chanson) of troubadours (the south of France), trouvères (the north of France), and minnesinger (German language), etc. Jean-Antoine Watteau’s Embarkation for Cythera (1717), L’Embarquement pour Cythère, and Pilgrimage to Cythera (1718), the birthplace of Venus, goddess of love, epitomizes the genre. L’Embarquement is a sensual, yet sensitive treatment of love. These are feasts (fêtes) and the destination is an unattainable Cythera, a Greek island that is both real and mythic. Interestingly, Watteau’s paintings are considered genre paintings, paintings depicting daily activities.

According to the Glossary of the National Gallery of Art in London,

“Fête galante is a French term used to describe a type of painting which first came to prominence with Antoine Watteau, whose reception piece at the Academy of 1717, ‘The Embarkation for the Island of Cythera’, was described as representing ‘une fête galante’.

Fêtes galantes, usually small in scale, show groups of elegantly attired men and women, most often placed in a parkland setting and engaged in decorously amorous play.

Precedents for this type of picture can be found in the work of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish artists but Watteau’s mix of reality and fantasy in costume and setting, and the open-endedness of his subject matter, were original to him. Pater, Lancret and many other artists followed Watteau in producing fêtes galantes, but did not imbue their paintings with the subtle depiction of human emotion he achieved.”

In 1709, Watteau attempted to obtain the prestigious Prix de Rome, but came second. Three years later, he was again a candidate, but rather than being sent to Rome, he was appointed to the Académie as a painter of “fêtes galantes.” It seems he was a one-person Académie.

“In 1712 Watteau tried once more to go to Italy. He did not succeed, but he was accepted by the Académie as a painter of fêtes galantes—outdoor entertainments in which the courtiers often dressed in rural costumes—for his presentation of a scene depicting actors in a garden.”[iii]

As noted above, the “Embarquement pour Cythère” was Watteau’s “reception piece.” The 1717 version of The Pilgrimage to Cythera could be Watteau’s second version, but I have not found a third Embarquement.

Watteau had been a student of Claude Gillot and had lived at his home. That was his introduction to the commedia dell’arte. Gillot was a set designer.

“Watteau’s art exemplifies the profound influence of the theatre as a motif of inspiration on the painting of the 18th century. The strongest influence on his work was exercised not by solemn tragedy but by the most ephemeral theatrical forms. One major influence was the commedia dell’arte, in which words count significantly less than gestures, a theatre linked to the actor, who brings his own routines with him.”[iv]

Watteau suffered from tuberculosis and died at the age of 37.

Detail of Woman Seen from the Back Seated on the Ground by Jean-Antoine Watteau c. 1717-18. Photograph: The Trustees of the British Museum, London

Paul Verlaine

Where literature is concerned, in 1869, French poet Paul Verlaine (30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) published a collection of “fin de siècle” poems, entitled Fêtes galantes. These were an inspiration to “Art Déco” artists such as Claude Barbier, whose art we have explored.

Many of Paul Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes poems contain allusions to the commedia dell’arte and allusions to Watteau (pronounced Vateau), and the Venetian carnival or Fêtes vénitiennes. Verlaine’s collection of poems may be read online by clicking on Fêtes galantes FR or Fêtes galantes FR (a reading). Translations into English are also available online. Here is one link, Fêtes galantes but it includes poems that are not part of the 1869 collection. I have also found a Gutenberg Project English translation of poems by Verlaine [EBook #8426].  It starts with a selection from Fêtes galantes.

Composers have also set Paul Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes to music, from Debussy, Fauré, Honegger, Poulenc, Ravel to Reynaldo Hahn (9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947). Karina Gauvin and Marc-André Hamelin have released a record entitled Fête galante. It’s perfect, but I’m past my birthday.

Conclusion

Watteau was appointed to the Académie the moment he presented his Embarkation for Cythera. Watteau had created a new style which was named: fête galante. As for Verlaine’s collection of poems entitled Fêtes galantes, it explores the same themes as Watteau: the commedia dell’arte, love. Moreover, the style is also very much the same as Watteau: ethereal, evanescent, nostalgic, and forever new.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

RELATED ARTICLES

Beaumarchais’ Trilogy: “The Guilty Mother” (18 July 2014)

Les Indes galantes et Le Bourgeois gentilhomme: turqueries (30 September 2012)

Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Indes galantes” (25 September 2012)

William Christie: a Performance of “Les Indes galantes” (25 September 2012)

Sappho, Louÿs, Barbier, Debussy & “Les Chansons de Bilitis” (4 August 2012)

Sources and Resources

Exhibition: De Watteau à Fragonard

See Préciosité, Larousse

The National Gallery of Art (US): Watteau

The Guardian on Watteau

Karina Gauvin and Marc-André Hamelin: Fête Galante

Verlaine Gutenberg Project [EBook #8426] EN

Verlaine Fêtes galantes, the complete collection FR

Images

I have shown oils and a few of Watteau’s chalk drawings. These demonstrate controlled spontaneity.

