The plays were generally of three kinds: contemporary poetic dramas based on ancient texts Latinized versions of Greek dramas and the works of Seneca, Terence, and Plautus in the original. Such artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vasari, Bramante, Raphael, and a host of other Italian painters, sculptors, and architects, as well as poets, such as Tasso, and musicians, such as Monteverdi, strove to please and exalt the reputations, real or imaginary, of their princely patrons.Ī more sober attempt to revive the classical theatre was made by the academies, organized by upper-class gentlemen who assembled to read and, on occasion, to participate in and to support financially productions of classical drama. One court vied with another for the services of painters, sculptors, architects, and innovators in stagecraft. The theatrical performances given were mostly of allegorical pageantry, but the scenic spectacle was calculated to dazzle the eye and often succeeded. ![]() Sometimes they were hastily erected affairs, put up to celebrate the births and weddings of ducal offspring or to commemorate victories in war. ![]() The first Renaissance theatres, like those of early antiquity, were temporary wooden constructions in gardens, ballrooms, and assembly halls. Second, the newly formulated laws of perspective in painting, when applied to stage and scenic design, brought about a profound change in the effect of a stage on an audience. First of all, the theatre’s move indoors gave rise to problems of lighting and acoustics. There were, however, new conditions that fundamentally affected design. The ruins of classical theatres were studied as models, along with Vitruvius’ treatise on classical architecture. The revival of theatre building, first sponsored by 16th-century ducal courts and academies in northern Italy, was part of the general renewal of interest in the classical heritage of Greece and Rome. In 1508 at Ferrara a background painted according to the rules of perspective was substituted for the mansions the scene included houses, churches, towers, and gardens. (The first permanent proscenium was built in the Teatro Farnese at Parma, Italy, in 1618–19, a temporary one having been constructed by Francesco Salviati 50 years earlier.) The second innovation was that the mansions, by being linked, were treated as components of a general city street. This was the first movement toward the framework that would develop into the proscenium arch-the arch that encloses the curtain and frames the stage from the viewpoint of the audience. One was that the mansions were probably framed by decorative columns. There were, however, two elements not found previously. In terms of staging, several medieval-type mansions were clustered to form a single large unit. The first was of the type presented by the humanist Julius Laetus at the Accademia Romana, a semisecret society he founded in the mid-15th century for the purpose of reviving classical ideals. In the beginning of the Renaissance, there were two distinct kinds of theatrical productions. And by 1650, Italy had developed staging practices that would dominate European theatre for the next 150 years. By 1589, complex painted scenery and scene changes were being featured in production in Florence. Just before 1500, Italian amateur actors were performing classical comedies on stages with no decoration except for a row of curtained booths.
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