Harlequin

• Porcelain head clown doll
• height: 45 cm
• weight : 360 grammes

Commedia dell’arte: The most well-known character  of the commedia first appears at the end of the 16th century. There is an etymology referring to mythical creatures and specters relating to his name, but no one is sure of its origin. Harlequin’s early costume is kind of jumpsuit with patches and mending with a distinctive diamond or triangle pattern. Later, he is simply depicted in shirts and pants. Interestingly, he always wears his belt on his hips and not on his waist. His character traditionally requires a skilful actor to entertaine, but be able to do stunts as well. Depending on the scene, his wit is adaptable, even unpredictable, sometimes brilliant, sometimes vacuous, covered with irresistible charm to serve his purposes. Harlequin wears a dark brown or black mask, sometimes with a beard or a moustache. Early Harlequins often decorated their hats with a totem, but from the 18th century they typically wore bicorne or tricorne headwear. His prop is a wooden sword or a simple stick, or a walking stick in later adaptations. Funny and lovable, but Harlequin is a real trouble-maker. It would be difficult to enumerate all the artistic effects that can he be associated with, perhaps three are enough: Pablo Picasso’s ‘Harlequin with Glass’ is the 38th most expensive painting in the world today, but he has been also illustrated on canvas by Cezanne as well, whose ‘The Card Players’ explicitly ranks first on the same list. Nowadays, Harlequin is revitalizing in modern pop culture as the Joker, with unbroken popularity over and over again.