Jacopo Sansovino, Giacomo Torelli, and the Theatricality of the Piazzetta in Venice Author(S): Eugene J

Jacopo Sansovino, Giacomo Torelli, and the Theatricality of the Piazzetta in Venice Author(s): Eugene J. Johnson Source: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Dec., 2000), pp. 436-453 Published by: Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/991620 Accessed: 21/01/2010 12:46

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http://www.jstor.org Jacopo Sansovino, Giacomo Torelli, and the Theatricality of the Piazzetta in Venice

EUGENE J. JOHNSON Williams College

Modern students of Venetian architecture have Piazzettacould act both as a setting for noble deeds of the noted a relationship between the Piazzetta in Venetian patriciate and for "comic" acts of ordinary life. Venice,viewed from the water,and Renaissance The space certainlydid function in both those ways.4 scene designs,1pointing to the correspondencebetween the GiacomoTorelli, one of the majorItalian scene design- Renaissanceconcept of one-point perspectiveand the per- ers of the seventeenth century,seems to have had a similar spectivaldiminution of the buildingsthat flankthe Piazzetta understandingof the relationshipbetween the Piazzettaand towardthe vanishingpoint of the Torredell'Orologio (Fig- scene design.5He used a perspectivalview of the Piazzetta ure 1). ManfredoTafuri, following earlierwriters, pointed seen from the water in a set for the opera Bellerofonte,pro- out that SebastianoSerlio made a drawing(Uffizi 5282A) duced in Venice in 1642 (Figure 2).6 Indeed, Torelli, to the for a stage set that was clearlybased on the Piazzettaas seen astonishment of his audience, caused a perspectival from the bacino.2 Piazzettato rise from the sea during the opera'sprologue.7 John Onianshas arguedfor a close connectionbetween This understandingof the Piazzetta as a stage set is the designs ofJacopo Sansovino'sbuildings in and around altogether reasonable,but the Piazzetta also functioned as the Piazzetta and Sebastiano Serlio's concept of architec- an auditorium-as a place to accommodatean audience.To turalorders.3 Onians makesthe excellent point that Sanso- see the space in this second way requiresshifting our point vino's use of the orders on the Zecca (rusticated),Libreria of view 180 degrees-to look from the Piazzetta south di SanMarco (Doric and Ionic), and Loggetta (Composite) towardthe water,so that the southernedge of the Piazzetta closely parallelsSerlio's display of severalancient orders in works as a stage with a proscenium of two freestanding his design for a Tragic Scene, against which the deeds of columns that frame a waterylandscape set (Figure 3).8 noble folk would be played out. Thus, for Onians the The Piazzetta received the final element of its archi- Piazzetta became, according to the Serlian theory of the tecturalboundaries in the sixteenthcentury from the hands orders,a stage for the acting out of noble deeds by the rul- ofJacopo Sansovino,architect of the Libreriadi SanMarco, ing class of Venice. Accordingto Serlio, the Gothic was to which was begun under Doge Andrea Gritti in 1537 and be used only for comic scenes, where the acts of ordinary finally completed in 1591 (Figure 4).9 Sansovino'sLibrary people would be portrayed. One might expand Onians's replaced a group of diverse structuresthat stood opposite perception by noting that the Gothic Palazzo Ducale the Doge's Palacewith a single buildingthat has two stories remainedstanding alongside Sansovino's classical buildings of twenty-one round-archedopenings framedby engaged in the Piazzetta. According to Serlio's theory, then, the Doric and Ionic orders.10Sansovino had come to Venice Figure 1 Piazzetta,Venice, from the bacino

