Servant mask in the Italian theater. Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte arose in Italy in the 16th century, at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern culture, and absorbed features of both periods. First of all, it was born as a folk theater, for which it served as a stage. Town Square during carnival celebrations, where the crowd has long been entertained by jugglers and mimes. Representatives of various social strata intersected here, different nationalities and professions.

The square is the birthplace of the commedia dell'arte, and the townspeople themselves are its heroes. At the same time, they can be considered a special “living map” of Italian cities, since each of them spoke the dialect of the region from which they came and represented the image of its typical resident. It is not for nothing that on the stage for the theater of masks the view of a street overlooking a wide square, with two houses belonging to the heroes, was reproduced as scenery. to different parties. It is on the square that he places the characters in his series of engravings “Balli di Sfessania” (“Dances of the Assless/Boneless”) from 1622.

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In each scenario, a brief presentation scheme, the acting characters were a fixed set of images - masks, embodied in costume, body language, and speech patterns, based on the national dialects of Italy. The troupe usually consisted of two old men, for example, the stingy Venetian merchant Pantalone and the pedantic, stupid doctor from Bologna, four or two Lovers, a boastful Captain - a satirical image of Spanish soldiers, a cowardly braggart and masks of zanni - servants. Comic roles included all masks except the Lovers, who did not wear this attribute. The plot of the script was usually based on contrasting pairs of characters: fathers against sons and daughters; masters versus servants; Captains are against anyone who gets in their way.

In zanni scripts there are usually two. The first, most often called Brighella, came from Bergamo, an industrial center in Lombardy. After the collapse of industry in this area, the Bergamo people scattered throughout Italy in search of work, most often as laborers. Brighella is cunning and smart. The second, Harlequin, came from the village, from the plains, he was considered simple-minded and naive. He always gets a lot of punches for what he did and for what he didn't do. Harlequin's distinctive feature is bright, covered in patches that were supposed to cover the holes in the suit. The behavior of zanni masks has always been associated with the lower strata of society. Unlike the Lovers, they did not speak correctly, distorted their language, behaved dishonestly, lustfully and were often obsessed with hunger.

It was the zanni who most often used lazzi in commedia dell'arte - comic tricks not directly related to the plot. An example is a scene where two servants tied back to back are trying to get to a dish of food and lift each other into the air. Or Harlequin, out of hunger, grabbing and swallowing flies. There are also scenes with fights and demonstrations of sexual desire. They are characterized by wheel movement (when the head strives to take the place of the back and vice versa), exaggeration, grotesqueness, extreme expressiveness: if a zanni cries, then tears always flow on those around him. Lazzi is a specific fixed way of using and representing the body, the origins of which lie in medieval carnival square culture.

The human body of commedia dell'arte actors on stage and in Callot's engravings is grotesque, as M. Bakhtin called it. It is becoming, it is not completed, it always absorbs and is absorbed by the world, therefore all the protruding parts play an important role in it: the nose, phallus, womb, ass, gaping mouth. Bakhtin wrote that “the main events in the life of the grotesque body, acts of bodily drama - eating, drinking, bowel movements (and other secretions: sweating, blowing the nose, sneezing), copulation, pregnancy, childbirth, growth, old age, illness, death, tearing apart, dismemberment into parts, absorption by another body - occur at the boundaries of the body and the world or at the boundaries of the old and new body; in all these events of the bodily drama, the beginning and end of life are inextricably intertwined.” Lazzi are practically devoid of modesty, they are extremely naturalistic and close to the bodily tradition of the Middle Ages, reflected in Rabelais’ “Gargantua and Pantagruel”.

While the Lovers embodied a new canon of behavior inherent in people from the highest aristocratic society. They are less like masks, their clothes were luxurious costumes with a lot of jewelry, since these heroes belonged to the rich strata of society, spoke the Tuscan dialect, recognized as a literary language, and in their speech often used interspersed poetry of Petrarch and Pietro Bembo. The Lovers were also distinguished by the refined manners inherent in high society.

During the early modern period, traditions associated with the expression of human emotions began to change. Violent lamentation over the death of relatives or lovers was now considered unacceptable; madness lost its sacred meaning associated with the image of a wise “fool”, and turned into a disease requiring isolation. The idea of the body in medicine was changing: the humoral theory was losing its former significance, science began to rely on observation and experiment as the main methods that it applies to the patient. Tears were no longer associated with divine grace, but only with negative emotions, so public crying was condemned. Even laughter began to be divided into that caused by buffoonery - low laughter - and that caused by a successful joke.

All parts of the body, protruding in grotesque images, not only cease to play a leading role, but their very demonstration moves into the zone of immorality and becomes shameful. The stomach, mouth, nose lose their symbolic meaning, this body is closed and complete, it is at rest, static, hyperbolization is alien to it. All bodily acts moved into the sphere of individual psychological and everyday life. And attention was now paid more head, face, eyes. This new bodily canon was created at court with the help of treatises on good manners, for example Giovanni della Casa's Galateo, or on Customs (1558), and Norbert Elias called it “the process of civilizing morals.”

In the 16th century, a new type of society emerged - an aristocratic court society, in which nobles took the place of feudal lords. The high rank of the nobleman and his house imposed rules of behavior defined by a strict hierarchy and etiquette, the importance of which was increasingly increasing. Luxury in this society acquired a socially representative value, and “good taste” was cultivated as a mechanism of differentiation from other classes. It turned out that collecting art objects, as well as patronage of artists and poets, became part of the courtier’s lifestyle. This also includes the conclusion of contracts with commedia dell'arte troupes, the presence of which at court turned into the same symbol of prestige as orders of personal portraits or sculptures from famous masters. By the 18th century, this trend intensified and spread far beyond Italy.

Famous troupes, such as Jelosi, were always associated with the court in one way or another or sought to get there in order to ensure a stable income and a home for a long period. Famous actors, having gained fame and patronage, tried to disassociate themselves from street theater. They no longer performed in front of the city public in squares, but in specially built theaters in front of invited spectators, and also tried to get closer to the literary tradition, especially with learned comedy. An example of this is the release of collections of scripts, the first of which was the collection of Flaminio Scala (1611). In addition to comedies, which made up the majority of the actors’ repertoire, the collections included pastorals and tragedies. Printing scripts became a means of advertising and an attempt to move from body language to literary language.

Initially, the theater of masks combined the outgoing medieval bodily tradition and the emerging rules of behavior in modern society. However, in the end, this duality, reflected in scripts, actions and the actor's body, led to the extinction of the commedia dell'arte in late XVII 1st century, because it was impossible to imagine Italian folk theater without zanni, masks, improvisation or crazy acrobatic lazzi.

RENAISSANCE THEATER - European theater in the historical era of the late Middle Ages (16th–17th centuries). This was the time of the formation of a new social system, the replacement of the feudal social formation with a capitalist one. The Renaissance was marked not only by the formation of a new humanistic worldview, but also by many great discoveries and inventions, as well as a rapid surge in the development of culture and almost all types of art.

The term “Renaissance” or “Renaissance” (French renaissance - rebirth) was introduced into the cultural context by Giorgio Vasari. The term reflected the main trend in the art of that era - orientation towards classical examples of ancient art, which for ten centuries (after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century) was actually banned.

If in the Middle Ages the dominant worldview was determined by the conflict between the spiritual and the carnal, between God and the devil, then in the Renaissance the main doctrine was harmony, freedom, and the comprehensive development of the individual. The medieval ideals of fanatical asceticism are being replaced by humanistic ideals, in the center of which is the image of a person free in his thoughts and feelings, the master of his destiny, radiating the joy of a full-blooded life.

The Renaissance theater in different countries of Western Europe had its own individual characteristics, firmly integrated into the sociocultural aspect of the development of their country and sharply distinguishing it from the Renaissance theater of other countries. The most interesting and significant development of the Renaissance theater was in three countries of Western Europe, and the main lines of development had very little in common with each other.

