Smaraolo Cornuto

The panels show scenes from the Commedia dell'Arte, a type of theatre performed by Italian troupes of travelling actors. The Commedia had a large number of stock characters: the actors would improvise around a general scenario. They were often masked, and the performances involved acrobatics, music and dancing. Characters included the Capitano, a swaggering, blustering coward who invariably runs from any threat of danger, Arlecchino (who became the Harlequin of pantomime), Pulcinella (who inspired the English Punch), Pedrolino (later Pierrot) and Colombine (a serving maid who later appears in amorous association with Harlequin or Pierrot). Most depictions of the Commedia characters are derived from a famous series of prints of Commedia-like performers, the Bali di Sfessania by the French artist Jacques Callot (1592-1635).

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Andien de Clermont (active 1716-1783) was a French artist who arrived in Britain in 1716. He was the most avant-garde and highly-inventive decorative artist working here in the Rococo period.