a space within the 'case' behind the façades, but this does not seem to have been regarded as a very effective device.[1] Nor is there anything to suggest that Serlio contemplated any substantial amount of action within his central recess, for which, indeed, the slope required by his principles of perspective made it hardly suitable. As a matter of fact the action of the Italian commedia sostenuta, following here the tradition of its Latin models, is essentially exterior action before contiguous houses, and some amusing conventions, as Creizenach notes, follow from this fact; such as that it is reasonable to come out of doors in order to communicate secrets, that the street is a good place in which to bury treasure, and that you do not know who lives in the next house until you are told.[2] In discussing the decoration of the stage, Serlio is careful to distinguish between the kinds of scenery appropriate for tragedy, comedy, and the satyric play or pastoral, respectively, herein clearly indicating his debt and that of his school to the doctrine of Vitruvius.
It must not be supposed that Serlio said the last word on Italian Renaissance staging. He has mainly temporary theatres in his mind, and when theatres became permanent it was possible to replace laths and painted cloths by a more solid architectural scena in relief. Of this type was the famous Teatro Olympico of Vicenza begun by Andrea Palladio about 1565 and finished by Vincenzo Scamozzi about 1584.[3] It closely followed the indications of Vitruvius, with its porta regia in the middle of the scena, its portae minores to right and left, and its proscenium doors in versurae under balconies
- ↑ De Sommi, Dial. iv (c. 1565, D'Ancona, ii. 419), 'Ben che paia di certa vaghezza il vedersi in scena una camera aperta, ben parata, dentro a la quale, dirò così per esempio, uno amante si consulti con una ruffiana, et che paia aver del verisimile, è però tanto fuor del naturale esser la stanza senza il muro dinanzi, il che necessariamente far bisogna, che a me ne pare non molto convenirsi: oltre che non so se il recitare in quel loco, si potrà dire che sia in scena. Ben si potrà per fuggir questi due inconvenienti, aprire come una loggia od un verone dove rimanesse alcuno a ragionare'.
- ↑ Creizenach, ii. 271.
- ↑ Ferrari, 105, with engravings; A. Magrini, Il teatro Olympico (1847). This is noticed by the English travellers, Fynes Morison, Itinerary, i. 2. 4 (ed. 1907, i. 376), 'a Theater for Playes, which was little, but very faire and pleasant', and T. Coryat, Crudities, ii. 7, 'The scene also is a very faire and beautifull place to behold'. He says the house would hold 3,000. In Histriomastix, ii. 322, the 'base trash' of Sir Oliver Owlet's players is compared unfavourably with the splendour of Italian theatres. A permanent theatre had been set up in the Sala grande of the Corte Vecchia at Ferrara in 1529, with scenery by Dosso Dossi representing Ferrara, for a revival of the Cassaria and the production of Ariosto's Lena; it was burnt down, just before Ariosto's death, in 1532 (Flechsig, 23; Gardner, King of Court Poets, 203, 239, 258).
