Tristano Martinelli

Detail from Portrait of an Actor by Domenico Fetti (c. 1621-1622, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg), identified as Tristano Martinelli or Francesco Andreini

Tristano Martinelli (c. 1555 – 1630), called Dominus Arlecchinorum, the "Master of Harlequins", was an Italian actor in the commedia dell'arte tradition. He is probably the first actor to use the name 'Harlequin' for the secondo zanni role.[1]

Biography

Martinelli was active in France in 1584 to 1585, where he presumably first acted in his Arlequin role. For the carnival of 1584, he picked a name taken from French folklore, the devil Herlequin, for his performance to a Parisian audience. His character wore a linen costume of colourful patches, and a hare-tail on his cap to indicate cowardice, a black leather half-mask, a moustache and a pointed beard. He chose the name Harlequin (Arlequin) after the name of the popular French devil character it resembled.

Martinelli became attached to the Mantuan court of Duke Ferdinando I Gonzaga, with a regular stipend, about 1596–97. Within a few years he was overseeing all the professional acting troupes in the Gonzaga territories.[2]

He was the most famous harlequin of his generation, pressed to divide his time between Mantua and the court of France. He played with a troupe called the Accesi for Henri IV in 1601, then returned to Mantua. Marie de' Medici urged him to return to Paris in 1611; after some careful advance publicity he arrived in Paris and played for the court from August 1613 to July 1614. Louis XIII was willing to hold the child at the christening of one of Martinelli's children in 1614.[3]

Martinelli returned in the autumn of 1620 to play for the court of Louis XIII and remained until the following spring;[4] when the King decided to leave Paris to rejoin his troops in the field, the comédiens italiens elected to stay, though Martinelli caused consternation by electing to retire to Mantua. In 1623 he was in Venice, reciting with the troupe called the Fedeli.[5]

Martinelli commissioned numerous dramatic portraits of himself, three of which he sent to France when wishing to return to that country in 1626.[6] One may have been Portrait of an Actor by Domenico Fetti, since Cardinal Mazarin had the painting in his collection.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Jarro (G. Picceni), L'epistolario dell'Arlecchino (Florence) 1896:12, noted by Askew 1978:64 note 32; M.K. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy 1934:vol. I:79.
  2. ↑ The decree is translated in Winifred Smith, The Commedia dell'Arte (New York, 1912:63. (Askew 1978:64 note 33).
  3. ↑ Askew 1978, p. 64.
  4. ↑ Askew 1978 provides dates from A. Baschet, Les comédiens italiens à la cour de France... (Paris 1882).
  5. ↑ (Franca Angelini) Enciclopedio dello spettacolo, s.v. Tristano Martinelli".
  6. ↑ Askew 1978, p. 64.
  7. ↑ Inventoried as "Harlequin, sur toile, par Fety" in 1653 (see Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, Inventaire de tous les meubles du Cardinal Mazarin. Dressé en 1653..., Paris, 1861, p. 347). An inventory of 1661 gives it the title Harlequin, comédien. The association of the name Martinelli with the portrait was first documented in 1912, when a copy in pastel, attributed to Fragonard (1732–1806), was sold in Paris (Askew 1978, p. 64).


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