THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE THEATER

The Italian Renaissance Theater

Outline

This research is purely based on the subject of Italian Renaissance Theater. The name 'Renaissance art' was applied to the period from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries in northern countries, implying that at this time Italian art led everywhere in Europe. There were many contributions that the Italian Renaissance made to the theatre in Europe. While its influence is said to be a great support for today's artists. The most important being commedia dell'arte. In this research many things related to the Italian Renaissance and commedia dell'arte have been covered. The major things that this paper will discuss are mentioned below:

Italian Renaissance

Theater

Giotto and Giovanni Pisano

Post-Renaissance

Middle Ages

Spanish comedia

Italian Actors and Actresses

Introduction

Around 1400, at the beginning of the epoch which is usually called early Renaissance but which may just as well be called the beginning of the last naturalistic phase of Gothic art, at the time of Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, the enthusiasm for the new progressive ideas was unbounded. The coloured glasses which the religious ideas of the Middle Ages had provided were suddenly taken off so it appeared to contemporaries and for the first time in history nature could be recognized in its pure objectivity; man in his outspoken individuality; space in its relation to man measured with the help of mathematical constructions. (Burke, 1986) The philosophy of life of the Middle Ages, which had obscured real life, was thrown overboard as valueless. People were so sure of the correctness of their observations that it seemed impossible mankind would ever again give up this new conception of the world. (Kent, Simons, Eade, 1987)

Unconsciously we judge the history of former ages from the point of view of our own time. A typical example is the change which has taken place during the last decades in the evaluation of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. The last generation of the nineteenth century, led by Jacob Burckhardt and his followers, rediscovered the art of Italian Renaissance and found in its organic, logical development, its order and harmony and its connection with a rationalistic and humanistic view of life, the best expression of their own ideals. (Barnard, 1958) However, when modern art sought to express the new ideals of the social and cultural revolution which began about 1910, a strong reaction occurred. Interest shifted from Renaissance art to medieval and baroque art with their strong emotional qualities. These two epochs, which at first sight seemed so different in formal expression, were found to be similar in possessing an intuitive and irrational art, which, instead of appealing to the mind by well balanced construction as does Renaissance art, strives to transport the soul by dynamic movement of line and colour. There was then a tendency to prove that it was but a step from medieval art in its final phase the late Gothic movement of the fifteenth century to baroque art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (Barker, 1995) And, indeed, it was found that the baroque style, ...