The purpose of the article is to investigate the complex link between theatre, as a practice invo... more The purpose of the article is to investigate the complex link between theatre, as a practice involving a number of people, and the change in the use of dramatic texts occurred at the origins of the Italian printing industry, when dramatic texts were no longer only acted but also read as books. With the invention of printed books, theatre has been transformed from a performative action to a container of memory images fixed through the book illustration. On the one hand, the article investigates the printed tradition of sacre rappresentazioni ('sacred plays') in connection with the other religious literary texts published between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of sixteenth centuries, putting it in relation with the birth of devotional books widely used in Florence during the age of Savonarola. On the other hand, it deals with the problem of illustrations by reconstructing the relationship between faithful people and sacred images before their diffusion was multiplied by the printing industry, and by looking at the real meaning of the link between written texts and woodcuts, in order to understand how the sacra rappresentazione, being a dramatic genre, was conceived when it was transformed into an object for reading.
In questo intervento di apertura delle due sezioni dell’atelier dedicate a I linguaggi religiosi ... more In questo intervento di apertura delle due sezioni dell’atelier dedicate a I linguaggi religiosi nei sistemi della comunicazione politica: culti e immagini, liturgie e rituali, mi limiterò a illustrare l’idea di fondo che ha suggerito la scelta dei temi affrontati e dei relatori, sottolineando alcuni punti che mi pare siano emersi dagli interventi, in piena rispondenza con le questioni sollevate dal progetto dell’incontro. Non procederò invece a un bilancio dei risultati emersi dalla varietà ..
Questo contributo propone una riflessione sull'influenza che la mentalit\ue0 orale, ancor viv... more Questo contributo propone una riflessione sull'influenza che la mentalit\ue0 orale, ancor viva nel XV secolo prima dell'affermazione della stampa, esercitava sulla composizione estemporanea prima, e sulla scrittura poi, di testi recitativi e drammaturgici. Per avvicinarsi a questo tipo di mentalit\ue0 \ue8 stato necessario ricostruire le tecniche della recitazione improvvisata perch\ue9 fanno luce sui sistemi di produzione di testi destinati alla comunicazione orale che oggi noi conosciamo soltanto attraverso la loro forma scritta. Queste tecniche, e la mentalit\ue0 orale che ad esse presiede, sono rintracciate in diverse tipologie recitative - dai cantari, alle novelle alle sacre rappresentazioni -, per giungere, tramite loro, ad una nuova configurazione del processo genetico della commedia in lingua. La commedia \ue8 stata infatti finora considerata come il prodotto degli studi umanistici sul teatro classico condotti nel contesto delle principali corti italiane del primo Cinquecento. Essa invece fu il risultato della fusione fra le varie tradizioni recitative preesistenti e la cultura umanistica: un fenomeno che, se a Firenze \ue8 pi\uf9 evidentemente percepibile per l'assenza di una corte che indirizzasse la produzione culturale univocamente verso la riscoperta dell'antico, caratterizz\uf2 tuttavia anche altri centri italiani.This paper proposes a reflection on the influence exercised by oral mentality, which, still active in the XVth century before the divulgation of the press, had a large sway first on improvised compositions, and later on the recitation and written dramatic texts. In order to understand this mentality, it is indispensable to reconstruct the techniques of improvised recitation because these may throw light on the system of production of texts destined for oral communication, but which have reached us only through their written form. These techniques, therefore, and the oral mentality behind them, are retraced in the different recitative typologies - starting with the cantari, the novelle (tales), and the sacre rappresentazioni - and through these arrive at a new configuration of the genetic process of the vernacular comedy. In fact comedy has so far been considered as the product of humanistic studies on the classical theatre transposed in the context of the principal Italian courts of the early XVIth century. On the contrary it was the result of the fusion between the various pre-existing recitative traditions and humanistic culture: a phenomenon that, though in Florence it can be more readily noticed because of the absence of a court that could direct the cultural production uniquely towards the rediscovery of the classics, all the same, characterizes other Italian center
Bibliothèque d'histoire culturelle du Moyen-Âge, 2008
... 11 Paintings representing a Paradise very similar to the Annunciation one are, for example, B... more ... 11 Paintings representing a Paradise very similar to the Annunciation one are, for example, Botticelli's, Mystic Nativity, or Botticini's, The Assumption of the Virgin, both in the National Gallery of London; images of mandorle can be found in several Florentine Fifteenth century en ...
