Venezia header: Piazza San Marco - Riva degli Schiavoni
Giovanni Grevembroch: Pantalone - pen, ink & watercolor (18th century)
Giovanni Grevembroch: "Pantalone"
pen, ink & watercolor (18th century)
Museo Correr - Venezia

PANTALONE

(Pantalon de' Bisognosi)

(Pantalone of the Needy)

Pantalone is the more traditional Venetian impersonation and mask.

This mask / impersonation seems to have been born before the Commedia dell’Arte theatre started using it, and it shows the kind of style rich Venetian men would usually wear in the XVI century.

A person of a certain age (a merchant, very likely) who made it really rich.

So this is the real, ancient Pantalone. The name comes from the Greek “Panda Leonda”: “Powerful in all things”.

And what was considered a noble way of presenting oneself would be teased and ridicularized by the buffoons of the Commedia dell’Arte.

Pantalone, in the Commedia dell’Arte representations, although being as usual very greedy, is gullible enough for being taken advantage of from his “servant lovers” or male subordinates: servants, doctors, captains, whoever can get money out of him.


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