This figure belongs to the series of large Commedia dell'Arte figures modeled by Simon Feilner in 1753-1754, and Feilner used Johann Jacob Wolrab's engaving Pantalon, published in Nuremberg in 1722, as inspiration for the figure.
Meredith Chilton describes Pantalone's character as 'an elderly, suspicious, and miserly Venetian merchant, a husband or father who would be cuckolded, embezzled, or duped during the course of the play'.1 Pantalone's costume remained unchanged from the early days of the Commedia dell'Arte; his black sleeved robe or vesta was 'an official gown worn by gentlemen and citizens of Venice, but not by the common people'. The wide sleeves, or dogale were 'part of the official dress worn by the nine procuratori in Venice and by ambassadors, but they were often usurped by others'.2
A similar figure of Panalone as an older man, also formerly in the Otto Blohm Collection, is illustrated by R. Schmidt, ibid., 1953, pl. 52, no. 173, and by H. Morley-Fletcher, Early European Porcelain and Faience, as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger, London, 1993, Vol. I, p. 129.
1. M. Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture Singapore, 2001, p. 33.
2. M. Chilton, ibid., 2001, p. 52.