pietro longhi and carlo goldoni relations between painting and theater

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Pietro Longhi and Carlo Goldoni: Relations between Painting and Theater Author(s): Philip L. Sohm Source: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 45. Bd., H. 3 (1982), pp. 256-273Published by: Deutscher Kunstverlag GmbH Munchen BerlinStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1482159Accessed: 15-08-2015 05:56 UTC

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Philip L. Sohm

Pietro Longhi and Carlo Goldoni: relations between painting and theater

Pietro Longhi (1702 - 1785) made his debut as a young painter with a series of spectacular failures, the most notable being the Fall of the Giants (Ve- nice, Palazzo Sagredo; dated 1734). He left Venice soon thereafter, possibly to avoid embarrassment or perhaps to improve his art, but in either case his natural facility as a history painter had proved so scant that he turned to genre painting, under the inspiration and guidance of Giuseppe Maria Crespi. As Mariette concluded: 4I1 squt se rendre justice et juger qu'il ne r6ussiroit pas de meme a traiter I'histoire dans le grand genre. Ii se borna a celui-ci (des sujets de conversation, de fetes et de mascarades) et il fut

gouit.<<'. Longhi adopted a

simple format commensurate with his abilities - a shallow, windowless stage rarely with more than nine figures in restrained poses - and maintained it with no variation throughout a forty-five year career. His Venetian collectors, mostly patri- cians2, never tired of this compositional monoto- ny because they were more interested in the subjects than the style. Alessandro Longhi wrote that his father wished to amuse by painting >>Conver- sazioni, Riduzzioni, con ischerzi d'amori e di gelosie<3. The painter himself assured Giovanni Battista Remondini, his Udinese publisher, that his work >>sara gustoso e dara piacere<4. Given these indications of intent, it is curious

that the precise content of Longhi's subject matter has never been analyzed5. Historians of costume, interior decoration and social customs often cite his paintings as documentary evidence6. Some historians of art consider him an interior viewpaint-

er, the Canaletto of Settecento daily life7. Longhi's blandly descriptive style is partially responsible, since it is sufficiently precise in record-

1 Pierre Jean Mariette, Abecedario, ed. Ph. de Chen- nevieres and A. de Montaiglon, Paris, 1854-56, III, 221.

2 Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters, N. Y., 1963, 323; Terisio Pignatti, Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1968, 20-22. Neither mentions a unique notice establishing the original location of his paintings in a patri- cian's palace. An inventorK of 1753 notes that an un- specified number of Longhi's works hung in >,le Ca- mere delle Donne<< in the Casino of Marina Sagredo Pisani (Biblioteca Correr, Cod. P. D., C 2750 bis/ 12).

3 Alessandro Longhi, Compendio delle Vite de'Pittori Veneziani, Venice, 1762, n. p.

4 >La diligenza vi sono ma non vi sono il grandioso masime nelle arie delle teste come sono nel quadro che qui il sig. Faldoni come intagliatore valente potrai aggiustare e conservar belle arie nelle teste e sempre un gran lume nella figura di meso. Questo primo

asunto non e di gran caso riservandomi al secondo che sara gustoso e dart piacere.<< Bassano, Museo Ci- vico, ep. Remondini XIII-25-3543, 7 Dec. 1748; Al- do Rav'i, Pietro Longhi, Florence, 1923, 27-28.

s For a complete bibliography and an anthology of the more important contributions up to 1968, see Pi- gnatti, Longhi, 13-18 and 70-80. Michael Levey summarizes the question of iconographic studies in Longhi scholarship in a review of Pignatti's mono- graph (in Art Bulletin, LII, 1970, 463): >On the question of the subject-matter of the paintings he (Pignatti) has not a great deal to say. Indee , he seems as baffled as most commentators have been as to what exactly is happening in some scenes... (Lon- ghi's) subject-matter, however, requires closer scru- tiny than it has so far received.<< Six years later Char- les McCorquodale (?Italian painting of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries,<< Connoisseur, CXCIII, 1976, 211) could make the same statement with equal accuracy: >>Longhi's iconography re- mains to be carefully studied. << Two interesting contributions should be noted. The history of the rhinoceros portrayed by Longhi is discussed by T. H. Clarke, >The Iconography of the Rhinoceros,<< Connoisseur, 1974, 113-122. In a brief discussion on Longhi, Ronald Paulson (Emblem and Expression, Cambridge, Mass., 1975, 108-112) applied a simple technique - an attentive visual examination of details - to arrive at some important conclusions concerning the erotic content of Longhi's work. Paulson's ap- proach is important only because it is new to Longhi studies. Its utility, however, is severely limited because it relies exclusively on internal, visible evidence without reference to any information from cultural or social spheres. For example, Paulson's ob- servation that the geography tutor is more interested in his pupil's bosom than the terrestrial globe (in The Geography Lesson, Venice, Querini Stampalia Gall.) is based on a visual pun: two different types of curva- ture form the ostensible and real objects of study. This pun has its analogy in the linguistic identifica- tion of a woman's breasts and globes. Gian Battista Casti (1724-1803): >Le sporgean dal sen duri, ampi e tondi i due globi che parean due mappamondi<< (in Opere, Turin, 1849, I, 292).

6 Pompeo Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata, II Decadimento, Bergamo, 1929, III, 170-172 and 391-394; G. Morazzoni, La moda a Venezia nel secolo XVIII, Milan, 1931; R. Levi-Pi- setzky, >>La couleur dans l'habillement italien, << Actes du Jer Congres International d'histoire du costume, Venice, 1955; Rosita Levi Pisetzky, Storia del costume in Italia, Milan, 1964, IV; Guy Dumas, La fin de la Republique de Venise, Paris, 1964, p. 80; Charles Diehl, La Rcpublique de Venise, Paris,

256



1. Pietro Longhi, The Love Potion. Venice, Ca' Rezzonico

257



ing the appearance of clothing and furniture to have convinced these historians of their reality. Yet even if each scene, considered individually, were an accurate representation of contemporary life - a supposition that will be critically examined later - this in itself would not mean that Longhi approached his material with the neutrality of a reporter. In fact he did exercise editorial control in the selection of subject matter. Missing from his world is the ceremonial Republic of the Regatto, the Sposalizio and other mass entertainments that had been recorded by Guardi, Canaletto, Carle- varis and others. Instead he captures Venice as a pleasure city, the site for hopeful seductions, re- laxing stimulations at coffee houses or the pro- mising uncertainty of gambling (fig. 1). In this respect he conforms to the popular image held by foreign tourists of an amoral city, seductive yet debauched8. The courtesans under the arcade of the Procuratie, the Ridotto and a prolonged Car- neval with its intrigue of masks simultaneously captivated their natural curiosity and aroused an acquired moral indignation. Even such a sympathetic defender of Italian customs as Giuseppe Ba- retti had to admit that >>the Venetians are indeed more addicted to sensuality than more northern nations, and love cards rather too passionately<<9. Most historians of art recognize Longhi as a so-

cial commentator, not pictorial reporter, yet their discussions of subject matter have been either descriptive or impressionistic, detached from any analysis of individual works. Such analytic criteria as the symbolic content of fashions and the semantic basis of Longhi's humor have not even been mentioned'o. This scholarly neglect is partially justified by the fact that Longhi's subjects often defy definition. He usually painted genre scenes of inconsequential action, characterised so

subtly (weakly, some may say) that any intended meaning is muted beyond recognition. Truly Longhi's ineffectual world, mired in ambiguity, reflects his times. Its content is so topical that once the ephemeral attitudes embodied in taste and fashion had passed, the points of reference in his works were obscured. The theater of Carlo Goldoni (1707 - 1793), the

Moliere of Venice, can help to restore the social and cultural contexts of Longhi's work. Ever since his first mature comedies were produced by the Medebac company in 1748, Goldoni analyzed Venetian social customs with the precision so ob- viously missing in Longhi. In his repertory of flatterers, gossips, liars, pan-

derers, swindlers, misers and imposters, the Ve- netians recognized themselves, sometimes with such acuity that slander was imputed, but usually with the growing appreciation for themselves that led to Goldoni's and Longhi's popularity. Histo- rians have often remarked upon a generic similari- ty between the subjects chosen by the two artists, a comparison initiated by Goldoni himself during the 1750s. Goldoni evoked Longhi for inspiration with the words: >tu che la mia musa sorella chiami...<< Yet, despite this explicit statement, it has been generally assumed that Longhi was inspired by Goldoni and translated the playwright into his own idiom and artistic medium"1. This premise seems reasonable when artists like Callot, Gillot and Watteau are recalled, yet it ignores the historical fact that Longhi had fully developed his comic vocabulary at least six years before Goldoni re- stored Venetian theater in 174812. I propose to shift the perspecitve from Longhi and his intent to Goldoni as a contemporary admirer of Longhi. Longhi will be evaluated as Goldoni might have understood him.