The principles of Renaissance art - including theater - were laid in Italy. The appeal to the ideals of antiquity in Italian art began almost several centuries earlier than in the rest of Western Europe - first in literature, then in fine arts(13th century - Dante Alighieri; 14th century - Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio; 15th century - Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Santi). For the Italians, the Renaissance was a revival of their own traditions, their own cultural heritage.

However, the history of the Italian theatrical Renaissance is very paradoxical: the Italian Renaissance, with its unsurpassed masterpieces of the visual arts - painting, sculpture - did not produce a single playwright equal in scale to Shakespeare (England), Lope de Vega or Calderon (Spain). The reasons for this paradox have been widely studied in cultural and art history literature. The main ones are considered to be two – largely interrelated.

The first explains this phenomenon from the point of view of the specific features of the theater. At the heart of theatrical performance there is always conflict - the fundamental driving force of a theatrical work, both a play and a performance. However, the concept of conflict itself contradicts the worldview ideals of harmony, which sound powerfully in Italian literature and fine arts.

The second reason is based on the principles of the social functioning of theatrical art. For it to flourish, a certain idea is needed that unites different layers of society, national identity, the so-called. "broad folk background". However, in the 14th–15th centuries. Italians felt more like citizens of individual cities than of the entire country.

And yet here, precisely in Italy, the foundations of a new humanistic theater were laid: comedy, tragedy, pastoral were revived; an opera was created; the first theater buildings were built; the principles of professional stage and public theater were developed, and an impetus was given to the theoretical understanding of dramaturgical canons.

The development of the Renaissance Italian theater mainly followed two lines: the so-called. “scientific comedy” - la commedia erudite (literary tragedy can also be attributed to the same line with some stretch) and folk improvisational theater - Commedia dell'arte, which had a huge influence on the development of the entire world theatrical art.

The Italian “scientific comedy”, which was created by major writers and thinkers of the 15th–16th centuries (Ludovico Ariosto, Niccolò Machiavelli, Pietro Aretino, Giordano Bruno), was predominantly dogmatic rehash of ancient stories and was intended rather for academic interest narrow circle scientists and educators. The same trends are characteristic of Italian Renaissance tragedy (Gian Giorgio Trissino, Giovanni Rucellan, Luigi Alamanca, Torquato Tasso, etc.). By the end of the 16th century. The development of Italian Renaissance comedy and tragedy was almost complete. But by this time, the third genre of Italian drama, the pastoral, had gained strength and gained great popularity.

The brightest page of the Italian Renaissance was then and remains the improvisational street theater of masks - commedia dell'arte, essentially forming the first professional theater in history.

The development of all genres of literary theater of the Italian Renaissance was accompanied by a turning point in world theatrical architecture: the development and practical implementation of special theater buildings of a new type, the “ranked” or “tiered” theater. Based on the principles of theatrical architecture of Vitruvius (1st century BC), the Italian architect-reformer Sebastian Serlio in his book On Architecture (1545) created a general concept of theatrical construction, including the arrangement of the stage and auditorium as a harmonious whole. Innovative principles of theatrical and decorative art are also outlined here, including the creation of picturesque scenery with perspective. Searches for Serlio in the 16th–17th centuries. were continued by the architects Andrea Palladio, Vincenzo Scamozzi, Giovanni Battista Aleotti, Bernardo Buontaletti.

COMEDY DEL ARTE(commedia dell"arte); another name - comedy of masks - is an improvisational street theater of the Italian Renaissance, which arose in the mid-16th century and, in fact, formed the first professional theater in history.

Commedia dell'arte emerged from street festivals and carnivals. Her characters are certain social images in which not individual, but typical traits are cultivated. There were no plays as such in the commedia dell'arte; only a plot scheme, a script, was developed, which during the course of the performance was filled with live replicas that varied depending on the composition of the audience. It was this improvisational method of work that led comedians to professionalism - and, first of all, to the development of an ensemble and increased attention to their partner. In fact, if the actor does not carefully follow the improvisational cues and the line of behavior of the partner, he will not be able to fit into the flexibly changing context of the performance. These performances were the favorite entertainment of the mass, democratic audience. Commedia dell'arte absorbed the experience of farcical theater, but the common characters of the "scientific comedy" were also parodied here. A specific mask was assigned to a specific actor once and for all, but the role - despite the rigid typical framework - varied endlessly and developed during each performance.

The number of masks that appeared in commedia dell'arte is extremely large - more than a hundred. However, most of them were rather variations of several basic masks.

Commedia dell'arte had two main centers - Venice and Naples. In accordance with this, two groups of masks emerged. The Northern (Venetian) consisted of Doctor, Pantalone, Brighella and Harlequin; southern (Neapolitan) - Coviello, Pulcinella, Scaramuccia and Tartaglia. The style of performance of the Venetian and Neapolitan commedia dell'arte was also somewhat different: Venetian masks worked primarily in the genre of satire; the Neapolitans used more tricks, rude buffoon jokes. According to functional groups, masks can be divided into the following categories: old people (satirical images of Pantalone, Doctor, Tartaglia, Captain); servants (comedic zanni characters: Brighella, Harlequin, Coviello, Pulcinella and a fantasy maid - Smeraldina, Francesca, Columbina); lovers (images closest to the heroes literary drama, played only by young actors). Unlike the elderly and servants, the lovers did not wear masks, were luxuriously dressed, had exquisite plastic arts and the Tuscan dialect in which Petrarch wrote his sonnets. It was the actors who played the roles of lovers who were the first to abandon improvisation and begin to write down the texts of their characters.

The authors of the scripts were most often the main actors of the troupe (capo commico). The first printed collection of scripts was published in 1611 by the actor Flaminio Scala, who directed the famous Gelosi troupe. Other most famous troupes are Confidenti and Fedeli.

The Italian commedia dell'arte produced a whole constellation of brilliant actors (many of whom were the first theorists of stage art): Isabella and Francesco Andreini, Giulio Pasquati, Bernardino Lombardi, Marc Antonio Romagnesi, Nicolo Barbieri, Tristano Martinelli, Teresa, Catarina and Domenico Biancolelli, Tiberio Fiorilli and others. From the end of the 16th century. The troupes began to tour widely throughout Europe - in France, Spain, England. Her popularity reached its peak. However, by the middle of the 17th century. Commedia dell'arte began to decline. The tightening of the church's policy towards theater in general, and commedia dell'arte in particular, led to comedians settling in other countries for permanent residence. So, let’s say, in Paris, on the basis of an Italian troupe, the Comedy Italian theater was opened.

Commedia dell'arte had a huge influence on the development of world theatrical art. Its echoes are clearly visible in the dramaturgy of Moliere, Goldoni, Gozzi; in the 20th century – in the works of directors V. Meyerhold,

The number of masks that appeared in commedia dell'arte is extremely large - more than a hundred. However, most of them were rather variations of several basic masks.

Commedia dell'arte had two main centers - Venice and Naples. In accordance with this, two groups of masks emerged. The Northern (Venetian) consisted of Doctor, Pantalone, Brighella and Harlequin; southern (Neapolitan) - Coviello, Pulcinella, Scaramuccia and Tartaglia. The style of performance of the Venetian and Neapolitan commedia dell'arte was also somewhat different: Venetian masks worked primarily in the genre of satire; the Neapolitans used more tricks, rude buffoon jokes. According to functional groups, masks can be divided into the following categories: old people (satirical images of Pantalone, Doctor, Tartaglia, Captain); servants (comedic zanni characters: Brighella, Harlequin, Coviello, Pulcinella and a fantasy maid - Smeraldina, Francesca, Columbina); lovers (images closest to the heroes of literary drama, played only by young actors). Unlike the elderly and servants, the lovers did not wear masks, were luxuriously dressed, had exquisite plastic arts and the Tuscan dialect in which Petrarch wrote his sonnets. It was the actors who played the roles of lovers who were the first to abandon improvisation and begin to write down the texts of their characters.

