University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/69994 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Dramatic Figures in the Venetian Republic: Performance, Patronage, and Puppets by Melanie Zefferino Submitted in part fulfilment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art at the University of Warwick September 2014 This dissertation may be photocopied CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract iii List of Tables iv List of Illustrations v Introduction 1 Definitions and Taxonomy 2 Scope of the Research, and Historical and Critical Approaches 4 Methodology, Literature Review, and Sources 7 Dissertation Structure 16 PART 1 – HIERATIC FIGURES AND EARLY INVENTIONS 19 I Dramatic Figures of the Middle Ages 20 The Influence from French Culture 22 Venice’s Porta da Mar: a Gate for Liturgical and Feast-day Drama 25 ‘Animated’ Sculptures for the Passio, Depositio, and Entombment of Christ 37 Marys, Marione, and Marionettes 49 II Puppets, Automata, and Theatres of the World 61 The Momarie 62 Puppetry and the Commedia dell’Arte 68 Ephemeral Theatres on the Ground and on Water 77 III Theatrical Feasts and Figures: from the Catajo Palace to Villa Contarini 84 Il Solimano, 1634 85 The ‘Inventions’ of Marquis Pio Enea II degli Obizzi 91 The Theatrical Microcosm of Marco Contarini 99 Material and Immaterial Heritage 109 PART 2 – PUPPET OPERA AND PRIVATE THEATRE 112 IV Puppet Opera in Seventeenth-century Venice and its Echoing in Rome 113 The Origins of Puppet Opera 114 The Debut of Puppet Opera in Venice: Il Leandro (Leander), 1679 116 A Three-year Season of Puppet Opera at the Teatro San Moisè 122 LA DAMIRA PLACATA (DAMIRA PLACATED), 1680 123 L’ULISSE IN FEACCIA (ULYSSES IN PAEACIA), 1681 129 IL GIRELLO (THE VAGABOND), 1682 131 V Venice’s Marionette Theatre and its Legacy in the Settecento 146 Teatrini Domestici in Eighteenth-century Venice 146 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE OF THE GRIMANI AI SERVI FAMILY 147 VENETIAN MARIONETTE THEATRES MENTIONED IN THE SOURCES 149 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE FROM THE SALOMONI FAMILY 151 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE OF THE LABIA FAMILY 155 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE OF GAETANO GUADAGNI IN PADUA 161 Venice’s Legacy in Lombardy and the Papal State 167 THE MARIONETTE THEATRES OF THE BORROMEO FAMILY 167 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE OF THE ALBICINI FAMILI IN FORLÌ 168 Venice’s Legacy in the Habsburg Domains 170 THE MARIONETTE THEATRE OF PRINCE ESTERHÁZY 172 The Many Dawns and the Sunset of Puppet Opera 179 VI Venice and the East 181 Harlequin, Hellequin, and al-Rikhim 182 Shadow Theatre Traditions 187 The Many Identities from the East 192 Venice and China 194 PART 3 – PUPPETRY IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE 200 VII Puppet Theatre in Public Spaces of Settecento Venice 201 Charlatans, Cosmoramas, and Casotti 201 Nuns and Puppets: the Convent of San Zaccaria 211 Views of Venice with, and in Puppet Theatre 213 Conclusion 216 Tables 223 Bibliography 228 Illustrations 259 Acknowledgements The completion of this research would not have been possible without the help of my supervisors, Dr. Louise Bourdua and Dr. Margaret E. Shewring, whom I wish to thank for their guidance and advice. I am also thankful to all the staff members of the History of Art and Theatre Studies Departments of the University of Warwick for their support, especially to Dr. Michael Hatt, who dealt with aspects relevant to my tuition. Thanks also go to Dr. Clive Letchford, Professor in Latin at the Classics Department of the University of Warwick, for his teaching. I wish to express my gratitude to the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for the generous funding granted to me to carry out research in Venice. To the University of Warwick`s Centre for the Study of the Renaissance and the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium, I am grateful for the opportunity that they gave me to contribute to the 2012 Newberry Library Graduate Student Conference and editorial project leaded by Dr. Carla Zecher and Dr. Karen Christiansen, whom I thank for their warm welcome in Chicago. I owe an acknowledgement to Professor Ronnie J. Mulryne for having involved me in the Society for Renaissance Festival Research, whereby I benefited from advice from foremost scholars and the precious clues from Professor Margaret M. McGowan. I wish to thank the directors and staff of all the museums that I visited for the support received while I was carrying out this research. In particular, Dr. Catherine Howell, Collections Officer of the V&A Museum of Childhood, for having allowed me to examine the beautiful Venetian marionettes that are in storage. Dr. Silvia Battistini, Curator of the Davia Bargellini Museum in Bologna, for her assistance and permission to examine all the settings and puppets in the museum collection and take pictures. Dr. Susanna Braga, Director of the Museo Castello dei Burattini Giordano Ferrari in Parma, and Dr. Cesare Bertozzi, Museum Curator, who provided information and photographs i of some rare Venetian hand puppets in the museum collection. Special thanks go to Dr. Chiara Squarcina, former Collection Manager of the Ca’ Goldoni Museum in Venice, for the many times I could access the museum as guest and take pictures. