Alessandro Scalzi (died c. 1596, in Munich) was an Italian painter. All his surviving works are now in Bavaria.
Known as 'il Paduano' (the Paduan) despite actually being born in Florence, he was a relative (possibly brother-in-law) of Friedrich Sustris, with whom he collaborated on several works in Augsburg, Munich, Kirchheim and especially the Burg Trausnitz in Landshut. The Burg contains his most notable works, the 1578 Narrentreppe or Ladder of Fools, a staircase with life-size commedia dell'arte frescoes by Scalzi and Sustris along the stairwell and its ceiling and grotesque masks of Pantalone and Zanni by Antonio Ponzano. The work is based on an actual Italian theatre troupe which performed at the wedding feast of William V of Bavaria and Renata of Lorraine.
His other works include two panels of St Peter and St Paul for an altarpiece at the parish church in Landsberg am Lech. He collaborated with Christoph Schwartz on martyrdoms of Saint Andrew and Saint Ursula for the Michelkirche in Munich. Scalzi also collaborated with Pieter de Witte on The Penitent Magdalene destroyed in 1945 during the Second World War.
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Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes. Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade, which he claimed in his memoirs the "Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him.
Pantalone[pantaˈloːne], spelled Pantaloon in English, is one of the most important principal characters found in commedia dell'arte. With his exceptional greed and status at the top of the social order, Pantalone is "money" in the commedia world. His full name, including family name, is Pantalon de' Bisognosi, Italian for "Pantalone of the Needy".
Il Dottore, commonly known in Italian as Dottor Balan or simply Balanzone is a commedia dell'arte stock character, in one scenario being an obstacle to young lovers. Il Dottore and Pantalone are the comic foil of each other, Pantalone being the decadent wealthy merchant, and Il Dottore being the decadent erudite. He has been part of the main canon of characters since the mid-16th century.
Carlo, Count Gozzi was an Italian (Venetian) playwright and champion of Commedia dell'arte.
Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli was an Italian film director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana. He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and was awarded the Golden Lion for his career.
Grammelot is an imitation of language used in satirical theatre, an ad hoc gibberish that uses prosody along with macaronic and onomatopoeic elements to convey emotional and other meaning, and used in association with mime and mimicry. The satirical use of such a format may date back to the 16th century commedia dell'arte; the group of cognate terms appears to belong to the 20th century.
The Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Harlequins in history. His earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1789 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian commedia dell'arte.
Jan Miel was a Flemish painter and engraver who was active in Italy. He initially formed part of the circle of Dutch and Flemish genre painters in Rome who are referred to as the 'Bamboccianti' and were known for their scenes depicting the lower classes in Rome. He later developed away from the Bamboccianti style and painted history subjects in a classicising style.
Le Médecin volant is a French play by Molière, The date of its actual premiere is unknown, but its Paris premiere took place on 18 April 1659. Parts of the play were later reproduced in L'Amour médecin, and Le Médecin malgré lui. It is composed of 15 scenes and has seven characters largely based on stock commedia dell'arte roles.
"Madamina, il catalogo è questo" is a bass catalogue aria from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, and is one of Mozart's most famous and popular arias.
Giacinto Andrea Cicognini (1606–1651) was an Italian playwright and librettist, the son of poet and playwright Jacopo Cicognini.
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as commedia alla maschera, commedia improvviso, and commedia dell'arte all'improvviso. Characterized by masked "types", commedia was responsible for the rise of actresses such as Isabella Andreini and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A commedia, such as The Tooth Puller, is both scripted and improvised. Characters' entrances and exits are scripted. A special characteristic of commedia is the lazzo, a joke or "something foolish or witty", usually well known to the performers and to some extent a scripted routine. Another characteristic of commedia is pantomime, which is mostly used by the character Arlecchino, now better known as Harlequin.
Carlo Maria Maggi was an Italian scholar, writer and poet. Despite being an Accademia della Crusca affiliate, he gained his fame as an author of "dialectal" works in Milanese language, for which he is considered the father of Milanese literature. Maggi's work was a major inspiration source for later Milanese scholars such as Carlo Porta and Giuseppe Parini.
Flaminio Scala, commonly known by his stage name, Flavio, was an Italian stage actor of Commedia dell'Arte, scenario writer, playwright, director, producer, manager, agent, and editor. Considered one of the most important figures in Renaissance theatre, Scala is remembered today as the author of the first published collection of commedia scenarios, Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative, short comic plays that served as inspiration to playwrights such as Lope de Vega, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Molière.
Andrea Calmo was an Italian actor and author (dramatist) of Commedia dell'Arte. He was one of the pioneers of this type of masked theater, as created for the 16th century Venetian audience. Calmo departed from typical theater norms of the time, focusing less on the text and objectivity, and more on the whole performance as a piece of art in and of itself. Many of his ideas and communications were preserved in the 154 letters that he wrote to a variety of correspondents, from real government officials to possibly made-up women.
Dolores Puthod is an Italian painter.
Commedia dell'arte began in the 16th century. When it began, it was performed outside in piazzas, theatres, and public meeting halls and courts.
Antonio Ponzano, Ponzoni or Bonzone was an Italian Mannerist painter active in the 16th century.
Madonna and Child with St Peter and St Paul is a c.1515 painting by Perugino or his studio, held in the Collegiata dei santi San Pietro e Paolo in Monteleone d'Orvieto. It shows the Madonna and Child between St Peter and Paul of Tarsus, with a semi-circular cimasium showing the Resurrection.
The theatre of Italy originates from the Middle Ages, with its background dating back to the times of the ancient Greek colonies of Magna Graecia, in Southern Italy, the theatre of the Italic peoples and the theatre of ancient Rome. It can therefore be assumed that there were two main lines of which the ancient Italian theatre developed in the Middle Ages. The first, consisting of the dramatization of Catholic liturgies and of which more documentation is retained, and the second, formed by pagan forms of spectacle such as the staging for city festivals, the court preparations of the jesters and the songs of the troubadours.