. from Rome, whence he imported the exterior architectural L"*In'*- ll,-, -Iw ... 's* forms used for the Library, derived from the Theater of Marcellus (Figure 5).11Many scholars have noted this point, but they have not tended to discuss Sansovino's facade any further in terms of the architectural typology of theaters. Rather, Wolfgang Lotz and, more recently, Thomas Hirthe focused on Sansovino's revival, through his Library, of an ancient forum through his design of the Library's fagade.12 Neither Lotz nor Hirthe had the benefit of the recent studies of the medieval Piazza San Marco by Michela Agazzi and Juergen Schulz.13 Schulz argues convincingly that the medieval Piazza San Marco was conceived as the evocation of a forum in Constantinople. As he points out, Constan- tinople was the only city in the Mediterranean that had pre- served functioning ancient fora, a type that medieval Venetians reintroduced into western Europe.14 Sansovino, in turn, did indeed create his own, later version of a Roman forum in Venice, but his design had at least one additional layer of reference.15 That the articulation Sansovino chose for the Library was considered proper for theatrical situations in early- sixteenth-century Venice and its environs is made clear by an illustration from an edition of the comedies of Plautus published in Venice in 1518 (Figure 6).16 There actors stand in front of a screen of piers and round arches to which an Figure 2 Giacomo Torelli,set for the prologue of Bellerofonte (detail), order has been engaged, and through the arches a summar- 1642 ily treated landscape is visible. Theatrical performances also

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 437 Figure 3 Piazzetta,Venice, view toward the bacino

Figure 4 Jacopo Sansovino, Libreriadi San Marco,Venice, begun 1537

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Figure 5 Sebastiano Serlio, Theater of Marcellus,Rome, elevation of Figure 6 Anonymous, illustrationfrom Plautus, TitusMaccius, exterior,from The five books of architecture(London, 1611) Venetiis, per Melchioremsessam & Petrum de ravannissocios. (1518)

took place against the similarly articulated loggia of 1524 known print, II Volodel Turco(The Flight of the Turk), made designed by Giovanni Falconetto for Alvise Cornaro in during the first decade of the Library's construction (Figure Padua (Figure 7). Sansovino himself used this form in the 8).22 In this anonymous view, spectators line not only the courtyard of his Villa Garzoni at Pontecasale, under con- Piazzetta but also the porticoes of the Doge's Palace to the struction in the 1540s, where the back wall is formed by right. Sansovino's building eventually provided a structure three round arches, framed by an engaged Doric order opposite the Doge's Palace from which spectators could also through which a landscape scene appears.17 watch goings-on in the Piazzetta, and in turn be seen by As an architect, Sansovino seems never to have adopted crowds gathered therein. Ovid's description of a theater as a building type without good reason,'8 and so one can con- a place to see and be seen-a passage from Book I of the fidently surmise that he knew what he was doing when he Ars Amatoria well known to educated sixteenth-century put a facade derived from theater architecture on his build- Venetians-applies equally to the Piazzetta: ing, which on its interior was partly devoted to library purposes and partly to other functions.19 Sansovino had been in so hasten the smartest women to the crowded games ... Venice for ten years when the Library was begun, and he They come to see, they come that they may be seen23 surely knew that the Piazzetta was frequently used as a theatrical space for a variety of public performances.20The area Another "performance," involving twelve pigs and a was part of his everyday life, since he lived in the Procuratie bull, took place in the Piazzetta on giovedigrasso, the Thurs- Vecchie, the building that forms the north side of Piazza day that commenced the last frenetic week of carnival.24In San Marco. Daily, mountebanks and charlatans set up plat- the late twelfth century, according to legend, the Patriarch forms from which they entertained the public.21 A far less of Aquileia was forced to send an annual tribute of loaves of common event was tightrope walking, illustrated in a well- bread, one bull, and twelve pigs to Venice, where the ani-

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 439 ;i -;ff Figure 7 GiovanniFalconetto, LoggiaCornaro, Padua, 1524

