Pierrot's origins date back to the "Commedia dell' arte," an Italian play
form which professional actors improvised freely on a traditional plot.
In time the main masked figures, including Columbine and Harlequin,
came to be fixed into farcical characters and often returned to the
stage to keep the action moving. This theater form in turn is thought to
have its beginning in the Atellan Fables, which were sketches
exemplifying scenes from rustic life, presented on a crude stage with
stock characters, including a clown. These were the earliest forms of
drama to flourish in ancient Rome. One of the Stars in the "Commedia
dell Arte" was Pedrolino, or Pierrot, who appeared in various guises
through the years, becoming the silent player with the white, baggy, big
buttoned costume we know today.
Pantomime made its comeback in
the nineteenth century, thereupon Pierrot becoming popular as a
subject in French comic drama and later in seaside performances in
England.
Pierrot was immortalized by the French painter Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) who created
nearly 200 oil paintings during his short life, several of which featured scenes from the French and
Italian theaters. Some of its most favorable entertainers included Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin.
There is a story about the pierrot which relates how a small naked boy was found outside the gates
of Heaven. It was winter, and as St Peter picked up the child and blessed him, the snow on his body
turned into a suit of pure white clothing. St Peter adopted the child and gave him his own name -
Little Peter or Pierrot - but there was one condition, Pierrot was not to be allowed to play with any
of the human children he might come across as he wandered outside the gates of Paradise. Of
course, this was almost impossible for a small boy, and on his return from just such a meeting he
realised that his white suit now had black marks on it where the ordinary children had touched him.
They proclaimed his guilt, and Pierrot was excluded from Paradise forevermore.
The pierrot of such legends was a wistful, melancholy character rather than an exuberant
summer-show comedian, but the white costume with the black pom-poms is unmistakeable!!
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