CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK

Reinicke's Work Reports for March 1744 note '1 Pandelon in Thon reparirt' (1 clay Pandelon repaired), see Meredith Chilton, 'The Duke of Weissenfels Series' in Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte Fest der Komödianten, Stuttgart, 2001, p.18. As Kändler also mentions Pantalone in March 1744 and then again in May, it may be that he started work on this figure and then handed it over to Reinicke before correcting it again.

This model is loosly based on the 1728 engraving 'Habit de Pentalon Ancien', by François Joullain after Jacques Callot. For a similar example in The Gardiner Museum, Toronto (G83.1.0932), see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 198, ill. 315 (and cat. no. 105) and p. 198, ill. 316 for the related engraving.

Pantalone, an elderly Venetian merchant, was portrayed as vain and avaricious in commedia performances. His role was either that of the jealous cuckold or that of the greedy father who wished to marry off his daughter for financial gain. He was invariably ridiculed or duped by servants and family alike, and although his role developed in the early 18th century into that of an honourable but strict father, he was still portrayed as easily fooled.