T I! 1 



11 I- 



wai one erected in that city by Bernardo Buontalenti in 



1981 ; tint it di>cs not appear'to have been a public t: 



DOT could it h . <-r\ -pacious. : forms 



ly a saloon in the building called the Utizi. T 

 on tl ' built until the early part 



of tli. ;th century : ji: hieh time . 



tempt had been made to re-tore the form of the iintient 

 theiitre and stage, with the pennnnent architectural 

 and it* entrance-, by 1'alliidio. whoso celebrated Toatro 

 Olimpiio at Yicenza is one oi -.Inch have 



pained a traditional reputation fur beyond their real merit-. 

 Admired at first, because then superior to anything of the 

 kind, it has continued to be admired since, partly on ac- 

 count of the character attached to it, which few care to 

 dispute ; and partly perhaps on account of its -insularity, 

 ana bccrvn-e it sliows thv peculiarities of the antient 

 theatre. By no means however is it a very accurate imi- 

 tation, though its chief merit lies in being a mere imitation ; 

 it is semi-elliptical instead of semicircular, with tin 

 on the longer axis of the ellipse : wherefore it loo 

 much squeezed up one way, and stretched out the other, 

 and produces the same kind of disagreeable effect an would 

 tiom placing the stage on the longer side of a paral- 

 lelogram ot the same extent (96 X 45 feet). It is said that 

 the space to which the architect was restricted compelled 

 him to adopt that form, yet it hardly appears so from the 

 published plans of the building, font would not be difficult 

 to .-how how a semicircle might have been brought in. 

 With regard to the scena, for which unlimited admiration 

 i- claimed, nothing can be more ta-^tele--: it abounds 

 in almost as many architectural barbarisms and solecisms 

 as could well be" brought together. Kven Robert Adam 

 spoke of it as mere ' gingerbread ;' and another architect, 

 Woods, says, ' The scene, which is the part most admired, 

 borders upon trumpery ;' and that although the building is 

 too celebrated to be omitted, for him it might have slept 

 in oblivion.' It is not however so much the scena or fac- 

 ciata itself, as the avenues seen beyond it through the 

 centre arch and other openings which attract notice, and 

 have been extolled by some as greatly superior to the 

 ' flimsy' painted decorations upon canvas used in modern 

 theatres. Those avenues represent as many streets, the 

 fronts of the buildings being modelled or carved in relief, 

 and attempted to be shown in perspective by the floor and 

 ceiling sloping verv much upwards and downwards, and 

 the other horizontal lines accordingly, and by the pa- 

 themselves being narrower at the further end. Tin 

 trivancc is puerile at the best : and instead of being more 

 deceptive or natural than painted seenerv, the imitative 

 pcrpcctivi distorted when viewed from any other 



situation than the centre of the theatre and the level of the 

 stage. It is also difficult to understand how these narrow 

 enclosed passages could have been properly lighted at the 

 time of a performance: and although they are, in stage 

 language. ' practicable,' hardly could they have been made 

 use of, at least not for their whole extent, because at their 

 further end an actor would appear gigantic. This struc- 

 ture is nevertheless entitled to notice as an example of a 

 very defective and faulty system, and because it has been 

 frequently mentioned for the purpose of recommending, 

 on the imposing authority of the name of Palladio, what 

 ought not to be imitated. 



\Ve are not aware of more than one other attempt to 

 revive the antieiit theatre in all its strictness, which was 

 that built in 1588 at Sabbionetta, for the Duke Vcspa-iano 

 Gon/. .imo//i, who completed the Teatro Olim- 



pico after Palladio's death. Temanza, who gives a descrip- 

 tion of the struct fn no longer remain- 

 ing; but Tirabo.-chi point- this out as a mistake, sawnV 

 that the building still existed, though very much out of 

 repair. How far tin Sahhmuctta dill'ered from 

 that at Vieeiiza in .-i<cc. Tcmanza has not .-tatid ; but it was 

 superior to the latter in its plan, the spectatory being semi- 

 circular, and the orchestra somewhat more. There was like- 

 as at Vicenza, a Corinthian loggia or colonnade around 

 the upper part above the seats, but in much bettei 

 all the intercolumus, except one at eaeh end 

 a niche, being open; whereas in the other building the 



inns are closed. Y. 