Commedia del Arte, also known as Italian comedy or comedy of masks, is a comic theatrical performance performed by professional itinerant actors who traveled throughout Italy in the 16th century. The performances took place on temporary stages, mostly on city streets, but sometimes wealthy citizens invited them to perform in their homes. The best troupes gave performances in palaces and even became famous outside of Italy and toured abroad. Music, dancing, witty dialogues and all sorts of tricks that the characters arrange for each other create that unique comic effect. This form subsequently spread throughout Europe, and some elements of it can still be found in modern theater today.

What did he say there?

With touring, everything was not so simple. Given the huge number of Italian dialects, the question arises: how did people in different parts of Italy, not to mention other countries, understand the actors? It is unlikely that for each performance the text of the play was translated into the desired dialect, especially since the comedy of masks is mostly improvisation. Everything is much simpler: so that no one would be offended, even if the troupe performed in its home region, half of the dialogues were impossible to understand. And why? And because, regardless of the region, the Captain spoke Spanish, the Doctor in Bolognese, Pantalone in Venetian, Pulcinella in the Neapolitan dialect, Brighella in the Bergamo dialect, and Harlequin was the easiest of all, he spoke gibberish. In Del Arte's comedy, the action comes first, and not the text at all. Comedy Del Arte is a game of the body, a game of emotions. All movements are deliberate, convex and maximally exaggerated, so that it is impossible to confuse whether the character is happy or afraid, whether he is overwhelmed by passion or overcome by anger.

Props from what you have on hand

Despite the leapfrog with languages, Del Arte's comedy is incredibly convenient for touring. There is no need to transport a huge number of sets and costumes, since the costumes are always the same, and the sets are assembled from what is at hand. All the props were collected from whatever caught the eye: some furniture of local origin, kitchen utensils, fruits, brooms, shovels, even pets. Harlequin carried sticks tied together, which made a lot of noise. From these clapping sounds the word “slapstick” was born, which gave the name to the comedy “slapstick”, also known as a farce comedy.

Back to back

Despite some external anarchy and disorderliness, Del Arte comedy is a very disciplined and organized art, requiring the ability to improvise and feel for your stage partners. The uniqueness of the comedy of masks lies in the fact that the performance does not have clearly defined acts, scenes and words of the characters. The play is built around a schematically sketched script, that is, it is known in advance what it is about. The beauty of such a performance lies in the uniqueness of each performance. At the same time, all the actors had so-called lazzi stored in their bins - pre-rehearsed sets of lines and movements that they could insert into the performance, depending on the reactions of the audience, in order to make the play as interesting as possible for the viewer. However, no two performances were alike, so the same play could be seen over and over again.

The influence of the Commedia Del Arte on European drama can be seen in the French pantomime and the English harlequinade. A theater of Italian comedy was even founded in Paris in 1661. And in the early 18th century, the comedy of masks survived due to its enormous influence on written dramatic forms.

The creators of the folk comedy of masks were the actors themselves, who were especially active in the Venetian region. It was in their work that the protestors and oppositional sentiments of the urban democratic strata, who responded to the strengthening of the feudal-Catholic reaction with sharp satire and art imbued with the cheerful and optimistic spirit of the people, received the most vivid expression.

These sentiments were not reflected in literary drama, which was in a period of deep decline, but, existing among the people, they took possession theatrical stage and defined the very spirit of stage performances.

Realism and satire in this theater were prepared by its connection with folk farce, a permanent cast of characters - masks- was determined by the most popular types of city carnivals, and repertoire arose from alterations of the plots of written comedy in scenarios, filled with live verbal material from actor’s improvisations.

Thus, the lack close to the people literary drama predetermined the main distinctive feature of the commedia dell'arte - improvisation, which was previously characteristic of folk spectacle, but in the commedia dell'arte received a masterful, virtuosic embodiment. Improvisation indicated the creative independence of the actors; deprived of the support of drama, they themselves reworked literary plots for the stage, making the main conflict the struggle between the old way of life and new young forces, bringing to the stage a gallery of modern satirical images and contrasting noble arrogance, bourgeois complacency and scholastic pedantry with the vigor, intelligence and energy of the people .

Mentions of commedia dell'arte have appeared continuously since the mid-50s of the 16th century. We hear more and more often about masks as the most distinctive feature this new theater. Documents tell us that in 1560 a performance with masks took place in Florence; in 1565 the same performance was given in Ferrara on the occasion of the arrival of the Prince of Bavaria, and in 1566 - in Mantua at the court; in 1567 we hear the name Pantalone for the first time. And in 1568, already in a foreign land, in Munich, at the Bavarian court, on the occasion of the wedding of the Crown Prince, Italians living in Bavaria staged an amateur performance - an improvised comedy with masks.

If it was possible for amateurs to stage an improvised comedy somewhere abroad, then, apparently, such comedies in Italy itself have already become commonplace. No wonder Massimo Troiano, the main organizer and participant in the Munich performance, recalled: “No matter how many comedies I watched, I never saw people laughing like that.” This means that you could see comedies quite often at this time. Apparently at least several troupes already existed in Italy professional actors, who gave performances with masks and improvisation.

At the commedia dell'arte performances, an atmosphere of relaxed fun reigned, the audience laughed continuously at the antics and jokes of their favorite servants, at the ridiculous antics and obvious stupidity of the comic old men, at the arrogant boasting and utter lies of the Captain; she enthusiastically followed the changing fate of the young lovers and unanimously applauded all sorts of lazzi tricks and musical numbers, which generously filled the action.

Commedia dell'arte performances were a favorite spectacle of the mass audience. This theater, due to its original nationality, had a certain ideological content: in the performance, the naturalness of feelings and the common sense of the people triumphed over the greed of the rich, over the empty fanfare of “noble persons,” over the inflated philosophizing of false scientists. Thus, as if by itself, a healthy morality penetrated into the cheerful and carefree performances of the commedia dell'arte, that "super task" of the action was determined, which made the performances of the commedia dell'arte not just a pleasant entertainment, but a cheerful and cheerful spectacle, containing a certain ethical and social meaning.

Defining this unique ideological purposefulness of the folk comedy of masks, one of its famous figures, Niccolo Barbieri, nicknamed Beltrame, wrote: “Comedy is pleasant entertainment, but not clownish, instructive, but not indecent, playful, but not arrogant...” Such understanding of the goals of comedy was expressed even more clearly in Beltrame’s formula: “The goal of the actor is to benefit by amusing.”

Benefit in this case should be understood as following a certain social and educational task, which the commedia dell'arte performed excellently at the best time of its development.

The wide popularity of commedia dell'arte was determined precisely by meaningfulness this genre, and not just its original form. Bourgeois criticism constantly suppresses this side of the question. Deliberately emasculating the realistic content of commedia dell'arte, this criticism aestheticized the folk genre, declaring it almost the only example of "pure" art, when the actor, as if having escaped the captivity of drama, acts independently and when the art of acting appears in its "pure", independent form.

Based on such false positions, bourgeois criticism considered the peculiar art of commedia dell'arte actors as a property of their national temperament, their easy, purely southern excitability, while losing sight of the fact that actors from other southern European countries, ethnically close to Italians, for example, Spaniards or The French did not make improvisation the basis of their skill. It follows from this that the Italian improvisational style of acting is not just a property of the national temperament, but the result of certain historical conditions that forced Italian actors to apply this method of creativity in their theater, which for a certain period, from the 16th to the 18th centuries, became a truly nationally specific manner acting.

The realistic nature of commedia dell'arte was most manifested in masks, which, having arisen from the material of social reality, were constantly filled with new life observations and a sharp satirical assessment of life phenomena.

