Technologies of Spectacle

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Technologies of Spectacle – Knowledge Transfer in Early Modern Theater Cultures. Workshop

Technologies of Spectacle – KnowledgeTransfer in Early Modern Theater Cultures.Workshop

Veranstalter: Jan Lazardzig, Amsterdam; Ho-le Rössler, WolfenbüttelDatum, Ort: 14.11.2014–15.11.2014, Amster-damBericht von: Barbara Tepper, Theatre Studies,University of Amsterdam

The innovations of the Italian Renaissance instage design and technology are unmatchedin theatre history but reached their zenith inFlorence under the Medici Family in the earlyBaroque. To celebrate weddings and visits

of foreign dignitaries, they organized festivalswith sumptuous theatre spectacles. Immenseamounts of money were spent and the ex-pertise of hundreds of architects, designers,painters and engineers were required to exe-cute the monumental plans. For contempo-rary audiences more interesting than the playitself were the intermedi , musical interludes before the play began and after each of its acts.Each intermedio had its own elaborate posi-tion on stage and was usually accompanied by a dazzling spectacle; a sea with moving

waves from which a chariot emerged that wasdrawn by dolphins, gods levitating on cloudsor demons rising out of fiery lakes. The jobof the scenic designer, as we might think of itin modern times, was performed by architectsand engineers. The demands of the complexstage spectacles required extensive trainingin perspective and engineering.1 It’s a well-known fact that this architectural and tech-nological knowledge transferred throughoutEurope to achieve the status of codified andstandardized knowledge. Less widely known

is how this knowledge was transferred. Theworkshop addressed this neglected field of re-search and placed it in view of a broader con-text.

The starting point for the workshop wasthe rediscovery of the manuscript codexiconographicus 401 (Bavarian State Library),of which a transcript was provided for allparticipants. In their introduction JANLAZARDZIG (Amsterdam) and HOLERÖSSLER (Wolfenbüttel) ascribed thismanuscript to the German architect Joseph

Furttenbach (1591-1667). It provides anunderstanding of early 17th century stagetechnology and centers machines and or-namentations created by the architect and

stage designer Giulio Parigi (1571-1635), forthe six intermedi of „Il Giudizio di Paride“(The Judgment of Paris) at the Uffizi the-atre in Florence in 1608. The author of themanuscript elucidates the construction anduse of the machines by detailed descriptionsand drawings and etchings. Furttenbachwas born in a family of patricians and mer-chants and was sent to Italy to receive aneducation as a merchant himself at the age of sixteen. He soon became interested in Italianarchitecture and engineering and attended

Parigi’s academy of art and engineering inFlorence. Lazardzig and Rössler regard cod.icon. 401 to be by the hand of Furttenbachfor several reasons. The first indication is thetopic: Furttenbach was one of the few authorswho included stage design and machinery.In addition he refers to Parigi on severaloccasions. A comparison with other worksfrom Furttenbach’s hand reveal similaritiesin handwriting, watermark, descriptions,numbering pages and blanks for later notesnumbering. The conclusion drawn is that the

author of the manuscript can be no one otherthan Joseph Furttenbach.

The document contains 56 pages and thepaging shows that the manuscript is a frag-ment, probably written between 1617 and1627. The first and third part offer new detailsof the scenery and describe several machines.The historian of architecture SIMON PAULUS(Stuttgart) considered the codex from the crit-ical viewpoint of an engineer and argued thatthe sketches in the manuscript are not of highstandard. There are no drawings in the sec-

ond and fourth part of the codex and the il-lustrations in the third part are drawn withinthe text. Succeeding manuscripts by Furt-tenbach show an increased professionalism indrawing. Paulus’ contribution led to a vividdiscussion, raising questions about Furtten- bach’s architectural skills and the purpose of the manuscript. According to Lazardzig and

1 Oscar Brockett / Margaret Mitchell / Linda Hard- berger, Making the scene: A history of stage design andtechnology in Europe and the United States, San Anto-

nio 2010, pp. 77-78.

© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.