The Serenader, c. 1715 (oil; Chantilly)

Dancers (chalk) http://richardzrehen.blogspot.ca/2009/07/watteau.html

Seated Woman (chalk; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

Three Studies of a Lady with a Hat, c. 1715 (chalk; Bruxelles)

____________________

[i] “empfindsamer Stil.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 Jul. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186088/empfindsamer-Stil>.

[ii] “French literature.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 31 Jul. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219228/French-literature>.

[iii] “Antoine Watteau.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 Jul. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637696>.

[iv] “Antoine Watteau.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 31 Jul. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637696/Antoine-Watteau>.

—ooo—

  “Si mes vers avaient des ailes” & “À Chloris”

Victor Hugo & Théophile de Viau

Reynaldo Hahn

Karina Gauvin & Marc-André Hamelin 

Study of a Woman’s Head

© Micheline Walker

August 1, 2014

WordPress

          Fêtes galantes: Watteau & Verlaine

  “Galant” Style aesthetics empfindsamer Styl Empfindsamkeit composers the classical era   Traditionally, the “galant” style has been associated with music. 

Fêtes galantes: Watteau & Verlaine   “Galant” Style aesthetics empfindsamer Styl Empfindsamkeit composers the classical era   Traditionally, the “galant” style has been associated with music. 

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The Salons: La Guirlande de Julie revisited

The Salons: La Guirlande de Julie revisited

  La Guirlande de Julie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Salons are often looked upon as a French institution when in fact Italians brought salons to France.  However, although the salon was imported, it became a French institution and it never fully disappeared.  Gertrude Stein’s home: 28, rue de Fleurus, was a salon.

Madame de Rambouillet “l’incomparable Arthénice” (Arthénice is an anagram of…

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Love in the Salons: a Glimpse

Love in the Salons: a Glimpse

Bucolic Scenes (Photo credit: Google images)

This article was posted a long time ago. I am republishing it while I continue to rewrite my new post.  It disappeared.

Other than polite and witty conversation, the main activity of salonniers and salonnières (salonists) was writing.  They had been influenced by Giovanni Battista Guarini’s (1538-1612) Il Pastor Fido (1590), a pastoral tragicomedy, and

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Bergamo: Arlecchino & Brighella

Bergamo: Arlecchino & Brighella

    Brighella OnkleJoe, 2012

The Power of One Character

The character featured above is Brighella. As we know, Beaumarchais‘ Figaro is the culmination of the commedia dell’arte‘s Brighella. By the time Brighella becomes Figaro, he is no longer a “thief, a bully, and an intriguer.”[i] On the contrary, he has become a clever but good zanniwho wrestles Susanna away from Count Almaviva and becomes a…

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Tartuffe & Northrop Frye

Tartuffe & Northrop Frye

  Elmire, Tartuffe, by Tammy Grimes, 1977; costume by Zack Brown

  This post is based on an article, originally posted on 7 January 2012. In its earlier version, it had to do with Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism.[i] However, I used Molière’s Le Tartuffe as an example. 

Northrop Frye: a Conceptual Framework

Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays was published by Nort…

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Beaumarchais' Trilogy: The Guilty Mother

Beaumarchais’ Trilogy: The Guilty Mother

Molière’s Tartuffe, possibly by L. Wolff (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Ah! pour être dévot, je n’en suis pas moins homme.” (Act III. Sc. 3) “(Yes, I may be devout, but I am still a man.”) “Because they portray the abuse of power by aristocrats and related themes, both plays were censored; as a result, the character of Figaro—adroit, irrepressible, insubordinate—has accrued much symbolic value over…

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  Portrait de Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, by Jean-Marc Nattier

Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) had recruited men who fought in the American Revolutionary War and had also supplied arms to American revolutionaries.

One of his recruits was Pierre-Charles L’Enfant (9 August 1754 – 14 June 1825), an architect and engineer who designed the Washington National Mall. L’Enfant was dismissed and replaced by Andrew Ellicott (24 January 1754 – 28 August 1820) who criticized L’Enfant Plan and Pierre-Charles L’Enfant. In 1902, the McMillan Commission did away with Andrew Ellicott’s revisions. The Washington Mall was redesigned using L’Enfant Plan.

The Figaro Trilogy

The Barber of Seville (1773; 1775)

The Marriage of Figaro (written in 1778, performed in 1784, published in 1785)

The Guilty Mother (1791; 1966[opera])

The Marriage of Figaro as the centrepiece of Beaumarchais’ “Figaro trilogy” 

Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (K 492) (1786)

    Le Mariage de Figaro, 1784

Le nozze de Figaro, Mozart 1786

The Marriage of Figaro (1784)

At an early point in his life, Beaumarchais did recruit men willing to join the Americans in their struggle for independence, but he is known mainly as the author of Figaro trilogy, which consists of three plays: The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro (1785), and The Guilty Mother (1791).