1967, 257-258; Maurice Andrieux, Venise au temps de Casanova, Paris, 1969, 252-253; Maurice Row- don, The fall of Venice, London, 1970, 56-57; Gui- do Perocco and Antonio Salvadori, Civilta di Vene- zia, Venice, 1973, III, 1091-1092; Hermann Schrei- ber, Das Schiff aus Stein; Venedig und die Venezia- ner, Munich, 1979, 280.

7 G. Damerini, I pittori veneziani del '700, Bologna, 1928, 80; John Maxon and Joseph Rishel (eds.), Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century: Rococo to Romanticism, Chicago, Art Institute, 1970, 76: ?Longhi is completely without editorial comment. He recognizes social situations for their pictorial va- lue and records them as situations; he seems to say, >This is the way it is,< and leaves it at that. <; Michael

Levey, Painting in XVIII Century Venice, London, 1959, 114: >(Longhi's) mind had shown neither desi- re nor ability to express anything other than what it registered as seen< (his emphasis). Here Levey was probably expressing his dissatisfaction at scholars' inflated praise of Longhi's artistic merit, rather than just a belief in Longhi's total objectivity.

8 For a general discussion and complete bibliography, see Ludwig Schudt, Italienreisen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Vienna-Munich, 1959; C. del Balzo, L'Italia nella Letteratura Francese, Turin, 1907, 444f. Two typical comments: John George Keysler, Travels through Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and Lorrain, London, 1765, IV, 11: )Young persons, who seek for entertainment on-

258



Goldoni loved paintings by Longhi and his fol- lower Andrea Past6 because they illustrated a world sympathetic to his own. In 1756 he described Longhi as a >singolarissimo imitatore della natura, che, ritrovata una originale maniera di esprimere in tela i caratteri e le passioni degli

uomini<13. Six years earlier he invoked Longhi as his >comic muse<< for a love story he intended, al- beit in pretense, to write memorializing the marriage of Giovanni Grimani and Catterina Con- tarini:

Longhi, tu che la mia musa sorella chiami del tuo pennel che cerca il vero ecco per la tua man, pel mio pensiero argomento sublime, idea novella. Ritrar tu puoi vergine illustre e bella di dolce viso e portamento altero; pinger puoi di Giovanni il ciglio arciero che ii dardo scocca alla gentil donzella14

In his praise for Longhi, Goldoni drew upon a conceptual vocabulary that he had first applied to his own art. He formulated his dramatic theory into complete and coherent form in 1750 when he wrote the preface for the first collection of his comedies: >I1 primo (the >book of the world<<) mi mostra tanti e poi tanti vari caratteri di persone,

ly in debauchery and exorbitant licentiousness, may here indeed, if not satiate their desires, at least tire themselves.<< Selected Letters between the Late Du- chess of Somerset, Lady Luxborough, Miss Dolman, ...London, 1778, II, 238, letter to Mr. Hull, 25 Dec. 1765: AIn short, if a woman has any Mind to be wicked, Venice seems to be the last Place in the World to give her better

Sentiments.,o 9 Baretti, An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy, London 1768, II, 144.

10 For the semantic basis, see note 5 and p. 256 below. The symbolism of fashion is difficult to analyze, although sources do exist, such as the popular hair- dressing manual by Le Gros, Enciclopedia di petti- narsi (Venice, 1769) which labels the different wig styles with such character attributes as >a l'Incon- stance, a la Jalousie, a la Prudence, " le Ravir. < When Gozzi saw a portrait of an innkeeper by Alessandro Longhi, he commented that he was dressed >con gentilezza, perche imita una natura gentile.<< (Gaz- zetta veneta, n. LV, 13 Aug. 1760) In Goldoni's La Locandiera, an impoverished nobleman carries about a sheathed sword broken at the hilt. This symbolic castration illustrates a favorite satiric theme for Goldoni, the impotence of noble protection. By the mid-18th century swords were not worn as a part of one's personal apparel yet he maintained an out- moded fashion just as he continued the pretense of noble protection. Similarly the boors Canciano and Lunardo in I Rusteghi parade their obstinate refusal to adopt new fashions by wearing clothes years out of date; see L. Rosato, I1 linguagio dei >Rusteghi< e il veneziano >civile< del Goldoni,<< Atti dell' Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, CXIX, 1960-61, 299-354. A boor in an inelegant pose and with a spit- toon at his feet may be represented by Longhi in his so-called Family Group (London, National Gal- lery).

11 Ernesto Masi, Sulla storia del teatro italiano nel secolo XVIII, Florence, 1891, 239ff (still the most important contribution); Philippe Monnier, Venise au XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, 1907, 180: describes Longhi as >l'illustration vivante du theatre de Goldoni<<; A. Ravi, Longhi, 10 and 23; Fritz Schillmann, Venedig. Geschichte und Kultur, Leipzig-Vienna, 1933, 602; Giuseppe de Logu, Pittura Veneziana dal XIV al XVIII secolo, Bergamo, 1958, 153; Eduard Hiittin- ger, Venezianische Malerei, Ziirich, 1959, 71: describes Longhi's work as >die malerische Sichtbar- machung der Welt von Goldonis<<; Rodolfo Palluc- chini, La Pittura Veneziana del Settecento, Venice- Rome, 1960,179 and 187; A. Chastel, >II Settecento Veneziano nelle Arti,<< La Civilta Veneziana del Set- tecento, Florence, 1960, 225: on Longhi Si tratta di una specie di Molibre della pittura, o piutosto, come si e spesso notato, di una equivalenza pittorica del Goldoni, plu incisivo e ironico<<; Terislo Pignatti, Pittura in Europa: il Settecento, Milan, 1969, 157-158; Pignatti, Longhi, 86; Andrieux, Venise,

252: >son oeuvre semble une illustration vivantes des comedies de Goldoni<<; Perocco and Salvadori, Ci- vilta di Venezia, III, 1092-1093, 1096. The only scholar to have systematically applied any form of comparative analysis to individual paintings and plays by Longhi and Goldoni was Roberto Longhi (in Teatro e Immagini del Settecento Italiano, Turin, 1954, 70-82). Many problems exist with his interpretations. For example, he identifies Longhi's Faint (Washington, National Gallery of Art) as a scene from Goldoni's La finta ammalata, with Ro- saura, whose condition is described by the title, sur- rounded by her friend Beatrice, her suitor Lelio, a young doctor and her father Pantalone (from left to right). His reading of the episode is most peculiar. The doctor is said to be reviving Rosaura, yet he ac- tually seems to be protecting her from Pantalone. And why would she need protection from her own loving father? In fact, can this even be Pantalone? He does not show his characteristic beard and pot-belly; rather he is represented as a procurator, an office that the merchant Pantalone could never attain. Finally, The Faint, which is convincingly dated to about 1742 (see Pignatti, Longhi, 116), precedes the first perfor- mance of Lafinta ammalata by nine years.

