The art of commedy Reseas The rise and spread of professional acting and commedia dellarte troupes in sixteenth

century Italy (falta una parte) Garzonis La piazza 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. profani comici, From Garzonis 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. Venetian amateurs and buffoni In Leas view she argued the theory that the commedia dellarte 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. The comico and forestiero of the dialogue prologue to Scalas 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 Sanudos chronicle: By the second decade of the sixteenth century, Sanudo is recording definite interaction between amateur entertainers and professional players. 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 Niccol Machiavellis Mandragola, performed by Chereas company. At a banquet given by the Doge in 1523, Zuan Polo buffon stravestito vene con do altri, et cant una canzon in laude dil Doxe. On 3 February1530, 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. 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 Itinerancy is a consistent feature of professional troupes, and amateurs too are known to have ventured abroad on occasion Discussion of the repertoire and performance technique of early troupes such as Maphios is largely based on speculation, as the only substantial surviving documents concerning them are legal contracts primarily concerned with financial and organizational aspects. 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. Professionalism and improvisation 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 developed what this theory identifies as the three cornerstones of the commedia dellarte proper: itsyear-round professionalism, distinctive stock roles, and repertoire based on improvisational techniques and lazzi, retaining a virtual monopoly on deploying them in full-length plays. 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. 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. The immense popularity of the comici allowed them to do this, and to continue to perform outside the sanctioned playing season, at court, in prvate houses, in the stanze they rented for semi-public performances, and in the newtheatres being built for them. This activity, interpreted as dangerous erosion of the churchs power over dramatic activity, attracted vehement opposition. 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. Women and performance: the development of improvisation by the sixteenth-century commedia dellarte, Theatre Journal, 43 (1991), 5969 The way in which the commedia dellarte 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. 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 dellarte outside of Italy. At the time of Ferdinands visit to Italy, he wrote in his diary semblances of commedia thar precede the German Wedding presentation, The diarys references to acrobats are especially relevant to the early commedia dellarte. 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 profesional 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 dellarte characters. Zanni and Magnifico, who joined forces to become the central masked servant master pair of the commedia dellarte, 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: The possibility that Italian masquerade costumes seen by Ferdinand in 156566 influenced those of his brothers 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. Like Alfonso dEste, Guglielmo Gonzaga was an early and enthusiastic supporter of professional commedia dellarte 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 NaselliMunich court masquerade. 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 dAmbras La Cofanaria held in the Palazzo Vecchios Hall of the Five Hundred, known through extensive Italian sources Paolo Giordano Orsini, at whose Florentine house the comedy of 30 December 1565 was presented, was a Roman nobleman. As Duke of Bracciano and Marchese dellAnguillara, he was a kinsman of some sort to the Roman poet GiovanAndrea Anguillara (151772), at the Medici court in the early 1560s, and closely linked to the very beginnings of the professional zanni comedies 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 companys Zanni, mentions Anguillara, while in 1587, two years after Paolo Giordano Orsinis death, the Gelosis Dottor Gratiano dedicated a publication to Orsinis teenage son Virginio. In identifying the Roman nobleman Paolo Giordano Orsini as an early patron of the comici, Ferdinands diary also adds to the growing body of evidence which suggests that Rome could have played a more important part in Zannis 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. Yet emphasis on Venice and Naples has undoubtedly obscured the role of Rome in the development of the commedia dellarte as a stage form, and specifically the adoption of the ZanniMagnifico partnership as the comic focus for full-length plays. Stock types and players of the commedia dellarte Introduction Antonio Sebastiano Minturno in 1564, Minturnos 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 Garzonis 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. Pellicers 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. 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 15481624), for example, played the part of an inamorato before creating the role of Capitano Spavento dal VallInferno, while his wife Isabella (15621604) stayed with the role of the inamorata Isabella throughout her acting career. The inamorata If we isolate from the repertoires of the early troupes and buffoni the elements which can specifically be associated with the commedia dellarte, two parts, those of the zanni and the inamorata, or romantic stage heroine, stand out. Actresses joined the professional players rather later than the PantaloneZanni duo, and Minturno, writing in 1564, omits the commedia dellartes most celebrated role, that of the inamorataOnly ecently has emphasis on the colourful and distinctive stock roles given ay o 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.

