Last week’s post remarked on the significance of the commedia dell’arte to Venetian identity. Developed in Italy in the mid-16th century, this type of theatre was characterized by improvisation and stock characters and offered a popular alternative to the more “learned” commedia erudita. It also relied on masks, a staple of Carnevale, with which it became closely associated. At its peak in 18th-century Venice, Carnival could last five months, during which time masks were used to conceal class hierarchies, sumptuary laws were suspended, and a sense of freedom and subversion reigned. When Napoleon outlawed commedia dell’arte and the use of masks in 1797, for fear of precisely this potential for subversion, he was thus effectively challenging an important aspect of Venetian culture and society. This post considers the opposite end of this chronology, looking at an album of miniatures from the early 17th century, when the characters of the commedia dell’arte came to emblematize part of Venetian life for the wide array of travellers already flocking to La Serenissima.

The vogue for commissioning personalized albums from local artists was widespread among foreign travellers in Venice, starting with German or Dutch students in the mid-16th century. Generally, these albums were produced according to individual preferences, and as such the pictorial representations may well bear relation to the visitor’s actual experiences, thus forming a unique souvenir of (usually) his travel.

The manuscript album we present here is a fine example of such a ‘book of memories’ (for the full description click here), also known as an album amicorum or friendship album, or by the German Stammbucher. Lavishly painted in vivid gouache colours, it includes scenes of local life, rituals, and male and female figures identified by their social status or professions, with special attention to the materiality of costume, tellingly coupled with several ‘scenes’ of Commedia dell’Arte characters.

Three of the most famous of these characters are included together in one of the miniatures. Harlequin is the darling of the audience: witty, often impertinent, and full of jokes; he and Franquatripa – whose name signifies 'nonsense', and who's a real good-for-nothing – belong to the 'Zanni' or simple folk, while Isabella is most often the beautiful girl whose adventurous path to a happy union with her beloved forms a central plotline.

Closely related is the miniature entitled 'Charlatano'. Charlatans entertained with fantastic stories, often about illnesses and miraculous cures for which they held in stock a wide selection of 'medicine' on sale for the audience. Like the comedians they performed in city and town piazzas.

The fascination with theatre and costume is also extended to an illustration of the masquerade, a popular pastime of the wealthy Venetians, which of course reached its annual peak at Carnival. In the illustration here, the man at the right is wearing the hat and mask of Pantalone.

The significance of these figures to Venetian culture is however best emphasized in the fact of their inclusion alongside various other personages presented in the album.

Certain illustrations were particularly popular among the owners of these kinds of albums because of their use in costume books, with fashion evidently forming a large part of the appeal of its images, and of Venice itself. As the “theatre of the world,” a leading centre of manuscript production and publication, as well as for fashion and the trading of textiles, it is fitting that the costume book was a particularly popular genre for Venetians and visitors to the Veneto region. Indeed, between 1540 and 1610, nine costume books were published there – roughly a third of all costume books produced in Europe in that period. (B. Wilson, “Reproducing the Contours of Venetian Identity in Sixteenth-Century Costume Books,” Studies in Iconography 25, 2004, p. 221)

The most famous of these costume books were Bertelli's Diversarum nationum habitus, mentioned above, and the De Habiti antichi et moderni by Cesare Vecellio, which first appeared in Venice in 1590 and subsequently went through many editions. Both Bertelli's and Vecellio's works offer a veritable mine of information on clothing, textiles, and luxury goods such as jewellery.

The anonymous but talented artist who meticulously painted the pages of this beautiful example was therefore able to make use of an established repertoire of patterns and ‘types’ that stood for different values, ideals or vices: the powerful Doge and Dogaressa, for example, are shown in their splendid brocade robes and ermine capes, while the Donzella, an allegory of chastity, is shown with her black silk veil, and the austerity of the widow is highlighted in the simplicity of her dress.

An image of a Venetian woman bleaching her hair is particularly intriguing. Golden hair was a standard of beauty that, as Titian’s nudes attest, became closely associated with Venice, as did the practice of bleaching one’s hair to achieve such a standard. This was done on the altane, or roof terrace, with a liquid either bought or made at home. This was repeatedly distributed through the hair and left to dry in the sun. As it required a lot of time to do this, women covered their shoulders with a white scarf called a schiavoneto and donned a wide-brimmed straw hat or solana with a hole cut through the crown so the bleaching hair could remain uncovered.

come le donne si petinano nel sol per rossir li suoi capeli.jpg

Beautiful courtesans were also a Venetian staple, and here the representation of the Cortigiana is of the greatest interest: the figure bears a perfectly preserved liftable skirt, a tactile mechanism invented by the Venetian publisher and engraver Pietro Bertelli and first included in his Diversarum nationum habitus of 1589 (although the flap is now lacking from many copies of the printed book): When the flap is lifted, the woman is seen to be essentially naked. In our album, this flap-image is juxtaposed with the representation of a more austere widow, visually emphasizing the contrast between celibacy and lust, death and life.

Another of Bertelli’s books, Vere imagini delle piu nobili citta del mondo (1578), included an image of a gondola with a similar flap device which, when lifted, revealed an amorous couple in embrace. A similar flap was likely included in the present volume: now gone, a couple scandalously appears together for all to see!

This illustration also points to the variety of images ultimately included in the album. Among these, a pair of flagellants certainly stand out, while others present various strata of society: a peasant woman and her male counterpart, a fisherman, two vineyard workers, and two servants at leisure. This last miniature shows the pair engaged in a round of mora, a popular Italian game in which two players simultaneously hold up one or several fingers, each player trying at the same time to predict the number of fingers shown by the other. In addition, certain ‘types’ are also included from Rome and Padua, exemplifying the sort of cosmopolitan spirit the owners of such albums were eager to put forth.

Overall, however, the visual imagery of this album corresponds to the image of Venice itself, as perceived by foreign travellers: a fascinating mix of luxury, commercial relationships, spectacle, disguise, secrets, and sensuality. Venice’s calli and campi were crossed by people from various nations, speaking all languages, practicing all religions, and dressed in all kinds of different ways, and it is this world of relations that is represented, in miniature, in the leaves of this album.

Editor’s note: This post is an updated version of Margherita Palumbo’s post from 28 August 2019.

A Souvenir of Venice

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