Figure 8 Anonymous, II Volodel Turco,c. 1550

440 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 malswere publiclykilled. By the beginning of the sixteenth century this rite had become farcical. The pigs were broughtinto the PalazzoDucale to the office of the giudice del proprio,where they were condemned to death in the presence of the doge, foreign ambassadors,and members of the Signoria.Accompanied by these dignitaries,the swine were marched to the Piazzetta, set free, chased, captured, and decapitated.Although the public loved it, some patricians,particularly Doge Gritti,found the rite indecorous.In 1525 the Council of Ten, proddedby Gritti, unsuccessfully tried to eliminate the pig chase. Only in 1594, when, as EdwardMuir has noted, the moral climateof the Counter- Reformationmade the repressionof popularculture more systematic, did the pigs disappear.The execution of the bull-or often bulls-persisted; bulls were considered nobler animalsthan pigs.25 As doge, Gritti continueda processbegun earlierin the century of making the Venetian patriciatea self-conscious group that separateditself clearlyfrom the rest of the pop- ulation.In accordwith this policy,the upperfloor of Sanso- vino's Library contained not only a space to house the preciouscollection of Latin and Greek manuscriptsCardi- nal Bessarionhad bequeathedthe city in the fifteenth century,but also, at the southernend towardthe water,offices for the Procurators of St. Mark, the most powerful and Figure 9 Sansovino, Libreriadi San Marco, exterior,detail importantmen in Venice after the doge, from whose ranks many doges, including Gritti, had been chosen.26The procurators,from their piano nobile windows, could look An explanationfor these columns is suggested by the way down on activities in the Piazzetta, raucous or dignified, the procuratorsused the balconiesthey flank.The columns from a setting that simultaneouslyseparated them from the displayedthe procurators,29framing them in the architec- crowds below and presented them framed by Sansovino's tural pomp of aedicules placed around representationsof Ionic order.They firstbegan to use Sansovino'sframed win- importantpersonages that Sansovinoand the procurators dows to watch the giovedigrasso festivities on 27 January knew in the Church of San Marco across the way. One 1553, when the seven bays at the north end of the Libre- needs to recall here that of Sansovino'sclients, the procura- ria-actually the library part of the building-had been toridi suprawere chargedwith the careof the churchof San completed.27From that year, watched and watching, the Marco, and that Sansovino,as their proto,or architect,was procuratorsheld what amountedto permanentbox seats at the person directlyconcerned with the church'swell-being the theater of the Piazzetta.28I use the word boxdeliber- on a dailybasis. The Byzantinerelief of two male saintsthat ately for, as we shall see, the constructionof the offices of now adornsthe east wall of the Cappelladella Nicopeia in the procuratorsand the development in Venice of a new the north arm of San Marco could have served as a handy type of theaterwith boxesare roughlycontemporary events. example (Figure 10).30The most compelling suggestion, The articulationof Sansovino'supper floor differsfrom however, may have come from the two rows of mosaic that of its sourcein the Theater of Marcellusin the addition depictions of standing apostles, framed by three-dimen- of a smallerorder of paired,freestanding Ionic columnsthat sional aedicules, that surround the central portal leading frame the depth of the window openings and support the from the narthex into the church proper (Figure 11).31 archesabove the windows (Figure 9). These inset columns Sansovino'scombination of Byzantinizingaedicules and a extendbeyond the edges of the piers that rise beneaththem, two-story, Roman arched order comes as no surprisein a thus invertingthe normalrelationship in the Romanarched Venetian context, where, as present-dayscholarship con- order between wider lower members that support succes- tinues to point out, Venetianartists had for centuriesjuxta- sively slendererupper membersthat have less load to bear. posed forms taken from various cultures and epochs in

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 441 Figure 10 Anonymous Byzantine,Two Male Saints, relief, second Figure 11 Basilicadi San Marco,Venice, central portalof narthex half of twelfth century, Cappelladella Nicopeia, San Marco,Venice

