“Seven…” graphic views of the theatre
By Martin Čičo, curator of the Old Art Collections
Following the break-up of the ancient world, for many centuries theatre too was lost to the Christian culture of Europe. Only gradually did it return in the form of semi-dramatic liturgical scenes and productions of religious dramas, mystery plays and Passion plays, as well as ceremonial processions and triumphs. With the advance of humanism and the Renaissance, theatre began to discover its authentic form once again. Nevertheless it was still a matter of occasional performances, presented in aristocratic courts or as part of a variety of celebrations and feasts.
The very first permanent and guaranteed theatre, which is to say a building constructed for this purpose, was the Teatro Olympico in Vincenze in 1580–1585. But even long afterwards, theatre buildings in Europe were something of a rarity, and it was only in the 18th century that they began to appear in greater numbers. Most of them, however, were reconstructed later on, and only in exceptional cases were they preserved (a well-known example is the Castle Theatre in Český Krumlov). But the nature of the “theatre”, as a dramatic art played out in real time and limited to the actual performance, is extremely fleeting and ephemeral. Even from the pioneering and continually more frequent, sometimes actually regular productions of the 17th and 18th centuries, very few theatrical realia are now extant. Apart from librettos, programmes and descriptions, only a scant few visual sources bear witness to the theatre’s existence. On the other hand, there are a comparatively large number of works that enable us to form an idea of the visual character of the theatre and its influence on visual art. We will present seven of them here.
1/ The Theatre Building as Occasional Architecture
In the early modern period the rule that theatrical art is temporary or ephemeral often applied to the actual “building” or object where the given performance took place. An outstanding example documenting this situation is the etching by Stefano della Bello.
In April 1652 the Austrian archdukes Ferdinand Charles and Sigismund Francis paid a visit to the princely family of d’Este in Modena. For this occasion the hosts arranged a ceremonial performance of an equestrian ballet, whose theme was the four seasons and personifications thereof. Stefano Della Bella, a prolific draughtsman and graphic artist, who had been working in Paris and from 1650 in his native Florence, was commisioned to go to Modena to record the event.
His portrayal not only captures the scene of the performance but also offers a view of the provisional theatre which they built for the occasion. For this they used the courtyard of the palace: it served as both stage and viewing gallery, with three-storey tribune structures built along its perimeter. Stefano della Bella indicated this very strikingly and at the same time almost scenographically, depicting the walls of the palace building as theatrical backdrops.
The scene represents the ceremonial arrival of the participants. They are welcomed by the Greek wind god Aeolus on a wagon drawn by horses and descending from the clouds: an effect produced by the stage machinery of the court engineer Gaspar Vigarani (1588–1663). Later he worked also for Louis XIV in Paris. It was especially because of such stunning moments, which the viewers assuredly talked about long after, that these graphic works were produced; today they are the only evidence of the actual event and of this advanced stage technology. For a memorial album of this performance Stefano della Bella created 13 further scenes and choreographies, which appeared in Modena under the title La gara delle Stagioni, torneo a cavallo […].
2/ Scenography: Giuseppe Galli Bibiena — Theatrum sacrum
Theatrical scenographers very often worked with illusive architecture. They gambled on the natural persuasiveness of a perceived perspective, which these decorators had perfectly mastered and by whose means they created spaces full of fantasy. And since architecture in theatrical scenery was not constrained by any limitations or demands for its practical realisability, its productions are among the most daring and spatially interesting creations from the architectural thinking of the Baroque period.
The peak was attained in designs by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, a virtuoso of theatrical space, collected in his album Architetture e Prospettive. Its first five sections, each with ten plates, appeared in 1740 in Augsburg. The models were graphically executed by Johann Andreas Pfeffel, one of the foremost engravers of his time, and they were so popular that before long several copies of them appeared also.
The graphic execution thus guaranteed that Bibiena’s designs would not only have wider diffusion but also, in contrast to his own theatrical decorations, in essence they would be preserved.
The specimen here is the 8th plate from the third section of the entire series, which is named according to the central motif: Pilate condemns Jesus to death. Two elements compose the scene: a structural frame built to an axis, resembling an altar, including the central motif of the sacrament of the altar exposed in a monstrance; and the spectacularly constructed architectural space of “Pilate’s palace”, which opens out in a vista. In contrast to the frontal and static “framing”, the architecture in the vista is formed of a modest perspective and with a low-placed vanishing point, which lends it dynamism and raises the effectiveness of the spatial illusion. And although the figurative motif is almost unnoticed due to its scale, the entire arrangement is a good example of the importance of perception of those sanctified events which are staged in a manner that is revealingly called Theatrum sacrum: the “Holy Theatre”.