The storyline of the commedia dell'arte was predetermined by the creation scenarios, in which the actors themselves, using the plots of literary works, looked for methods for constructing the most exciting, logically meaningful and holistic action.

And finally improvisation in commedia dell'arte was the method by which actors had the opportunity to independently create not only a performance, but also a kind of dramaturgy, acting simultaneously as performers and authors of their theater.

Commedia dell'arte masks owe their origin mainly to the folk carnival. It was here that comic types began to emerge, which, appearing year after year at street masquerades, expressed folk humor and mockery of the noble and rich. It is impossible to establish the exact appearance of these carnival masks, but the first information that has reached us about them dates back to the 50s of the 16th century. Thus, the French poet Joachim Du Bellay, during his stay in Italy in 1555, glorified Italian carnival masks in funny verses - the popular Zanni (servant mask) and the Venetian Magnifico (an early name for the Pantalone mask). The playwright A.F. Grazzini (Laska) also names these same masks in his “Carnival Songs.”

Gradually, carnival masks absorbed the experience of farcical theater: favorite characters farces, especially the types of the crafty and simple-minded, stupid peasant, seemed to merge with the carnival characters, giving them greater psychological and social certainty. By the time masks moved to the stage, they also experienced the influence of satirical images of “scientific comedy”. But, no matter how different the origins of the commedia dell'arte masks were, their main trends were common: the optimistic tone and satire characteristic of carnival characters were also characteristic of farcical heroes and, to some extent, accusatory types literary comedy; therefore, the synthesis that arose on the stage of the commedia dell'arte turned out to be quite organic.

The concept of "mask" in commedia dell'arte has a double meaning. First, there is a material mask that covers the actor's face. It was usually made of cardboard or oilcloth and completely or partially covered the actor's face. Mostly comic characters wore masks; There were also those among them who were supposed to sprinkle flour on their faces instead of masks or paint their mustaches and beards with charcoal. Sometimes the mask was replaced by a glued nose or huge glasses. The lovers did not wear masks.

The second and more significant meaning of the word "mask" was that it meant a certain social type, endowed with once and for all established psychological traits, unchanged appearance and corresponding dialect. This manifested a desire for realistic typification, in which, although the individual features of the image were excluded, they clearly stood out general properties characters developed by certain social status and profession.

Having chosen a mask, the actor usually did not part with it throughout his entire career. stage life. The peculiarity of the commedia dell'arte was that the actor always performed in the same mask. The plays could change every day, but their characters remained unchanged, just as the performers of these characters remained unchanged. There was absolutely no possibility that the actor

today he played one role, and tomorrow he played another. This stage law lasted throughout the history of the mask theater. So, in the 18th century famous Antonio Sacchi played the mask of Truffaldino's servant until a very old age, and Collalto began playing Pantalone from the very beginning. youth. If the troupe did not have a performer of a mask, this mask was excluded from the script or the actors refused the given plot. So, the actors of the commedia dell'arte played the same role all their lives. But this role varied and developed endlessly in the course of each given performance. The actor’s task was to portray as clearly as possible through improvisation. famous actor character, showing what this character does, what he says in those conditions that are determined by the script and which have just arisen as a result of the partner’s improvisation. Naturally, in such conditions the actors could not create any psychologically in-depth portrayal of the role; the characteristics remained external, but had a pointed exaggeration, openly expressed tendentiousness and vivid theatricality. The main thing was social satire, the strength of which was determined by the sharpness and accuracy of the realistic characteristics of the mask, and the creative initiative of the actor.

The number of masks that appeared on the commedia dell'arte stage is very large: there are more than a hundred of them. But the vast majority of them were only modifications of several basic masks. To get an idea of masks, it is enough to name two quartets of masks: the northern one - Venetian, and the southern one - Neapolitan. The northern quartet consisted of Pantalone, Doctor, Brighella and Harlequin; southern - Coviello, Pulcinella, Scaramuccia and Tartaglia. Both quartets often included the Captain, Servetta (or Fantesca), and the Lovers. In the practice of commedia dell'arte, these masks appeared in all sorts of combinations. The difference between the northern and southern quartet comes down to the fact that the northern masks were characterized by some restraint compared to the buffoonery of the southern masks. In northern scenarios there is greater logic of action; deviations from the main one are not so common storyline, which took place among the southerners, who filled the performance with arbitrary jokes and stunts.

Production of the opera "Andromeda" in Ferrara. 1639

All commedia dell'arte masks can be divided into three groups:

1. Folk comedy masks of servants, defining the optimistic pathos, satirical power of the commedia dell'arte and the dynamics of the action. These masks include the first and second Zanni and Servetta.

2. Satirical accusatory masks of gentlemen, constituting the buffoonish basis of the action. This group includes Pantalone, Doctor, Captain, Tartaglia; In the early days it also contained a Monk's mask, which, due to censorship conditions, quickly disappeared *.

* (In "Carnival Songs" by A. F. Grazzini (1559) there is a mention of the Monk's mask. But during the period of feudal-Catholic reaction, the Inquisition strictly monitored the preservation of the prestige of clergy, and therefore the satirical figure of the monk, which so often appeared in the literary comedy of the first half of the century, very soon disappears from the stage.)

3. Lyrical masks of Lovers, which contained the features of a healthy Renaissance worldview, which was later somewhat weakened by the influence of the pastoral. In the process of development of the commedia dell'arte, a second pair was added to the initially single pair of Lovers.

Scenery by G. Torelli for the opera "Bellerophon" in Venice. 1642

As already mentioned, the commedia dell'arte troupe with the minimum number of masks necessary to construct a complex action was formed first of all in the north, in Venetian territory and in the adjacent Lombard areas. This strictly necessary composition included the Lovers, the development of relations between whom constituted the plot intrigue, the Old Men, whose role was to hinder the actions of the young, and the Zanni, who, in the fight with the old men, were supposed to bring the intrigue to a happy end and put their opponents to shame. In the interests of deepening the satire and complicating the plot, Servetta appeared next to the lady from the pair of Lovers; Following Zanni, an elderly woman, the Matchmaker, came onto the stage; and immediately, defiantly twirling his mustache and waving his long but not dangerous sword, the Captain strode across the stage. Now the cast of characters for the big three-act play was ready.

Zanni is the Bergamo and Venetian pronunciation of the name Giovanni (Ivan). The Russian equivalent of Zanni would simply be "Vanka".

Zanni are most often called "servants", but this name is purely arbitrary. They became servants only over time, but at first they were peasant boys either from the outskirts of Bergamo, in Lombardy, if we were talking about northern masks, or from Cava or Acerra, if the masks were of southern origin. Why did the comedy settle them in these cities?

Peasants from the outskirts of Bergamo could not feed themselves from the land. The area where they lived was mountainous. The earth will give birth to few. Therefore, all village youth had to go to the city to earn money. The small town of Bergamo could not satisfy everyone. Industry at this time was already in decline: Italy was experiencing a time of feudal reaction. The only place where work could be found was in large port cities: in Genoa and especially in Venice. This is where Bergamo peasants strive. There they do the hardest work. They are laborers, loaders at the port, etc. The same picture was in the south. Cava and Acerra sent the surplus population of their surroundings to big cities south, and most of all to Naples, where they beat off earnings from the local Lazzaroni. This competition in the labor market caused urban residents to have an unfriendly attitude towards newcomer peasants. Therefore, peasants have long been the object of urban satire: in short stories, in farces, in comedies. The famous short story writer Matteo Bandello in these words of Bergamo ink: “They are for the most part suspicious, envious, stubborn, ready to start a fight and quarrel on any occasion; they are informers, sneakers and are always full of new ideas... They offend those around them casually and organize all sorts of things over everyone pranks. They are as annoying as flies in autumn, and the owner can never talk to anyone in confidence so that they don’t poke their nose into the conversation.”