12 The Concert (Venice, Accademia) and the Gentle- man's Awakening (Windsor, Royal Collection) are dated 1741 and 1742 respectively. For the chronolo- gy of Goldoni's reform, see G. Ortolani, >Appunti per la storia della riforma goldoniana,<< La Riforma del Teatro nel Settecento, Venice-Rome, 1962, 41-64. Haskell (Patrons and Painters, 323) has ques- tioned whether Goldoni could have ever influenced Longhi, and in fact suggests that >>it may well have been the painter who inspired the poet. << Norbert Jo- nard (La vita a Venezia nel XVIII secolo, Milan, 1967, 251-253) briefly discussed the differences between Longhi and Goldoni, noting that the former depicted ecclesiastics but the latter never did.

13 From the dedicatory letter to Marco Pitteri, prefa- cing II Frappatore; Goldoni, Tutte le Opere, ed. G. Ortolani, Milan, 1936, II, 92.

259



me li dipinge cosi al naturale, ... mi rappresenta i segni, la forza, gli effetti di tutte le umane passioni: mi provvede di avvenimenti curiosi: m'infor- ma de' correnti costumi: m'instruisce de' vizi e de' difetti che son piu comuni del nostro secolo e della nostra Nazione... I secondo poi, cio6 ii libro del Teatro, mentre io lo vo maneggiando, mi fa co- noscere con quali colori si debban rappresentar sulle Scene i caratteri, le passioni, gli avvenimenti, che nel libro del Mondo si leggono; come si debba ombreggiarli per dar loro il maggiore relievo, e quali sien quelle tinte, che piui li rendon grati agli occhi dilicati degli spettatori<<5. In this important artistic manifesto, Goldoni de-

fined those fundamental themes that formed the basis for his later theory and his appreciation for Longhi. His self-appraisal was accepted by most contemporary writers including Voltaire, whose epithet of Goldoni as >>Pittore e Figlio della Na- tura<< was widely publicized'6. For Goldoni, naturalism was not limited to a faithful reproduction of sensory phenomena, as that term in art theory would suggest, but served as the basis for a psychological naturalism7. The >>caratteri e le passioni<< that he appreciated in the work of Longhi cor- responded to his intense interest in man's psyche. Love, in the form of passing infatuations, sexual desires and petty jealousies, generated the dramatic action more often than any other motive. >>Rien ne m'int&resse davantage que l'analyse du coeur humain, << wrote Goldoni in his Memoires,18 and accordingly he called upon Longhi to inspire him when he wanted to record the Grimani-Con- tarini romance. When Goldoni observed that Longhi >>ritrovata

una originale maniera<< and when he invited Lon- ghi to join with him to treat an >>idea novella<< (my emphases), he must also have been thinking of his own historical position as a reformer of drama who bravely condemned those >>adoratori d'ogni antichita che amano tutto all'antica, ed odiano le novit<<19. Longhi's inabilities excluded him from the prestigious field of history and religious painting. Goldoni rejected the traditions of classical tragedy, the Commedia dell' Arte and all their hy- brid combinations in opera. Both artists turned to French and central Italian sources for inspiration. Longhi studied with Crespi in Bologna and copied figures from Lancret and Chardin20. Goldoni adapted Molibre to the Venetian stage, possibly after seeing performances of plays by the Floren- tines Girolamo Gigli (1660- 1722) and Jacopo Angelo Nelli (1673 - 1767) who had preceded him in using Molibre21.

Innovations for Goldoni were not limited to his choice of subject matter but included the creation of a new style, appropriate to the reformed content. He persistently criticized the style of his pre- decessors as inflated bombast: >>Mon style n'etoit pas el1gant,

.... mais voila pr&cis6ment ce qu'il fal-

loit pour ramener peu ' peu

' la raison un public accoutume aux hyperboles, aux antitheses et au ri- dicule du gigantesque et du romanesque<<22. In his Teatro Comico of 1753, Goldoni provides examples of the >>stile antico, pieno d'antitesi e di traslati<<23 Placida: Signor Lelio, ancora qui? Lelio: Si, mia Signora; qual invaghita farfalla, me vo

raggirando intorno al lume delle vostre pupille.

Placida: Signore, se voi seguiterete questo stile, vi fare- te ridicolo...<<

14 ))Del Sig. Dottor Carlo Goldoni fra gli Arcadi Polis- seno Fegejo al Signor Pietro Longhi Veneziano Ce- lebre Pittore, < in Componimenti Poeticiper lefelicis- sime Nozze di Sue Eccellenze il Signor Giovanni Gri- mani e la Signora Catterina Contarini, Venice, 1750, 77; reprinted in Goldoni, Opere, XIII, 187-188.

15 Goldoni, Opere, I, 769-770. For a thorough discussion of this passage, see Mario Baratto, Tre studi sul teatro (Ruzante-Aretino-Goldoni), Vicenza, 1964.

16 Voltaire, Oeuvres Comrpltes, Banbury, 1972 CVI, 146-147, 24 Sept. 1760; for its publicity, see Antonio Zardo, Teatro Veneziano del Settecento, Bologna, 1925, 69-72. Not mentioned is an anonymous review in La Minerva, o sia nuova giornale de' letterati d'Italia, Venice, 1764, IX, 99-111. For Goldoni's appreciative response to Voltaire, see his dedicatory letter and preface of Pamela maritata. Voltaire's judgement was not universally accepted. Some cri- tics, led by Pietro Chiari in the sarcastic Scuola delle Vedove of 1749, qhuestioned the accuracy, or even the plausibility of his translation of life onto stage, while others, led by Gasparo Gozzi's brother Carlo, wondered whether ordinary lives should even be shown on stage. For a short historiography, see G. Ortolani, >>La fortuna di Carlo Goldoni,<< La Rifor- ma del Teatro nel Settecento, Venice-Rome, 1962, 101-116. For modern evaluations of Goldoni's naturalism, see F. Fido, >>La poetica del gioco fra vrai- semblance e verit, << Guida a Goldoni. Teatro e socie- ta del Settecento, Turin, 1977, 89-101 (with bibliography).

17 V. Pandolfi, >>Natura e Confini della Riforma Gol- doniana,<< Paragone, 104, 1958, 21-32; Ettore Cac- cia, Carattere e Caratteri nella Commedia del Gol- doni, Venice, 1959, 15-33; Kurt Ringger, Ambienti ed Intrecci nelle Commedie di Carlo Goldoni, Bern, 1965, 16-19; Wolfgang Theile, Goldoni, Darmstadt, 1977, 20-31; Fido, Guida a Goldoni, 5-47; W. Thei- le, >>Struttura della Commedia e senso del reale nel teatro di Goldoni,<< Studi Goldoniani, ed. N. Mangi- ni, Venice, 1979, V.

18 Goldoni, Memoires, pt. 1, chap. 18, p. 81;in Opere, I, 81. See also the preface to vol. IX of the Pasquali edition (in Opere, I, 661).

19 Goldoni, Opere, I, 770-771. Goldoni's self-assess-

260



2. Pietro Longhi, The Painter's Studio. Venice, Ca' Rezzonico

In I Due Gemelli Veneziani Goldoni identified the pompous style of metaphor with deceit. Lelio says to himself:

,Ecco qui il mio fortunato rivale. Voglio vedere se colla dolcezza del mio pregare posso vincer l'amarezza del suo negare... (to To- nino, his rival) M'inchino all'elevato, anzi altissi- mo invidiabil merito del piil celebre eroe dell'a- driatico cielo. << Tonino answers in a similar mode, but his hyperbole is truthful:

,Servitor strepito- sissimo della sua altitonante grandezza.<< After

continuing his speech in a similar vein, Tonino realizes just how contagious the baroque style is:

ment as an isolated innovator was somewhat exagge- rated. For his relation to the Commedia dell' Arte, especially his adoption of Commedia characters into his theater, see Olga Marchini-Capasso, Goldoni e la Commedia dell' Arte, Naples, 1912; Jaroslav Pokor- ny, Goldoni und das venezianische Theater, Berlin, 1968, 77-102.