A problematical comedy

the second instalment in the Figaro trilogy

Accepted for production in 1778 (Comédie-Française)

Vilification of French aristocracy: condemned by Louis XVI

Revised: change of location

Performed in France in 1784

Published in France in 1785

  The Marriage of Figaro is the second instalment of Beaumarchais’ Figaro trilogy, but constitutes the centrepiece of Beaumarchais’ trilogy. It was written in 1778 and accepted for production by the Comédie-Française in 1781. However, as first written, it vilified French aristocracy and so shocked Louis XVI that Louis banned the production of the play. The play was problematical because Count Almaviva, who marries Rosina in The Barber of Seville, or the Futile Precaution (1778), wants to consummate Figaro’s marriage to Susanna, Figaro’s bride. Beaumarchais revised the play and moved the action to Spain. Ironically, Count Almaviva wanted to avail himself of a right he had abolished: “the feudal droit du seigneur, the right of the lord of the manor to sleep with his servant’s bride on her wedding night.”[I]  

The Marriage of Figaro is a comedy inspired by the commedia dell’arte. Given the conventions of comedy, the Count’s plants will therefore be foiled. The innmorati will be helped not only by clever zanni and other servants, but also by Rosina, Almaviva’s wife, whose marriage to the Count, a philanderer, did not “end well.” The play also features a redeeming discovery. The Count wants Figaro to marry Marcellina, Bartolo’s housekeeper, but it turns out that Figaro is the love child of Marcellina and Bartolo. One does not marry one’s mother. Bartolo therefore proposes marriage to Marcellina. There will be two weddings, which is not uncommon in comedy.

Lazzi

Cherubino, a character reminiscent of Cupid, the mythological god of desire, could be called a lazzi. He is forever in love and gets into trouble. However, he also provides comic relief as do lazzi in the commedia dell’arte. Lazzi are stand-up comics. In Passion Plays, comic interludes were inserted between the acts. The same stratagem can also be used inside comedy. Some “comic” is always at the ready not only to fill in but also to support zanni (servants, one of whom is clever, but the second, clumsy).

As part of the props, we have incriminating letters and, in the case of the Barber of Seville, the Count, disguised as Lindoro, a name borrowed from the commedia dell’arte, hires musicians to serenade Rosina. Guitars are inextricably linked with the commedia dell’arte. They are a prop that Watteau and Picasso, especially, depicted abundantly.

Moreover, to fool the Count, the Countess dresses as Susanna, Figaro’s bride-to-be, while Susanna dresses as the Countess. Therefore, when the Count courts Susanna, he in fact courts his wife and reveals his plans to seduce Susanna. It is quite normal in comedies for the alazôn, the Count, to undo himself. Cross-dressing is a frequent device in comedies. It is rooted in the topsy-turvy world of the Roman Saturnalia, not to mention the last days of l’ancien régime.  

Louis XVI & The Marriage of Figaro   

Beaumarchais’ five-act play was written in 1778 and accepted for production by the Comédie-Française in 1781. However, as first written, it vilified French aristocracy and so shocked Louis XVI that Louis banned the production of the play. Beaumarchais had to revise the offensive text and moved the action to Spain. “[T]he feudal droit du seigneur” thereby became a distant right. Louis XVI lifted the ban on the production of The Marriage of Figaro and the play was performed by the Comédiens français ordinaires du Roi, on Tuesday, 27 April 1784 and the text was published in 1785.

Although The Marriage of Figaro is a Shakespearean “all’s well that ends well,” the conventional ending or dénouement of all comedies, all is not well. First, the Barber of Seville‘s Rosina has married a philanderer. Second, Georges Danton commented that Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro had “killed off the nobility.” (See The Marriage of Figaro, play, Wikipedia). Jesus of Nazareth might have said “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 1:5-7)  Georges Danton voted in favour of the death of Louis XVI. (See Georges Danton, Wikipedia.)

Mozart’s Le nozze de Figaro (1786)

Beaumarchais or Pierre de Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro was made famous by Mozart‘s (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) Nozze di Figaro, a four-act opera buffa, or comic opera, composed in 1785 on a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (10 March 1749 – 17 August 1838). Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) premiered in Vienna at the Burgtheater, on 1 May 1786. It has remained a favourite opera often associated with Mozart only, not Pierre de Beaumarchais.

The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Barber of Seville (1775)

The Barber of Seville; or, the Useless Precaution was performed and published in 1775 as Le Barbier de Séville; ou, la précaution inutile. It is the first of Beaumarchais Figaro’ trilogy. The play was written in 1773, but it was not performed until 23 February 1775, when it premiered at the Comédie-Française in the Tuileries. Although I have prepared a point by point description of the plot of The Barber of Seville, I am quoting Britannica’s summary. Simply add the name Lindoro, a guitar, and a few suspicious letters. The Count first dresses as a poor student named Lindoro.