In this tendentiously outlined portrait of a Bergamese, genuine features still clearly appear folk character- energy, independence, resourcefulness, complete lack of lackeyness. All this formed the basis of the mask of Zanni, who, while retaining traces of his peasant origin, sufficiently acclimatized in the city and became a spokesman for the interests of the broadest urban masses. Therefore, the stage appearance of the Zanni mask acquired the charm that has always been characteristic of the dexterous, quick-witted and witty heroes of farcical performances and urban short stories. Zanni were endowed with both light and shadow sides of their character, and this made this type realistically quite convincing.

In the north, the most popular were two Zanni masks - Brighella and Harlequin. Characterizing them, Andrea Perrucci, a prominent theorist of commedia dell'arte, wrote: “The two servants are called the first and second Zanni; the first must be cunning, quick, funny and witty: he must be able to intrigue, ridicule, lead people by the nose and deceive people. The role of the second the servant must be stupid, clumsy and thoughtless, so that he does not know where the right side is and where the left side is.”

Brighella is a smart Zanni, cunning, inventive, angry, talkative, stopping at nothing to arrange his affairs and take advantage of everything. He's already done his bit in the city, and there's no fooling him. In all scenarios where Brighella acts, it is he who is the mainspring of intrigue. Harlequin, unlike Brighella, is rustic and naive; he maintains constant cheerfulness, not embarrassed by any of life's difficulties. In the south, the most popular Zanni was Pulcinella. Pulcinella is more sarcastic than the other Zanni; he wore a black half-mask with a large hooked nose and spoke in a nasal voice. A favorite of the Neapolitan audience, Pulcinella expanded his range, appearing either as a servant or as a comic old man. He soon became the hero of special performances called pulcinellata, where he played a wide variety of roles, responding to the topic of the day. Outside Italy, Pulcinella appears to have influenced the creation of the French Polichinelle and the English Ponch.

The female parallel of Zanni is Servetta, or Fantesca, a servant who goes by various names: Columbina, Smeraldina, Franceschina, Coralline, etc.

Zanni's costume was first styled as peasant clothing. It consisted of a long blouse, held up by a sash, long trousers, simple shoes and a headdress, also very simple. All this was made of rough linen. The differences were that Brighella had yellow braids sewn onto her blouse, hinting at a footman's livery. Harlequin wore a cap with a hare's tail, a symbol of his cowardly nature, and multi-colored patches on his blouse and trousers, which were supposed to show the public that he was very poor and was not able to even get himself whole clothes. Pulcinella had a pointed cap and, like Harlequin, a wooden sword called a batocchio. Subsequently, Harlequin in France changed his character - he became an elegant and malicious intriguer. Then his colorful rags turned into geometrically regular multi-colored triangles and diamonds that covered tights that tightly hugged his figure. Servette, like Harlequin, was originally wearing peasant clothes in patches, which later turned into an elegant soubrette suit: a colorful blouse with a short colorful skirt.

The constant victims of the tricks of Zanni and Servetta were Pantalone, the Doctor and the Captain.

Pantalone is a Venetian merchant, rich, full of arrogance and conceit, who loves to pursue young girls, but is stingy, sick and unlucky. He is wearing a red jacket, red narrow trousers, a red cap, a black cloak, and a mask with a gray goatee. Pantalone constantly tries to portray himself as a significant person, but always gets into trouble, since his only advantage over others - a thick purse - does not in any way replace the complete lack of personal merits of this stupid, lustful and self-willed old man.

Pantalone's mask is permeated with the spirit of anti-bourgeois, folk satire, which becomes especially evil and apt at a time when the Italian bourgeoisie finds itself in a state of complete decline. The Merchant of Venice became the target of satire in the second half of the 16th century; this would not have happened in the previous four centuries. In those days, the Venetian merchant was a heroic figure in the eyes of his contemporaries. With his galleys, he conquered the Levant, converted proud crusaders into his mercenaries, established connections with Muslims, made his way to the Black and Azov Seas, and found a way deep into Asia. He was full of life and fighting spirit. He was young and brave. In the middle of the 15th century, for historical reasons known to us, the decline of Italy began. The wealth began to diminish. The former ardor has faded. Courage, scope, broad initiative, self-confidence were gone. The Venetian merchant grew old. Old, still rich, but already deprived of former sources of continuous enrichment and therefore stingy, the merchant of the second half of the 16th century fell into the clutches of satire. As if in mockery of his former greatness, he was called Magnifico ("magnificent") and immortalized as a comic figure.

The second popular satirical figure of the commedia dell'arte was the Doctor, a Bolognese lawyer, professor at the ancient university there. He flaunts Latin tirades, but misinterprets them mercilessly. His speech is structured according to all the rules of rhetoric; he literally pours out commonplace aphorisms, devoid of the most basic meaning. At the same time, the Doctor is always filled with the deepest reverence for his own person. The academic importance of this person is emphasized by his strict attire. The black scientist's robe is the main accessory of the Doctor's costume. Under the robe he is wearing a black jacket, black short trousers, black stockings, black shoes with black bows, and on his head is a black hat with huge brims raised on both sides. This black symphony of suit is slightly enlivened by a white collar, white cuffs and a white scarf tucked into the waistband. The Doctor's mask most often covers only the forehead and nose. She is also black. The cheeks not covered by the mask are exaggeratedly brightly rouged - an indication that the Doctor is often heated by wine.

The Doctor's mask was a satire on deathly, scholastic thinking. This mask in its development has undergone the same evolution as the Pantalone mask.

The past of the Bolognese professors was quite respectable. Bologna has been the center of learning in Italy since the 12th century. Its university was the oldest in Europe. Its lawyers have created a great reputation for themselves. Their authority, their reputation, awareness of the social necessity of their activities made it so that lawyers, right up to the 15th century, stood very highly in the opinion of society. In Florence, since the 13th century, the seven “senior” city corporations were headed by a guild of lawyers. Later, when the social importance of the role of lawyers began to be felt less, when humanists entered into a victorious struggle with them, doctors of law often became the subject of ridicule in the short story and in the “learned comedy.” The Doctor has also become a fairly popular mask in commedia dell'arte. In a word, the Bolognese lawyer, like the Venetian merchant, turned from a respectable figure into a comic figure. The flow of life overtook him. He was mediocrely and helplessly marking time. In science, in which he once created and was a master, he became a craftsman. Social satire could not miss such a grateful object, and the comedy of masks used it in its own way.

But the Doctor’s mask ridiculed not only the outdated type of scientist, its actual meaning was that during the years of feudal-Catholic reaction, dead, scholastic thinking became clearly predominant. Humanistic thought, which had once triumphed over medieval scholasticism, now found itself shackled by the ferocious dogmatism of reactionary ideologists. The comic figure of the Doctor acquires a truly gloomy flavor, especially if we remember that in the years when the pompous chatter of this certified fool was heard, a whole host of reactionary pseudo-scientists, scholastics and metaphysicians fiercely persecuted the great Galileo and, with the help of the Holy Inquisition, raised the immortal Giordano Bruno to the stake.

The Captain's mask had a sharp social meaning. Languishing under the heel of the Spanish intervention, the Italian people in the mask of the Captain created a bright and evil satire on the enslavers of most of the country. The evolution of this mask is curious: initially the figure of the “boastful warrior,” found in folk farces and public “sacred performances,” personified the popular protest against the local military. The warrior was not yet a captain, but a simple soldier, Italian by origin, but by the time the commedia dell'arte was formed, this mask acquired its main features. The famous researcher of commedia dell'arte, actor and playwright Luigi Riccoboni, wrote: “The ancient Italian Captain was followed by the Spanish Captain, dressed according to his national fashion. The Spanish Captain little by little destroyed the ancient Italian Captain. Since the campaign of Charles V in Italy, this character has penetrated the "our stage. The innovation was approved; the Italian Captain was forced to fall silent, and the Spanish Captain remained victorious on the battlefield. The main thing in his character was bragging, but it all ended with Harlequin's stick blows raining down on him."

