Download or read book Pierrot in Petrograd written by J. Douglas Clayton and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1993 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commedia dell'arte was an essential ingredient of the revolution in Russian art in the early twentieth century. During this colourful and creative period artists sought inspiration in surprising places - icon painting, primitive art, and (in the theatre) circus, music-hall, and commedia dell'arte. The devices and motifs of Italian improvisational theatre played a central role in overcoming theatrical realism and naturalism and formed a basis for a new and expressive theatricality.