In the eighteenth century, members of the French Court amused
themselves splendidly: "The day before yesterday there was a great masque
in Versailles". Thus a letter written in 1700: "The Duchess of Burgundy,
in the guise of a village bride, came with her retinue of ladies in
waiting, who were all masked, as she was, and whose hair was adorned with
many flowers. This made a gloriously cheerful effect.... Eight days before there was another pretty harlequinade at Marly. The loveliest
were the Savoyardes with their pedlar's bundles on their backs, which they
opened. Two little harlequins and two Columbines popped out, little girls
and boys, who danced beautifully." Even King Louis XV, then only eleven
years old, took part in fetes galantes, elegant
entertainments, in 1721. He mimed a ballet dancer in a ballet entitled
The Elements.
Not only did the nobility love dressing up and playing
theatre. Like many of his contemporaries, painter
Jean-Antoine Watteau did, too. He was particularly taken with the characters in Italian
improvised comedy, commedia dell'arte. They brought welcome
diversion and pleasure to the poor as well. Commedia dell'arte
originated around 1550 in Lombardy, evolving as street theatre in which
improvised pieces based on stock situations were performed by troupes of
specially trained actors. All that was prearranged were synopses of the
plot and the sequence of scenes. Consisting mainly of clowning and jokes,
the dialogue was entirely improvised. Although a couple in love belonged
to the stock repertoire, the other characters were burlesque types,
instantly recognisable because they always appeared in the same masks and
costumes: Pantalone — an elderly Venetian merchant, the doctor, a scholar
of Bologna and Arlecchino, and his crafty man-servant, whose awkward and
melancholy side soon became personified as a separate character called
Pedrolino.
After commedia dell'arte had become established in France at
courts, fairs and in the streets, Pedrolino changed into a pitiable fool,
who might be called either Pierrot or Gilles. This character represented
the rejected lover, who was always sad. He was characterised by a
distinctive white, wide-sleeved costume, a white mask and a wide white
beret. Did
Watteau paint his Gilles as a portrait of an actor famous for playing the part of Gilles or Pierrot? Was this
life-sized painting possibly hung in front of a cafe, or theatre in which
the actor in question may have appeared in the role? Be that as it may,
the melancholy clown, mocked, ridiculed and despised for his asinine
helplessness, was a favourite with
Watteau for the sole reason that he was
so wretchedly sad. The mournful clown appears several times in his work.
Is this a biographical clue? The painter knew all too well what it was
like to have only himself for company. His final years were marred by
disease and melancholy before he died at thirty-seven of tuberculosis.