The captain embodied the typical traits of Spanish conquerors: an immoderate thirst for “world domination”, an arrogant idea of the chosenness of his nation, an extreme exaltation of his military and personal merits and at the same time - cowardice and empty boasting. The creation of the Captain's mask under the conditions of the Spanish intervention was a very bold and risky undertaking. Therefore, the actors of the commedia dell'arte had to exercise a certain caution in some cases. So, speaking in Naples, the center of Spanish rule; they either turned the Captain into an Italian, or softened the sharpness of the caricature. Pointing out the need for such precautions, Perrucci wrote: “When he (the Captain) is portrayed as a Spaniard, decorum must be observed, because this nation, comprehensively ambitious, does not tolerate ridicule.”

The Captain's mask could indeed cause indignation among the arrogant conquerors. It was not without reason that the governor of Milan in 1582 expelled comedians from the city and the entire region under pain of rods and galleys.

The captain appeared on the scene with a terrifying cry: “Blood and fire! I am me!” He screamed that Italy trembles before the name of Captain Terror from the Valley of Hell (Spavento della Balle Inferna), that he frightens all of France, that, born on the banks of the Guadalquivir, he strikes entire armies with his sword, that with his withering gaze he destroys fortress walls and with one a breath sweeps away the Alps and Pyrenees from the face of the earth. He declared himself the owner of everything globe. He doesn't go a day without slaying a Moor, destroying a heretic, or seducing a princess. He is served three dishes for dinner: the first - from the meat of Jews, the second - from the meat of Turks and the third - from the meat of Lutherans.

He especially loved to talk about his valiant victories over the Gentiles. Once, during the siege of Trebizond, he personally entered the Sultan's tent and, grabbing him by the beard, dragged him to his camp, defeating the entire enemy army with his free hand. When he entered the city, his cuirass bristled with such a great multitude of arrows that he was mistaken for a porcupine. It is from this day on that his shield bears a coat of arms in the form of a porcupine. All these boasts of the Captain were completely real meaning: they were a caricatured exaggeration of the true “valor” of the reactionary Spanish military, an exaggerated depiction of the actual policies of the feudal Catholic monarchy.

Overwhelmed by delusions of grandeur, the Captain introduced himself to the public as follows: “I am Captain Terror of Hell Valley, nicknamed the Devil, Prince of the Cavalry Order, Thermigist, that is, the greatest bully, the greatest mutilator, the greatest murderer, the tamer and master of the universe, the son of earthquake and lightning, the relative of death and bosom friend of the great hellish devil."

These terrifying cries of the “tamer and ruler of the universe,” with all their fantastic form, take on a real meaning if we remember that they were uttered during the reign of Philip II, who declared himself ruler of the entire colonial world, seizing the lands of Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, frightening France and England and ended his reign with the complete political and economic collapse of Spain.

This flip side of Spanish “greatness” was expressed in caricatured, but real, and not fictitious, character traits of the Captain.

The captain was a pathetic coward, a liar and a poor man. After a lot of tirades about the fabulous wealth he owned, it turned out that he wasn’t even wearing an undershirt. After fantasy stories about his countless victories, it was discovered that the Captain’s sword did not even have a blade and that he not only endured the blows of Harlequin, but ran headlong even from the old man Pantalone, who threatened him. True, as he runs away, he shouts that he is going to prepare a grave for his enemy, or he explains his shameful retreat by saying that he is going to Mars himself for permission to kill his enemy.

For all his fanfare, the Captain played the most pathetic role on stage and suffered all sorts of humiliations. Perrucci spoke of him as a character at whom ladies, servants and maids constantly laugh. Folk satire was especially merciless in this case. The realistic nature of the Captain's mask was emphasized by his outer attire. It did not have a standard theatrical costume like other masks. The captain had to dress in a grotesquely emphasized modern military suit. Most often, the Captain dressed in black, wore a huge wide-brimmed hat and a long sword soldered to the scabbard so that it could not be drawn.

Satirical characters also included Tartaglia - a Neapolitan mask depicting a notary, judge, policeman or some other person in authority. Tartaglia wore huge glasses for importance and stuttered; These stutters constantly gave rise to involuntary puns of an obscene nature, for which Tartaglia was generously rewarded with blows with a stick.

The lyrical line of the commedia dell'arte performance was presented by the Lovers. Unlike servants and satirical characters, they did not wear masks. While in the literary comedy of the second half of the 16th century the image of the Renaissance hero completely disappeared, commedia dell'arte was the only genre where healthy natural morality, devoid of class and property prejudices, was preserved in the images of young lovers. The young men, in pursuit of their beloved, constantly entered into battle with rich and noble, but stupid, old and stingy opponents and, with the help of nosy servants, defeated them. The triumph of the Lovers and their servants was a victory of sincere, ardent feelings and enterprise. The lovers were endowed with poetry, grace of manners, and external attractiveness. They wore modern fashionable suits; women shone with jewelry, in other cases genuine. They spoke a literary language, knew a lot of poetry, often played various instruments and sang. The Lovers' lyrical dialogues were usually exaggeratedly sublime, and the monologues were in the spirit of Petrarch's sonnets. The Lovers' speech was somewhat rhetorically pompous, and this to some extent brought the lyrical line of the commedia dell'arte closer to the lyricism of the pastoral. But it should be noted that such stylization was especially clear during the years of the genre’s decline. In the initial period, the masks of the Lovers were endowed with simplicity of feelings and comedic lightness of dialogue. Despite some idealization, the Lovers, like all other masks, were perceived as characters embodying living features of reality.

The connection between masks and life serves as proof that commedia dell'arte, in its best times, strived for a realistic reflection of reality. This tendency towards realism is reflected not only in the social and psychological appearance of the masks, but also in their speech. Each mask spoke a corresponding dialect (adverb).

Until now, theater historians have regarded dialect only as a playful detail, while its role is much more significant.

Dialects in Italy are still the main means of communication between people. The Italians themselves believe that nine-tenths of the population speaks dialects in private life, as a rule, of course, also knowing the literary language. In the 16th century, dialects retained full vitality, they sounded everywhere - in conversation, in writing, in the public performances of buffoons at the carnival - and, naturally, moved into the commedia dell'arte. The mask spoke the dialect of the places from which it originated.

All sorts of jokes, peculiar sayings, sayings, riddles, fables, songs sounded on stage all the time and gave the action the features of a folk performance. In the first period of development of commedia dell'arte, the dialect connected it with folk art and made it related to the people. Of course, dialectal features were characteristic only of comic masks. Pantalone spoke Venetian, Zanni spoke Bergamo, the Doctor spoke Bolognese, and the Captain spoke Neapolitan. The lovers spoke the literary language (Tuscan dialect).

Another distinctive feature of commedia dell'arte is the absence of written drama, which was replaced by a script. According to Perrucci's definition, a script is “nothing more than a sketch of a number of scenes on a specific topic, and the action is briefly indicated, that is, what the improvising performer should say and do, divided into acts and scenes.”

Deprived of literary merits and not at all setting themselves the task of creating psychological images, commedia dell'arte scripts nevertheless have a very significant significance for the development of not only Italian, but also the entire Western European theatrical art. The main historical merit of script writers is that they were the first to establish the laws of stage performance. Defining the attractive power of commedia dell'arte, N. Barbieri pointed out that “a well-constructed plot is a true delight for sharp mind... The pleasure delivered by such plays lies in the attractiveness of well-explained accidents, in which, even in the absence of funny witticisms, one can find the unity of the plot and the cohesion of scenes shown in their strict necessity."

The establishment of the effective line of the performance as the most important condition for stage performance was an indisputable merit of the commedia dell'arte, when the theater itself, striving for maximum expressiveness, built the plot so that it would be the most impressive in terms of stage performance.

