EVCS: Katrina Grant ‘Verdi prati, selve almene’: Theatres in the Italian Baroque Garden’
Katrina Grant
‘Verdi prati, selve almene’: Theatres in the Italian Baroque Garden
Marc’Antonio Dal Re, ‘Water Theatre at Isola Bella’, from Ville de delizia o siano palagi capareci nello Stato di Milano, Milan: Nella Contrada di Santa Margherita, all' insegna dell' Aquila Imperiale, 1726. 24.3 x 62.55cm. Engraving and etching. New York, Private Collection.
The links between theatre and the garden have long been recognised. The theatre as a feature of garden design can be traced back to the fifteenth century and its peak period of popularity was the seventeenth century. It remained a common feature of gardens well into the eighteenth century, and even saw a revival in the early twentieth century. In modern scholarship these theatres are often explained simply as a symptom of the Baroque period’s obsessive ‘theatricality’. However, a closer look reveals that the theatre in the Baroque garden was, rather, a manifestation of a specific ideological approach to the space of the garden and its accompanying art forms.
Date: Monday 28 February 2011 6:30 pm
Venue: Room 150 Elisabeth Murdoch Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville
All Welcome
Drinks and nibbles provided (gold coin donation appreciated). The seminar will be followed by dinner in Lygon St. Please RSVP Mark Shepheard (shepm@unimelb.edu.au) if you plan to join us for dinner.