mrnt Scamozzi may have made upon 1 

 work in tl > mpted none w i 



most of till wanted, but copied the permanent scena, with 

 lU aver.ues of mock perspective in relief. We do not say 



that the antieiit tin nothing for imitation, or 



capable of being applied to modem one-. On the 

 trary, the L 'he spectator)' is the um.-t ele- 



gant and commodious that can be dcucd : the absurdity 

 lay in adopting. ' ith that, 1 I and 



than which nothing can be more ill-con! ri\cd, de 

 . and inconvenient. In fact the antieiit model sup- 

 ,igc at all in comparison with what is now re- 

 quired for one. but merely a proscenium; and such 



..ith merely a stationary architectural <lro[ 

 I'VIMINC], would answer every purpose of dramatic re 



.tation, just as well as the Logeion of thcGi- 

 the I'lilpitum of the Roman,-, and Palla 

 architectural background, which will not endure the 

 slightest comparison with the drop-scene at Covcnt Garden. 

 For the plan of a complete theatre, tin m< with 



n-ivc and complex scenery and mechani-m. should 

 be combined with the form and arrangement of the antieiit 

 spectatory, though not without nlcrable modi- 



fication. This was done bv l^uan-nghi in the Thea' 

 the Hermitage at St. 1', in another p 



theatre in Prince Besborodko's palace, and in a design for 

 a public theatre intended to be erected at Bassano. A 

 all, such plan and disposition of 



well adapted for a modern public theatre and mixed au- 

 dience : unless many inconveniences were to be submitted 

 to, great loss of space, or what would be considered such, 

 would be incurred, and the number of spec: <l be 



much less in proportion to the width of the ' house' and 

 stage. On tin- other hand, the form of the antient th 

 maybe applied to a concert-room with such very slight 

 alteration, that it is rather surprising it should not ha\e 

 been taken as a model for public rooms of the kind. There 

 a permanent scena, either of painted or real architecture, 

 behind the orchestra and singers, would be appropria' 



not intended to have any immediate to the 



performance itself. , 



In claiming a decided superiority for the modern tl 

 over that of the ant lent s. we speak only as regard-' 

 tive systems: and as I'goni, in his Lite of Milizia, oh- 

 to prefer the Grecian theatre, with all its inconveni. 

 ' and the awkward expedients resorted to in it, as being of 

 more classical and dignified character than our own compa- 

 ratively small and fragile yet greatly improved struct!! . 

 the kind, is to wish to limit art and science within their 

 first bounds. There certainly was good reason at one 

 time for exclaiming again.-t modern theatrical architecture 

 :>s very defective in regard to the audience portion of the 

 ' house.' Till within a comparatively late period, scarcely 

 any study was i on beauty and convenience nf 



plan. The accommodations were hardly so go< 

 in many very ordinary playhouses, wlu ; 



tio other scats than what directly face the 

 . The 'house' was usually an oblong, eithei 

 angular or elliptical, so that the greater part of the audi- 

 iliose in the bu\ placed quite on 



the sides. Where the 'house' contracted towards the pro- 

 scenium, a- rnt!\ the MM, the side-boxes were 

 actually turned from the stage ; and whether such 

 the case or not. they were allowed to encroach upon the 



ii-elfin such manner, that when the actor- advanced 

 to the front of tin stage nr hev end the line of the curtain, 

 they may be -aid to have mingled with the audience, and 



111 the boxes on the tn-unl-xi-fiir were actually be- 

 hind them. If we may judge from the plans and other 

 drawings of them, the two principal theatres in London 

 were, even less than a century ago. both as inconvenient 

 and as ugly as can well be imagined. The approaches 

 too, usea formerly to be exceedingly bad ; not only imati 

 and inconvenient, but in many phu misly 



nairow. Such is strikingly the case in most of the mo- 

 dern Roman theatres, for instead of the br - fol- 

 thc cum- of the 'house,' and being of the same 

 width throughout, they are so contracted where the other 

 is wide.-t. that more than two persons cannot pass. 



Vi i\ Meal reforms have now taken place, yet tin 

 still room for further improvement*, obvious, tin. ugh not. 

 likely to be adopted so long as it i- 



of course that the space before the curtain mu-t he made 

 to contain as many pi he i acked into 



it. and that an nudi be piled up around the 



whole house to the very ceiling. We do not say th.tt 

 modern theatres are too lolly ; the cirordocs not lie 'there, 