Modern scholarship dates the systematic introduction of actresses into Italian troupes to the early 1560s; The earliest formal record of an Italian actress joining a professional troupe is a Roman contract of 10 October 1564. 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, who staged la tragedia di Didone mutata in Tragicommedia, were judged more successful tan Flaminias great rival, Vincenza. Reknown Inamoratas: Isabella andreini Caterina Martineli Lucia Caccini Vincenza Armani MargheritaArchilei. English writers generally treated women associated with travelling actors with mocking contempt regardless of whether they performed, degrading hem by associating them with prostitutes. Thomas Nash famously dismissed he celebrated Italian actresses as whores and common Curtizens and reduced their plays to the antics of Pantaloun, a Whore, and a Zanie. Despite their international successes, the mixed-gender troupes did not meet with universal acceptance. In calling for a ban on all theatre in 1578, Cardinal Paleotti specifically targeted the comicis donne commedianti, censuring these infamous women of ill repute for earning their living through skills which exerted a evastating effect on the morals of their audiences, and especially on married men who fell for their charms 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-professional troupe set up in mid-century Rome by the poet Giovanni Andrea dallAnguillara. A Venetian and Bergamasque clement 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 Sanudos early sixteenth century diaries. 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. Ferdinands 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. 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

Stage routines involving Zanni and his master combined elements from a number of sources: the parasitemaster relationship of commedia erudita, the dialect dialogues of the peasant stage, and the crowdpleasing skills of the professionals: acrobatics, music, song and dance 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 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 dellarte, Giovanni Pellesini, who created the role of Pedrolino, and Gabriele Panzanini of Bologna (fl.15711609), who created that of Francatrippa. Harlequin Harlequin is perhaps the most popular, universally recognized and thoroughly researched of all commedia dellarte servants. In contrast to the other central masks of the commedia dellarte, 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 dellarte servant Harlequin was created by one individual Italian actor, on the Parisian stage, during the reign of Henri III (157489), inspired by Hellequins, a type of local comic stage devil popular in religious plays since medieval times, derived from a satanic underworld leader. It was Lea who convincingly established Tristano Martinelli (7.4.1557 1.3.1630) as the creator of the Harlequin role, a generally accepted dentification reinforced by more recently discovered documentation.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. If so, it seems logical to suggest that all sixteenth century depictions of Harlequin also belong to Tristano Martinelli. By 1588, when he addresses a letter a mia madre Lucia Martinelli, madre Arlecchino, Tristano Martinelli was already well known by the stage name Arlecchino. In the 1590s, he signs himself as Tristano Martinelli, detto Arlechino comico, or alias Arlechino, and he remained identified with the role for life. In 1599, Tristano Martinelli cognominato Arlechino was promoted to uperintendent 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. Martinellis latercareer, 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 Martinellis lifetime. Barbieri refers to the amusing acrobatics of gli Arlichini in 1634, and by the time of Martinellis death in 1630 the masked comedian Harlequin had become a popular and much depicted stage character.285 But most early depictions of commedia dellarte 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. Some other roles The inamorata and regional servantmaster stock roles, which underpin commedia dellarte plots, were complemented by a number of national types. A popular sixteenth century commedia dellarte 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 dellarte scenarios, perhaps dating to as early as the 1590s The significant roles of the commedia dellarte 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 Cecchinis influential Frutti delle moderne comedie of 1628, Barbieris La supplica of 1634 and Perruccis Dellarte rappresentativa of 1699 made firm recommendations concerning performing practice. These increasingly confine the commedias 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 dellarte in its purest form. Theatrical interpretation: some case studies Scenery, settings and stages 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 dellarte before 1600. For information on their

scenery, settings and stages, we are largely reliant on the surviving visual material. 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 dellarte 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. 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. 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. The comedians in some pictures perform in palace gardens or courtyards, often to audiences seated at picnics or banquets. Natural stages A wealth of pictorial evidence suggests that cleared space staging sometimes made use of existing architectural features to emphasise the performance area. 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. Indoor performers sometimes also took advantage of existing architectural features 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. Sometimes stages are shown constructed against the sides of buildings, ending both added stability and a ready-made backdrop. 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. Rarely, as with the large torches to either side of the stage in plate 75, lighting arrangements are indicated. 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. 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. Architecturally enhanced curtain stages Scalas scenarios of 1611 indicate that the commedia dellarte required divisin of the stage into separate areas, and point to two key factors required for the successful performance of full-length improvised commedia plays. 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. Perspective stages A more complex type of staging involves full perspective scenery. Serlios comic, tragic and satyric stage settings of 1545 influenced virtually all renaissence perspective stage sets postdating them, however rudimentaryThe 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. 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.

