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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The account of an elaborate theatrical entertainment which appears in Canto V of Marino's Adone (1623), like so many features of the poem, presents a glorified portrayal of the life style of royalty in the Baroque age, its splendor, its extravagance, its ingenuity. Though the passage may strike the modern reader as being largely fanciful, almost every detail of it can be duplicated in the extant records of festivals and masques of the European courts from Rome to London between 1550 and 1625. There is one feature of Marino's theatrical presentation, however, which represents a striking departure from the familiar practices of the scenographers of the period: namely, the rapid changing of scenes through the use of a revolving stage.
1 L'Adone, Poema del Cavalier Marino (Paris, 1623).
2 A more detailed discussion of this problem will be presented later.
3 Interestingly, that may have been the only large scale revolving stage built for a European theatre until well into the nineteenth century. According to James Laver, ”…the revolving stage [was] invented by Lautenschläger at Munich, and installed in the Residenz Theater in 1896, in order to facilitate the production of Mozart's operas.” “Continental Designs in the Theatre,” Design in the Theater, ed. G. Holme (London, 1927), p. 22.
4 Tutte le opere di Giovan Battista Marino (Milan, 1976), II, 321. “Per l'allestimento, presenze dei mari, temporali, passaggi dal nuvolo al sereno (ott. 139-142) e dal giorno alla notte (ott. 144) sono testimoniate nella più ardita pratica scenografica seicentesca.”
5 Ibid. “IIM. risolve [il cambio di scena] (che era uno dei problemi tecnici più ardui che si proponevano alla practica dello spettacolo) con un congegno che non poteva trovare applicazione nella realtà, anche se le singole parti degli elementi meccanici corrispondono allo stato della tecnica di allora (ott. 127-129).”
6 Adonis: Selections from L'Adone of Giambattista Marino, trans. Harold M. Priest (Ithaca, 1967), pp. 92-96. The Italian text is given in the Appendix.
7 “Spectacle et Représentation dans l’ ‘Adone’ de Giovan Battista Marino,” Revue des Sciences Humaines, 37 (1972), p. 82.
8 Art Quarterly, 12 (1949), 325-336.
9 Solmi, Edmondo, “Relazione della festa del Paradiso,” Scritti Vinciani (Florence, 1924), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar The text of the contemporary report is based on Bibl. Estense, Cod. ital. n. 521, a J. 4, 21.
10 I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci, pubblicati dalla Reale Commissione Vinciana (Rome, 1923-1930). Codex Arundel 263, III.
11 “Quando s'apre il paradiso di plutone alor sia diavoli che sonio [sonino] dodici oUe a uso di boce infernali—quivi sia la morte le furie cervero molti putti nudi che pianghino quivi fochi fatti da vari colo[ri]… .enevinobal… .” Transcribed in Codex Arundel 263, p. 374 from fol. 23 rv.
12 Pedretti, Carlo, “Dessins d'une scène exécutés par Léonard de Vinci pour Charles d'Ambois,” Le lieu théâtral à la Renaissance (Paris, 1964), pp. 25–34.Google Scholar Incidentally, Pedretti proposes an alternate system for the operation of Leonardo's sets, but the basic construction is, like Guatelli's, that of the scena ductilis.
13 Noted by: Becherini, Bianca, “Regia e allestimenti di Leonardo da Vinci,” La Scala, 15 (Feb. 1951), pp. 27–29 Google Scholar; Altick, George, et al., Theater Pictorial (Berkeley, 1953).Google Scholar plate 84; and Steinitz, Kate, “Le dessin de Léonardo de Vinci pour la représentation de la Danae de Baldassare Taccone,” Le lieu théâtral à la Renaissance, pp. 35–40 and plate.Google Scholar
14 First published in French trans. Paris, 1545. Earliest publ. in Italian, Venice, 1560.
15 A celebration attending the baptism of Leonora, daughter of Francesco de’ Medici and Joanna of Austria.
16 An opinion supported by Nagler, A.M., Theatre Festivals of the Medici: 1539-1637 (New Haven and London, 1964), pp. 39–40 Google Scholar, and also supported by Il luogo teatrale a Firenze, a catalogue for an exhibition in 1975, Part I of the serial publication: Spettacolo e musica nella Firenze Medicea, p. 98. Much of the information on the Medici festivals is derived from these sources.
17 The term ekkyklema has also been applied to a platform which can be rolled forward and backward. That type of platform would not have a fixed pivot, as did the one in the scene described here.
18 “Suddenly the scene was turned (or was altered) on both sides, and two caves were born.” In quotations from old texts I have followed modern typographical conventions in respect to the use of u/v and i/j throughout the article.
19 Nagler, pp. 80-81, footnote 34. A variant account of the events in Il luogo teatrale a Firenze, based on the contemporary report by De Rossi, offers no clue to the method used to introduce the grottoes but neither does it give any indication of suddenly turning machinery. What it does add to the scene is a picture of the exterior of the grottoes. “At the sides of the mountain, on which…sat the sixteen nymphs, were discovered two grottoes covered with sponges and musk distilling drops of water… : from them issued the two groups of the Muses and the Pierides, who promptly began their musical contest.” The conclusion of the scene is reported simply: ”…from the stage were seen to disappear the mountain and the grottoes, and the garden vanished.” “Ai lati del monte, sul quale…sedevano le sedici ninfe, si trovavano due grotte recopre di spugne e muschio stillanti gocciole d'acqua… : da esse uscirono le due schiere delle Muse e delle Pieridi che subito dettero inizio alla loro contesa canora… . dal palcoscenico si vedevano ‘sparire il monte, e le grotte, e dileguarsi il giardino.’ ” P. 113.
