Scapino

Scappino, or Scapin, a zany (zanni) character from the commedia dell'arte: a buffoon, schemer and scoundrel, and the title character in Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin, first staged in 1671. The Bow figure shows him standing to right against a tree stump, right leg forward; right arm concealed in a tabarro (cape), and a mask in his left hand. He wears a white doublet, gilt frogged in the Hungarian manner, neck ruff, pale yellow-washed breeches above buckled shoes; a pouch on a red-brown strap and a dagger in a scabbard at the waist.  Low square plinth base washed in typical pale Bow ‘lettuce’ green. No discernible translucency. H. 5.0 in (12.6 cm).

Provenance: Taylor Collection; Simon Spero London, 2008; the Faith and Dewayne Perry Collection.  

The Scapino figure was presumably based on the Meissen modelled 1743-45 by Peter Reinicke, assisted by Käendler, and from the series produced for Johann Adlf II, Duke of Weissenfels, after an engraving by Francois Joullain (1662-1753) for Riccobin’s Historie du Théatre Italien, 1728. The modelling and features of the Bow figure suggest the work of the ‘Muses Modeller’, and the pallete, gilding and detail are also those of the muses modeller figures. This figure illustrated Bradshaw, 1992, as circa 1753, Plate 10 (A12), p.64.

Scapino is depicted musically in William Walton's 1940 composition, Scapino: A Comedy Overture.