TIEPOLO, Giovanni Domenico
(b. 1727, Venezia, d. 1804, Venezia)

Pulcinella in Love

1797
Detached fresco
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

This fresco was in the Pulcinella Room of the family villa at Zianigo.

Pulcinella is a classical character that originated in the commedia dell'arte of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. A plausible theory derives his name from the diminutive of Italian pulcino ('chick'), on account a long beaklike nose.

In the scenes with Pulcinella, he is a symbol of that part of humanity that still retains a primordial, spontaneous will to survive in the face of a society in rapid dissolution.




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