“Rosine (known as Rosina in the opera), the ward of Dr. Bartholo, is kept locked in her room by Bartholo because he plans to marry her, though she despises him. Young Count Almaviva loves her from afar and uses various disguises, including one as Alonzo, a substitute music teacher, in his attempts to win her. Bartholo’s roguish barber Figaro is part of the plot against him. Indeed, it is Figaro who steals the key to Rosine’s room for Almaviva. Unfortunately, Almaviva is in his disguise as Alonzo when he meets Rosine. Though in love with “Alonzo,” Rosine is convinced by the suspicious Bartholo that Alonzo intends to steal her away and sell her to a wicked count. Disappointed, she agrees to wed Bartholo that very night. All of Figaro’s ingenuity is required to substitute Count Almaviva for Bartholo at the wedding ceremony.”[II]

    Portrait of Gioachino Rossini in 1820, International Museum and Library of Music, Bologna (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia(1816)

In 1816, Le Barbier de Séville; ou, la précaution inutile (four acts) was made into a two-act opera by Giaochino Rossini on a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The Barber of Seville, or the Futile Precaution or Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L’inutile precauzione premiered on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, in Rome.

Beaumarchais’ Guilty Mother (1792)

The Guilty Mother, subtitled The other Tartuffe (La Mère coupable ou l’autre Tartuffe), a play in five acts, is the final part of the Figaro trilogy. Tartuffe is a play by Molière. Tartuffe feigns devotion. The Guilty Mother was completed in 1791, but not performed until 1792 at the Théâtre du Marais. It was performed during the French Revolution which made it necessary for Beaumarchais to take away his title from Count Almaviva.

Marius Milhaud‘s The Guilty mother or La Mère coupable (1966)

The Guilty Mother or The other Tartuffe was set to music, is an opera in three acts (Op. 412), by Marius Milhaud, to a libretto by Madeleine Milhaud. It is the final instalment of Beaumarchais’ Figaro trilogy and was first performed that the Grand Théâtre de Genève, on 13 June 1966. (See La Mère coupable [The Guilty mother], Wikipedia.)

Jean-Antoine Watteau’s Italian comedy.

Mezzetin, Jean-Antoine Watteau

The Italian Comedy, Watteau

La Surprise, Watteau

The Love Song, Watteau

The Rebirth of Brighella and the Birth of Figaro

Figaro is heir to the commedia dell’arte‘s Brighella, a zanni. He joins Pedrolino-Pierrot, Harlequin, Scapino, and other zanni. In fact, Figaro himself joins the rank of the zanni. As portrayed above, he looks like Harlequin, but he may disguised as Harlequin. Figaro is an iconic figure in France where it is an institution: a newspaper, founded in 1826 and pubished in Paris. Le Figaro is the second-largest paper in France. It takes its motto from Beaumarchais Figaro trilogy.

“Sans la liberté de blâmer, il n’est point d’éloge flatteur” (“Without the freedom to criticise, there is no true praise”)

Brighella, Maurice Sand

Scapino, Maurice Sand

RELATED ARTICLES

Picasso in Paris

Picasso’s Harlequin

Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin

Leo Rauth “fin de siècle” Harlequin

Pantalone: la Commedia dell’arte

Notes

The Commedia dell’arte

Bartolo is a Dottore

Lindoro is one of the names innamorati used in the commedia dell’arte

Figaro is a Brighella (a zanni in the commedia dell’arte, who helps the innamorati overcome obstacles to their marriage)

The guitar is an essential prop

Letters are used all the time: false, anonymous, incriminating…

  Sources and Resources

  The Marriage of Figaro is an Online Library of Liberty, full text EN

Le Mariage de Figaro is a Gutenberg Project [EBook #20577] FR

Male innamorati are called: Arsenio, Aurielo, Cinthio, Fabrizio, Flavio, Fedelindo, Florindo, Leandro, Lelio, Lindoro, Mario, Ortensio, Ottavio, Sireno, often the son of Pantalone, Silvio, Tristano

Female innamorati are called: Angelica, Aurelia, Beatrice, Bianchetta, Celia, Clarice, Clori, Cinzio, Emilia, Eularia, Flaminia, Florinda, Filesia, Filli often the daughter of Pantalone, Isabella, Lavinia, Lidia, Orazio, Ortensia, Silvia, Turchetta, Vittoria 

Brighella: http://web.archive.org/web/20091027100540/http://geocities.com/commedia_dellarte/Characters/brighella/brighella.html

Maurice Sand, Masques et bouffons (comédie italienne), 1860

Flûte de Brighella, Enrico Brunelleschi (Photo credit: Christie’s) (This image cannot be enlarged.)

____________________

[I] Watteau depicted Mezzetino, a zanni, playing the guitar. The guitar is a major motif in Picasso’s art.

[II] “The Marriage of Figaro.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecquked/topic 366268/The-Marriage-of-Figaro>

  [III] “The Barber of Seville.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52863/The-Barber-of-Seville>.

The Count also calls himself Lindoro.

  [IV] “Comici Confidènti.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.

<ww.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127606/>.

  Gioachino Rossini : The Barber Of Seville – Overture 

    My kindest regards to all of you. 