20 The authentic sketch by Buontalenti fails to include any sign of the grottoes, though it shows the Muses and the Pierides, already emerged from the grottoes. The engraving by Epifanio d’ Alfiano, which did not appear until three years after the performance, represents the grottoes as two ornate architectural structures beside the mountain and at least as large as it. This latter illustration is highly idealized and does not appear to bear much relation to reality. (Cf. Nagler's plates 48 and 51.)
21 “Subito si volta la prospettiva” can be translated “suddenly the scene was turned, or revolved;” or it may simply mean “suddenly the scene was changed.”
22 This performance was part of the celebration in Florence for the wedding of Cosimo de’ Medici and Maria Magdalena in 1608. Cf. Nagler, 104-105; Festival Designs by Inigo Jones (International Exhibitions Foundation, 1967), Introduction, 8th and 9th pages [pages unnumbered]; It luogo teatrale a Firenze, 119-120.
23 Festival Designs, 7th page.
24 Campbell, Lily Bess, Scenes and Machines on the English Stage During the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1960), pp. 169–170.Google Scholar Campbell attributes the designs to Jones, but Stephen Orgel states that: “Queens was not designed by Jones… . “ though in his style. Benjonson: The Complete Masques (New Haven and London, 1960), p. 7, n. 5.
25 Pp. 170-171. Jones's scena ductilis differs from Leonardo's mechanism. Jones employs plain flats sliding in grooves. Orgel, p. 18.
26 Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage (New York, 1938), pp. 67-68.
27 Parigi's design for the “Palace of Fame” in the first intermezzo of Il Giudizio di Paride for the Medici wedding of 1608 appeared one year prior to the Masque of Queens. Cf. Nagler, pp. 104-105 and Festival Designs, 4th page of text and plate 8.
28 “En 1617, Francini y construisit un théâtre curieusement machine pour l'exécution du Ballet de la délivrance de Renaud dont l'action comportait quatre changements à vue. Ceux-ci n'étaient plus obtenus par les precédés assez rudimentaires que nous avons décrit, mais grace a un système aussi nouveau qu’ ingénieux.” Prunières, Henry, Le Ballet de Cour en France avant Benserade et Lully (Paris, 1914), p. 153.Google Scholar Excellent detailed accounts of the Délivrance, all based on the livret, appear in: Celler, Ludovic, Les décors, les costumes et la mise en scène au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1869), pp. 6–13 Google Scholar; Henry Prumières, pp. 115-119, 153-154; Sonrel, Pierre, Traité de scénographie (Paris, 1943), pp. 65–67 Google Scholar; McGowan, Margaret M., L'art du ballet de cour en France, 1581-1643 (Paris, n.d.), pp. 105–112.Google Scholar Briefer references to the work and its revolving stage are in: Altman, et al., plate 498; Nagler, note 34, pp. 80-81; Decugis, N. et Reymond, S., Le décor de théâtre en France, due Moyen Age à 1925 (Paris, 1953), p. 56 Google Scholar; La vie théâtrale au temps de la Renaissance, n.a. (Paris, 1963), pp. 220-221; Jacquot, Jean, “Les types du lieu théâtral et leurs transformations de la fin du Moyen Age au milieu du XVIIe siecle,” Le lieu théâtral à la Renaissance, p. 506.Google Scholar
29 In two sources, Altman and La vie théâtrale, the scenery on the revolving platform is treated as a two-dimensional piece, another flat. The descriptions of the scenery as well as the illustrations in the livret clearly negate such a proposal. The mountain with its fourteen recesses for actors, the fountain with its nymph, and the pavilion housing the crusaders had to be three-dimensional.
30 F. Nunziante published a lengthy article, “Il cavalier Marino alla corte di Luigi XIII,” Nuova Antologia, 92 (1887), pp. 417-451, which quotes extensively from Marino's letters giving his impressions of the Parisians, and presents biographical information about the court personages whom Marino eulogizes in Cantos X and XI of L'Adone, but he reveals little about the author's day to day activities and nothing about his theater-going experiences.
31 “La mia pensione già è assicurata e ne ho ricevute le spedizioni gratis. L'altr’ ieri mi furono pagati cinquecento scudi d'oro per un aiuto di costa, ed in questa corte son molto onorato, stimato ed accarezzato.” Marino, G. B., Epistolario, ed. Borzelli, A. e Nicolini, , 2 vols. (Bari, 1911-12), I, 203.Google Scholar
32 “Sono vivo, la Dio mercé, sano e (quod peius) ricco come un asino. Le mie fortune qui vanno assai bene. Sono ben veduto da questa Maesta ed accarezzato da tutti questi principi.” Epistolario, I, 216.
33 “L'Adone del Cav. Marino vien aspettato qui con maggior desiderio di quello con che Venere aspettava il prototipo… . Se il Re si trova cosí ben affetto verso tutti i poeti, mi farà venir voglia di diventar poeta e di corrermene a cotesta Corte.” Rizza, Cecilia, “Una testimonianza dimenticata sul soggiorno del Marino in Francia e sulla stampadell' ‘Adone,’” Studi francesi, 6 (1962), p. 86.Google Scholar
34 Guglielminetti, Marziano, Tecnica e invenzione nell’ opera di Giambattista Marino (Messina-Florence, 1964), pp. 161–162.Google Scholar
35 “L'eau et les tritons dans les fetes de cour,” Les fetes de la Renaissance (Paris, 1956), p. 239.