Italian comedians, having mastered the experience of literary comedy and through it the achievements of ancient comedy, established a brightly effective, plot-capturing performance on the national stage. True, the plots of the commedia dell'arte were often of the same type and thematically lacking in content, but still the process of fertilization of the farcical folk theater literary drama.

Its scripts remain the material monuments of the two-century journey of the commedia dell'arte. Not all of them have been discovered, and very few of them have been published. A huge number of scripts are available in handwritten form in the collections of large Italian libraries. The first printed collection of scripts was published in 1611 by the actor Flaminio Scala, who was the director of the best of the then commedia dell'arte troupes - "Gelosi". In handwritten form there were collections by Locatelli (1618 - 1622), Gherardi (1694), and a collection by Count Casamarchano (1700). It is interesting to note a collection of comedies and sideshows presented at Anna Ioannovna’s court during the Italians’ tour in Russia, published by Academician V. N. Peretz in 1916. Many individual scripts are printed in different time by various researchers*. In total, the number of scenarios known to us reaches approximately a thousand.

* (In Russian translation, a number of scripts are published in the "Anthology on the History of Western European Theater" ed. S. S. Mokulsky, vol. 1, ed. 2, “Art”, M, 1953, and in the book by A.K. Dzhivelegov “Italian Folk Comedy”, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M., 1954.)

The source of the plots for the scripts was originally “scientific comedy”. Later, as actors began to tour in different countries, they began to use European dramaturgy; Spanish comedy, rich in plots, was especially popular among them. Thus, many stories from world drama came to the stage through commedia dell'arte scripts. However, there was also a reverse connection. So, after the Italians used the comedy of the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina “The Mischief of Seville” for the script, this script served as the plot basis for Moliere’s comedy “Don Juan”. In addition to the plots of written comedies, script writers generously used the plots of short stories and even poetic works, for example, "Roland the Furious" by Ariosto.

Commedia dell'arte scripts were mostly comedic, but occasionally there were also tragedies, pastorals and extravaganzas. Thus, in the collection of Flaminio Scala there were forty comedies, one tragedy and one pastoral. The text of the script was usually preceded by a list of characters and a list of necessary props. In addition, a brief summary of the events of the play could be given. Before each act, and there were always three of them in the script, an indication of the place and time of the action was given.

Continuously adding new material to their roles, the actors of the commedia dell'arte could only use the method of improvisation, only such acting techniques in which they retained complete creative independence.

Improvisation as a method has, of course, been practiced before; it lay at the basis of every initially developing theater of the folklore era. Improvisation was not limited to ancient atellans and mimes; it was found among histrions and even in the mysteries in the roles of devils. But nowhere, except for the commedia dell'arte, was improvisation the very essence, the basis of theatrical performance.

The reason for the emergence of improvisation was due to the fact that in Italy dramaturgy could not create a professional theater; This theater was created by the Commedia dell'Arte. She had to build a performance, replacing the play with a script, based not on dramaturgy, but on the art of acting, the basis of which was precisely the method of improvisation. Another reason for the transition to improvisation was the desire to free ourselves from censorship, which was extremely strict during the feudal-Catholic reaction. After all, an improvisational performance could not be subjected to preliminary censorship, since the play did not have a written text.

Improvisation has become an excellent school of professional excellence. The improvisation method required a huge activation of everyone creative possibilities actor. The commedia dell'arte actor, in addition to closely studying the life around him, had to tirelessly replenish his stock of literary knowledge. In theatrical treatises of that time, containing instructions to actors, one can often find an indication that the actor should draw more and more new material for his roles from books. And if the actors of comic masks fed their wit by reading all kinds of collections of jokes and facets, then the actors who played the roles of lovers were required to be well versed in poetry. Characterizing the work of improvisational actors, N. Barbieri wrote: “There is no good book that they have not read, there is no good thought that they have not used, no description that they have not imitated, no maxim that they have not took advantage because they read a lot and steal books." But, introducing pieces from poetic works into their role, the actors were able to incorporate them so skillfully that they created the complete impression of a living word coming from their own soul. The method of improvisation not only required excellent knowledge of literary texts, but also predetermined the development of the actor’s own poetic talent. Emphasizing this aspect of the matter, the famous commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini wrote: “How much effort nature must have used to give the world an Italian actor. She can create a French one with her eyes closed, resorting to the same material from which parrots are made, who can only speak what they are forced to chime out by heart. How much superior to them is the Italian, who improvises everything himself and who, in contrast to the French, can be compared to a nightingale, composing its trills according to the momentary whim of the “attitude.” In this somewhat naive self-praise, it is important to note the presence of creative activity, conscious of themselves Italian actors.

This same creative activity accompanied the actor during his direct presence on stage. Without such a state, the very act of improvisation would be impossible. But the improvisation that drives the action of the performance as a whole required, in the words of A. Perrucci, “the coordination of different persons”; isolated and independent improvisation by a single actor would immediately destroy the line of action and even the very logic of the plot. Therefore for correct management In improvisational dialogue, the actor needed to carefully monitor the improvisations of his partner, looking for incentives for the further development of his own improvisations in his immediately emerging remarks. In this way, one of the most important laws of stage creativity was defined - the inextricability of the connection with a partner, or, using a modern term, the principle of communication in the art of acting, as a result of which the ensemble was created.

But improvisation in commedia dell'arte existed not only in the form of creating a verbal text. This method also determined the directly effective, pantomimic line of the performance, which was expressed in all kinds of buffoonery.

The buffoonish elements were initially concentrated in two moments of the performance: at the end of the first act and at the end of the second. These are the so-called "lazzi". The word "lazzo" is spoiled latto - action, and "lazzi" - plural the same word. Lazzo means a buffoon trick, unrelated to the plot and performed most often by one or two Zanni. There are long lists of lazzi - lazzo with a fly, lazzo with a flea, etc., unfortunately, not always accompanied by the necessary explanations. Therefore, the meaning of some lazzi is lost to us.

Buffoonery was one of the elements of the stage technique of the commedia dell'arte, but during the heyday of the theater it never filled the entire performance. The buffoonery was allocated at different times as much space as was required to reveal the main objective of the performance; it should not have disrupted the sequence of development of the intrigue. The closer to the end of the 17th century, the more buffoonery began to turn into an end in itself.

The commedia dell'arte performance featured a synthesis of music, dance, and words. The harmonious fusion of these arts was not always possible to achieve to the end, but this is what the theater strived for.

The basis of the performance was the art of the actor. Everything else was subordinated to this. Hence the simplicity in design. The set did not change (the unity of place was maintained in the script): two houses on the sides of the stage, a backdrop with several spans, backstage - that’s the whole setting. The action always took place on the street in front of houses or on balconies and loggias. And if the troupe was poorer, then the decoration reached the very minimum; all the theatrical belongings were placed on one van, the actors traveled from city to city, from village to village and showed performances on hastily erected stages.

The tasks that the commedia dell'arte set for itself required a lot from its actor. He had to have virtuoso technique, resourcefulness, and an obedient imagination.

In the performances of the commedia dell'arte, the collective nature of acting was revealed, the creative activity of stage artists was developed, their acute sensation partners, creating a mask image. All this happened positive thing in the development of commedia dell'arte, its great historical service to Western European performing arts.

It was the Italian theater that produced the first outstanding masters of stage art and created the first theater troupes. The most famous of these groups of actors were the troupes of "Gelosi" (1568), led by Zan Ganassa (Alberto Naselli), "Confidenti" (1574), led in the later years of its existence by Flaminio Scala, "Fedeli" (1601), led by a representative of the second generation of the Andreini acting family - Giovanni Battista Andreini.

