ABSTRACT
Within the pantheon of the Commedia dell’Arte, the mask of Pantalone, or Magnico, is probably second only to that of Arlecchino in terms of recognizability. On the other hand, Pantalone predates Arlecchino by several decades and, according to Allardyce Nicholl, was ‘by far the most constant, and in a sense the most important, of all the characters’.1 Robert Henke agrees, asserting that ‘the Venetian gure Pantalone dei Bisognosi stands centre stage in almost any version of “arte” performance and literature’.2 Certainly, he is the most well known of the masters. According to Cesare Molinari, there are more pictures of Pantalone than of any other of the ‘vecchi’ [old men].3