3/ Scene — Staging
Tournaments are among those productions where there is extraordinary ceremony. As compared to medieval times, however, they have changed conspicuously. Now there are no longer contests which may end with participants dying or at best suffering wounds, sometimes with permanent consequences. Though the tournaments have remained a community entertainment, the excitement, apart from the actual contests, is supposed to be produced with certain safety provisions by a “staging” which has attained to the parameters of theatre.
For our present example the relevant fact was that the participants made their entrances using highly dramatic, conspicuous, and certainly also weighty allegorical wagons or even “boats”. That was also the reason why this set was produced. Essentially it captures the individual arrivals, and only in a lesser degree does it convey samples, or rather choreographies, of individual “jousts”. The series of ten portrayals and a title page was part of a book edition with text and verses by Henry Humbert, who was probably also the author of the scenario. The individual participants and their escorts furthermore represented certain personifications and allegories, whereby the entire ceremony came close to being a theatrical performance. But those who were performing were not actors, rather they were aristocrats and their courtiers. Even the very combats were presented rather for appearance sake, which is to say they were more “acted” than real, and indeed this is mentioned in the text. The spectacle was organised by Duke Charles IV of Lorraine in his palace in Nancy on February 14, 1627, and the actual occasion was interesting. A tournament entitled Combat à la Barrière (Combat by the Barrier) was held in honour of Charles’s cousin, the Duchess of Chevreuse, who had retired to the court in Nancy after an unsuccessful conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu. The thought-content behind the joust might thus represent a struggle of “good and evil” as indicated in one of the plates, where participants are presented as personifications of the brothers Minos and Rhadamanthus, judges of the underworld, while contrastingly Duke Charles, for example, made his appearance as the Sun.
The parade of allegorical wagons and further “apparatuses” indicates that Jacques Callot, working in the service of the Duke as a court artist, was not only the author of the entire graphic series: having regard to his many years of experience with the staging of similar ceremonies during his engagement at the Florentine court of the Medici, we may presume that he contributed also to their planning and to the entire venture.
4/ Event/action: the Event in Ephemeral Architecture
Theatrical architecture is distinguished by a fascination with space. Creating its breath-taking illusions, it has wiped out the boundaries, or shifted them, between the real and imaginary worlds. On the other hand, just as in the “staging” of the various ceremonial events, here also creativity has drawn on theatrical resources for inspiration and has found realisation especially in occasional architecture.
And since theatrical architecture is in essence ephemeral, occasional architecture also is notably marked by attributes of a theatrical kind, in conception and means of accomplishment and frequently also in function: those performing here are not actors, but as in the baroque theatre of the world, the actors of “small” and “big” history are here onstage.
The etching is a unique work by Jean-Joseph Chamant, royal court painter and decorator, and creator of the fresco adorning the pilgrim shrine in Šaštína. This was produced earlier, however, during his engagement in Florence, and it is one of those scenes of illusive and fantastic architecture which represents a distinctive genre in the work of theatre decorators, among whom this Lorraine man is to be counted. Originally he studied painting in Nancy, but from 1724 he was working in the circle of Francesco Galli Bibiena in Bologni, which was reflected in his subsequent career trajectory. As a follower of the Bologna quadratists, he was one of the last representatives of late Baroque illusionism, and this is the spirit that sustains his theatrical work and designing of various decorations and works of occasional architecture. The very nature of these works predetermined that they would disappear, leaving practically nothing behind.
In Tuscany, however, he gained great acclaim as a “maestro di prospettiva”, which is justified by the work shown here. It represents the arrival of Count Emmanuel de Richecourt in Florence. On this occasion “Joseph Chamant, theatre architrect and painter to his Royal Highness, designed, sketched and engraved the scene, 1743”, as recorded in the signature of the plate. And although the Count’s arrival in Florence was real, in this image there is a staged presentation welling up out of fantasy, such as then very much in fashion. In the occasional architecture as actually constructed, probably the victory arch to the right was the most conspicuous element of the entire composition.
5/ Event / action: Real Event in a Real Setting — the Theatre of the World
The plate captures the funeral ceremony of the deceased Elizabeth Teresa of Lorraine (1711–1741), who was the younger sister of Francis Stephen of Lorraine and the sister-in-law of his wife Maria Theresa. In 1737 she married Emmanuel III, king of Sardinia. She died as a result of postnatal complications, a few days after the birth of her daughter Bendetta Maria, who ultimately was the only one of their three children to survive to adulthood.
In genre terms the plate falls into the “castrum doloris” type, though it also captures the actual event. And although it takes place in a church, and indeed the principal church of the country, Notre Dame in Paris, the scene is reminiscent rather of a theatrical performance. Apart from the decoration of the catafalque itself, the pews also were improved; boxes were created in the side chapels on the naves; everything was covered in textile decorations and draperies, so that it was only the upper part with its windows, ribs and sloping vaults that bore any resemblance to a church. Such a conception of the funeral, which in essence was an affair of state, is clarified also by the inscription under the picture. Organisation of the ceremony was entrusted to the first royal chamberlain, but the practical realisation was the business of the court’s Menus plaisirs, which was something like the entertainment department of His Royal Highness’s chamber. It was occupied mainly with theatre and opera, but also, as we have seen, it was the organiser of less cheerful but equally representative undertakings.