order to make contemporarypoints.32 The quattrocento Doge RenierZeno.36 As Gentile Bellinipresents the Procu- ArsenaleGate would have offered Sansovinoan exampleof ratie Vecchie in his famouspainting of 1496 of TheProces- a monument that combined Roman and Byzantinearchi- sionof CorpusDomini in Piazza San Marco,each window is tecturalelements for state purposes.33 occupied by one or two women watchingthe action in the Manuela Morresi has demonstratedthat some of the square (Figure 12). A similar situation is shown in the procuratorsof the mid sixteenthcentury were interestedin engravingby Matteo Pagan of the Processionof the Dogeon extendingtheir powers,34and this kind of self-presentation PalmnSunday, 1556-1559 (Figure 13).37Venetian paintings on the Piazzettawould be in line with such desires.Sanso- of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries demonstratethat vino's aedicules, of course, would have towered over the windowsall over the city were used this way-for example, procurators,thus emphasizingthe institution represented the windows occupied by women in Giovanni Mansueti's by the buildingover the individualswho currentlyheld the Miracleof the TrueCross in CampoSan Lio, a paintingfrom procuratorialoffices.35 This, too, is appropriatein Venice, the same cycle of the True Cross as Gentile'sprocession in where the continuityof state institutionsalways took prece- PiazzaSan Marco.38 The eyewitnesscharacter of these pic- dence over individualofficeholders. tures,pointed out by PatriciaFortini Brown, assures us that Venetianshad built elevated,discretely framed specta- such depictionsof detailsof Venetianlife are unlikelyto be tor spacesas earlyas the twelfth century,when the arcaded wholly fictitious,39 even if Mansueti's view of Campo San structure of the ProcuratieVecchie rose along the north Lio takes the theme of women watching from windows to side of the Piazza San Marco. Accordingto the thirteenth- a laughableextreme.40 centurychronicler Martino da Canale,women ascendedto In 1597, six years after the completion of Sansovino's the windowsin the Procuratieto watch the tourneyheld in building, spectatorsthronged the procurators'"box" win- 1254 in Piazza San Marco to celebrate the accession of dows to witness the arrival by water of the Dogaressa

442 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 Morosina Morosini Grimani, who had just become the bride of the aging Doge Marino Grimani(Figure 14). The event was consideredsufficiently important to be memori- alized in a very large painting by AndreaVicentino, and it was witnessedby enough people to assureus that his inclu- sion of spectatorsin those windowsmust be accurate. Around 1610 Giacomo Franco,in his engravingof the executionof bulls in the Piazzettaon giovedigrasso from his Habiti d'Huomeniet Donne Venetiane,41shows temporary grandstandsfor spectators erected in front of the Doge's Palace and the Library (Figure 15). A third set of stands appearsin the lower left corner, to suggest that the north end of the Piazzettawas enclosed by seats as well. To the south, towardthe water,there are no such bleachers;spectators stand on the pavement.Franco's engraving demon- stratesthat the Piazzettacould be fitted out as a theatrical space with seating on three sides, and that the openings in both flanking buildings were used as places from which importantspectators could see and be seen-again shortly after the Piazzetta achieved its present form. Temporary grandstandsfor spectatorshad been erectedin the Piazzetta much earlier,of course.For example,for a tourneyin honor of the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni in 1458 rows of seats were arrangedopposite the Palazzo Ducale,42pre- sumablyin front of the two-storyVeneto-Byzantine build- Figure 12 Gentile Bellini,Procession of Corpus Domini in PiazzaSan ing, a lodging for foreigners that occupied a large part of Marco, 1496, detail showing ProcuratieVecchie on northside of the site before it was demolished to make way for Sanso- PiazzaSan Marco vino'sstructure (Figure 16).43The upperfloor of this build-

Figure 13 Matteo Pagan, ii Procession of the Doge on Palm Sunday, 1556-1559

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THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 443 AA jl x , -Pi,~ .._i0%ilAd"AOM

Figure 14 AndreaVicentino, Arrival of Dogaressa Morosina Morosini Figure 15 Giacomo Franco, Bull Chase in the Piazzettaon giovedi Grimaniat the Molo in 1597, detail showing Libreriadi San Marco grasso, from Habitid'Huomeni et Donne Venetiane,c. 1610 ing had a series of round-archedwindows with balustrades vino removed from the Piazzetta the stalls and public placedacross their lower parts.It is not clearwho may have latrines that stood against the bases of the columns and used these windows duringpublic festivalsin the Piazzetta. along the water'sedge, thus making the area between the Could the procuratorshave enjoyed such privileges from columnsmore usableas a stage for public spectacles.46In a an earlydate? Even if they did, the structure,beset by lean- furthermove to clean up the area,Doge Gritti revokedthe to bread shops in front of its ground floor portico, hardly right to gamble at the base of the columns.47 offered a noble structurethat underscoredthe dignity and The English traveler Thomas Coryat, who visited importanceof the procuratorialoffice.44 Sansovino's Library Venice in 1608, wrote that "betwixtthe pillarscondemned achieved,in additionto its frequentlyand justlycelebrated men and malefactorsare put to death.For whensoeverthere visual balancewith the Doge's Palace, a symbolic balance is to be any execution,upon a sudden they erect a scaffold between the powers representedby the Ducal Palace and there, and after they have beheadedthe offenders(for that the powers of the procurators45-avisual equilibriumthat is most commonly their death) they take it awayagaine."48 suggestedthe governmentalsystem of checks and balances No executionsare recorded in the proceedingsof the Coun- on which Venetiansprided themselves and that had created cil of Ten duringCoryat's stay in the city in the summerof the relativepolitical stability the city enjoyedfor something 1608, when he claims to have been in the city between 24 close to a thousandyears. June and 6 August,but six executionstook placein late May Sansovinocleared the Piazzettaof more marketstalls of that year.49Such events dramaticallyfocused attention than those that appear in the painting attributedto Bas- on the south end of the Piazzetta.Executions on that spot tianini. Vasari tells us that during the dogate of Andrea went backat least to 1299, when Marino Bocconio and ten Gritti (and doubtlesswith Gritti'sencouragement) Sanso- followers were hanged between the columns for having