Il saggio analizza una rappresentazione dell'inferno realizzata a Firenze nel fiume Arno nel ... more Il saggio analizza una rappresentazione dell'inferno realizzata a Firenze nel fiume Arno nel 1304 interpretandola come un'iniziativa del cardinale domenicano Niccol\uf2 da Prato intesa a mettere pace fra le diverse fazioni politiche cittadine che avevano scatenato una vera e propria guerra civile negli anni precedentiThe essay analyzes a representation of the hell made in Florence in the river Arno in 1304 interpreting it as an initiative of the Dominican cardinal Niccol\uf2 da Prato intended to bring peace between the different political factions of the city that had triggered a real civil war in previous year
Questo lavoro riguarda i cambiamenti del ruolo delle donne nelle feste e cerimonie della Firenze ... more Questo lavoro riguarda i cambiamenti del ruolo delle donne nelle feste e cerimonie della Firenze rinascimentale sotto l'egemonia oligarchica e medicea. A seguito delle trasformazioni dell'immagine delle donne durante il Quattrocento, il saggio di Ventrone mostra il modo in cui lo stile gotico-borgognone, preferito dalle \ue9lites cittadine all'inizio del secolo, fu lentamente sostituito da quello neoplatonico, concepito come una forma nuova e distintiva del linguaggio politico della classe dirigente guidata da Lorenzo il Magnifico. Il processo di questi cambiamenti, che sarebbe stato importantissimo per la comunicazione e la propaganda politica del secolo successivo, \ue8 delineato attraverso una selezione di immagini (dipinti, busti di marmo e oggetti suntuari) analizzate alla luce degli eventi festivi e cerimoniali della Firenze del Quattrocento. Complementariamente il saggio di Lazzi descrive il ruolo della donna nel passaggio dalla repubblica al principato.This essay regards the changes of women role in feasts and ceremonies of renaissance Florence under the oligarchic and medicean hegemony. Following the transformations of women's image during the Quattrocento, the paper shows the way in which the gotic-burgundian stile, preferred by the citizen \ue9lites in the beginning of the century, was slowly substituted by the neoplatonic one, conceived as a new and distinctive form of political language of the ruling class led by Lorenzo il Magnifico. The process of these changes, which would be of the greatest importance for communication and political propaganda in the following century, is delineated with a selection of images (painting, marble busts and sumptuary objects) analized in the light of the festive and ceremonial events of the Quattrocento Florence. As a complement, Lazzi's essay describes the role of women in the transition from the republic to the principalit
The complex interrelationship between figurative art and dramatic art is one of the major questio... more The complex interrelationship between figurative art and dramatic art is one of the major questions of historiographie analysis not the scenography and the theatrical stagecraft in a narrow context but figurative art not directly connected with theater production. I propose some general methodological considerations in an attempt to trace the motives which lie behind the need to bring together the study of theatrical phenomena and of iconographie evidence. Present historiography emphasizes the notion of theater as "ephemeral." When the theatrical event has passed, the historian is left with little else but fragmentary evidence (text, sketches, musical arrangements, or, nowadays, films or recordings) unable to revive the totality and the emotionality of the event. The farther we delve back into past centuries, the more arduous the task since sources become increasingly rare and fragmentary. Faced with the evanescence of their subject matter, theater scholars have chosen to study specific aspects of theatrical production (the text, the scenery, the theater's site or building, the actor) l or to revive or reconstruct a single play (as Elie Konigson in La Representation d'un Mystere de la Passion a Valenciennes en 1547) .2 In both cases one must refer to figurative art sources, very often indirect ones, believed to reflect the theatrical phenomena in a visual rather than verbal manner.
