Actors of the Italian comedy

Actors of the Italian Comedy by Nicolas Lancret depicts performers from the Commedia dell'Arte tradition that was enormously popular in early eighteenth-century France, where the Comédie-Italienne performed regularly at Parisian theaters. Lancret, born in Paris in 1690, grew up during the period when the Commedia dell'Arte was at the height of its French popularity, and the theatrical types — Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot — were as familiar to French audiences as characters from classical mythology. His theatrical subjects translate the energy and physical comedy of commedia performance into painted form, combining the vivid color of theatrical costume with the characteristic settings of garden or parkland that he used for all his genre subjects.

The theatrical figures are rendered with Lancret's characteristic lightness and vivacity, their costumes and poses capturing the exaggerated gestures of Commedia performance. The palette is bright and decorative, reflecting the Rococo taste for visual pleasure and theatrical artifice.