  © Micheline Walker

July 13, 2014

WordPress

      Figaro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  The Figaro Trilogy

Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) had recruited men who fought in the…

The Figaro Trilogy Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) had recruited men who fought in the…

[mebwalkerlove]

Olga, 1923

(All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Picasso[i] had several relationships, but he was a husband to Russian ballerina Olga Kokhlova (17 June 1891 – 11 February 1955). He met Olga during the production of the Ballets Russes‘ Parade (1917). In the early years of the twentieth century, there was no better creative milieu in Paris than Sergei Diaghilev‘s (1872 –1929) Ballets Russes. The Russian impresario recruited the most talented individuals of his days and, among them, Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973). When he was employed by Sergei Diaghilev, Picasso was mixing with le tout Paris, or the cream of Parisian society.

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Érik Satie (composer)

Jean Cocteau (writer)

Ernest Ansermet (conductor)

Manuel de Falla (composer)

Léonide Massine (choreographer)

Igor Stravinsky (composer)

Léon Bakst (costume and set designer)

Alexandre Benois (costume and set designer)

Marius Petipa (choreographer)

Michel Fokine (choreographer)

Vaslav Nijinsky (ballet dancer and choreographer)

Pablo Picasso (set and costume designer)

  Parade (1917) 

For instance, the production of the ballet Parade (1917) brought together composer Érik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925), legendary writer and future filmmaker Jean Cocteau (5 July 1889 –11 October 1963) and choreographer Léonide Massine (9 August 1896 – 15 March 1979).

Érik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925) was one of the main composers of his era. Beginning in 1888, Satie composed the Gymnopédies.[ii] Jean Cocteau is the author of the 1929 novel Les Enfants terribles, which he would transform into a film in 1950.[iii] When it premièred, on 18 May 1917, Parade was conducted by Ernest Ansermet (11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969) who founded l’Orchestre de la Suisse romande (1918).

Shown below is Parade‘s curtain, Picasso’s largest work. It features the nimble Harlequin, a recurring figure in Picasso’s artwork,  portrayed in the artist’s first work as costume and set designer. Parade‘s curtain also features Greek mythology’s winged horse Pegasus. Later in Picasso’s career, mythology, the Minotaur in particular, would be a motif.

Curtain for the Ballet Parade, 1917

The Remains of the Minotaur in Harlequin’s Costume, 1936

The Three-Cornered Hat (1919)

In 1919, Ernest Ansermet would conduct Manuel de Falla‘s (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat or Le Tricorne), a Ballets Russes production choreographed by Léonide Massine with costumes and set designed by Pablo Picasso. The Three-Cornered Hat premièred in London at the Alhambra Theatre, on 22 July 1919.

Pulchinella (1920)

Pulcinella (Polichinelle) is a zanni from la commedia dell’arte. Igor Stravinsky composed the music. The ballet was choreographed by Léonide Massine, who also wrote the ballet’s libretto (the text), and Pablo Picasso designed the costumes and the set. Pulchinella was first performed on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet at the Paris Opera (Palais Garnier).

The Ballets Russes would also employ costume and set designers Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois (both Russian) and choreographers Marius Petipa and Michel Fokine. However, the Ballets Russes had no greater star than Polish ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/1890 [Kiev]– 8 April 1950).

Gesamtkunstwerk 

Diaghilev was at times a little too punctilious, but his contribution to what composer Richard Wagner called Gesamtkunstwerk (total art) is exemplary. The Ballets Russes defined an entire era of the twentieth century and Picasso’s work with the company gave impetus to his career.

Allow me to quote the Guardian (Luke Jennings; 10 May 2010), on the Ballets Russes:

This was more than just a dance company; it was a creative movement which, from its inception, drew to itself the greatest musical, theatrical and artistic talents of the day.

Gertrude Stein

27, rue de Fleurus

American writer Gertrude Stein lived here with her brother Leo and then with Alice B. Toklas. They received numerous artists and writers from 1903 to 1938.

Americans in Paris: Gertrude Stein

On 4 April 2013, I posted an article entitled Henri Matisse: an Eclectic Modernist. It refers to Picasso’s acquaintance with Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, members of Stein’s family and the Cone sisters. The next two paragraphs are therefore somewhat repetitive. Yet, it should be mentioned that Picasso’s most fervent aficionados and promoters were Americans in Paris. He owes much of his relatively early success to Leo Stein and his sister Gertrude Stein (3 February 1874 – 27 July 1946). In fact, we could start a whole new series entitled: Americans in Paris. These Americans were wealthy and became patrons to the Impressionists and all that was avant-gardiste in Paris: Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism.

Gertrude Stein was a salonnière. Few addresses are as famous as 27, rue de Fleurus, Paris 6. An invitation to 27, rue de Fleurus, Stein’s home and that of her lover, Alice B. Toklas, was almost as much a privilege in twentieth-century Paris as entrée to Madame Geoffrin‘s Parisian salon had been in the eighteenth-century.

Madame Stein is the Gertrude Stein of “a rose is a rose is a rose” who entitled her 1933 biography The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. As for Alice B. Toklas, Stein’s lover, she is the author of the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook of the famous hashish cookies. Born in 1877, Alice died in poverty, the victim of greed, on 7 March 1967, aged 89. (See Henri Matisse: an Eclectic Modernist.)