20 In 1767 Goldoni appended a note to a poem written in 1761 for the marriage of Pietro Bonfandini and Orsetta Giovanelli in which he associated Longhi's

,genere di pittura< to Greuze: Opere, XIII, 316.

Mariette (Abecedario, III, 221) wrote that Longhi >devint un autre Wateau.<< Although a French influ- ence on Longhi has been frequently observed (for past opinion, see Pignatti, Longhi, 14-20), only two instances of borrowing can be found, both in the Se- duction (Milan, Crespi Collection) where the scene

of seduction is copied from Lancret's Old Age (Lon- don, National Gallery) and the laundress is adapted from Chardin's Laundress (Stockholm, National- museum). The Lancret was painted shortly before 1735, and engraved soon thereafter (see Martin Da- vies, French School, National Gallery, London, 1957, 127-128). The Chardin was engraved in 1737 (see P. Rosenberg, Chardin, Grand Palais, Paris, 1979, n. 56, 198-200). For the artistic contact between France and Venice in general, see R. Palluc- chini, >Venise et l'Europe continentale au XVIIIeme sicle,<< Venezia e l'Europa, Venice, 1956; N. Ivanoff, >I Pittori Francesi a Venezia nel Settecen- to,<< Sensibilita e Razionalita nel Settecento, ed. V. Branca, Florence, 1957, II, 567-581.

21 E. Merian-Genast, ,Die

Technik der komischen Charakteristik bei Moliere und Goldoni,<< Romani- sche Forschungen, LXIV, 1952, 114-139; Ulrich,

,Goldonis ,Locandiera< und Molieres >Misanthro- pe,< zwei Motiventwicklungen,<< Romanische For- schungen, LXX, 1958, 323-365; W. Theile, >Goldo- ni und Moliere. Zur Verwirklichung einer dramati- schen Poetik,<< Beitraige zur Vergleichenden Litera- turgeschichte. Festschrift fiir Kurt Wais, Tiibingen, 1972, 89-106.

22 Goldoni, Mimoires, pt. I, chap 36; in Opere, I, 163. 23 Goldoni, Teatro Comico (11,2); in Opere, II, 1068.

261



3. Pietro Longhi, The Faint. Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Kress Collection

>>Siestu maledio, che el me fa deventar matto anca mi<<24. In contrast, Goldoni considered his own style as >familiare, naturale e facile, per non di- staccarsi dal verisimile,<< one that captured an uninflected reality25. However varied the conceptual and etymologi-

cal terminologies of pictorial and literary stylistic analysis might be, it is nonetheless remarkable how closely Longhi stands to Goldoni's reform. Gasparo Gozzi, the editor of the Gazzetta veneta and an assiduous commentator on Venetian society, noted that the styles of Goldoni and Longhi were both characterized by refinement and grace26. Gozzi also compared Longhi and Tiepo-

lo, but only as representatives of different subject matter: >>un'adunanza da ballo, una ventura di amore(( versus >>un fatto d'arme, un'adunanza di personaggi grandi, uno sbarco<27. However, if Gozzi's comparison of Longhi and Tiepolo were extended to include style, it would become evi- dent that the complex figural and coloristic dy- namics of Tiepolo are >>ridiculously gigantic and romantic(( when they are judged against the standard of Longhi's unpretentious simplicity. Gozzi seems to have had this in mind when he compared some imaginary genre paintings to a picture where everything >>sembra piuttosto tratto da que' nuvo- loni, che volano per l'aria la State, ne' quali si ve-

24 Goldoni, I Due Gemelli Veneziani (III, 7); in Opere, II, 213-214.

25 Goldoni, Teatro Comico (II, 2); in Opere, II, 1068. 26 Gozzi, Gazzetta veneta, n. LXXII, 11 Oct. 1760.

He does not attribute the portrait, but the joviality that he saw in Longhi's work in general (L'Osserva- tore veneto, 14 Feb. 1761, p. 29) reappears here. He also describes Goldoni's style in similar terms as Longhi: on Goldoni- >>pensando e meditando al suo tavolino, puo a suo agio ripescare e razzolare in tutte le fibre del cuore umano, e dipingere le infinite facce

di quello in ogni argomento da lui preso a lavorare.<< On Alles. Longhi: >>Sono infiniti gli aspetti e innu- merabili le facce, con le quali si presenta la natura a poeti e a pittori... ma vi aggiunge di sua mano la mo- venza del corpo, quelle tinte leggiere e quegl' infiniti tocchi che passano cosi l'uno in altro. << (Gazzetta veneta, n. LV, 13 Aug. 1760). Also in this passage, Gozzi calls Pietro Longhi a painter of grazia, a quali- ty he associates with Goldoni in the 11 Oct. 1760 entry. See Masi, Storia del teatro, 239 ff.

27 Gozzi, Gazzetta veneta, n. LV, 13 Aug. 1760.

262



4. Pietro Longhi, The Faint, detail. Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Kress Collection

de, e non si vede quello, che mostrano: molto lu- ce, molta oscurita, uomini e donne che sono, e non sono<<28. The semiotic content of antitheses and hyperbole - two devices most ridiculed by Goldoni - have pictorial equivalents. Chiaroscuro and contraposto, in their extreme forms, are con- trasts of opposites, that is, visual antitheses29. Ex- aggerated gestures, violent movements and sharp foreshortenings can be considered hyperbolic, if the genteel restraint of Longhi's style is accepted as normative. Of course, all standards are relative. Seicento painting would appear baroque in comparison with Tiepolo. Vincenzo da Canal in his Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini of 1732 criticized the 17th century painters Antonio Zanchi and Pietro della Vecchia for being >>stravagante<< and >>per lo pii del tetro con il gagliardo((30. Although Goldoni disavowed many artificial

mannerisms of earlier styles, he nonetheless maintained that art should adjust nature by removing >>gesti scorretti, scene lubriche di mal esempio<< so that they do not offend the >>occhi dilicati<< of the audience31. Sensuality may motivate many scenes by Goldoni and Longhi, but it is never crudely portrayed. For Longhi, only a glance or a discreet gesture is needed. The unmade bed in the Gentle- man's Awakening (Windsor, Royal Collection) is suggestive, but no more explicit action accompa- nies it than drinking coffee or hot chocolate. Just

as Goldoni cleansed his language of any natural infelicities, so Longhi also idealised form with his delicate pastels and simplified physiognomy. In the Painter's Studio (Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico; fig. 2), the nose of the sitter has been made more slender in the portrait; the mouth is more grace- fully shaped by curving the lips gradually and sup- pressing the indented sides. The result is a remarkable transformation of an ugly, puckered mouth into a sweet smile. Goldoni and Longhi shared another limit in their

pursuits of naturalism. Goldoni's psychological realism could be so convincing that the audience often identified the characters with people they knew. >>Questa Commedia (La Bottega del Caffe) ha caratteri tanto universali, che in ogni luogo ove 28 Gozzi, L'Osservatore, Venice, 1768, VIII, 52 (,L'a-

bitazione d'un filosofo creduto pazzo<<); noted in Haskell, Patrons and Painters, 323-324.

