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Micheline's Blog

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Tag Archives: Pierrot

Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky’s Harlequin

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Columbina, commedia dell'arte, Harlequin, jealousy, Kasyan Yaroslavovitch, La Princesse de Clèves, Pierrot, stock characters, the sad clown, zanni

H3916-L128755863

KASYAN YAROSLAVOVITCH GOLEJZOVSKY 1892 Moscow – 1970  Moscow (Photo credit: Invaluable)

This mixed-media depiction of Harlequin, by Russian artist Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky, was sold at an auction, in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 9 November 2017. I congratulate its owners. I love this work of art for many reasons. For instance, movement is beautifully expressed. Would that I had the money to bid and buy at auctions. However, I visit, if only to see beautiful objects.

Harlequin is a zanno (zanni), a comic servant, who was introduced into the Commedia dell’arte by 17th – century actor – manager Zan Ganassa (c. 1540 – c. 1584): Zan (=zanni) Ganassa. Commedia dell’ arte actors were professionals. They were provided with an outline of the comedy (called a canevas in French), where they played a role, always the same role, which they improvised. The Italians travelled to other countries. Ganassa was in Spain from 1574 to 1584. Paris had its Comédie-Italienne, and Harlequin was in 18th – century London.

In the commedia erudita, however, actors used a script written by a playwright. Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, Molière and dramatists preceding them often drew their material from Plautus (254 BCE [Sarsinia, Umbria, Italy] – BCE 154)[1] and Terence (195 BCE [Carthage, current Tunisia] – 159 BCE [Greece or at sea]).[2] Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence wrote in Latin, but the vernacular, early forms of Italian, was also used by actors. However, Plautus and Terence, found their inspiration in Greek New Comedy (320 BCE to the mid 3rd century BCE), from which they also borrowed. Molière‘s Miser (1668) is rooted in Plautus’ Aulularia.

Harlequin is perhaps the best-known of the commedia dell’arte’s zanni and one of its most celebrated characters. Harlequin always wears a costume. It is part of the mask, but behind the mask there is a man, or a woman. Until the creation of Pierrot, drawn from both pantomimes and the commedia dell’arte, the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte seemed what they appeared.

However, Pierrot, created in late 17th – century France, by the Parisian Comédie-Italienne, is a sad clown, a mask wearing a mask. He entertains an audience, but he loves Columbina who loves Harlequin. This is love’s triangle, an impossible love that may feed on jealousy. As the 17th century drew to a close in France, Madame de la Fayette[3] published La Princesse de Clèves, in which her heroine will not marry Monsieur de Nemours for fear he will stop loving her once his love is reciprocated. Jean Racine‘s Phèdre fails to save Hippolyte, whom she has falsely accused of trying to seduce her, when she learns Hippolyte claims to love Aricie. La Princesse de Clèves was published in 1678, the year after Phèdre was first performed.

tumblr_l79irhn3ie1qzdzano1_5003

Harlequin by George Barbier (Photo credit: Tumbler)

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The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this respect, he is perhaps the most enigmatic character of the commedia dell’arte, and the most human. Jealous love finds its best expression in a novel by Madame de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves (1678). But Molière’s Arnolphe, the blocking-character in The School for Wives, L’École des femmes, is jealous. The Gelosi (jealous) were also a commedia dell’ arte troupe, but jealous love is not associated with the Gelosi. In Britannica, we read that:

“The name was derived from the troupe’s motto, Virtù, fama ed honor ne fèr gelosi. (“We are jealous of attaining virtue, fame and honour”).[4]

11552-050-3B1C1E8D.jpg

Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil … CFL—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York (Photo credit: Britannica)

Conclusion

I will close by reminding my readers of the British John Rich’s harlequinades: tom-foolery and pandemonium. Unlike the clever, nimble and clownish British zanno  Harlequin, Pierrot is mime‘s sad clown performed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Battiste), Jean-Louis Barrault (Baptiste), and less-acclaimed mimes.  Jean-Louis Barrault is the star of director Michel Carné‘s 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (The Children of Paradise), one of cinema’s classics, written by Jacques Prévert. But is Picasso‘s family Harlequin “funny?” (See Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin and Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot in RELATED ARTICLES).

Stock characters must not deviate from their role, nor can actors. But masks tend to invite a response not intended in the manner a role is played.

