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J2PIE "PIERROT"
A tear-drop down his snow-white cheek and a sweet, sad look in his romantic lovesick eyes: this is the most recent version of Pierrot, a well-known and much-loved mask in Italy and France. Pierrot is of ancient origins and he has undergone a number of changes over the centuries: he was born in the mid-XVIth century as a character called Pedrolino, Pierro or Piero, a “zani”, i.e. a servant who, unlike the others in the Commedia dell’Arte, is young, handsome, and good-tempered, sincere and trustworthy to the point that the master gives him the task of unveiling the cheats and jokes that other characters play against the young Lover. By the late XVIth century, Pedrolino (also called Piero) has arrived in Paris and conquered the French public, and it is at this point that he comes to be called Pierrot. Subsequently, Pierrot goes through a period of decline and loses his positive characteristics: his original naiveté turns into gullibility, and he also acquires laziness and gluttony as his worst defects. Not until the early XIXth century does Pierrot win back his fascination and originality, thanks to the distinctive interpretation of Duburau, an extraordinary French mime of the small but prestigious Théâtre des Funambules (“Funambulists’ theatre”) in Paris; with the mimic of his body, the expressions of his face and his genial capacity to improvise, Duburau-Pierrot managed to “make people laugh and cry without speaking a single word” (Pierre-Louis Duchartes). Pierrot’s typical costume today is an ample white chemise with large trousers and a black skullcap on his head, which enhances his complexion, snow-white because flour-powdered. Pierrot is typically melancholic and unlike the other masks, who love romping and playing jokes, he likes to keep to himself and to dream of impossible loves while playing his mandola.
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