DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0082
82
OF THE THEATRE 01' BACCHUS.
servations we were permitted to make on these ruins; and I think I may add, that even were it
ible from future researches, to restore all those parts of a theatre Vitruvius has mentioned, and
to exemplify every precept he has given on this subject, we should not, even with these advantages,
be able to form a complete idea of the apparatus and economy of the ancient stage: there would still
remain many essential particulars to be described and accounted for, before we could comprehend the
contrivances of their machinery, or in what manner the scenes were disposed, which they adapted to
the various dramatic compositions they exhibited.
The front of the scene, as described by Vitruvius, was highly decorated with columns, and
other architectural ornaments; and the remains of ancient theatres published by Serlio and Desgo-
detza prove, that what he has taught, was in that respect the actual practice of the age he lived in.
In this all his commentators agree, but neither the elegant designs they have given to illustrate this
part of his doctrineb, nor the ancient remains that have been published, convey to us any idea of
a temple, or a palace, or a private habitation. The front of the scene seems to have been a distinct
species of composition, by no means resembling any place in which the spectators could suppose
that the imaginary business of the drama was transacted ; and should we allow it to have represented
a palace, as the Marchese Galiani has suggested c, it must have appeared an insufferable absurdity,
had Prometheus chained to a rock, or Philoctetes crawling out of his cavern, or Electra issuing from
her cottage, uttered their groans, or bewailed their distresses, in the midst of a magnificence totally
repugnant to the situation in which the poet has placed them. Or if, on these occasions, we suppose
a rock, or a cavern, or a cottage, were for the time brought on the stage, they would have ill con-
nected with the architectural ornaments of the front of the scene; such heterogeneous objects could
not, surely, have existed together, during a theatrical representationd.
I must therefore suppose this stately front was entirely concealed during the time of acting,
and that some painted scene, and other decorations, were introduced, which, having relation to the
subject exhibited on the stage, by reconciling the eyes of the spectators to the requisite ideas of lo-
cality, contributed to add a species of theatrical probability to the representation, which the invariable
front of the scene, if produced on all occasions, would unquestionably have destroyed.
And in fact, Vitruvius plainly tells us, there were three different sorts of scenes, the tragic,
the comic, and the satyric e: each of them doubtless appropriated to the subject of the fable repre-
sented on the stage. He also informs us, that when iEschylus, the great improver of the Grecian
stage, exhibited one of his tragedies, he introduced, for the first time, a painted scene, the work
of Agatharcus, from whose writings on the subject, the art of perspective was afterwards insti-
tuted f.
g The head piece to the third chapter (see Plate XVII. Fig. 11), represents a Bacchanalian
dance", copied from an elegant marble basso relievo [ found amonst the ruins of the theatre of
See the theatres of Marcellus, of Pola, and of Perentum ',
given by Serlio, and that of Marcellus published by Desgodetz.
b Barbara, Perrault, Galiani, Newton.
c Vitruv. Galiani, p. 190, n. 1.
d This will be rendered sufficiently evident, if we barely enu-
merate the scenes of some of the most celebrated tragedies of
antiquity ; for instance, that of Prometheus in Chains, in a very
dreary part of Mount Caucasus; of the Persians, a temple near
the sepulchre of Darius at Susa ; of the Eumenides, the temple at
Delphi, and, by a change of scene, as it should seem, that of Mi-
nerva in the Acropolis: all these are of jEschylus. The scene of
the'Philoctetes of Sophocles, that of his Ajax the Scourge-bearer,
a camp and distant ships; his CEdipus Coloneus, a grove and a
temple. The scene of the Electra of Euripides, and of his two
Iphigenias, one a temple, the other a camp.
In all these instances, the painter, it must be allowed, was a
useful assistant to the magician, who, ' modo vie Thebis, vwdo me
ponit Alhenis.'
1 The ancient name was Fercntinum ; two towns of that name were near Rome th'
Architettura. Ven. 1859. [En.]
e Genera autem sunt scenarum tria : unum, quod dicitur tra-
gicum, alterum comicum, tertium satyricum. Horum autem or-
natus sunt inter se dissimiles disparique ratione: quod tragica?
deforniantur columnis et fastigiis ct signis, reliquisque regalibus
rebus; comicse autem ajdificiorum privatorum, et menianorum,
habent speeiem, &c. Vitr. lib. V. cap. 8.
f Namque primum Agatharchus Athenis, iEschylo docente tra-
gcediam, scenam fecit, et de ea commentarium reliquit. Ex eo
moniti, Democritus et Anaxagoras de eadem re scripserunt,
Procemium Lib. VII. p. 258.
g The remainder of this chapter is brought forward from the
description of the vignettes at the end of the volume. [ed.]
h The Bacchus on the chest of Cypselus was figured with a
beard; he held a goblet in his hand, and was dressed in a gar-
ment reaching to his feet. See Pausanias, Eliac. Prior. C. XIX.
1 This relief was found by the agents of Lord Elgin, as the
decoration of a fountain at Athens, in the court-yard of Spiridion
Eogotheti, grandson of the above, and also acting British Con-
is is that to the north-west. " Ferento citta molto antica presso Viterho." Serlio,
M1
jltrfV
s
-i.
