So either this seems a mistake on Jullienne’s part, or the picture is not by Watteau, but is worked up from sketches and descriptions by Gillot or some other person who was an eyewitness of the incident; for it is quite obvious that Watteau cannot have seen what took place in Paris before he arrived there, and when he was only thirteen years old, as he would have been in 1697.
Let us turn aside for a while from this minor problem and consider who, exactly, were these Italian comedians. From the sixteenth century, in 1570 as a fact, when Catherine de Medici invited a company of Italian players to Paris, there had been several troupes arriving from time to time, under Court patronage. One of the earliest of importance came in 1576, and were known as Gli Gelosi, Les Jaloux, that is, according to one authority, folk jealous of pleasing; though they may also have been so called from the fact that they achieved their success first in a comedy of that name, Gli Gelosi, or Les Jaloux.
Nearer the dates which are our concern was Fiorelli’s troupe, which in 1660 was properly established at the Palais Royal, where they played alternately with Molière’s company, and received the title of “Comédiens du Roi de la troupe Italienne.”
In 1684 it was established by order of the Dauphin that the troupe should always be composed of twelve members, four women and eight men, made up as follows: two women for “serious rôles,” two for comic, two men for lovers, two for comic parts, two “pour conduire l’intrigue,” and two to play fathers and old men generally. These kept the traditional names respectively of: Isabelle, Eularia; Columbine, Marinette; Octave, Cinthio; Scaramouche, Arlequin; Mezzetin, Pascariel; Pantalon, and the Doctor.
In 1697, however, the Italian comedians, who by now had begun to develop, from the Commedia dell’ Arte, or purely improvised dumb show play of an earlier period into a more or less written “literary” comedy, had the audacity to produce under the title of “La Fausse Prude,” a play, the title of which seemed to suggest foundation on a novel (published in Holland) which had attacked the King’s mistress, Madame de Maintenon. For this they were banished, and were not recalled to Royal favour until 1716.
Hence the problem of deciding Watteau’s connection with the painting of an incident that occurred in 1697, five years before he can have reached Paris; and also of “placing” the rest of his avowedly theatrical pictures, when apparently the Italian comedians were not to be seen, or if seen, not until 1716; thus giving Watteau only five years before his death in 1721 to account for the fairly extensive collection of works dealing expressly with these stage types.
Speaking of the period shortly after Watteau arrived in Paris, one critic has declared (though it in no way lessens the value of his decisions concerning Watteau’s art): “Indeed, during these early years Watteau could have had no opportunity of studying the Italian comedy, otherwise than through the works of his new preceptor and friend”: this “preceptor and friend” being, of course, Gillot, by whose enthusiasm for the stage Antoine’s own was unquestionably awakened.
The same writer goes on to say: “It can hardly be doubted that from him—and not, as legend has it, from the stage itself—Watteau obtained his first peep into the strange realms of the Commedia dell’ Arte.”
But the plain fact is that there was every opportunity, despite this earlier banishment of the Royal troupe of Italian comedians, for Watteau to have obtained not only his first peep into the realms of the Commedia dell’ Arte and to have been influenced throughout his Paris life, especially by Ballet.