Zanni and Pantalone a Introduction The ZanniPantalone partnership forms the heart, and oldest core, of the commedia dellarte, and the depiction of Zanni and Pantalone in reliably documented contemporary visual material yields important evidence for the sources and development of the commedia. Zanni costume The ZanniPantalone partnership drew elements from the mid-sixteenth century real-life Venetian servant and master pairs from whom their costume originates. 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. Zannis 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. 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, Occasionally, zanni types wear an obviously false beard, or animal mask. Only from 1600 do dated depictions of zanni in pale rather than dark masks, or without mask and/or beard, start appearing regularly, 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. Commedia dellarte scenarios were a vehicle for providing a succinct verviewof 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. 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. The eyewitness descriptions of Platter and Guarinonius indicate that such documented instances, of celebrated comici at the peak of their profession combining commedia dellarte 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 dellarte, routinely operated as mountebanks. 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. Some further comic types a Some female types There are particular problems with identifying and classifying the female stock types in depictions of the commedia dellarte. 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. 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 tepping stones on to centre stage. 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 dellarte, was enormously popular, and a major factor in ensuring a rapid expansion of the stage roles played by the younger women. 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, and slaves of either gender; madwomen, pageboys, soldiers;

even a Syrian astrologer or their own elderly father, 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. Partial nudity is sometimes associated with the servant role, as with Franceschinas 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. It is often suggested that the women of the commedia dellarte were only exceptionally masked in performance, the female masked types are by no means exclusively depicted masked, and he wearing of masks appears to be dependent on performance situation as well as role. The theatrical mask often covered considerably more of the face than the loup. the masks are little more than rectangles of soft cloth with holes for the eyes, tied tightly back behind the ears. 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. 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. 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. The women of the commedia dellarte 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. The written documentation emphasizes two female stage roles above all others, those of the maid and the inamorata.

They are the elegant upper-class garments worn by the fashionable Young inamorata and the respectable married woman; the servants 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. the inamorata featured large in most commedia dellarte 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. 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. 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 voke their sphere of domestic activity, and indicate potential or actual stage action. 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. Turkish costume was more usually associated with stage or carnival disguise by both men and women than a stock type in its own right. 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. Artists also used the Turkish look for showy, exotic costumes for comic female types in depictions of outdoor parades and carnivals. Individually, or within the same image, gypsy women and commedia dellarte menservants are commonly illustrated as examples of deceitful or cheating types, as in some emblem book pictures, festival paintings, or popular prints. 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. 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. The visual confusion is compounded on 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. 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 VallInferno, the most famous and suc sucessful commedia dellarte captain, perhaps inspired by the Capitano Spavento of Paraboscos 1552 erudite comedy Il Pellegrino. Like the Spaniard, portrayals of the German on the commedia dellarte stage are almost exclusively military. The uniform of the Teutonic captain or tedesco is the colourful, distinctive type of the German or Swiss mercenary. Buffoni and matachins There are evident connections between the commedia dellarte 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. 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. Matachins (properly defined as a kind of sword-dancer in a fantastic costume), 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. It has been convincingly suggested that some early commedia dellarte characters had a choice of two quite separate costumes, which were only fully integrated when commedia types became standardized in the seventeenth century. One was based on early sixteenth century contemporary costume appropriate to their character in real life, the other, typified by the tightfitting Harlequin costume certainly being worn by the 1580s, on the skintight 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. Harlequin 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. Possible influences on other characteristic features of early Harlequin costume can also be traced in Hellequin iconography. 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. Although Harlequins 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. The iconography suggests that the patches of Harlequins early costume were irregular, and that they were only systematically regularized in the 1620s. This is confirmed by Pier Maria Cecchini in 1628. 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. Characters associated with Harlequin by Raparini include Pasquino, Tabarino/ Tortellino, Naccherino/Gradelino, Mezzettino/ Bertolino, Fagiuolino. Identified depictions of non-Harlequins in patched or particoloured 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. 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