Chapter 15 Renaissance Italy Italian theatre set the

Chapter 15

Renaissance Italy • Italian theatre set the path toward illusionism • The 3 contributions – 1. neoclassical ideal in playwriting and criticism – 2. Italianate system of staging and architecture – 3. A popular theatre known as commedia dell’arte

Neoclassism: “new classicism” • • • Verisimilitude and decorum Purity of genres Three unities Five-act form Two-fold purpose: teach and please

Verisimilitude • Truth seeming • Truth resided in the essential, general, typical and class not particular, individual or unique • Get rid of what was temporary or accidental to showcase fundamental and unchanging • Truth meant truth • Elimination of events that could not be reasonable to happen in real life

• Language-monologues and soliloquies were eliminate in favor of dialogue to confidants. • Characters conducted self with decorum • Indecorous characters drove the plots • God ruled the world • Dramatic action according to moral principles: good was rewarded and evil punished

Purity of Genres • Verisimilitude meant no mixing of comic and tragic elements. • Tragedy • Comedy

The Three Unities • • Time Place Action Plays needed to unfold within reasonable time and place

Five-Act Form • Five acts as probably influenced by Horace and Seneca • Suggested five sections separated by choruses

To Teach and To Please • Teach morality while entertaining an audience • Dual purpose of drama • Playwrights made sure they both purposes were incorporated The five points influenced European theatre for the next two hundred years (from late 1500 s to late 1700 s)

Illusionism • Vitruvius (Roman) influenced Italian understanding of theatre architecture • Linear perspective-representing spatial depth on a two-dimensional surface • Perspective-artistic revolution in Italy • Sebastiano Serlio- Dell’ Architecturainterpretation of Vitruvius

• Problems: Roman theatre was outdoors and round, modern theatre was indoors and rectangular • Tearto Olimpico-5 onstage doorways-each doorway had it’s own vanishing pt. • Serlio provided tips for colored lighting, fire effects, fanciful costumes and pasteboard figures

Italianate Staging • Single-point perspective • Wings-the paired flats farther way from audience that were slanted upstage toward the vanishing pt • Backdrop-the vanishing point • Shutter-wings pushed together or opened to reveal deeper perspective • Raked Stage-slanted upward from front to back

Copyright © 2011, 2008, 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights Reserved. Slide 13

• Movable set-chariot-and-pole system to move the flats on stage (created by Torelli)

Commedia Dell’Arte • • • “professional playing” Included both male and female Stock characters Who’s Line Sharing companies, 10 -12 people in a troupe Ephemeral- lasted for the moment but not didn’t leave records

No Credit for the Italians • While they greatly influenced European (especially English and French theatre), they faded into the background • Opera-most famous for • England France surpassed Italian theatre