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Rössler, the codex is similar to another doc-ument that was not meant for publication.Nonetheless, it is possible that this particu-lar manuscript was meant for publication, for

the reason that Furttenbach seems to addressa wider audience.SARA MAMONE (Florence), specialized in

Florentine court theatre, contributed with apresentation about the theatrical practice inFlorence in the sixteenth century. On the re-port of Mamone, the first episode of a new theatre started with the festivities that hon-ored the wedding of Cosimo I de Medici andEleonora of Toledo in 1539. Sebastiano da SanGallo, known for his perspective drawing, de-signed the setting for a comedy. His assis-

tant was Giorgio Vasari. None of the designsfor the production survived, but Vasari pro-vided an account of the setting. A machinethat must have left a considerable impressionon the spectators was a machine that madethe sun rise in the east at the beginning of theplay and set in the west at the end, as to rep-resent the passing of time. The lavish courtspectacles the Medici wished to put on de-manded a deep stage and room to accommo-date the various sets and machinery. Vasaritherefore designed a permanent theatre at the

Uffizi. This „Teatro Mediceo“ was only com-pleted in 1686, by the hand of Bernardo Buon-talenti (1531-1608), who had been a studentof Vasari. It was approximately 70 feet wide,190 feet deep and 48 feet high, large enoughto accommodate perhaps the most elaboratetheatrical performance ever held in Italy in itstime. For the occasion of another Medici wed-ding, Buontalenti created the designs for „LaPellegrina“ in 1689. An insight in the spec-tacle is provided by several etchings and en-gravings that were commanded by the grand

duke himself.2In 1608 Parigi staged „Il Giudizio di

Paride“, along with six intermedi , to celebrate the wedding of Ferdinando I de Mediciand Christine of Lorraine. Unfortunately, the„Teatro Mediceo“ was destroyed in 1857. Themachinery was transferred to Palazzo Pitti,where it was stored as a relic of the ephemeralspectacle itself. DOMINIQUE LAUVERNIER(Caen) created a 3D model of the fourth intermedio of „Il Giudizio“, the ship of theFlorentine Amerigo Vespucci. In his virtual

model, one can look around in the „TeatroMediceo“ and view the stage from differentperspectives. His contribution gave an in-sight in the functioning of periaktoi as well,

which derive from the Greek theatre and pro-vide a simple and quick way of changingscenes. The wooden construction rotates andhas three to six sides, each side covered witha painted panel. The axis of the periaktos wasfixed by a socket on stage and manually op-erated by a stagehand using a handle belowthe stage. Furttenbach described the function-ing of triangular shaped periaktoi in detail inhis „Mannhafter Kunstspiegel“, published in1663.3 However, the periaktoi in the Furtten- bach manuscript are rectangular rather than

triangular.The descriptions in the manuscript providesome new information about the theatre ma-chinery but moreover, the manuscript sup-plies us with a better understanding of Furt-tenbach’s education in Florence and gives anidea of the migration of technique from Italyto Germany. Jan Lazardzig defined four as-pects of knowledge transfer with regard to theFurttenbach manuscript: transfer as travel-ling, transfer as translating, transfer as teach-ing and transfer as putting knowledge into ef-

fect, that all applied to Furttenbach. In 1627he published his „Newes Itinerarium Italiae“,a travel guide that provided the reader withknowledge on accommodation and taverns but also on the theory and practice of architec-ture. Joseph Furttenbach was a mediator; headopted and translated terms to make themavailable for his readers. It is assumed thathe stayed in Italy for approximately ten years.Back in Germany he settled in Ulm, wherehe wrote a dozen books and established aKunstkammer , based on objects brought from

Italy. This cabinet of curiosities, for whichthe Uffizi served as role model, was a placeof teaching and conversation that attractedmany visitors who imagined themselves incultural Italy. Furttenbach did not leave hishomeland anymore.