Il libro analizza tutte le forme di spettacolo religioso elaborate a Firenze fra Tre e Quattrocen... more Il libro analizza tutte le forme di spettacolo religioso elaborate a Firenze fra Tre e Quattrocento individuando, per ciascuna di esse, il linguaggio performativo adoperato e la sua rispondenza al messaggio, pedagogico, politico, morale, loro affidato. Particolare attenzione \ue8 rivolta: 1- alla festa identitaria di San Giovanni Battista; 2- alla festa dei Magi come espressione di preminenza della classe dirigente; 3- alle rappresentazioni per il concilio del 1439 come manifesto della propaganda filounionista della Chiesa latina; 4- alla sacra rappresentazione come sistema educativo della nuova Firenze medicea basato sull'unione fra pedagogia classica e cristiana; 5- alle trasformazioni nel sistema della comunicazione introdotte dalla stampa seriale di sacre rappresentazioni.The book analyzes all forms of religious spectacle elaborated in Florence between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, identifying, for each of them, the performative language used and its correspondence to the message, pedagogical, political, moral, entrusted to them. Particular attention is given to: 1- the identity feast of St. John the Baptist; 2- the Feast of the Magi as an expression of pre-eminence of the ruling class; 3- the representations for the council of 1439 as a 'manifesto' of the Latin Church propaganda in favour o the union between Eastern and Western Churches; 4- the sacred representation as an educational system of the new Medici Florence based on the union between classical and Christian pedagogy; 5- the transformations in the communication system introduced by the serial press of sacred representations
The purpose of the article is to investigate the complex link between theatre, as a practice invo... more The purpose of the article is to investigate the complex link between theatre, as a practice involving a number of people, and the change in the use of dramatic texts occurred at the origins of the Italian printing industry, when dramatic texts were no longer only acted but also read as books. With the invention of printed books, theatre has been transformed from a performative action to a container of memory images fixed through the book illustration. On the one hand, the article investigates the printed tradition of sacre rappresentazioni ('sacred plays') in connection with the other religious literary texts published between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of sixteenth centuries, putting it in relation with the birth of devotional books widely used in Florence during the age of Savonarola. On the other hand, it deals with the problem of illustrations by reconstructing the relationship between faithful people and sacred images before their diffusion was multiplied by the printing industry, and by looking at the real meaning of the link between written texts and woodcuts, in order to understand how the sacra rappresentazione, being a dramatic genre, was conceived when it was transformed into an object for reading.
In questo intervento di apertura delle due sezioni dell’atelier dedicate a I linguaggi religiosi ... more In questo intervento di apertura delle due sezioni dell’atelier dedicate a I linguaggi religiosi nei sistemi della comunicazione politica: culti e immagini, liturgie e rituali, mi limiterò a illustrare l’idea di fondo che ha suggerito la scelta dei temi affrontati e dei relatori, sottolineando alcuni punti che mi pare siano emersi dagli interventi, in piena rispondenza con le questioni sollevate dal progetto dell’incontro. Non procederò invece a un bilancio dei risultati emersi dalla varietà ..
Questo contributo propone una riflessione sull'influenza che la mentalit\ue0 orale, ancor viv... more Questo contributo propone una riflessione sull'influenza che la mentalit\ue0 orale, ancor viva nel XV secolo prima dell'affermazione della stampa, esercitava sulla composizione estemporanea prima, e sulla scrittura poi, di testi recitativi e drammaturgici. Per avvicinarsi a questo tipo di mentalit\ue0 \ue8 stato necessario ricostruire le tecniche della recitazione improvvisata perch\ue9 fanno luce sui sistemi di produzione di testi destinati alla comunicazione orale che oggi noi conosciamo soltanto attraverso la loro forma scritta. Queste tecniche, e la mentalit\ue0 orale che ad esse presiede, sono rintracciate in diverse tipologie recitative - dai cantari, alle novelle alle sacre rappresentazioni -, per giungere, tramite loro, ad una nuova configurazione del processo genetico della commedia in lingua. La commedia \ue8 stata infatti finora considerata come il prodotto degli studi umanistici sul teatro classico condotti nel contesto delle principali corti italiane del primo Cinquecento. Essa invece fu il risultato della fusione fra le varie tradizioni recitative preesistenti e la cultura umanistica: un fenomeno che, se a Firenze \ue8 pi\uf9 evidentemente percepibile per l'assenza di una corte che indirizzasse la produzione culturale univocamente verso la riscoperta dell'antico, caratterizz\uf2 tuttavia anche altri centri italiani.This paper proposes a reflection on the influence exercised by oral mentality, which, still active in the XVth century before the divulgation of the press, had a large sway first on improvised compositions, and later on the recitation and written dramatic texts. In order to understand this mentality, it is indispensable to reconstruct the techniques of improvised recitation because these may throw light on the system of production of texts destined for oral