Dal trionfo al pianto. La fondazione del "teatro della misericordia" nel Medioevo (V-XIII sec.)

Translated title of the contribution: [Autom. eng. transl.] From triumph to tears. The foundation of the "theater of mercy" in the Middle Ages (V-XIII century)

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Abstract

[Autom. eng. transl.] The book investigates the historical reasons that substantiate the representation of the passion and crucifixion of Christ in the Middle Ages, starting from the Constantinian era up to the Franciscan spirituality. The essay proposes a reading of the medieval Passionist theater as «drama», that is as an action that happens in presence, establishes relationships and becomes experience. The study examines different modes of representation, connecting figurative art, poetic and meditative literature, liturgical ceremonies to the first dramatic forms, analyzing their function against the background of contemporary theological thought and spirituality. In this picture the different meanings that the passion of Christ assumes over the centuries are read in relation to the change of both the iconography and the Passionist dramaturgy, whose order seems influenced by the techniques proper to meditation and refers on the one hand to the memorial function of the images and ritual, on the other hand to the very meaning of the representation intended as a re-presentation here and now of the reality of the sacrifice of God. The centrality of the "dramaturgy of tears" emerges which, during the twelfth century, expresses a sort of parental relationship of the faithful with Christ mediated by the entirely new presence of the figure of Mary on the Golgotha scene, to which the changes in the narrative scheme of passion are connected up to the first forms of Passionist drama. Thanks to the concept of following the Franciscan order, the process of dramaturgical revolution takes place in the sense of a mimetic identification which, together with the profound meaning of history, lays the foundations for the antispettacular realism of the 'theater of mercy' of the laity, which already in nuce in the rites and devout practices of the brotherhoods of the early fourteenth century, it will flourish completely only towards the end of the century.
Translated title of the contribution[Autom. eng. transl.] From triumph to tears. The foundation of the "theater of mercy" in the Middle Ages (V-XIII century)
Original languageItalian
PublisherVita e Pensiero
Number of pages466
ISBN (Print)978-88-343-1628-3
Publication statusPublished - 2008

Keywords

  • liturgical drama
  • medieval drama
  • medieval theatre
  • planctus

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