29 D. Summers, >Contraposto: Style and Meaning in Renaissance Art,<< Art Bulletin, LIX, 1977, 336-361.

30 Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini scritta da Vincenzo da Canal, pubblicata per la prima volta nelle nozze Da Mula-Lavagnoli, ed. G. A. Moschini, Venice, 1809, 20.

31 Goldoni, Teatro comico (III, 3); in Opere, II, 1093. In the preface to Il Prodigo, published for the first time in 1757, Goldoni condemned the use of 4la scurriliti, l'immodestia<< (In Opere, I, 861). In the preface to Il Servatore di Due Padroni, he critizes

,tutte quelle improprieth grossolane<< in the theater

(in Opere, II, 7).

263



5. Pietro Longhi, Coffee House. Engraving by P. Wagner after the lost original; ex. Collection of

Cecilia Emo Morosini delle Sbarre

fu ella rappresentata, credevasi fatta sul conio degli originali riconosciuti<<32. When Le Femmine Puntigliose was performed in Mantua, Verona and Florence, the audience in each city thought it was intended to slander a different lady33. Personal lampoons were not unknown on the Venetian stage, but Goldoni intended to satirize character types and social conventions, not individuals34. Similarly Longhi's figures were taken for portraits: >Dilatossi poi con Mascherate, cosi al vero espresse nei loro naturali andamenti, che sono conosciute anco sotto la Maschera, o wrote his son Alessandro35. Such speculation must have been reflexive for Venetians living a charmed life of intrigue. The bautta was an ambiguous disguise, ef- fective in concealing one's identity from stran- gers, but as Casanova learned, it could not deceive the inquisitive eyes of friends or acquaintances. John Moore described a masked Venetian nobleman >>who, with an air of mystery, was con- ducting a female mask into his cassino. My ac- quaintance knew him perfectly well, and assured me, he was the most innoncent creature with women...<<36 The typical is always susceptible of transformation into the specific, especially by a Venetian mind trained in conspiracies, but Lon- ghi's limited repertory of indistinct physiogno-

mies would argue against the intent to portray. Certainly it confuses any attempt at identifica- tion. It can be concluded that Goldoni appreciated

Longhi for those qualities he most admired in his own art. In Longhi he saw an innovator like himself, challenging an abstruse tradition with common sense. Like many reductive minds, he felt uneasy with his own isolation from the main- stream, and so he responded warmly to Longhi's work as a reassuring confirmation of his own. Un- fortunately his summary comments only indicate the favorable inclination of his thoughts, but give no idea what particular >caratteri e le passioni degli uomini<< he saw in Longhi. Were they really the same as >i caratteri, le passioni, gli avvenimenti<< that Goldoni so precisely rendered on stage?

32 Goldoni, La Bottega del Cafft, preface; in Opere, III, 5. Goldoni, Memoires, pt. II, chap 7; in Opere, I, 270.

14 Goldoni, Teatro comico (III, 9); in Opere, II, 1101. Lelio (the old-fashioned poet): >>Sapete cosa piacera sempre sul teatro?<< Orazio (Goldoni's spokesman): >>E che cosa?< Lelio: >>La critica.<< Orazio: >>Basta che sia moderata; che prenda di mira l'universale, e non il particolare; il vizio, e non il vizioso; che sia mera critica, e non inclina alla satira.<<

3 Longhi, Compendio, n. p.; A. Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico, Venice, 1753, 427: Longhi painted >>con tal colorito ed evidenza che a prima vista riconosconsi le persone ed i luoghi rappresentati.<<

16 John Moore, A View of Society and Manners in Italy (1780), published in his Works, Edinburgh, 1820, II, 101.

37 The Faint (Washington Gallery of Art; 49 x 61 cm.). For a complete discussion of provenance and dating (c. 1742), see Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Italian Schools, XVI - XVIII Century, London, 1973, 136-137. The Game of Pentola (Washington, National Gallery) shares its provenance, measurements and dating with the Faint, but it cannot be concluded that a one-to-one relationship between the two pictures was intended. Longhi's paintings were collected serially (see those now in New York, Metropolitan Museum; Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico; Venice, Galleria Querini), but since figures or situations are not continued or developed within the >>series<, they cannot elicit a refer- ential density comparable to Goldoni's concatenated series of scenes which grow progressively richer by establishing an associative past. The Pentola repre- sents a children's game played by young adults, with a blindfolded man trying to break open an over- turned cooking pot (pentola) in order to win the prize underneath. As a variant of blindman's buff, which Longhi also represented in its conventional form (Windsor, Royal Collection), it probably re- fers to the cliche that love blinds man (Goldoni, La vedova scaltra, II, 1). The exact meaning of the action is unclear. A man seated at the left stares with the same strange intensity that a peasant in Longhi's Polenta (fig. 14) stares at the mound of dough. Pen-

264



6. Giuseppe De Gobbis, The Ridotto. San Diego, Museum of Art

A Case Study: The Faint37

A woman faints while playing cards with some friends (fig. 3). They cluster around her, offering smelling salts and a pillow. A man touches her arm gently, protectively, and glares at a nobleman who, detached from this intimate group, intrudes gesticulating solemnly. But has she really fainted? Her limp pose suggests unconscious abandon, yet her eyes are open just enough so that she can roll them back and to her right (fig. 4). Her mind is alert and searching for clues unknown to us, but she maintains a helpless pose. This is deceit, but what kind? Venice, with its spies and extended carnival,

thrived on deception. The French ambassador Jo- achim de Pierre de Bernis equipped his casino in Venice with a secret chamber that allowed him to spy on his lover, the nun N. N., while she made love with other men3". Masks allowed a more harmless variety of voyeurism. Longhi loved to paint masked figures at the Ridotto, in coffee houses and in the Piazza. There they would sometimes watch charlatans on their palchi. Women gaze hopefully at a vendor of love potions (fig. 1)

and dream of its unattainable results, while two bautte seem to have no need of it (or have they al- ready had some?). Patrons who engaged in this form of ritualized trickery expected to be duped. Both parties were as aware of the fraud as those maskers who pretended daily anonymity. Gasparo Gozzi, in a fanciful reconstruction of

Longhi's iconography, established duplicity as his favorite theme. In 1760 Gozzi invented thirteen word-pictures in the style of Longhi, ostensibly as substitutes for the real thing which he could not afford because of the high prices: >>Io non sono ne Pittore, ne ricco uomo da potere provvedermi dell'opere di questo valente Maestro; sicche non havendo ne danari da spendere, ne attivita per ad- operare i colori, ho pensato un nuovo modo da guernire un picciolo stanzino, come posso. Ho un

tola and polenta are anagrammatically associated, and they are similarly shaped, but their contextual meaning in Longhi is uncertain.

38 Jacques Casanova, Histoire de ma Vie, ed. F. A. Brockhaus, Paris, 1960, IV, 104.

265



7. Pietro Longhi, The Temptation. Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum

carattere ben formato, e so imitare ogni condizio- ne di stampa. In quelle poche ore, che m'avanzano dall' altre mie occupazioni, con certi ferruzzi la- voro alcune cornici; onde in non so alquante car- tepecore, che poi le vo incorniciando e facendone piccioli quadri, certe figure, non di visi, o di corpi, ma d'animi, e di costumi; ... Intanto vi mando la copia di due d'essi ritratti, acciocchi vediate la maniera del mio dipingere senza pennello, e chieden- do scusa della libertY, ch'io mi prendo, son vostro di cuore<<9. Each ,picture< portrays a deceitful person or situation. Since this remarkable entry of the Osservatore has not been mentioned in historical studies, at least one character portrait >>al Longhi<< deserves unabridged quotation: >Lisan- dro avvisato dallo staffiere, che un amico viene a visitarlo, stringe i denti, gli diruggina, i piedi in terra batte, smania, borbotta. L'Amico entra, Li- sandro s'acconcia il viso: lieto, e piacevole lo rende: con affabiliti accoglie, abbraccia, fa conve- nevoli: di non averlo veduto da lungo tempo si la- gna: Se piii differira tanto lo minaccia. Chiedegli

notizie della moglie, de'figliuoli, delle faccende. Alle buone si ricrea, alle malinconiche si sbigottis- ce. Ad ogni parola ha una faccia nuova. L'amico sta per licenziarsi, non vuol che vada si tosto. Ap- pena si puo risolvere a lasciarlo andare. L'ultime suo voci sono: Ricordatevi di me. Venite. Vostra e la casa mia in ogni tempo. L'amico va. Chiuso l'uscio della stanza: Maladetto sia tu, dice Lisan- dro, al servo, No ti diss'io mille volte, che non voglio importuni? Dirai da qui in poi, ch'io son fuori. Costui nol voglio. Lisandro e lodato in ogni luogo per uomo cordiale. Prendesi per sostanza, l'apparenza<<. Gozzi ended another portrait with the comment:

