Landscape and the arts in early modern Italy : theatre, gardens and visual culture / Katrina Grant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grant, Katrina, author.

Series:

Visual and material culture, 1300-1700.

Visual and material culture, 1300-1700

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Italy--History--17th century.

Theater.

Italian drama--17th century--History and criticism.

Italian drama.

Landscapes in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (292 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

Summary:

This book argues that theatre, and the new genre of opera in particular, played a key role in creating a new vision of landscape during the long seventeenth century in Italy. It explores how the idea of gardens as theatres emerged at the same time as opera was developed in Italian courts around the turn of the seventeenth century. During this period landscape painting emerged as a genre and the aesthetic of designed landscapes and gardens was wholly transformed, which resulted in a reconceptualization of the relationship between humans and landscape. The importance of theatre as a key cultural expression Italy is widely recognised, but the visual culture of theatre and its relationship to the broader artistic culture is still being untangled. This book argues that the combination of narratives playing out in natural settings (Arcadia, Parnassus, Alcina), the emotional responses elicited by sets and special effects (the apparent magical manipulation of the laws of nature), and the way that garden theatres were used for displays of power and to enact princely virtue and social order, all contributed to this shifting idea of landscape in the seventeenth century.

Contents:

Cover

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Theatricality, a View from the Landscape

2. Gardens of the Gods: Classical Revival, Intermedi, Early Opera and the Idea of Nature

3. The (Singing) Figure in the Landscape

4. Triumph over Nature: Machines and Meraviglia on the Seventeenth-century Stage

5. The Theatre in the Landscape: Pliny to Pratolino

6. The Garden as Stage, the Visitor as Performer

7. Stages without Actors: Theatres of Sculpture, Water and Flowers

8. Performing in the Parrhasian Grove: Green Theatres and the Academies

Bibliography

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Sep 2022).

Other Format:

Print version: Grant, Katrina Landscape and the Arts in Early Modern Italy

ISBN:

90-485-5112-9

OCLC:

1319217291