These troupes brought together the best Italian actors, creators of popular commedia dell'arte masks, incomparable masters of improvisation and buffoonery. These wonderful actors became famous for their art not only in their native Italy, but also in almost all countries of Western Europe. The name of Isabella Andreini (1562 - 1604), the creator of the graceful image of the lyrical heroine, was widely known. She performed not only in commedia dell'arte, but also in pastoral, and was involved in

poetry. Her husband Francesco Andreini (1548 - 1624) was one of the first to consolidate the style of buffoonery in the Commedia dell'Arte theater, finally completing the characterization of the satirical mask of the Captain. He published a collection of dialogues between the Captain and his servant (Venice, 1607).

The creators of the masks of Pantalone and the Doctor were Giulio Pasquati and Bernardino Lombardi, who was replaced at the end of the 17th century by Marc Antonio Romagnesi. Particularly popular were the actors who created the masks of servants - Zanni. The most famous of them was Niccolò Barbieri, who played under the name Beltrame (died after 1640). N. Barbieri, passionately in love with the theater of masks, defended the civil rights of actors and, trying to give improvisation greater meaning and logic, composed plays that were a unique form of literary recording of actor’s improvisations. The best of them was the comedy “The Foolish, or the Torments of Mezzetino and the Interferences of Scapino” (1629), used by Moliere when composing his first comedy “Madcap”.

The mask of the Harlequin servant gained all-European fame in the work of Tristano Martinelli. In later years, the famous Domenico Biancolelli (1618 - 1688) gave this image a virtuoso finish, merging the features of the first and second Zanni. The name of Biancolelli, who performed mainly in the Parisian theater of the Italian Comedy, is associated with the beginning of the aestheticization of this mask and its Frenchization.

Among the performers of the Maid mask, it is necessary to name the creator of the image of Columbina, Teresa Biancolelli, Silvia Roncagli, and especially the daughter of Domenico Biancolelli, Catarina Biancolelli, who was distinguished by her bright, infectious temperament.

Tiberio Fiorilli (1608 - 1696), creator of the Scaramucci mask - a new version of the Captain's mask, which turned into a social braggart - was also a richly gifted actor. In this image, more than in others, the features of realism were felt. Fiorilli, like all performers of the role of the Captain, performed without a mask, covering his face with grotesque makeup, which did not prevent him from demonstrating brilliant facial expressions.

But with all the great talent of individual performers, with the most brilliant composition of troupes, the theater of commedia dell'arte had fundamental shortcomings that it was unable to get rid of. This was explained by the fact that commedia dell'arte could never provide an in-depth individual characterization of the character. The mask was almost inevitably associated with a cliche, improvisation was almost inevitably accompanied by pressure and strumming.

Playwright looking for characteristic features image in the analysis of its inner being. This is not the case with an improvisational actor. His characteristic is external. Psychological analysis is almost absent, and the depth of human experiences is inaccessible to him.

At the best time of its development - in the second half of the 16th and in the first decades of the 17th century - commedia dell'arte was full vitality. Gathering a wide public audience around her stage, she not only amused people, but also expressed their hatred of social evil. Emphasizing this public role Commedia dell'arte, N. Barbieri reproached those who do not understand these serious tasks facing the people's theater. In a book with the characteristic title “A Request addressed to those who speak orally or in writing about actors, neglecting the merits of their valiant actions” (1634), Barbieri sets out his view of the tasks of the theater as follows: “The spectator, watching the performance, sees his own shortcomings, which are exposed and ridiculed in the course of the action. Comedy is a chronicle accessible to the people, a pictorial narrative, an episode presented with vital clarity. But how can you write or show a chronicle without telling the truth? If someone were talking about the person in question , only good things, it would be a word of praise, not life, not a reflection of morals."

In a word, the main tendency of the theater is the vitality of images and plots, that is, a realistic reflection of reality. In this commedia dell'arte continued the general trend characteristic of the art of the Renaissance. But with the strengthening of the feudal-Catholic reaction in this theater, humanistic ideology, satire and realism began to disappear.

The decline in the development of commedia dell'arte began approximately in the middle XVII century. Continuous tours abroad stole from Italy best actors, forced to flee from ferocious censorship and tempted by high fees. Separation from native social soil, from native life had a negative impact on the art of theater. The environment that gave him life disappeared, folklore, folk features theater, masks lost their satirical orientation and everyday coloring and took on a more abstract appearance, the action was filled with plotless comedy, the theater lost national foundations, in the art of acting the emphasis began to be placed on external, purely formal aspects. Commedia dell'arte began to show signs of aristocratization.

This process of rebirth of the folk theater took place especially intensively during the long tours of the commedia dell'arte in France, where, performing at court, it could not help but submit to the aesthetic norms of aristocratic taste.

Buffoonery now began to dominate the stage. Acrobatics, dancing, and singing began to occupy a proportionately more significant place. The actors no longer possessed, as before, inexhaustible reserves of invention and resourcefulness. Now almost every actor has notebooks(jibaldone), into which they introduced monologues and individual pieces of dialogue, easily memorized. The performances of the last period were full not only of buffoonery and acrobatics, they began to cultivate dubious situations, obscene dances and pantomime.

The very manner of improvisational playing also lost its historically progressive meaning. Against the background of the great achievements of Renaissance drama at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries, the method of non-literary theater became clearly conservative. The actors, who performed in masks and spoke the text at their own discretion, of course, could not convey either big ideas or complex psychological characters.

In the 18th century, the reform of Goldoni, who established a realistic comedy of characters in his dramaturgy, inheriting the best features of commedia dell'arte, dealt a final blow to the genre itself, because by that time commedia dell'arte had turned into a theater of outdated forms, preventing further development national theatrical art.

Italian comedians took their art to the Alps very early on. Already in 1571, Zan Ganassa, together with several comrades, performed at the French court. This was under Charles IX. Henry III invited the Gelosi troupe to Paris, which included Francesco Andreini, Isabella Andreini and Simone da Bologna, who played the second Zanni. Tristano Martinelli - Harlequin entertained the court of Henry IV for a long time. Throughout the 17th century, the tours of Italian comedians in France did not stop. Italy gave Paris a number of excellent actors, from whom not only French actors studied, but also French playwrights, led by Molière himself. The creator of "Tartuffe" took stage art lessons from the famous Tiberio Fiorilli - Scaramucci. No less popular in France in the 17th century was Domenico Biancolelli - Harlequin, a favorite of the Parisian public, and a number of other actors.

In addition to France, Italian comedians toured in Spain, where the same Ganassa was a pioneer, in England, where Drusiano Martinelli, Tristano’s elder brother, worked, and in Germany, where after the Thirty Years’ War, which almost destroyed national theater, the same Italian comedians helped restore it. They were also in Russia (1733, 1734 and 1735).

The democratic and realistic traditions of commedia dell'arte made themselves felt in the French boulevard theaters of the 18th century, they influenced the formation of Favard's comic opera, stimulated the development of folk theater in Austria, inspiring Joseph Stranitsky to create a typical image of the Salzburg peasant, they lived in the art of the remarkable French boulevard actor XIX century Debureau and in many other manifestations of the comedy-buffoon creativity of actors from different countries and different generations.

In their homeland, the realistic traditions of commedia dell'arte were preserved not only in the development of the branch of dialectal drama and theater, but also in their immediate form. Impromptu performances with traditional masks can still be found in Italy today as one of the varieties of small forms of folk theater. New satire fills old masks, Harlequin, beloved by the people, perfects new witticisms, and they hit the target so accurately that the Vatican to this day excommunicates the performers of the role of Harlequin.

The secret of the inexhaustible vitality of the commedia dell'arte lies in its nationality. It was created by the Italian people after they also heralded the beginning of dramaturgy, stage design, theater building architecture, and drama theory. Not in everything theatrical creativity Italians of the Renaissance were equally fruitful. The Italian theater did not create masterpieces of tragic and comedic drama, but it was it that taught actors to take the first independent step in the field of acting and established stage creativity as a special kind of art.