>I1 mondo vuol maschere, ed estrinseche supersti- zioni.<< Gozzi's portraits are invaluable because they convey the meaning of Longhi's vision more completely than any other source, even though none relate directly to any particular painting by Longhi. However the recurrent theme of dissimu- lation does. 19 Gozzi, Osservatore veneto, 14 Feb. 1761, 28-29.

266



id

. ........

. . . ..

hi .. ..

?11, 7, 1 2 c

8. Pietro Antonio Novelli, La Scozese. Carl Gol- doni, Commedie, Venice: Pasquali, 1761, XIII, 211

Goldoni loved fainting women. Mirandolina in La Locandiera simulates a faint to make the Cava- liere di Ripafratta fall in love with her40. The stage instructions read: >Mirandolina. Senze parlare, cade come svenuto sopra una sedia.<< While she is >unconscious<<, the Cavaliere speculates on its meaning: >> svenuta. Che fosse innamorata di me? Ma cosi presto? E perche no? Non sono io in- namorato di lei?... Ma se e svenuta per me. Oh, come tu sei bella!<< After the Cavaliere goes out of the room to fetch some water, Mirandolina >>re- vives<< so that she may observe in an aside how successfully her strategm has worked: >Ora poi e caduto affatto. Molte sono le nostre armi, colle quali si vincono gli uomini. Ma quando sono ostinati, il colpa di riserva sicurissimo e uno svenimento.<< She then returns to her supine state when she hears the Cavaliere returning. Later in the play he starts to lose his naivete concerning the dis- sembling arts of women and yet accepts the arti- fice of fainting as just another attraction of wo- men41. Goldoni had occasion to observe similar

.f: ,.

.. . .... . ? . .

, . ..-f :

.. ,.+

,.~r ?; iJ +,++. ~ ~ .r r?

a" f .+.rjm, ,

9. Pietro Antonio Novelli, La Finta Ammalata. Carlo Goldoni, Commedie, Venice: Pasquali,

1761, VI, 95

arti of women in his own life. Madame Medebach, who was an excellent actress given to the vapours, feigned illness to elicit sympathy, but in such cases >>on n'avoit qu'a proposer de donner un beau r6le a jouer a une Actrice subalterne, la malade gueris- soit sur-le-champ<<42. Madame Medebach pro- vided Goldoni with a model for Rosaura in La Finta Ammalata, whose psychosomatic illness manifested itself by swoons, serving to communicate her love for Lelio43.

40 Goldoni, La Locandiera (II, 17); in Opere, IV, 832. 41 Ibid. Mirandola: ,Oh, il signor Cavaliere non s'in-

namora. Conosce l'arte. Se la furberia delle donne: alle parole non crede; non lagrime non si fida. Degli svenimenti poi se ne ride.<< Cavaliere:

,Sono dunque finte le lagrime delle donne, sono mendaci gli svenimenti?<< Mirandola: >Come! Non lo sa, o finge di non saperlo?<< Cavaliere: >Giuro al cielo! Una tal fin- zione meriterebbe uno stile nel cuore.<o 42 Goldoni, Mimoires, pt. II, chap. 10; in Opere, I, 286.

43 The simulated faint was also used in French litera- ture. Zobeide uses this device to seduce Angola in La Morliere's Angola (in Contes, ed. O. Uzanne, Paris,

267



Other Goldoni heroines, such as Rosaura in II Bugiardo and Madame Dalancour in Le Bourru bienfaisant, suffer from genuine faints, usually prompted by some kind of heart-break44. This poses a fundamental problem of interpretation for The Faint by Longhi. Has Longhi's heroine fainted involuntarily from emotional distress, like Eugenia in Gl'Innamorati who swoons when she thinks that Fulgenzio no longer loves her?45 Or has she fainted purposefully in order to manipu- late a man's love, like Elisa in Don Giovanni Tenorio?46 How can deception, which juxtaposes appearance and reality, be detected in a medium that must communicate exclusively by visible signs? In The Faint it is the disparity between the woman's helpless state and her calculating glance that establishes a deceitful intent, at least after the fact. But this does not tell the whole story. Why has she fainted? What is her relation to the nobleman? Pietro Gradenigo: >Pittore per attitudini na-

turali, e parlanti caricature, egli 6 il Sig.r Pietro

Longhil47. Goldoni: >Le so figure le xe la par-

lanti<<48. Goldoni probably looked at Longhi's painting as a static mime, in which figures >spoke<< by means of gesture, hence to understand the comic characterisations that he and Gozzi appreciated, the meaning of gesture must be deciphered. Since Longhi and Goldoni based their respective arts on current social behavior, it may be assumed that their gestural vocabulary shared a common- ality whose mutual source was contemporary usage. Both used eyes for similar expressive purposes, usually in seductions. Goldoni often introduced the roving eye that propositions. In the Grimani-Contarini poem quoted above, he invited Longhi to >>pinger puoi di Giovanni il ciglio arciero che il dardo scocca alla gentil donzella.<< In

Il Bugiardo Lelio lies to his father that Rosaura had seduced him with her eyes: ?I miei occhi si sono incontrati nei suoi. Io credo che in quei due occhi abbia due diavoli, mi ha rovinato subito, e non vi e stato rimedio<<l5. When a masked Rosaura in La Vedova Scaltra >>con qualche caricatura, guardando vezzosamente il Conte senza

parlare,,<< it is reminiscent of Longhi's scenes with dominoes51. In the Coffee House (fig. 5), the erotic consequences of drinking coffee are illustrated by a man in bautta pinching the skirt of a woman, a standard gesture of proposition, and exchanging glances52. In the Ridotto (San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery; fig. 6), where the fortunes of love and gambling coincide, a nobleman stares lustfully at a woman disguised as

Smerlandina, a character from the Commedia dell'Arte who provoked the most desperate att- empts at seduction. The nobleman's blatant stare reappears in Geography Lesson (Venice, Pa-

1879, 248). In Diderot's Jacques le Fataliste (Oeuv- res completes, ed. J. Ass6zat, Paris, 1875, VI, 215-216), Jacques pretends virginitiy as a ploy to be seduced by two women, one of whom ?faints<< thus exposing her breasts to the false innocent.

44 Goldon, II bugiardo (II, 3); in Opere, III, 118-119; Le bourru bienfaisant (III, 8); in Opere, VIII, 1068-1069.

45 Goldoni, GI' Innamorati (III, 12); in Opere, VII, 411-412.

46 Goldoni, Don Giovanni Tenorio (II, 7-8); in Opere, IX, 240.

47 Pietro Gradenigo, Notatori e Annuali, 3 Sept. 1760; published in L. Livian, Notizie d'Arte... del Pietro Gradenigo, Venice, 1942, 62.