444 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 attemptedto assassinateDoge Pietro Gradenigo.50Treason ian cities burning was reserved for sodomites, heretics, often was punishedwith executionbetween the columns.In arsonists,and forgersof seals, documents,or currency.55 1509 four gentlemen of Paduawere hanged there for hav- Such publicperformances of justicewere grandspecta- ing sided with the allied European forces that had briefly cles. The platformwas builthigh enoughto give the crowda wrestedPadua from Venetian control duringthe War of the good view.56Those to be executedwere accompanied not just League of Cambrai.s1Indeed, the space between the by clergyand a crucifer,but also by a processionof members columns was the standard place of public execution in of the Scuoladi SanFantin. Dressed in blackrobes and hoods Venice for a varietyof crimes.There, for instance,in 1503 that were describedby Cesare Vecellio in 1590 as "most a sausage-maker,Biagio Cargnia,was beheadedand quar- frightful,& horrid,"these gentlemen rattled chains as the tered for having incorporated minced children into his malefactorwas led to justice(Figure 17).57 (One can imagine famouslytasty products.52 The spacewas also used to make what GiuseppeVerdi might havedone with such a scene:the public examplesof people whose deeds did not qualifyfor "ChainChorus" from II Traditore).Spectators could watch the capitalpunishment. In the second half of the sixteenthcen- executionfrom both the waterand the land sides,and it was tury,as Veniceresponded to counter-reformatorypressures, not uncommonfor someone to cry out the sins of malefac- blasphemywas punishedbetween the columns by subject- tors to audiences in the bacino and in the Piazzetta ing blasphemersto public ridicule.In casesjudged particu- ("one... who criesout... by wateras by landtheir guilt"), as larly severe, blasphemerscould be subject to loss of body was done in June 1575,when six membersof a bandof high- parts or even loss of life.53In 1603 a counterfeiter was waymenwere all beheadedand quarteredin one grandand burnedthere.54 According to Lionello Puppi, in manyItal- grislyshow of justice.The two leadersof the bandwere sub-

Figure 16 LazzaroBastiani (attributed to), View of Piazzetta, Venice, Figure 17 Cesare Vecellio, costume of members of the Scuola di San 1480s(?) Fantin,from Degli HabitiAntichi, et Moderne di Diuerse Partidel Mondo LibriDue, Fattida Cesare Vecellio,& con Discorsi da Lui dichiarati(Venice, 1590), 174r.

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 445 Figure 18 Libreriadi San Marco,view of piano nobile balcony Figure 19 Libreriadi San Marco,view of piano nobile balcony

