Commedia dell'Arte in Art: From Watteau to Picasso's Harlequin

The Art Institute of Chicago houses Édouard Manet's lithograph Punch from 1874, depicting Pulcinella with the likeness of Patrice de MacMahon, who had recently assumed the presidency of the Third Republic. Manet had envisioned a larger piece for Le Temps, but all copies were destroyed by the police. Pulcinella is a character from the commedia dell'arte, a theatrical tradition that flourished in northern Italy from the 16th to 18th centuries. Antoine Watteau's The Italian Comedians (c. 1720, National Gallery of Art) features 15 performers, centering on Pierrot. Watteau's Pierrot (1718–1719, Louvre) may be interpreted as a self-portrait, while Mezzetin (1718–1720, Metropolitan Museum) laments lost love. References to this tradition also appear in Edgar Degas's Harlequin (1885, Art Institute of Chicago) and Paul Cézanne's Harlequin (1888, Pushkin State Museum), as well as in Picasso's Rose Period works, At the Lapin Agile (1905, Metropolitan Museum) and Family of Saltimbanques (1905, National Gallery).