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This zanni is taken from a painting
reproduced in [Burdick, p.49], identified only as
a 16th century work by an artist of the Venetian school. It
depicts five male and six female characters*.
The picture credits mention the Civica Raccolta di Stampe Bertarelli,
Milan (Saporetti) as the source.
[Burdick] nicely describes the main Commedia roles (or "masks"),
and notes that zanni is an Italian word for unskilled laborers**.
The Commedia zanni were not unskilled, however.
As enumerated by [Burdick, p.48], they had to possess an actor's 'training in
music, movement, and impersonation' as well as skill in 'music, dance, mime,
fencing, juggling, prestidigitation, and rope dancing.' In this, Burdick
opposes Commedia dell'Arte ('theater of skills') to the Commedia
erudita of Renaissance times, where actors followed a script.
*'The average company consisted of two old men's parts, two lovers and
their ladies, two zanni for servants, a bragart captain, a serving-maid, and
one or two extras for minor parts' [Oxford: 'Italy,' 'Commedia dell'Arte,' iii.
Economy of the Companies (p.401)]. The six women in this painting is unusual,
then, given the
fewer feminine stock characters of the Commedia.
**According to [Oxford: 'Italy,' 'Commedia dell'Arte,' iii.
Economy of the Companies (p.401)], one of the alternative names of the Commedia
dell'Arte is dei zanni -- 'zanni' being the Bergomask pronunciation
of Gianni, diminutive of Giovanni (i.e., 'John').
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