48 Goldoni, II Burchiello,<< in Opere, XIII, 316. In this passage, Goldoni was discussing Andrea Past6, ?buon pittore specialmente in piccole figure alla maniera del celebre Pietro Longhl,< For PastS, see A. Mariuz, >La Villeggiatura di Bagnoli e il Pittore An- drea PastS,<< Arte Veneta, XXX, 1976, 197-199.

49 For a short discussion on gesture in Goldoni, see Ringger, Ambienti, 56-69. Whereas the content of gesture probably coincided, the syntax did not. Longhi's paintings are small, intimate views intended to be studied at close range, hence his figures could adopt restrained and discreet poses and still be easily legible, whereas actors on stage must adopt more emphatic gestures so that they carry across the theater. Goldoni was certainly aware of the effects of distance on gesture: >Nella scelta delle azioni, ... conviene avere un riguardo alla qualiti del Te- atro, cio6 alla sua grandezza. In un Teatro picciolo riescono bene alcune azioni leggere, familiari, o criti- che ma in un Teatro grande colpiscono difficilmente, e conviene scegliere azioni grandiose, strepitose, massiccie.

c (La Donna di Testa Debole, preface; in

Opere, V, 108). The effect of scale had quite the op- posite result when it came to the relation of picture- play to viewer-audience. Whereas Longhi often had figures face outwards, addressing themselves to the viewer, Goldoni forbade his actors this device (Te- atro comico, II, 3; in Opere, 1073). For Goldoni the audience was a mass eavesdropper that was un- necessary to the action evolving independently, that is, naturally on stage. Painting, being further re- moved from reality, needed more devices to draw the viewer into a fictive world; hence narrating festaiuoli or beseeching intermediaries have a long pictorial tradition.

50 Goldoni, II Bugiardo (III, 5); in Opere, III, 147. 51 Goldoni, La Vedova Scaltra (III, 19); in Opere, II,

400. 52 For coffee as an aphrodisiac, see the verse appended

to Longhi's Coffee House as published by Wagner: >Quelli che ameno al caldo bere alletta,/ e al bel pia- cer delle grand'alme serve,/ Sappia, che Amor entro al liquor, che ferve,/ Tempra souente la mortal saet- ta. << For a similar proposition in a coffee house, see the engraving by G. Volpato after Francesco Mag- giotto. For the grasp, see Longhi's Perfume Seller

268



10. Pietro Longhi, The Sick Lady Venice, Ca' Rezzonico

lazzo Rezzonico; fig. 7) and the Temptation (Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum; fig. 8). The intensity of these stares is certainly less gentile than the ,pupille amabili<53 exchanged in the previous examples and much closer to the

,ochio lascivio in ziro e seducente< described by

Angelo Maria Labia"4. The lustful monk in the Temptation and the pandering teacher in the Ge- ography Lesson were well-known objects of sati- re, and hence are easy to interpret, or at least their intentions are. The monk's gaze may seem impro- bable for a realistic narrative, in that it goes unno- ticed by everyone, but it may simply be a visual equivalent of the dramatic aside. Both serve to in- form the audience or viewer of certain thoughts without being heard or seen by others. Unfortunately gestures with the arms and hands

are more difficult to read. They are like dialects, varying so widely by region that they become in- comprehensible if transported, which may be one reason why Longhi's clientele was predominantly Venetian. Emphatic gestures often signify universally, but many of the tentative movements by

Longhi lack sufficient definition to allow accurate interpretations. The Faint, however, is unusual because its gestures have greater resolution than most paintings by Longhi. The r6les of the lady with smelling salts and the protective gentleman are explicit, but those of the two principal actors - the nobleman and fainted woman - are less clear, even though they are distinctly posed. The nobleman seems to have been the catalyst

for the fainting spell. His gesture - right arm and hand extended with palm up; left hand on chest - directed to the lady who has fainted indicates the nature of his intervention. It is repeated in two of Pietro Antonio Novelli's illustrations for the Pas- quali edition of Goldoni's collected works (figs. 9 and 10). By 1761 Novelli had designed a series of engravings, each showing a scene from the come-

(Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico) with a pair of amorous dogs, the Quack (Venice, Rezzonico), the Ridotto (Venice, Galleria Querini) and the Ridotto (Segromi- gno Monte, Salom Collection).

53 Pignatti, Longhi, 89. 54 In La Moda Corrente. Eugenio Vittoria, Antologia

della lirica Veneziana, Venice, n. d., 33.

269



11. Pietro Longhi, The Tickle. Castagnola, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

dy by Goldoni to which it served as antiporto55. Since they were commissioned by Goldoni's friend Giambattista Pasquali as illustrations for a >natural<< theater, it seems probable that they faithfully represent stage practice, including the use of gestures56. In La Scozzese, Lindana has fal- len in love with Milord Murrai, who just happens to be her father's nemesis, responsible for his con- demnation to death and consequent flight to America. Unknown to Lindana, Conte di Ster- lingh, her father, has returned to London after six years in exile. Act 5, scene 4 opens with the Conte and Milord dueling with swords. Lindana enters in fear that her lover's life is in danger: ,Lindana: Ah! Milord, chi v'insulta, chi vi assalisce?

ah mio padre! (si getta ai piedi del Conte). Conte: Ah mia Figlia! (si lascia cader la spada ed ab-

braccia Lindana)57. Novelli has illustrated this moment of recognition when paternal love overcomes a political and fa- milial feud (fig. 9). Conte di Sterlingh evinces this dramatic conversion, which leads to his reconci-

liation with Milord Murrai, by dropping his sword, placing hand to heart and stretching out

For Novelli, see In Morte del Signor Pietro Antonio Novelli Celebre Pittore e Poeta Chiamato in Arcadia Arristeno Parrasideo Visione di Giuseppe Avelloni, Venice, 1804 (still the most complete biography); A. Arban, >Aggiunte alla grafica di Pier Antonio No- velli,<< Bollettino dei Musei Civici Veneziani, 1970, 1-17; A. Arban, >>L'attivith padovana di Pier Anto- nio Novelli,<< Arte Veneta, XXIV, 1970, 185-198.

56 Goldoni wrote with approval that Novelli's engravings >> recederanno le res ettive O ere istoriando- ne nela miglior forma iiprincipale argomento.* (Goldoni, Opere, XIV, 471) For Goldoni's sceno- graphy in general, see R. Longhi, >Un possibile sce- nografo per il Goldoni,<< Studi Goldoniani, ed. V. Branca and N. Mangini, Venice, 1957, II, 755-759; E. Bassi, *Le illustrazioni delle commedie goldonia- ne ed il loro ambiente culturale,<< Studi Goldoniani, ed. N. Mangini, Venice, 1973, III, 115-124; R. Ale- wyn, >>Goldonis Theater,<< Probleme und Gestalte, Frankfurt, 1974, 47f; F. Mancini, M. T. Muraro, E. Povoledo, Illusione e Pratica Teatrale, Vicenza, 1975, 118-123.

s7 Goldoni, La Scozzese (V, 4); in Opere, VII, 1280-1281.