The cod. icon. 401 gives an idea of the mi-gration of technique from Italy to Germany. Inhis contribution theatre historian PETER EV-ERSMANN (Amsterdam) posed the question

2 Brockett, Making the scene, pp. 78-87.

3 Brockett, Making the scene, p. 71.



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Technologies of Spectacle – Knowledge Transfer in Early Modern Theater Cultures. Workshop

how technical and architectural informationwas transferred to the Netherlands and in par-ticular, to Amsterdam. Little is known aboutthe first permanent theatre in Amsterdam,

which was built in 1617. In 1637 this theatrewas succeeded by the Schouwburg of Jacobvan Campen. The curator of the theatre collec-tion of the University of Amsterdam WILLEMRODENHUIS (Amsterdam) presented visualdocumentation of the Schouwburg from theUniversity’s Special Collection. It holds twooriginal engravings by Savery that depict au-ditorium and stage and a ground plan of theSchouwburg by Vingboons. There is no ques-tion that Jacob van Campen (1596-1657) wasinfluenced by Italian theatre architecture. Ev-

ersmann mentioned the significance betweenthe work of Palladio and the designs of VanCampen. Where, how and when van Campenacquired this knowledge is open for debate.Besides the possibility that he travelled toItaly himself, which can’t be verified, he couldhave been influenced by Constantijn Huy-gens. There’s evidence Huygens travelled toVenice and England and was very much taken by the Italian architecture. Another architectwho could have influenced Van Campen wasInigo Jones, who – like Furttenbach – stud-

ied at Parigi’s academy. A final possibility isthat he acquired his knowledge from treatiseswritten by Italian architects.

MATTEO VALLERIANI (Berlin) and STE-FAN HULFELD (Vienna) kept their contribu-tions concise to leave space for discussion.Hulfeld concluded after reading the Furtten- bach manuscript that it has the language of the engineer, in which players are no morethan puppets. In a mechanical age, the ac-tor was of minor importance. Nonetheless,Hulfeld argues, it were human beings who

put this machinery into effect. There weresometimes over a hundred people working behind the scenes. The expertise of Valleri-ani is the history of mechanics. He empha-sized that the functioning of the machinerywas of major importance. The components of the machines did not only have to function,they had to operate flawlessly in view of thefact that there was an audience present. Everydisturbance or noise would influence the per-formance. The early modern engineers there-fore used traditional and new science as well

as mathematical approaches. Joseph Furttenbach’s manuscript sheds

new light on an era in theatre history that cap-tured the imagination of many; the sumptu-

ous theatre spectacles of the Italian Baroque.The approach to put this very specific aspect –the manuscript – in a broader context was ed-ucational and interesting. The speakers triedto widen the subject. However, the risk of enlarging a field is that focus on the essencecan get lost. In my opinion the lectures dur-ing this workshop were not very concise. Asa result there was not enough space for inter-action and the exchange of ideas, which devi-ates a workshop from a conference. Nonethe-less, the workshop provided enough fruit-

ful thoughts for further research to tackle adesideratum in theatre history: the transfer of technical knowledge in early modern theatrecultures.

Conference Overview:

Welcome / Introduction Jan Lazardzig (Amsterdam) / Hole Rössler(Wolfenbüttel)

Sara Mamone (Florence), The Uffizi Theatre:The Florentine Scene from Bernardo Buontal-

enti to Giulio and Alfonso ParigiWillem Rodenhuis (Amsterdam), Presenta-tion from the Performing Arts Special Collec-tion „Theater in Nederland“ (TIN)

Peter Eversmann (Amsterdam), The Amster-dam ‘Schouwburg’ of 1637: Design Influencesand Technical Furnishings

Dominique Lauvernier (Caen), Presentationof a 3D model of the fourth intermezzo of „IlGiudizio di Paride“

Simon Paulus (Stuttgart), The View of an En-gineer: Some Aspects of Spatial and TechnicalPerception in the „Furttenbach-Manuscript“

Matteo Valleriani (Berlin), Liberty of Actionand Imitation: How to Achieve a Result byAny Means

Stefan Hulfeld (Vienna), A Theory of Actingfor Stage Machinery

Tagungsbericht Technologies of Spectacle – Knowledge Transfer in Early Modern Theater Cul-

tures. Workshop. 14.11.2014–15.11.2014, Ams-



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terdam, in: H-Soz-Kult 10.07.2015.


Technologies of Spectacle

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