The practical realisation of the catafalque in its structural-sculptural form, and of the entire arrangement and lighting, was the work of a duo of sculptors and decorators, Perot and Slodtz, with “Slodtz” in particular being almost a company name. There were three sons of Sebastian Slodtz (a sculptor hailing from Leipzig), who worked in the service of the royal chamber and above all the Menus plaisirs, where they designed and realised decorations for various ceremonial events, as well as, for example, fireworks. Charles-Nicolas Cochin junior recorded the entire event, which is to say he drew it in bravura style and also engraved it. In subsequent years he created a number of further plates capturing the funeral ceremonies of other high dignitaries of the kingdom of France.
6/ Directing: Rembrandt van Rijn and the Complex Solution of Plot Shaping
If we were to search among artworks for examples comparable to theatre direction, then with Rembrandt we are certainly at the right address. He was one of the first artists who not only worked conspicuously with psychology in the figures he portrayed but also, overall, managed to “direct” the story that has taken shape into a complex dramatic form.
An eloquent example is the plate Christ Before Pilate, though in this instance what we see is a copy of a Rembrandt original. Rembrandt etched it in 1635–1636, having already in 1634 created a preparatory study (today located in London), painted in oil in the grisaille technique, which means monochromatically “in grey”, as he himself customarily called these paintings. Already evident here is an exploration of “lighting direction” in the scene, which is of key importance for its pointing.
Although according to the Gospel of John the scene where Christ is shown to the people took place outdoors in the palace courtyard, here it has a gloomy effect as in a theatre, with background structures such as coulisses and a curtain-like canopy over Pilate’s throne. Pilate is portrayed more like an oriental ruler than a Roman placeholder, quite in the spirit of a then-current typology of figures. This is not based on study of contemporary realia, which only much later began to influence the historical genre and likewise theatre costume.
The situation is dramatic: the Jewish law-makers are pressing towards Pilate and the people are jostling forwards. At the summit of the pyramidical composition stands Christ, on whom judgment must be passed. Pilate attempts to free him and guards him (with manual gestures) from the importunate Jewish scribes who are demanding his condemnation. Precisely they and Christ are the most “illuminated”, as if the artist wished to emphasise that this religious dispute “about the word” is being enacted between them. Rembrandt graduates the situation with outstanding skill, exploiting the fact that judgment has not yet been given.
By its composition, the participants’ gestures, the light — with all this the work achieves a culmination of tension and at the same time suggests the flow of action in time, just as we experience it in the theatre.
7/ Masks and Costumes
Masks belong in the theatre. In ancient times they were almost indispensable. Later their role was partly assumed by make-up, and finally they disappeared from the theatre completely. They maintained a presence in carnivals or “masquerades”, where people played at being someone else. Likewise costumes. Even if those never disappeared from the theatre, simply that they succumbed totally to a typologisation deriving from contemporary fashion. Furthermore, under the slogan “clothes maketh the man” costumes played their vital role also in the culture of dress across the centuries.
The work was created according to a drawing by Jacquesa de Gheyn in his workshop, possibly by the engraver Zacharias Dolendo, and comes from a cycle of ten engravings called Masquerades. The title plate with eight lines in Latin by Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) also gives the age of the author of the text, then still a 12-year-old boy, which at the same time indicates a dating of 1595–1596 for the entire cycle. Several editions of the latter are known, the first of which comes from de Gheyn’s workshop in Leiden. Three more appeared in Amsterdam, the last in 1667 in the publishing house of Danckert Danckertsz, though its title is slightly altered and it is presented as the second estate.
Several explanations of these scenes have appeared in the literature. It is possible that this is a student escort in masks during some ceremony, or a scene from the commedie dell’ arte, which is pointed to by the similarity of certain costumes. Although, given the early dating of the works, that would represent an exceptionally early specimen of the commedie’s influence on the Dutch theatre.
The lines from the title plate, however, indicate that we can also read the works in a very general way, as the masks of our lives. People live with the masks they have donned, which are removed from them only by death, when their hypocrisy is uncovered in the sight of God. It is an allegory and a moralistic warning at one and the same time.
In the sense of the proverb “Clothes maketh the man), beautiful old clothes lend support to the masks with which we are trying to build an image of somebody else. A female figure with back turned to the viewer points ultimately to the possible void under a mask “concealing nothing”. And if someone employs a covering like this to make reality grey and mask it from him permanently, for that person it will become part of life, and life itself will become theatre.