270



12. Pietro Longhi, Milord's Visitor. New York, Metropolitan Museum

his arm to his daughter. In the engraving for La Finta Ammalata, Novelli shows two quack physi- cians, Buonatesta and Malfatti, as they take the pulse of Rosaura, who has fainted onto a chair (fig. 10). >I1 polso balza;<< >I1 polso e sinto- matico<<5. The surgeon Tarquino, identified by the knife he holds, responds: >>Sangue, sangue.<< These imposters, who unsuccessfully treat Rosaura, are distinguished from her loving father, Pantalone, who asks Dr. Onesti for his verdict. His ironic reply is: >>Che bisogno avete di me, se vostra figlia e assistita da tanti virtuosi

signori?, True to his name, Onesti later clarifies Rosaura's malady as love-inspired, thus he is shown with his hand on his chest, indicating that his opinion is heartfelt which in goldonian terms means he is honest"9. The topic of his attention, Rosaura or the quacks, is indicated with his right hand. The pose of the fainted woman recalls that of the

Sick Lady (Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico; fig. 11) by Longhi. A doctor takes her pulse, but science will be frustrated by the emotional origins of her ill-

ness. Like Rosaura in La Finta Ammalata, she is love-sick and indicates the nature of her problem by touching her heart. Their attitudes are also similar to the young man in the Tickle (Lugano, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection; fig. 12). He slouches in a chair and awaits an arousing tickle from an attractive young lady, who cautions the viewer to be quiet so as not to disturb the sleeping man. The meaning of the scene can be understood semantically. The Tickle may represent an innocent diversion, but it signifies sexual arousal, titi- lare meaning not only >>to tickle<< but also >to titi- late<<. The coyness of this double-entendre is captured by the giggling girls and helps to explain the popularity of the tickle theme during the 18th century60. The explanatory verses commissioned

58 Goldoni, La Finta ammalata (III, 15); in Opere, III, 703-704.

19 Johann Jakob Engel, Ideen zu einer Mimif, Berlin, 1785, 314.

60 For Venetian examples, see Domenico Maggiotto, Pastoral Scene (Hamburg, Kunsthalle), Giuseppe

271



by Wagner for the engraving after Longhi allude to the obvious linguistic play (>>Juvat Somno, Ju- vat Indulgere Sopori<<), and expanding upon the sense of this introductory line:

>>Vaghe fanciulle che turbando andate Con ischerzo gentil l'altrui riposo. Quanto predice al corfuoco amoroso Quella nascente in voi rara beltate. <

The man may not be just a passive recipient of the ladies' attention; rather he could have encouraged their game by feigning sleep. Like the fainted woman, the state of sleep is not entirely convincing since he is in fact peeking at one lady through his left eye. This flirtatious ruse recalls one described by Giovanni Bonifacio in a virtually unknown treatise on gesture, L'Arte de' Cenni (Vicenza, 1616), in which Mecenate tried to seduce the wife of Galba by feigning sleep with eyes slightly opened61. It may be assumed that deception and love also

underlie the action of The Faint, after all Longhi was best known for >>ischerzi d'amore<<62. As the Cavaliere di Ripafratta in La Locandiera remarks: >>E poi quello svenimento vero o finto che fosse, non e segno manifesto d'amore?<< Yet love need not be the immediate cause for fainting. Andrea Perrucci, in his treatise Dell'Arte Rappresentativa of 1699, wrote that when the hand is brought limply to the chest of a supine person, it is a gesture of shame63. Has the nobleman brought news that has deeply embarrassed her ? If the nobleman in Longhi's Faint is as honest or loving as Onesti or Conte di Sterlingh, then why does the young man try to protect the fainted woman? Does she deserve protection? Although she pro- longs her swoon in order to recollect herself and assess the situation, this does not mean that she has a dishonest character. She is a clever woman certainly, using her incapacity for manipulative purposes, but her action could be generated by love and thus be justifiable. Who might she love: the man behind her who attracts her surreptitious glance or her defender? Even if one understands the gestural vocabulary, its multivalence assures ambiguity. According to J. B. Dubos in his R4flexions criti-

ques of 1719, >>gestes d'institution<< are inherently ambiguous and hence frequently misunder- stood64. Perrucci noted that a hand placed to one's chest, like the procurator, can be used on a variety of occasions65. As most people know from personal experience, gestures rarely have the precision of words since meanings can overlap depen-

ding on the context or perception of nuance66. Thus, even if our gestural illiteracy could be completely corrected, the action of The Faint would probably remain ambiguous. Indeed it seems that Longhi intentionally introduced ambivalent gestures designed to incite our curiosity. In the Dance Lesson (Venice, Accademia), the dance master points instructively to his pupil's right foot, but simultaneously at her groin. In Milord's Visitor (New York, Metropolitan Museum; fig. 13) a servant introduces a young woman also by indicating her groin. A girl in the Polenta (Venice, Palazzo Rezzonico; fig. 14) points both to her breast and her friend. One of her male com- panions ignores this invitation, enhanced by the rod held in her other hand, and instead lavishes attention on a suggestively shaped mound of polenta dough, but then he is not the object of her gaze - the viewer is. Individually these and similar examples may be ambiguous by virtue of their dis- cretion, but when the syntax and context are maintained throughout a series of paintings, a libi- dinous intent must be suspected. As the initial innocence of these digital gestures dissolves into suggestive alternatives, the viewer is left poised between a presumption of innocence and the suspicion of lewdity. The uncertainty provokes a giggle. Whereas a general comic intent can be dis- cerned in these poignant gestures, whose humor lies in their unanticipated implications, their specific content is impossible to prove and even to in- tuite. For example, is the servant in Milord's Visi- tor (fig. 13) indicating the young woman's sexual availability or perhaps the growing consequences

Angeli, The Tickle (formerly Berlin, antiquarian; illustrated in R. Pallucchini, >>La Pittura Veneta del Settecento alla Mostra Itinerante di Chicago-Min- neapolis-Toledo,< Arte Veneta, XXIV, 1970, 292); Pietro Rotari, The Tickle (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgem~ildesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek).

61 Giovanni Bonifacio, L'Arte de' Cenni con la qvalle formandosifavella visibile, Vicenza, 1616, 111.

62 A. Longhi, Compendio, n. p. 63 A. Perrucci, Del!' Arte Rappresentativa Premeditata

ed all' Improvviso (Naples, 1699), ed. A. G. Braga- glia, Florence, 1961, 123.

64 J. B. Dubos, Riflexions critiques, Paris, 1719, III, 16; Engel, Mimif, 231-239.

65 Perrucci, Rappresentativa, 123: ?Quando il perso- naggio parla solo seco stesso, o esortandosi o mom- miserandosi, o riprendendosi si faccia con la mano curva toccandosileggermento con le dite il petto.<< See also Engel, Mimif, letter IX.

66 John Spiegal and Pavel Machotka, Messages of the Body, N. Y., 1974; Desmond Morris, Peter Collet and Peter Marsh, Gestures: their origins and distri- bution, N. Y., 1979.

272



13. Pietro Longhi, Polenta. Venice, Ca' Rezzonico

of a past affair or what? The uncertainty probably appealed to the Venetians. Intrigue added vitality to the politically unpro-

ductive lives of the nobility and relieved any threat of boredom. Social pleasures constituted an important communal reality, hence patricians shared a heightened sensibility to social innuendo. Those gifts of subterfuge that once allowed Venice to become one of Europe's most sophisticated diplo- matic and commercial powers were perverted in the 18th century to serve relatively inconsequential affairs, hence ordinary social situations could become charged with a significance, usually amorous. Intrigue enflames the imagination. The reality of suspicion, rumor and gossip is essentially subjective, appealing to unresolved possibilities but deflated by truth. Similarly Longhi's Faint contains multiple reso-

lutions, unlike any of the faints described by Gol- doni, and therein lies its interest. As an equivocal image, it could become a conversation piece (in the modern sense) with the viewers providing different scenarios. The Faint could stimulate dis- plays of wit and ingenuity as patricians propound- ed a variety of more or less plausible interpretations. Each viewer could thus become a humorist, unravelling a different plot, suited to his tempera- ment and expectations. Goldoni, in front of The Faint, could have easily discovered a scene from one of his plays, or if he wished to further exercise his imagination, he could also have invented an entirely new play around the painting. Thus when Goldoni invoked Longhi as his muse, some truth may have been retained in his conventional figure of speech: ,Longhi, tu che la mia musa sorella chiami...<<

273



pietro longhi and carlo goldoni relations between painting and theater

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