Paul as Harlequin, 1924

Portrait of Paulo, 1929

Olga Kokhlova

Olga Kokhlova was a socialite and therefore facilitated Picasso’s introduction to Paris’ world of music, design, choreography, dance, and literature. The two married on 18 May 1917 and, three years after Parade, on 4 February 1921, Olga gave birth to Picasso’s first son, Paulo, depicted above as Harlequin and Pierrot (Pedrolino), Commedia dell’arte figures.

Picasso marriage to Olga (17 June 1891 - on 11 February 1955) was not a happy union. It seems the two were not suited for one another. In 1927, Picasso entered into a relationship with another woman. In 1935, Olga therefore left and, as is well known, Picasso refused to divorce her because he would have had to give her half of his belongings, including his paintings. That was not acceptable to him. (See Olga Khokhlova, Wikipedia.)

But let us return to Harlequin. In 1906, Picasso depicted him as dead. At that point, reports of Harlequin’s death were premature. Picasso continued to depict Harlequin and other characters from the Commedia dell’arte, which makes him heir to Jean-Antoine Watteau (baptised 10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721).

However, Picasso’s settings of Commedia dell’arte figures are less ethereal than Watteau’s bucolic fêtes galantes. Yet both artists drew part of their subject matter from Italian comedy and ballet, without  portraying disorderly buffoons. Picasso was also influenced by seventeenth-century Spanish artist Diego Velásquez‘ Meninas and El Greco.

In short, despite a failed marriage, Paris was kind to Picasso who remembered Harlequin and other characters from the Commedia dell’arte.

I apologize for not posting more often. It’s a long episode of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Kind regards to all of you.

Harlequin’s Death, 1906

RELATED ARTICLES

Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin (30 June 2014)

Picasso’s Harlequin (3 July 2013)

After a strike, one can expect anything (decorative use; 15 September 2013)

Pablo Picasso: Tribute to a Cat and a Dog (16 June 2013)

Henri Matisse: an Eclectic Modernist (4 April 2013)

A Portrait by Picasso (3 April 2013)

Sources and Resources

http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021

_________________________

[i] “Pablo Picasso”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 07 Jul. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459275/Pablo-Picasso-myth>.

[ii] Érik Satie was one of “les Six,” probably named “les Six” after the Russian “les Cinq.” The “Six” are Emmanuel Chabrier, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Érik Satie, and Richard Strauss.

[iii] Among other films and various works, we owe Jean Cocteau his 1946 Beauty and the Beast, but he is better known for his 1929 novel and 1950 film Les Enfants terribles.

Manuel de Falla (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946)

El sombrero de tres picos

Joven Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid (Sergio Alapont, director) 

Portrait of Paulo, Artist’s Son, 1923

© Micheline Walker

July 8, 2014

WordPress

    Picasso in Paris

(All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.) Picasso[i] had several relationships, but he was a husband to Russian ballerina 

Picasso in Paris (All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.) Picasso[i] had several relationships, but he was a husband to Russian ballerina 

[mebwalkerlove]

Picasso's Harlequin

Picasso’s Harlequin

  Harlequin with his hands crossed (Jacinto Salvado), 1923

Portraits

The above featured’s Harlequin, “Harlequin with his hand crossed,” could well be Picasso’s finest Harlequin. He is not wearing his lozenges. In fact, the colours have bled. Nor is there a mask, except a reminder. Harlequin’s brow is floured.

Seated Harlequin, 1923

In the Harlequin featured to the left, no mask is suggested, but…

[mebwalkerlove]

  Harlequin, by Paul Cézanne, 1890

Pierrot and Harlequin, Mardi Gras, by Paul Cézanne, 1888

Origins

Atellane comedy

Plautus

Passion Plays

  Arlecchino, as we know him, is a stock character dating back to seventeenth-century Commedia dell’arte.  He also has origins in the atellana farce of Roman antiquity (4th century BCE). In fact, the use stock characters is a feature of the atellana. Moreover Commedia dell’arte characters could be borrowed from commedia erudita. Molière‘s (1622 – 1673) Miser or L’Avare (1668) was borrowed from Plautus‘ (c. 254 – 184 BCE) Auluraria (The Pot of Gold).

However, in European countries, comedy has more immediate origins. It emerged as a form of brief entertainment, a mere interlude, during very lengthy Passion Plays, Mystery Plays and Miracle Plays. Passion Plays were very long plays, so interludes, comedy, were inserted between “acts” to keep the audience entertained. They became popular and eventually secularized the religious plays. Passion Plays have not disappeared totally. For instance, the Oberammergau Passion Play (Bavaria) has been performed since 1634, keeping alive the birthplace of farces and tom-foolery.

