Five Grotesque Characters
WITH
Orazio Vecchi – Daspuò che stabilao (1597)
THE IMAGE
Leonardo stressed that beauty gained power from its juxtaposition with ugliness. His sketchbooks are richly peopled by grotesque characters, often in profile and sometimes coupling men who have bizarre features with comparably ugly women. He noted unpleasantly that there was no woman so ugly that she would not meet her male match. He made notes about where to see individuals with remarkable features and carried small sketchbooks with him to capture striking examples. Behind the extreme characterizations lay the ancient and mediaeval science of physiognomics, that claimed to determine the inner character of each person from their facial features.
Leonardo’s grotesques were for some centuries amongst his most popular drawings, and were reproduced quite early. They corresponded to a major tradition of bawdy literature in which characters who behaved with pomposity, stupidity, mendacity and sexual licence were crudely mocked.
In the famous drawing of five characters, a shop-soiled if dignified king of fools, crowned with a wreath of oak, is noisily mocked by men whose faces bear witness to their malice. It seems likely that he is being subjected to a mock wedding with a pug-faced crone in a related drawing.
MARTIN KEMP
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THE MUSIC
This scene from Vecchi’s madrigal comedy L’Amfiparnaso is a caricature of greed (literal and financial), stupidity and incompetence, at the same time creating a beautifully constructed musical sketch. The three characters (from what was later called the commedia dell’arte) are the old miser Pantalone, his servant Francatrippa and later the confused, but nonetheless verbose, Dr Graziano. [Spoken introduction by Timothy Knapman]
ROBERT HOLLINGWORTH
Five Grotesque Characters
Leonardo da Vinci
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TEXT / TRANSLATION
Pan: Daspuo ch’ò stabilio sto parentao
E parte de la Diote
Su’l Banco de Grifon depositao
Voio mò far nozze,
Sù Francatrippa invida i mie parenti.
Fran: Sagnur si sagnur nò.
Ma i me paret de mi?
Pan: Che parenti hastu ti?
Fran: Fè cont du compagnet
Paret de stret de stret.
Pan: Chi xè costor di mò?
Fran: Mesir à vel dirò.
O’l Gandai, e’l Padella
Zan Piatel, e Gradella.
Zan Bucal, e Bertol.
Burati, e Zanuol.
Relichin, e Simù.
O’l Zampetta, con Zanù.
E Frignocola, e Zambù.
Il Fritada, e Pedrolin
Con dodes Fradelin.
Pan: Moia moia moia
Do compagnet’an?
Fran: Eh si caro Patrù.
Pan: Tasi là pezzo de Can
Fran: O mesir l’è i lò u’l Duttur
Che suna u’l Zambaiù?
Pan: Chi xè sto Zambaiù?
Fran: Sentif? sentif? Oldif?
Trencu trencu tren
Pan: Bon zorno caro Zenero
Deh caro e’l mio Dottor fem’un piaser
Gra: O com’o com’o com,
Msier si msier si msier si.
Pan: Cantè sù un pochetin
Un madregaletin.
Gra: A dirò al me favorid
Pan: Sù Francatrippa
Va in casa e dì à mia Fia
Che se fazza al balcon
Che sol per lei se vive in allegria.
Pan: Now that I’ve settled this family business,
and have put part of the dowry
in the Bank of the Griffin,
I want to prepare the wedding feast.
Up, Francatrippa, go and invite my relatives!
Fra: Yes boss, no boss,
but what about my family?
Pan: What family have you got?
Fra: Count on two groups
that are this close.
Pan: Tell me who they are?
Fra: I’ll tell you, boss:
the Crumb and the Pan,
Jack Dish and Griddle,
Jack Goblet and Fool,
Mr Punch and little Zanni,
Harlequin and Simey,
or Chicken Leg with Zannini,
and Dumpling and Ham-bone,
the Omelette, and Pedrolino
with his twelve little brothers.
Pan: Drop dead, drop dead, drop dead!
Just two groups, eh?
Fra: Er… yes, chief.
Pan: Keep quiet, dogsbody!
Fra: Sir, there’s the Doctor,
plucking his bagpipe!
Pan: What kind of an egg pudding is that?
Fra: D’you hear it?
[Whine, twang.]
Pan: Good day, dear son-in-law.
Pray, my dear Doctor, let’s divert ourselves.
Gra: O how, O how, O how,
Yessir, yessir, yessir!
Pan: Sing us a little song,
a little madrigal.
Gra: I’ll sing it to my betrothed.
Pan: Hurry, Francatrippa,
go inside and tell my daughter
to appear on the balcony,
because we’re celebrating for her.
I FAGIOLINI
Clare Wilkinson - mezzo-soprano
Eleanor Minney - mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Mulroy - tenor
Robert Hollingworth - baritone
Charles Gibbs - bass