jected to a not uncommonadditional punishment, a kind of thought that the world and the cosmos were made up of paradeof retribution.The man in chargeof the executions these four elements,59and so Venetianpublic performances had his orders: of execution took on something of a cosmic significance when carriedout here. Venetiansthemselves had a strong ... next Saturdaymorning at the accustomed houryou will place appreciationof the "elemental"nature of their view from Venantiodi Medici, knight,and Zanonda Bagnacavalloon a plat- the Piazzetta.As Cesare Vecellio put it: "this perspective, form in a barge and take them by the GrandCanal to Sant Croce, and view, is as charmingand beautifulas any could be. One where the right hand of each will be cut off and hung from his sees open air, continued almost to infinity, and the water neck. Youwill have them dragged by the tails of horses between with its pleasingwaves."6? the two columns of Saint Mark,with a commanderwho shouts Throughout the sixteenthcentury Venice was a major by water and by landtheir guilt. Then you will lead them onto a tall center for the performanceof commediadell'arte troupes, platformbetween the said two columns, where you will cause particularly during carnival when crowds of visitors theirheads to be severed fromtheir bodies and each body divided thronged the city. In 1580 in Venice commedia dell'arte into four pieces and then hung from the customaryforks.58 moved into two theaters constructed specifically for it. From contemporarydescriptions of these theaters,it is clear The procurators,or at least some of them, may have been that they included the novel form of boxes that eventually in their windows to watch the highwaymendie. became the hallmark of the teatro all'italiana-the Italian These mortal dramaswere acted out against a back- opera house-that spread around Italy and then across drop of the four elements:earth (represented by the Isola di Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, San Giorgio, on which Palladio'schurch of San Giorgio accompanyingthe rise of opera as a musical genre.61The Maggiore stands),air, water, and fire (the sun being visible commediadell'arte theaters were constructedby members in the sky most of the day), framedby the two columns. It of two patricianfamilies, the Michiel and the Tron, who was a commonplaceof sixteenth- and seventeenth-century made returnson their investmentsby renting the boxes to

446 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 patriciansand wealthymembers of the middle class for the carnivalseason. The existence of these theaters was very brief;they were demolishedby order of the Council of Ten in 1586.62Although our knowledge of the architectural development of the Venetian comedy theater is fragmen- tary-we know about the two theaters of the 1580s only from a few written documents-it is clear that this type of theater with boxes came into existence during the same decadesthat the Piazzettaobtained its present form. The window balconies to which procuratorswere assignedin the Libreriaturn out to be spacesmuch like those of theaterboxes. Although the Piazzettafacade of the Libre- riatends to look relativelyplanar from the ground(see Figure 9), there is actually considerable depth between the balustradesof the balconiesand the planesof the windows,a depthmarked by the pairsof inset,freestanding columns that supportthe archesover the windows(Figure 18). When one steps out onto one of these balconies,one steps into a space definedby the pairedcolumns and the piersbehind them (Fig- ure 19). One cannot see into the flankingbalconies, and so one finds oneself in a privatespace, large enough to accom- modatefour people comfortably, or sixwith a bit of crowding. The engagedIonic columnsof the front plane of the facade furtherscreen one balconyfrom another,so that even when one leans out over the balustradeto look towardthe bacino, one is still unable to see into the adjoiningspaces. But one does havea splendidview of the water'sedge of the Piazzetta Figure 20 GiacintoLodi, view of TeatroSalone, Bologna, 1639 and,of course,the areabetween the two giantcolumns where executions took place. Since Sansovino'sbalconies for the procuratorsoperated essentially the waytheater boxes came to operate,and since Sansovino'sbalconies had been in use for the Ferrarese architect and scene designer Alfonso Chenda more than twentyyears before the first publictheaters with (sometimes known as Rivarolo) for the Teatro Salone, con- boxeswere built in Venice,it seems likelythat the balconies structed in the Palazzo del Podesta in Bologna in 1639 (Fig- had an impacton the designof those boxes. ure 20).63 The two sides of the theater are composed of Both balconiesand boxes providedelevated, separated superimposed rows of boxes for the spectators, while the far spaces for patriciansto watch performancesand in turn to wall consists of a proscenium articulated by two columns be watched.Both built on an old Venetiantradition of using that frame a landscape set. The sky of the landscape con- windowsas privateviewing platformsfor public spectacles. tinues above the proscenium into a painted ceiling that Both involved assigning spaces to particular patricians, turns the "Salone" into an outdoor space.64Thus, both the whether they be the procuratorsto whom specificwindows Piazzetta (see Figure 3) and Chenda's theater focused on a were assignedin the Libreria,or patricianswho leased spe- framed landscape, really an oversized painting, against cific boxes in the theatersfor the carnivalseason. Both the which live participants performed a narrative for an assem- window on the Piazzetta and the box in the theater were bled audience, the most important members of which spaces identifiedwith one occupantor family,which made viewed the action from parallel rows of discrete, elevated the occupants part of the total spectacle while removing spaces separated by vertical supports. them to their own privaterealms. The first public performance of an opera took place in The view of the watersof the bacinoframed by the two Venice in 1637, when Andromeda was given at the Teatro giant columns from the Piazzetta bears a striking resem- San Cassiano, the direct descendent of the comedy theater blanceto the earliestpreserved drawing we have of this new built by members of the Tron family in 1580.65 It is likely theater type with boxes. The drawingshows the design of that Chenda was the architect of that theater.66 Indeed,

