Commedia dell'arte in the mid-18th century. Curiously, "commedia dell'arte" was equally if not more popular in France, where it continued its popularity throughout the 17th century (until 1697), and it was in France that "commedia" developed its established repertoire. "Commedia" evolved into various configurations across Europe, and each country acculturated the form to its liking. For example, pantomime, which flourished in the 18th century, owes its genesis to the character types of the "commedia", particularly Harlequin. The Punch and Judy puppet shows, popular to this day in England, owe their basis to the Pulcinella mask that emerged in Neapolitan versions of the
Gilles (stock character) did Gilles "wear the same costume" as Pierrot, but both generally "had the same character" throughout the 18th century: Pierrot, like Gilles, "was a farcical creature, not a tragic or sensitive one". (Pierrot will become tearful and incipiently tragic only in the middle of the 19th century, in the hands of Paul Legrand.) "It is", writes Haskell, "hard to resist the conclusion that the consumptive Watteau has invested the figure of Gilles with some degree of self-identification, and Mrs. [Erwin] Panofsky has also pointed out that on many other occasions when painting Pierrot figures Watteau not only gave them a