communication, but which have reached us only through their written form. These techniques, therefore, and the oral mentality behind them, are retraced in the different recitative typologies - starting with the cantari, the novelle (tales), and the sacre rappresentazioni - and through these arrive at a new configuration of the genetic process of the vernacular comedy. In fact comedy has so far been considered as the product of humanistic studies on the classical theatre transposed in the context of the principal Italian courts of the early XVIth century. On the contrary it was the result of the fusion between the various pre-existing recitative traditions and humanistic culture: a phenomenon that, though in Florence it can be more readily noticed because of the absence of a court that could direct the cultural production uniquely towards the rediscovery of the classics, all the same, characterizes other Italian center
Bibliothèque d'histoire culturelle du Moyen-Âge, 2008
... 11 Paintings representing a Paradise very similar to the Annunciation one are, for example, B... more ... 11 Paintings representing a Paradise very similar to the Annunciation one are, for example, Botticelli's, Mystic Nativity, or Botticini's, The Assumption of the Virgin, both in the National Gallery of London; images of mandorle can be found in several Florentine Fifteenth century en ...
Il saggio analizza una rappresentazione dell'inferno realizzata a Firenze nel fiume Arno nel ... more Il saggio analizza una rappresentazione dell'inferno realizzata a Firenze nel fiume Arno nel 1304 interpretandola come un'iniziativa del cardinale domenicano Niccol\uf2 da Prato intesa a mettere pace fra le diverse fazioni politiche cittadine che avevano scatenato una vera e propria guerra civile negli anni precedentiThe essay analyzes a representation of the hell made in Florence in the river Arno in 1304 interpreting it as an initiative of the Dominican cardinal Niccol\uf2 da Prato intended to bring peace between the different political factions of the city that had triggered a real civil war in previous year
Questo lavoro riguarda i cambiamenti del ruolo delle donne nelle feste e cerimonie della Firenze ... more Questo lavoro riguarda i cambiamenti del ruolo delle donne nelle feste e cerimonie della Firenze rinascimentale sotto l'egemonia oligarchica e medicea. A seguito delle trasformazioni dell'immagine delle donne durante il Quattrocento, il saggio di Ventrone mostra il modo in cui lo stile gotico-borgognone, preferito dalle \ue9lites cittadine all'inizio del secolo, fu lentamente sostituito da quello neoplatonico, concepito come una forma nuova e distintiva del linguaggio politico della classe dirigente guidata da Lorenzo il Magnifico. Il processo di questi cambiamenti, che sarebbe stato importantissimo per la comunicazione e la propaganda politica del secolo successivo, \ue8 delineato attraverso una selezione di immagini (dipinti, busti di marmo e oggetti suntuari) analizzate alla luce degli eventi festivi e cerimoniali della Firenze del Quattrocento. Complementariamente il saggio di Lazzi descrive il ruolo della donna nel passaggio dalla repubblica al principato.This essay regards the changes of women role in feasts and ceremonies of renaissance Florence under the oligarchic and medicean hegemony. Following the transformations of women's image during the Quattrocento, the paper shows the way in which the gotic-burgundian stile, preferred by the citizen \ue9lites in the beginning of the century, was slowly substituted by the neoplatonic one, conceived as a new and distinctive form of political language of the ruling class led by Lorenzo il Magnifico. The process of these changes, which would be of the greatest importance for communication and political propaganda in the following century, is delineated with a selection of images (painting, marble busts and sumptuary objects) analized in the light of the festive and ceremonial events of the Quattrocento Florence. As a complement, Lazzi's essay describes the role of women in the transition from the republic to the principalit
The complex interrelationship between figurative art and dramatic art is one of the major questio... more The complex interrelationship between figurative art and dramatic art is one of the major questions of historiographie analysis not the scenography and the theatrical stagecraft in a narrow context but figurative art not directly connected with theater production. I propose some general methodological considerations in an attempt to trace the motives which lie behind the need to bring together the study of theatrical phenomena and of iconographie evidence. Present historiography emphasizes the notion of theater as "ephemeral." When the theatrical event has passed, the historian is left with little else but fragmentary evidence (text, sketches, musical arrangements, or, nowadays, films or recordings) unable to revive the totality and the emotionality of the event. The farther we delve back into past centuries, the more arduous the task since sources become increasingly rare and fragmentary. Faced with the evanescence of their subject matter, theater scholars have chosen to study specific aspects of theatrical production (the text, the scenery, the theater's site or building, the actor) l or to revive or reconstruct a single play (as Elie Konigson in La Representation d'un Mystere de la Passion a Valenciennes en 1547) .2 In both cases one must refer to figurative art sources, very often indirect ones, believed to reflect the theatrical phenomena in a visual rather than verbal manner.
