Faith and Emotion: Paradises and Angelic Flights in Italian Renaissance Theatre

Risultato della ricerca: Contributo in libroChapter

Abstract

This essay analizes the stage machines developed in Florence by the architect-engineer Filippo Brunelleschi, at the beginning of the 15th century, to set up the mysteries of the "Annunciation", "Ascension" and "Pentecost" in some churches of the city. These apparatuses represented heaven in three dimensions, with God the Father and his angels personified by live singers and musicians who hovered in the air in a whirlwind of dances of lights and sounds. The essay highlights that the function of these apparatuses was to offer the faithful an imaginary of heaven, inspired by the model of Dante’s Comedy, which they had never seen before in the pictorial representations widespread in churches and places of worship. On the other hand, this image of heaven as a place of delight, light and infinite joy was intended to directly stimulate the emotional sensitivity of believers, encouraging them to behave as good Christians in order to enter it after death. In addition to the emotional impact aroused on the public by these stage sets, is taken into consideration the visual and kinetic suggestion that this new representation of heaven exerted on artists, both Florentine and non-Florentine, irreversibly influencing their figurative lexicon, as evidenced by the numerous iconographic sources examined. Finally, some examples of reworking of Brunelleschi’s machines in non-Florentine contexts and for themes other than religious ones are analyzed, as in the case of the "Feast of Paradise", created in Milan by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490, and in various representations, sacred and profane, set up in Ferrara between the end of the 15th century and the first years of the 16th century. In conclusion, the article suggests that Brunelleschi's stage machinery, with the visual impact of the movement of the clothes and artificial hair of the angels flying in the air, could have exerted a further influence on artists in the transition from the classicist rigor of the early Florentine Renaissance to the kinetic exuberance of figuration in the second half of the century, particularly in works of classical and mythological inspiration, contributing to the affirmation of Warburg's "pathos".
Lingua originaleEnglish
Titolo della pubblicazione ospiteSculpter à la Renaissance: un art pour (é)mouvoir – Scolpire nel Rinascimento: un’arte per (com)muovere
Pagine127-145
Numero di pagine19
Volume2024
Stato di pubblicazionePubblicato - 2024

Keywords

  • Firenze, Milano, Ferrara, rappresentazioni sacre, paradiso, Filippo Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Verrocchio, Aby Warburg
  • Florence, Milan, Ferrara, mystery plays, heaven, Filippo Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Verrocchio, Aby Warburg

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