 |
 |
Sabbioneta in Italy is the oldest surviving indoor court theatre of Europe. It was build by Vincenzo Scamozzi (1588) for the duke of Mantua, Vespasiano Gonzaga. The theatre was strongly influenced by the development of the Renaissance and Baroque Court. In the evolution of the modern stage Sabbioneta lies between Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and Teatro Farnese in Parma.
 |
Teatro Sabbioneta placed in history |
Duke Vespasiano Gonzago and the Sabbioneta Theatre
Duke Vespasiano Gonzago-Colonna (1513-1601) founded the Court Theatre of Sabbioneta. The theatre was part of the rebuilding of the entire city that was made to fit the Duke’s ideas about the ideal city. More elaborate information about the ideal city is to be found at theatre viewpoint 2 (The Outside).After the Duke inherited the city of Sabbioneta, he made it his residence and started planning the rebuilding of the city in the 1550’s. He started planning the building of a theatre in 1580 and commissioned Vicenzo Scamozzi with the design.
 |
Duke Vespasiano Gonzago |
The Architect Vincenzo Scamotti
Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552-1616) designed the theatre and the scenery. His ideas fit with the ideas of Gonzaga about the ideal city. He added a perspective stage setting to the theatre.| |
Vincenzo Scamozzi |
Roman influences
Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554) wrote some highly influential works on architecture, introducing Vitruvian building practice in 16th-century Europe. In the Second Book of his Five Books of Architecture(1537-1545), he writes on theatre building, matching Vitruvius with his own knowledge of the ancient ruins and his experience as an architect and painter.Serlio was the first theoretician to combine the Roman auditorium plan with the Renaissance perspective stage. His writings influenced the Teatro Sabbioneta-design. The theatre's wall frescoes and colonnade decorations must be taken as deliberate references to ancient Rome, both in honour of the old Roman capital as for the glory of Sabbioneta.
| |
Roman influences |
| |
The hierarchical auditorium (Serlio) |
Absolute power in the Court Theatre
The Renaissance theatre did not serve a purely aesthetical function; it was not merely an art, nor just entertainment. The theatre served to emphasize the honour and power of the local ruler (giving him literally a central place in the auditorium). As Kernodle writes (in Hewitt, 1958,1), "The Renaissance theatre was created as a part of the ornamentation and display of the princely courts of Italy."
| |
Absolute power |