A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF TARTAGLIA FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES

Tartaglia, a gentle zanni or servant character, is modelled standing still with his hands dropped to the side of his body, a pose commonly associated with Pierrot; it is also a pose which indicates that the character has just finished a soliloquy, as his hands are lowered and fingers extended at rest.

Reinicke's work book records in September 1744: '1 dergl., Tartaglio, in Thon bouhsirt' (1 ditto Tartaglio, modelled in clay), see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, no. 959 for another example and where he also notes that this figure is known as Pedrolino in the factory lists. For the example in The Gardiner Museum, Toronto (inv. no. G83.1.0925), see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 312, no. 112.

The source for this figure is an engraving 'Habit de Tartaglia' by François Joullain in Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1728.