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Pantalone and Molière’s Miser (20 November 2016)
  • George Barbier’s Fêtes galantes (13 July 2014)
  • Picasso’s Harlequin (3 July 2014)
  • Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin (30 June 2014)
  • Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot (27 June 2014)
  • Pantalone: la Commedia dell’arte (20 June 2014)

Sources and Resources

Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien (c. 1773-1777), published in 1830. (Google) FR
Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien, Wikipedia FR

____________________

[1] Plautus, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plautus)
[2] W. Geoffrey Arnott, Terrence, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Terence)
[3] In 1655, at the age of 21, already a salonnière, she married 38-year-old François Motier, comte de La Fayette, an ancestor to Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette. She bore him two sons.
[4] Gelosi, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Compagnia-dei-Gelosi

Claude Debussy : Clair de Lune, for Piano (Suite Bergamasque No. 3), L. 75/3

Pierrot et Harlequin Mardi Gras by Cézanne

© Micheline Walker
10 November 2017
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Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

a dandy, aestheticism, Antoine Watteau, commedia dell'arte, fin de siècle, Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Leo Rauth, Oswin Haas, Pierrot, Symbolism, the sad clown, Valse contente by Oswin Haas

 
Pierrot et Colombine, by Leo Rauth

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

Bal masque, Leo Rauth

Leo Rauth’s depictions of Pierrot are rooted in the Fêtes galantes 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 siècle (end of century) artist and very much an aesthete. He produced stylized and very thin figures.

 

A “ Fin de Siècle ” Pierrot

According to Britannica, the fin de siècle was characterized by “sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair.”[i] In other words, the “mal du siècle” had survived under such headings as “world-weariness” and “fashionable despair.” However, the Pierrot had acquired new facets. He was sophisticated and elegant. Symbolism had changed him. Leo Rauth’s Pierrot is both a sad and polished Pierrot, a “dandy,” and, perhaps, a salonnier.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau (31 July 1796 – 17 June 1846) gave Pierrot his “Janus-faced aspect.” (See Pedrolino, Wikipedia.) He made him into a sad clown. However, under his loose-fitting clothes, his impeccably starched ruff and his pompoms, Rauth’s Pierrot, formerly a zanno, a servant, had been transformed into a man-about-town, which does not preclude sadness. Rauth would bestow “fashionable despair” upon his Pierrot.

But the Pierrot is the Pierrot. We have read the scenario. His Columbina, featured at the top of this post, seems to love him. She is dancing with him. But Columbina loves the nimble Harlequin.

So, it was all a masquerade and the topsy-turvy world of the Roman Saturnalia and the Carnival season. On Shrove Tuesday, the bal masqué would end, but as depicted by Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – Paris, 10 January 1904), the end would not necessarily be consistent with the conventions of comedy. Gérôme’s (c. 1857-59) painting shows Pierrot wounded and perhaps dying after fighting a duel. On the right side of the painting, we see Harlequin walking away. He appears to be supporting another figure, which is confusing.

The Duel after the Masquerade, by Jean-Léon Gerome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An Early Death

Leo Rauth (18 July 1884 – 9 January 1913) was born in Leipzig and studied art in Karlsruhe, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Venice. His art made him an overnight celebrity. He had obviously been influenced by Jean-Antoine Watteau (baptised 10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721) whose “best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet,” as would also be the case with Leo Rauth’s Pierrot. Watteau is also an important figure in the history of fashion. (See Watteau, Wikipedia.)

Leo Rauth died of a pistol shot at the age of 29. News of his premature death after a dizzying three-year career sent shock waves through artistic circles. He had chosen useful art and seemed destined for a brilliant career.

Rauth died, but the Pierrot survived. In 1913, Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes were in Paris and Pierrot was on stage dancing, not far from Harlequin and Columbina. Moreover, a young Picasso was working for the Ballets Russes. Picasso would also remember the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. However, he would choose Harlequin as a major subject matter. Could it be the cubes? We will see…

My best regards to everyone. ♥

_________________________

[i] “fin de siècle”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 26 Jun. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/207099/fin-de-siecle>.

Ballet Russes, by August Macke, 1912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ballet Russes by August Macke, 1912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ein gern gesehener Gast (A Welcome Guest), 1912

Ein gern gesehener Gast (A Welcome Guest) by Leo Rauth, 1912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Im Rampenlicht (In the Limelight), by Leo Rauth

Im Rampenlicht (In the Limelight) by Leo Rauth, 1911 (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Arnold Schoenberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) composed a Pierrot Lunaire (Op. 11) using his twelve-tone technique.

Valse contente by Oswin Haas

Vow of love, 1911 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Vow of love, 1911 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
© Micheline Walker
26 June 2014
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