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 447 Chenda was the architectmost closely associatedwith the O dear and faithfulabode creation of the first public theaters for the production of Here I am to adore you.... opera.67The musicologist Nino Pirotta demonstratedthat Oh right now I would exchange many of the musical conventions of commedia dell'arte The Palace of the Heavens for the Courtof the Sea.73 found their way into public opera.68Similarly, it would seem, public opera found its way into a type of theater Astrea, the personification of justice,74 deemed the invented for commedia dell'arte. chief virtueof the Venetianrepublic, sang these wordswhile We can now understandthat Giacomo Torelli'sset of hoveringon a cloud directlyabove the site where justicewas Venice risen from the sea for the prologue of the opera dispensed.No Venetianin the audiencecould have escaped Bellerofontepresented his audiencewith a reciprocalview of Torelli's visual metaphor of Venice, represented by the the theaterof the Piazzetta(see Figure 2). Torelli'saudience Piazzetta, as a theater of justice. The Piazzetta itself was lookedat a theaterauditorium which, at leastin theory,could decoratedwith sculpturalrepresentations of Justice, both look back at it. In 1637 and 1638, only a few years earlier, on the faqadeof the Ducal Palace, directly acrossfrom the GianlorenzoBernini had confrontedRoman audiences with centraldoor of the Libreria,and in Sansovino'scentral relief an on-stage theaterfilled with an audiencethat looked back on the faqadeof his Loggetta at the base of the campanile.75 at his spectators.69Such self-conscious plays with questionsof Indeed, the two columns at the south end of the Piazzetta illusion and reality, and of who is watching whom, were could be understoodas analogousto the two columnsof the common in the libretti of Venetian operas. According to Templeof Solomon, and thus in themselvesto standfor jus- Ellen Rosand, the libretto of La Finta Pazza, the opening tice.76The virgin Astreacould also representVenice, in the productionin 1641 of the TeatroNovissimo, with sceneryby sense that the city had never been taken.77The meaning of Torelli(who had also designedthe theater),wove "acomplex Torelli's Piazzetta-Venice as the theater of justice-was and seductiveweb of connectionswith the audience."70The overscoredby the meaning of Astrea, simultaneously the librettoincluded a playwithin a play,in which the characters personificationof justice and of the city itself, the beautiful watchingthe inner play understoodthemselves as represen- home in which she would relive the Golden Age. tativesof the audiencein turn watchingthem.71 According to Ovid in the Metamorphoses,during the Torelli'stheater of Venicewould have carriedquite spe- chaos and bloodshedof the Iron Age, "Pietylay vanquished, cific meanings for a Venetian audience. The engraving of and the maiden Astraea,last of the immortals,abandoned his set shows three characterswho, at the end of the pro- the blood-soaked earth."78Astraea entered the heavens as logue, sang a trio in praiseof Venice:Innocenza downstage the constellation Virgo, whose zodiacal house-conve- center, Nettuno on the water, and-floating directly over niently for a Venetiansymbol of justice-lies between Leo the columns of the Piazzetta-Astrea, goddess of Justice,72 and Libra, that is, between the lion and the balance,79the seated on a lion and holding a sword and scales.Just before two attributesAstrea is given in the engravingof the oper- the city rose from the water,Nettuno sang to Astrea: atic scene. Astrea'sstatement that she would change the Palace of the Heavens for the Court of the Sea directly Time will come, that against Nature refers to her status as a constellation.In the famousphrase On my unstable back from the Fourth Eclogue, "Now the Virgin returns,"Virgil A stable government will raise majestic walls. was believed to have prophesiedthe return of the Golden In this place you will find long lost esteem. Age.80This prophecycould also be given a Christianinter- Here your throne... pretation, which fit well with Venetian notions of the importanceof the VirginMary to the city,founded, accord- As Veniceappeared from the waves,Nettuno continued: ing to legend, on the day of the Annunciation. Venetianswere famouslywell versedin what was going Look there, at what rises on in the world aroundthem, and so at least some of them Work of my power, beautiful image would have been aware of the complex way Astraea and Gloriousand proud.... paired columns had become associated in contemporary monarchist propaganda, a subject meticulously studied by To which Astreareplied: Frances Yates. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as Yates has pointed out, Astraea was widely adopted into the This then is the beautiful home vocabulary of symbols used to celebrate the virtues of Euro- Where at last I will again find the Golden Age. pean monarchs, including the Emperor Charles V, Elizabeth