K7N
OF THE THEATRE 01' BACCHUS.
servations we were permitted to make on these ruins; and I think I may add, that even were it
ible from future researches, to restore all those parts of a theatre Vitruvius has mentioned, and
to exemplify every precept he has given on this subject, we should not, even with these advantages,
be able to form a complete idea of the apparatus and economy of the ancient stage: there would still
remain many essential particulars to be described and accounted for, before we could comprehend the
contrivances of their machinery, or in what manner the scenes were disposed, which they adapted to
the various dramatic compositions they exhibited.
The front of the scene, as described by Vitruvius, was highly decorated with columns, and
other architectural ornaments; and the remains of ancient theatres published by Serlio and Desgo-
detza prove, that what he has taught, was in that respect the actual practice of the age he lived in.
In this all his commentators agree, but neither the elegant designs they have given to illustrate this
part of his doctrineb, nor the ancient remains that have been published, convey to us any idea of
a temple, or a palace, or a private habitation. The front of the scene seems to have been a distinct
species of composition, by no means resembling any place in which the spectators could suppose
that the imaginary business of the drama was transacted ; and should we allow it to have represented
a palace, as the Marchese Galiani has suggested c, it must have appeared an insufferable absurdity,
had Prometheus chained to a rock, or Philoctetes crawling out of his cavern, or Electra issuing from
her cottage, uttered their groans, or bewailed their distresses, in the midst of a magnificence totally
repugnant to the situation in which the poet has placed them. Or if, on these occasions, we suppose
a rock, or a cavern, or a cottage, were for the time brought on the stage, they would have ill con-
nected with the architectural ornaments of the front of the scene; such heterogeneous objects could
not, surely, have existed together, during a theatrical representationd.
I must therefore suppose this stately front was entirely concealed during the time of acting,
and that some painted scene, and other decorations, were introduced, which, having relation to the
subject exhibited on the stage, by reconciling the eyes of the spectators to the requisite ideas of lo-
cality, contributed to add a species of theatrical probability to the representation, which the invariable
front of the scene, if produced on all occasions, would unquestionably have destroyed.
And in fact, Vitruvius plainly tells us, there were three different sorts of scenes, the tragic,
the comic, and the satyric e: each of them doubtless appropriated to the subject of the fable repre-
sented on the stage. He also informs us, that when iEschylus, the great improver of the Grecian
stage, exhibited one of his tragedies, he introduced, for the first time, a painted scene, the work
of Agatharcus, from whose writings on the subject, the art of perspective was afterwards insti-
tuted f.
g The head piece to the third chapter (see Plate XVII. Fig. 11), represents a Bacchanalian
dance", copied from an elegant marble basso relievo [ found amonst the ruins of the theatre of
See the theatres of Marcellus, of Pola, and of Perentum ',
given by Serlio, and that of Marcellus published by Desgodetz.
b Barbara, Perrault, Galiani, Newton.
c Vitruv. Galiani, p. 190, n. 1.
d This will be rendered sufficiently evident, if we barely enu-
merate the scenes of some of the most celebrated tragedies of
antiquity ; for instance, that of Prometheus in Chains, in a very
dreary part of Mount Caucasus; of the Persians, a temple near
the sepulchre of Darius at Susa ; of the Eumenides, the temple at
Delphi, and, by a change of scene, as it should seem, that of Mi-
nerva in the Acropolis: all these are of jEschylus. The scene of
the'Philoctetes of Sophocles, that of his Ajax the Scourge-bearer,
a camp and distant ships; his CEdipus Coloneus, a grove and a
temple. The scene of the Electra of Euripides, and of his two
Iphigenias, one a temple, the other a camp.
In all these instances, the painter, it must be allowed, was a
useful assistant to the magician, who, ' modo vie Thebis, vwdo me
ponit Alhenis.'
1 The ancient name was Fercntinum ; two towns of that name were near Rome th'
Architettura. Ven. 1859. [En.]
e Genera autem sunt scenarum tria : unum, quod dicitur tra-
gicum, alterum comicum, tertium satyricum. Horum autem or-
natus sunt inter se dissimiles disparique ratione: quod tragica?
deforniantur columnis et fastigiis ct signis, reliquisque regalibus
rebus; comicse autem ajdificiorum privatorum, et menianorum,
habent speeiem, &c. Vitr. lib. V. cap. 8.
f Namque primum Agatharchus Athenis, iEschylo docente tra-
gcediam, scenam fecit, et de ea commentarium reliquit. Ex eo
moniti, Democritus et Anaxagoras de eadem re scripserunt,
Procemium Lib. VII. p. 258.
g The remainder of this chapter is brought forward from the
description of the vignettes at the end of the volume. [ed.]
h The Bacchus on the chest of Cypselus was figured with a
beard; he held a goblet in his hand, and was dressed in a gar-
ment reaching to his feet. See Pausanias, Eliac. Prior. C. XIX.
1 This relief was found by the agents of Lord Elgin, as the
decoration of a fountain at Athens, in the court-yard of Spiridion
Eogotheti, grandson of the above, and also acting British Con-
is is that to the north-west. " Ferento citta molto antica presso Viterho." Serlio,
M1
jltrfV
s
-i.
K7N