Teatro all'antica

The Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre), also all'antica Teatro ( Theatre in the antique style) and Teatro Ducale ( Princely theater) called, is a theater building in the Lombard city Sabbioneta. It originated in the last quarter of the 16th century in the Renaissance. It is the oldest extant freestanding and built only for the purpose of theater buildings in Europe. The slightly older eponymous Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza was inserted into a medieval building, the Teatro Olimpico, however, specially built in Sabbioneta.

History and Architectural History

After the construction of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, it was the express wish of the Duke Vespasian Gonzaga, to have a similar building. This commissioned at this time actually in Venice Vincenzo Scamozzi employed with the construction. Scamozzi had one of the very few Italian architects of his time experience with the theater: he had almost finished by Andrea Palladio 's Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza completed. Some of Scamozzi plan drawings have been preserved; they are now in the Uffizi in Florence. The theater was, according to sources, started in 1587 or 1588 and completed in 1590. Only in the year of completion and even in 1591 it came to performances, then was not played. The building served as a hospital in the 17th century and was later converted to a cinema that was still up in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the building was restored and is now used for concerts.

Appearance

The facades of the building are built on two levels. In the basement, the windows and portals are framed above the high base walls of Kissenquaderung, as well as the corner edges of the building. The upper floor is divided by pilasters of the Tuscan order, the entablature with triglyphs and metopes his is still a borrowing of the Tuscan order underlying the Doric order. All around in the parts of the facade separating the cornice is multiply the aphorism " Roma quanta fuit ipsa ruina docet " shall be inserted. Between the pilasters Scamozzi added alternately windows and niches to build on the short side to the back to the front three and four, on the long sides of nine. The semi-circular niches are captured by simple triangular gables, the windows of blown segmental arch pediments. In the blowing high oval medallion empty spaces are inserted. The window pediments, medallions and the upper part of the entablature decorated addition of Kymatien after the Ionic order.

Affairs

The facade structure on the longitudinal sides are the conditions in the interior of the building into the center front axles not again. The actual theater is extending without mezzanine off the ground by running to the ceiling. Only in the entrance area is the vestibule and on the back of the stage yet another bullet recovered. The front floor is reached by a staircase, the staircase forms the left part of the three-axle front facade. Scamozzi oriented Although in some fundamental points still to Palladian building in Vicenza, but was already much their own way. Thus, the ground plan of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza is almost square, the theater in Sabbioneta other hand, is created by the length to width about 3:1.

Auditorium

The auditorium is clearly oriented towards Palladian model of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. The rows of seats with the balustrade assembly are curved arcuately in opposite directions to the outer sides. There is a balustrade, the area behind it was the ducal family reserved About the rows of seats. From Palladian interior design in Vicenza took Scamozzi, but significantly less monumental than in Vicenza, the arc- shaped structure with the twelve pillars of the Corinthian order, following, and located on them twelve statues of Olympian gods. The auditorium is covered with frescoes illusionist on all walls. There are mostly working with Roman themes, so depictions of emperors, the Capitol Square and Castel Sant'Angelo. Model for some of the frescoes, especially those with the courtly representations audience may have been Paolo Veronese's work at the Villa Maser.

Stage

The stage is worked slightly uphill, which is related to the intended effects of Scamozzi perspective of its construction. Had Palladio yet chosen a rigid proscenium for the stage construction in Vicenza, Scamozzi so went a completely different way: decisive for him was the depth of the stage. Therefore, he designed, as can be seen on the plans, a system of a central street escape, he perspectively so shortened by narrowing of the side members and the increase in stage height that deep action arose. A similar technique used long after Gianlorenzo Bernini him in the construction of the Scala Regia. The original stage construction of Scamozzi was replaced by a system of sliding scenes in the 17th century and was finally lost in the 18th century. It was not until the discovery of the original plans in the Uffizi made ​​it in 1996, the stage setup to reconstruct as it is in the theater today.

Architecture Theoretical Treatment

Scamozzi even sat down with his experience in the theater of architectural theory apart. Above all, his experience in the construction of the theater in Vicenza, as well as that of his own in Sabbioneta occupy an important place in Volume II of his main work L'idea della architettura universale. The signal applied to be 10 volumes works are not published by the three and four only partially survived, was first laid in 1615 in Venice.