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Literary Abstractions
"Arlecchino's Coat"

literarische Abstraktion
"Arlecchinos Mantel"

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Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View
Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View
Andreas Jaeggi / Click for Enlarged View


These paintings show parts of a lady's coat, seen in a window display in a shop in Lyon (France). During the rehearsal time of the extremely contemporary opera "Luci mie traditrici" by Salvatore Sciarrino at the National Opera of Lyon, I discovered this Haute Couture coat in a little shop in a narrow side street on my way from the theatre to my apartment hotel "home". The motif of criss-crossed bands of the traditional "Commedia dell'Arte" Harlequin costume has been incorporated into the design of the coat. This expensive "rag", made of pastel colored suede leather, was hanging on a faceless display dummy. The luxury coat would probably have looked perfectly silly on a live model.
 


Diese Bilder sind Teilansichten eines Damenmantels, gesehen in einer Schaufensterauslage in Lyon. Waehrend der Probenzeit der extrem zeitgenoessischen Oper "Luci mie traditrici" von Salvatore Sciarrino an der Opera National de Lyon entdeckte ich diesen Haute Couture Mantel in einem winzigen Ladengeschaeft in einer engen Seitenstrasse auf meinem "nachHause"Weg vom Theater zum Hotel. Das Motiv der ueberkreuzten Baender des traditionellen "Commedia dell'Arte" Harlekin Kostuems ist in das Design des Mantels eingearbeitet. Der teure Lappen aus pastellfarbenem Wildleder hing an einer kopflosen Schaufensterpuppe, an einem lebenden Modell haette das Luxusteil wahrscheinlich ziemlich laeppisch ausgesehen.
 

Most of us are not really familiar with the original "Commedia dell'Arte" plays, these rather juicy pieces of popular theater, as they were written in very precise local Italian dialects, but the appearance of the figures, their masks and their costumes, are very much a part of our visual vocabulary.
 

Die meisten von uns sind mit den originalen "Commedia dell'Arte" Theaterstuecken nicht vertraut, diesen ziemlich saftigen Volkskomoedien in lokalen italienischen Dialekten geschrieben; die Figuren, deren Masken und Kostueme jedoch sind Teil unseres visuellen Wortschatzes.
 

The small pieces of stiffened canvas are mounted together as a dwarf folding screen, like a Japanese room divider, or as it is called in German for mysterious reasons: a Spanish wall.
 

Die gestaerkten Leinwandstueckchen sind zu einem ZwergenParavent zusammenmontiert oder wie dies auf deutsch so merkwuerdig heisst: zu einer Spanischen Wand.