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Andrea Massari and Dr. Elena Milan of Intesa SanPaolo for providing the photographs of paintings in the Palazzo Leoni Montinari Collection, Vicenza. Thanks to Dr. Maria Teresa Iovinelli, Director of the Museo Biblioteca Teatrale del Burcardo in Rome, I could study the fascinating Chinese marionettes presented in this dissertation. To Dr. Michèle Prelonge, Archive Manager at the Musées Gadagne in Lyon, I owe special thanks for providing detailed information and photographs of the Venetian pieces in the Musée des Marionnettes du Monde. Dr. Elisa Carrone kindly shared her knowledge of the rare miniature theatre of Settecento Venice in the Civic Museum Don Giovanni Guiso in Orisei, of which she is the Keeper. Finally I want to thank Vittorio Zanella and Rita Pasqualini, honorary citizens of Budrio and founders of the Museo del Burattino in this city, for disclosing a few ‛secrets’ of puppeteering. Vittorio showed me the way in which Pantalone and other characters of the commedia dell`arte should move and speak, and thus shared ephemeral knowledge that is preserved only partially in visual and written sources. I owe an acknowledgement to Dr. Anne-Marie Eze for bringing to my attention a medieval miniature with the depiction of a rod puppet, thus allowing me to present a precious finding to the academic community of theatre historians. Dr. Luca Mor provided me information about two little-known medieval sculptures in Venice. I am thankful to Marc-Arthur Kohn and Valerie Gabard for searching useful records in their private archive. To Professor Rolando Bellini, who shared with me the experience at the Catajo Palace and Villa Contarini, I also say thank you. Last but not least, heartfelt thanks go to my family for their love and support. ii Abstract This study offers new insights to the knowledge of Venice`s history and theatre historiography. It is the outcome of an interdisciplinary research investigating the visual and performative culture of this unique context though its representations with dramatic figures from the beginning to the end of its history as a republic. The first chapter offers an insight into Medieval Venice focusing on liturgical drama, mystery plays, and civic ritual with display of movable sculptures and puppets. The second chapter sheds light on the relation between puppetry, the commedia, and different forms of spectacle with mechanised or indirectly controlled figures. Presented in the third chapter are the theatrical festivals with wondrous figures that were staged in the outskirts of Padua by two illustrious patrons of the arts, the Paduan Pio Enea II degli Obizzi and the Venetian Marco Contarini. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the debut of puppet opera, and the performances of this genre that were staged in the private and public theatres of Venice during the seventeenth century. The history of puppet opera in Venice continues in the fifth chapter, also making comparisons with performances held in cultural areas that absorbed the Venetian legacy. Critical analysis of the repertory of puppet theatre broadly defined and reflection on the aesthetics and operating techniques of the figures that were used has been made relating texts to specific objects, many of which are unpublished or little known. Shedding light on the Venetian eighteenth- century marionette theatres that are extant, attention has also been drawn of the role that these objects played in the history of collecting. In the sixth chapter the chronological account is suspended for a moment to leave room for some reflection on the intertwining between Venice and the Orient based on research findings. Cross-cultural analysis has been made comparing Venice’s puppet theatre traditions not only with those of the near East, but also with China based on material evidence. The seventh and last chapter investigates the relation between puppet theatre and the rising passion for views of the world as a stage, or animated microcosm to capture through observation. There is inevitably much overlap across all these aspects, and yet attempts have been be made to keep them separate in the discussion, either relating them to the time- related phenomenon within which they assume greater significance. Following a chronological thread, critical analysis of the puppet theatre manifestations originating in Venice has been carried out placing this genre within the frameworks of other arts, drawing comparisons with other traditions, and bringing to the fore reminiscences from the past at different times in history.