Editing Harlequin (section)

==History==
{{anchor|Origins}}
[[File:A scene from the commedia dell' arte played in France before a noble audience - Ferrone 2014 fig34.jpg|thumb|A scene from the commedia dell'arte played in France before a noble audience in 1571 or 1572 (Museum of [[Bayeux]]). [[Pantalone]] is front and center, while just to the right and slightly behind is Harlequin in motley costume, "the oldest known version of Harlequin's costume".<ref name=SterlingDuchartre>Sterling 1943, p. 20; Duchartre 1929, p. 84.</ref><ref name=KatritzkyBayeux>Katritzky 2006, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HyPeo62Fi8YC&pg=PA140 pp. 140–143] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521075425/https://books.google.com/books?id=HyPeo62Fi8YC&pg=PA140#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=21 May 2024 }}, confirms that the dating of the painting is generally accepted; [https://books.google.com/books?id=HyPeo62Fi8YC&pg=PA236 p. 236] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521075425/https://books.google.com/books?id=HyPeo62Fi8YC&pg=PA236#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=21 May 2024 }}: "...this figure is still widely accepted as a depiction of Harlequin or [[Zan Ganassa]], although often with reservations."</ref>]]

The re-interpretation of the "devil" stock character as a [[Zanni]] character of the [[commedia dell'arte]] took place in the 16th century in France.<ref>Rudlin 1994, p. 76.</ref> [[Zan Ganassa]], whose troupe is first mentioned in [[Mantua]] in the late 1560s, is one of the earliest known actors suggested to have performed the part,<ref name=SenelickHarlequin>Laurence Senelick in Banham 1995, "Harlequin" p. 472.</ref> although there is "little hard evidence to support [it]".<ref>Rudlin & Crick 2001, p. 12.</ref> Ganassa performed in France in 1571, and if he did play the part there, he left the field open for another actor to take up the role, when he took his troupe to Spain permanently in 1574.<ref>Rudlin & Crick 2001, pp. 7–13. These authors speculate that Ganassa may have dropped the role in Spain, since apparently he gained too much weight to perform the required acrobatics.</ref>

Among the earliest depictions of the character are a Flemish painting ({{circa|1571–1572}}) in the Museum of [[Bayeux]]<ref name=SterlingDuchartre/><ref name=KatritzkyBayeux/> and several woodblock prints probably dating from the 1580s in the Fossard collection, discovered by Agne Beijer in the 1920s among uncatalogued items in the [[Nationalmuseum]], in [[Stockholm]].<ref>Katritzky 2006, pp. 107–108; Beijer & Duchartre 1928.</ref>

[[File:Compositions de rhétorique de Mr. Don Arlequin, 1601, p01 (title page Arlechin) - Gallica 2010 (adjusted).jpg|thumb|[[Tristano Martinelli]]'s Harlequin costume as depicted in his ''Compositions de rhétorique'', 1601]]
[[Tristano Martinelli]] is the first actor definitely known to have used the name "Harlequin" (or "Arlequin") from French folklore and adapted it for the comic ''secondo'' Zanni role, and he probably first performed the part in France in (or just before) 1584 and only later did he bring the character to Italy, where he became known as Arlecchino.<ref>Lea 1934, pp. 79–84; Katritzky 2006, pp. 102–104; Andrews 2008, pp. xxvi–xxvii.</ref> The motley costume is sometimes attributed to Martinelli, who wore a linen costume of colourful patches, and a hare-tail on his cap to indicate cowardice. Martinelli's Harlequin also had a black leather [[domino mask|half-mask]], a moustache and a pointed beard. He was very successful, even playing at court and becoming a favourite of [[Henry IV of France]], to whom he addressed insolent monologues (''Compositions de Rhetorique de Mr. Don Arlequin'', 1601).<ref>Maurice Charney (ed.), ''Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Og4ntxFQP2cC&pg=PA239 p. 239] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521075426/https://books.google.com/books?id=Og4ntxFQP2cC&pg=PA239 |date=21 May 2024 }}.</ref>
Martinelli's great success contributed to the perpetuation of his interpretation of the Zanni role, along with the name of his character, after his death in 1630, among others, by [[Nicolò Zecca]], active {{circa|1630}} in [[Bologna]] as well as [[Turin]] and [[Mantua]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Boni |first=Filippo de' |year=1852| title=Biografia degli artisti ovvero dizionario della vita e delle opere dei pittori, degli scultori, degli intagliatori, dei tipografi e dei musici di ogni nazione che fiorirono da'tempi più remoti sino á nostri giorni. Seconda Edizione |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=IU0_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1103 p. 1103] | publisher=Presso Andrea Santini e Figlio|location=Venice; Googlebooks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IU0_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PR3}}</ref>

The character was also performed in Paris at the [[Comédie-Italienne]] in Italian by [[Giambattista Andreini]] and [[Angelo Costantini]] ({{circa|1654–1729}}) and in French as ''Arlequin'' in the 1660s by {{Interlanguage link multi|Dominique Biancolelli|it|vertical-align=sup}} (1636–1688), who combined the Zanni types, "making his Arlecchino witty, neat, and fluent in a croaking voice, which became as traditional as the squawk of [[Pulcinella|Punch]]".<ref name=SenelickHarlequin/> 
The Italians were expelled from France in 1697 for satirizing [[Louis XIV|King Louis XIV]]'s second wife, [[Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon|Madame de Maintenon]],<ref>Donald Roy in Banham 1995, "Comédie-Italienne" pp. 233–234.</ref> but returned in 1716 (after his death), when [[Tommaso Antonio Vicentini]] ("Thomassin", 1682–1739) became famous in the part.<ref>Laurence Senelick in Banham 1995, "Vicentini" p. 867.</ref> The rhombus shape of the patches arose by adaptation to the Paris fashion of the 17th century by Biancolelli.