Harlequin

Hellequin, Herla, Elking

Tirstano Martinelli, the first Harlequin

Zanni (servants)

British harlequinades (eighteenth-century)

  It would appear that the commedia dell’arte’s Arlecchino (Harlequin) was also culled out of Passion Plays, where he was a devil: Hellequin, Herla, Erlking and other spellings and names. The origin of the name is attested by 11th-century chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c. 1142). The name Harlequin was picked up in France by Tristano Martinelli, the first actor to play Harlequin. (See Harlequin, Wikipedia.)[I] Tristano played the role of Harlequin from the 1580s until his death in 1630. At this point, Harlequin became a stock character, an archetype, in the Commedia dell’arte. Given that the success of the Commedia dell’arte performances depended on an actor’s skills, we can presume Tristano was a fine comedian.

Arlecchino (Arlequin, Harlequin) is a zanno, a servant whose function was called Sannio in the Atellana, Roman farcical comedies. There were many zanni, (Brighella, Pulchinello, Mezzetin, Truffadino, Beltrame, and others). Their role was to help the young lovers of comedy overcome obstacles to their marriage. This plot is consistent with the “all’s well that ends well” of all comedies. We have already met the blocking characters of the commedia dell’arte. Pantalone is the foremost. But his role may be played by Il Dottore, or Il Capitano, or some other figure. 

Although a zanno has the same function from play to play, as do blocking characters, the alazôn, zanni otherwise differ from one another. For instance, Arlecchino, a zanno, is different from Pierrot. Harlequin is not the growingly sadder clown of Romantic and pantomimic incarnations. He is not Jean-Gaspard Deburau‘s Battiste, nor is he Jean-Louis Barrault‘s Baptiste. He is the clever and nimble zanno.

Harlequin’s Characteristics

Arlecchino is, in fact, the most astute and nimble of zanni or servants. He is an acrobat. This is one of his main attributes. Moreover, he wears costume of his own, another distinguishing factor.

At first, the Harlequin wore a black half mask and a somewhat loose costume on which diamond-shaped coloured patches had been sewn. He would then wear a tight-fitting chequered costume mixing two or several colours. Paul Cézanne‘s (1839–1906) Harlequin is dressed in black and red, but Pablo Picasso changes the colours worn by his numerous Harlequins.

Harlequin leaning (Harlequin accoudé), by Picasso, 1901

Les Deux Saltimbanques (Two Acrobats), by Picasso, 1901

Arlequin’s Progress: the Seventeenth Century

Blois

I Gelosi

Petit-Bourbon

Scenario 

  In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Italians were very popular at the French court and so was Harlequin. As of 1570-71, Commedia dell’arte actors were summoned by the King of France to perform in royal residences. In 1577, the Italians were called to Blois by Henri III during an assembly of Parliament. The famous I Gelosi (The Jealous Ones; 1569-1604) “was the first troupe to be patronized by nobility: in 1574 and 1577 they performed for the king of France.” (See I Gelosi, Wikipedia)  La Commedia dell’arte most performers in seventeenth-century France were Isabella and Francesco Andreini. Isabella died in childbirth (1604), but her son’s troupe, the Compagnia dei Fedeli would be invited to perform at Louis XIII’s court.

In short, in the seventeenth century, Harlequin was in France. In fact, at one point, les Italiens shared quarters with Molière at the Petit-Bourbon. Matters changed in 1697, when the commedia performed a “fausse prude” (false prude) scenario that offended Madame de Maintenon (27 November 1635 – 15 April 1719), Louis XIV‘s second wife. In French seventeenth-century representations, Pierrot loved Columbine who loved Harlequin (Arlecchino).

Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil painting by unknown artist, c. 1580; in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Pulcinella, by Maurice Sand

John Rich as Harlequin

  British Harlequinades: Pantomime & Slapstick

pantomime

slapstick

Pulcinella (Polichinelle, Punchinella)

“Punch and Judy”

a new scenario

  In eighteenth-century Britain, John Rich[ii] (1682 – 26 November 1761, the son of one of the owners of Drury Lane Theatre and the founder of Covent Garden Theatre (Royal Opera House) performed the above-mentioned harlequinades in which “he combined a classical fable with a grotesque story in Commedia dell’arte style involving Harlequin and his beloved Columbine.”[iii] In Britain, harlequinades, became “that part of a pantomime in which the Harlequin and clown play the principal parts.”[iv] Associated with the British Harlequin are pantomime, slapstick comedy and puppetry. Yet, this British Harlequin is rooted in the sixteenth-century Commedia dell’arte. It seems that the best of these English clowns was played by Joseph Grimaldi (18 December 1778 – 31 May 1837).

However, British harlequinades also featured Pulcinella who originated in the seventeenth-century Commedia dell’arte but had roots in Atellana comedy and was a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. Given his ancestry, Pulcinella could and did inspire Mister Punch of “Punch and Judy,” a puppet show. (See Harlequin, Wikipedia.)

British harlequinades differ from continental versions of Arlequin (FR) or Arlecchino.

“First, instead of being a rogue, Harlequin became the central figure and romantic lead. Secondly, the characters did not speak; this was because of the large number of French performers who played in London, following the suppression of unlicensed theatres in Paris.” (See Harlequin, Wikipedia.)