Il libro analizza tutte le forme di spettacolo religioso elaborate a Firenze fra Tre e Quattrocen... more Il libro analizza tutte le forme di spettacolo religioso elaborate a Firenze fra Tre e Quattrocento individuando, per ciascuna di esse, il linguaggio performativo adoperato e la sua rispondenza al messaggio, pedagogico, politico, morale, loro affidato. Particolare attenzione \ue8 rivolta: 1- alla festa identitaria di San Giovanni Battista; 2- alla festa dei Magi come espressione di preminenza della classe dirigente; 3- alle rappresentazioni per il concilio del 1439 come manifesto della propaganda filounionista della Chiesa latina; 4- alla sacra rappresentazione come sistema educativo della nuova Firenze medicea basato sull'unione fra pedagogia classica e cristiana; 5- alle trasformazioni nel sistema della comunicazione introdotte dalla stampa seriale di sacre rappresentazioni.The book analyzes all forms of religious spectacle elaborated in Florence between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, identifying, for each of them, the performative language used and its correspondence to the message, pedagogical, political, moral, entrusted to them. Particular attention is given to: 1- the identity feast of St. John the Baptist; 2- the Feast of the Magi as an expression of pre-eminence of the ruling class; 3- the representations for the council of 1439 as a 'manifesto' of the Latin Church propaganda in favour o the union between Eastern and Western Churches; 4- the sacred representation as an educational system of the new Medici Florence based on the union between classical and Christian pedagogy; 5- the transformations in the communication system introduced by the serial press of sacred representations
Sacred Drama: Performing the Bible in Renaissance Florence / La Sacra Rappresentazione: Recitare la Bibbia nella Firenze del Rinascimento, 2018
The illustrious Italian city of Florence was the cradle of the cultural revolution known as the R... more The illustrious Italian city of Florence was the cradle of the cultural revolution known as the Renaissance that forever changed the face of Europe and the world. A cultural revolution that involved literature, the visual arts, architecture, and many other areas of knowledge. In Florence, Sacra Rappresentazione (Sacred Drama) achieved the highest levels of performance thanks to the use of technology and of ingenious mechanical systems. On the one hand, to the faithful these spectacular events possessed strong visual appeal and enriched the religious material intellectually, cognitively, and educationally. On the other hand, the spread of religious ideas through the performance and the print edition of these dramatic texts affirmed a strong and impactful system of communication and education in an innovative way. In order to illustrate this fascinating phenomenon—so meaningful, and uniquely Florentine—this exhibition was devised for a large audience not only of experts and professionals but also for art amateurs and enthusiasts. The exhibition aims to offer a survey of the temporal evolution of Sacra Rappresentazione through manuscript and print documents along with the network of artistic references and influences—visual and ideological—connected to it.
Gli araldi della commedia. Teatro a Firenze nel Rinascimento, 1993
In Renaissance Florence, before the principality, theatre appears as a dense network of experimen... more In Renaissance Florence, before the principality, theatre appears as a dense network of experiments, and emerges as a central moment of civil life. Through the analysis of the production system of the Florentine spectacle, of the acting techniques, of the theoretical reflections, of the relationships between intellectuals and entertainment specialists, the book traces the formation process of the vernacular comedy from the times of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Poliziano to those of Machiavelli.
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