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Berzal--Dissertation.pdf (125.45 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Spectacle of Space: Visual Experiences in the Early Modern Scenography of Italy

Berzal, Javier
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397156627

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History of Art.
Through an interdisciplinary examination of theatre architecture and design in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy, my dissertation studies the neglected performative aspects of theatrical spaces, especially the complexities of audience experience. Studying period engagements with philosophical and aesthetic ideas regarding space, place, and setting, I show that artists consciously moved away from illusionistic naturalism in order to present spectacles that purposefully pushed their audiences beyond real experiences towards fantastic spaces. I thus challenge traditional interpretations, demonstrating that the goal of early modern artists was not the creation of an illusionistic and unified theatrical experience dominated by single-point perspective. My dissertation presents a thematic study of the heterogeneous practices of the period that examines displacement, artifice, the realities of construction, ornament, spatial paradoxes and other overlooked albeit ubiquitous visual and textual. The goal is not to simply present an inventory of previously neglected artworks, but to set forth an interpretation of the material that shifts the current academic discourse, which has anachronistically interpreted early modern stages according to values that were not truly palpable or systematized until the seventeenth century. Developing over recent re-evaluations of perspective in art history, as well as phenomenology, theories of performance, social history, and Italian literature studies, my dissertation reveals a world rich in experimentation where artists marveled audiences with spaces that emphasized, to great effect, their very artificiality.
Christian Kleinbub (Advisor)
357 p.
Art History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Berzal, J. (2014). The Spectacle of Space: Visual Experiences in the Early Modern Scenography of Italy [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397156627

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Berzal, Javier. The Spectacle of Space: Visual Experiences in the Early Modern Scenography of Italy. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397156627.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Berzal, Javier. "The Spectacle of Space: Visual Experiences in the Early Modern Scenography of Italy." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397156627

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1397156627
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.