It seems harlequinades were played in “Italian Night Scenes,” following a main and serious performance. In their scenario, “Italian Night Scenes” focused on Harlequin who loved Columbine but was opposed by a greedy Pantalone, Columbine’s father. Pantalone would chase the young lovers “in league with the mischievous Clown; and the servant, Pierrot, usually involving chaotic chase scenes with a policeman.” Moreover the “night scenes” started to grow longer to the detriment of the previous performance. (See Harlequinade, Wikipedia.)

In other words, in Britain, Harlequin out-clowned Pierrot. As for Pulcinella, although he had appeared, he could not out-clown Harlequin. Furthermore Pulcinella grew into Punch (Punchinella) and, as mentioned above, he migrated to the land of puppetry. But above all, British harlequinades were hilarious: genuine slapstick. Moreover they were pantomimic as would be Jean-Gaspard Deburau‘s (Battiste) as well as Jean-Louis Barrault (Baptiste). Baptiste is nimble, but in England, the “chase” had begun. The last harlequinade was played in 1939.

The Ballets Russes, Stravinsky, Picasso

Sergei Diaghilev‘s enormously successful Ballets Russes were inspired by the commedia dell’arte.  Diaghilev commissioned a ballet version of Pulcinella, composed by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Russian-born Léonide Massine. Furthermore, Pablo Picasso, who had already painted characters from the Commedia dell’arte, Harlequin in particular, designed the original costumes and sets for the ballet (1920).

Harlequin and other members of the Commedia are associated with Pierre de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763). Marivaux wrote many plays for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne. But we are skipping Marivaux’s polished Arlequin because the discussion would be too long and too complex. We will instead look at images, Picasso’s in particular, and provide the names of innamorati, lazzi and zanni, but that will be my last post on the Commedia dell’ arte itself.  

My best regards to all of you.

  Colombine

Arlequin poli par l’amour, Maurivaux

RELATED ARTICLES

Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot (27 June 2014)

Sources and Resources

Commedia dell’arte (shane-arts)

Development of Pantomime (The)

Harlequin everywhere you look (thoughtsontheatre)

Masques et bouffons (comédie italienne), 1860. (See Maurice Sand, in Wikipedia.) Maurice Sand’s book is available online at Masques et bouffons (comédie italienne)

Marivaux’s Arlequin poli par l’amour (EN)

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[i] “Arlecchino,” Phyliss Hartnoll, The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 1967 [1951])

[ii] “John Rich”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Jun. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/502381/John-Rich>.

[iii] Oxford English Dictionary

[iv] Early Pantomime (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

“commedia erudita”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 Jun. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127767/commedia-erudita>.

“Compagnia dei Gelosi”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Jun. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228004/Compagni-de-Gelosi>

“Harlequin”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Jun. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/255421/Harlequin>.

“Passion play”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Jun. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445807/Compagnie-Passion-Play>

Seated Fat Clown, by Pablo Picasso, 1905

Arlequin et Colombine

© Micheline Walker

June 30, 2014

WordPress

Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin

Origins Atellane comedy Plautus Passion Plays   Arlecchino, as we know him, is a stock character dating back to seventeenth-century 

Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin Origins Atellane comedy Plautus Passion Plays   Arlecchino, as we know him, is a stock character dating back to seventeenth-century 

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Leo Rauth's "fin de siècle" Pierrot

Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot

  Pierrot et Colombine, by Leo Rauth, 1911 postcard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bal masqué, Leo Rauth (1911)

Leo Rauth’s Pierrot

Leo Rauth’s depictions of Pierrot are rooted in the Fête galante of eighteenth-century France. He is loved by Colombine and he has a floured face. He is a smidgen decadent and his costume, flowing, not baggy. This is a sign of the times. Rauth was a fin de siècleartist…

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Pedrolino & Pierrot: the Commedia dell'arte

Pedrolino & Pierrot: the Commedia dell’arte

Comédiens italiens, by Jean-Antoine Watteau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pierrot, autrefois dit Gilles, by François Watteau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pedrolino, Gilles, Pierrot… Indentity: Pedrolino, Pierrot, Bertoldo, Gian-Farina…

Pedrolino or Pierrot, a zanni (servant), was portrayed by French rococo artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721) who depicted the French…

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Pantalone: la Commedia dell'arte

Pantalone: la Commedia dell’arte

Pantalone, 1550 Maurice Sand [i](Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pantalone: a Blocking Character (the Alazôn) the alazôn an improvised comedy zanni the sketch (canevas)  

Featured above is Maurice Sand‘s depiction of Pantalone. Maurice Sand was the son of French writer George Sand (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), and of the baron Dudevant.

An Alazôn, or blocking character

Pantalone is one of the stock…

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"Capuchins" move to Town

“Capuchins” move to Town

  Joseph the Carpenter (detail) by Georges de la Tour (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The image featured above has little do to with the bourgeois and bourgeoisie, but it is a work by Georges de la Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652), a French baroque artist whose used chiaroscuro, sharp contrasts.

However, the work dates back to the 17th century in France, where our bourgeois is moving to town, a…