The early commedia dell'arte (1550-1621): the mannerist context

Abstract

outdoor performances, while immensely popular, drew the invectives o f the Counter-Reformation, which attempted to curtail such often obscene and "diabolical" presentations.While theatre historians have provided considerable information on the development o f the commedia delVarte, to my knowledge only one scholar to date has attempted to link it with the prevailing post-Renaissance style o f Mannerism. 1 Mannerism, as a historical and stylistic term, has been useful to both general historians and those in the visual arts, literature, and in music.It is utilized to describe both the late sixteenth-century period o f socio-econom ic unrest and crisis which is causally linked to changes in the arts, and as a stylistic term that distinguishes Mannerist characteristics from those o f Classicism.Traits o f Mannerism vs. Renaissance Classicism include exaggeration vs. restraint, distortion and non-adherence to natural or scientific laws vs. fidelity to nature and utilization o f scientific principles, ornamentation vs. formal clarity, non-unity o f parts vs. unity as ideal, fantasy vs. reality, twisted imbalanced poses vs. balanced, graceful, and harmonious figures.A complete vocabulary o f Mannerist terms is included at the beginning o f Chapter IX .Mannerist painters such as Pontormo, Rosso, and Parmigianino discarded objective reliance upon nature and rules in favor o f a subjective vision, or the inner design (disegno interno).Mannerist poets abandoned Renaissance codes o f metric symmetry to create poetic love 'conceits', that were marked by ambiguity, hyperbole, and a variety o f figures o f speech.These poems, were often set to music, which used chromaticism and 1 Eva-Marie Weidermann, "Komik und Commedia dell' Arte," D iss.

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