448 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 I of England, and Henry IV and Louis XIII of France.81A ria di Venezianella vita privata dalle origini alla cadutadella repubblica, 7th ed. famousdevice of CharlesV's was a pair of columns,the pil- (Bergamo,1927-1929; reprint,Trieste, 1981), 2: 412, who in turn cited G. La 85. lars of Hercules,with the motto plusoultre, which indicated Ferrari, scenografia(Milan, 1902), 3. John Onians,Bearers ofMeaning. The Classical Orders in Antiquity,the Mid- that Charles'sempire extended beyond what had been in dleAges, and theRenaissance (Princeton, 1988), 295. the of the known the Straits antiquity boundary world, of 4. For the theatricaleffects of perspectivein the Piazza and Piazzetta,see Gibraltar.82In English and French prints of the later six- also DeborahHoward, "Ritual Space in RenaissanceVenice," Scroope, Cam- teenth and early seventeenth centuries, these columns of bridgeArchitecture Journal 5 (1993/94), 4-11, esp. 8. I am gratefulto Deb- empire are sometimesshown juxtaposedwith Astraea,as in orah Howardfor sending me a copy of her essay. 5. For an accountof Torelli'scareer, see Per Bjurstrom,Giacomo Torelli and the title page of a history of France published during the Baroque Uppsala Studies in the History of Art, new of V83Between 1610 and 1627 Honore StageDesign, Figura, reign Henry D'Urf6 ser., 2, 2nd ed. (Stockholm,1962). publisheda five-volumenovel, LAstree, which contained ded- 6. VincenzoNolfi, II BelleroFonte. Drama Musicale del Sig.r VincenzoNolfi da icationsto Henry IV and Louis XIII and specificallyassoci- F Rappresentatonel TeatroNovissimo in Venetiada GiacomoTorelli da Fano ated Astraeawith their just rules.84 Inventoredelli Apparati. Dedicato al SermoFerdinando II GranDuca di Toscana, In Presso Gio. e Matteo between 10 and 11. The conjunctionof Astraeaand the pairedcolumns of Venetia, Vecellio, Lini, 1644, The etching is inscribed: "Giacomo Torelli da Fano invento. Giovanni the Piazzettain Bellerofontecould have been understoodas Giorgi intaglio."Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, 215.C.32a. Venice'sclaim to the same The stable imagery. republican 7. Giulio del Colle, "Descrittionede gli Apparatidel Bellerofonte,"in Nolfi, government of the city, run by the very patricians who 8: "... viddesisorger dal marein modello la Citta di Venetiacosi esquisita, rented the boxes of the TeatroNovissimo, had through the e vivamenteformata, che la confess6 ogn'uno un sforzo dell'arte:Ingan- rule of justice brought on a Venetianversion of the Golden naval'occhio la Piazzacon le fabrichepubliche al naturaleimmitate, e del- scordandosi finta della vera Age, complete with a modest-and threatened-empire in l'ingannoogn'hor piu godeva quasi per quella dove realmente si tratteneva"(. . . one saw rise from the sea the of the eastern Mediterranean.From the Piazzetta one could City Venice in a model so exquisiteand made so lifelikethat everyoneconfessed look past the columns to the theater, as it were, of the it a prodigiousachievement of art. The Piazzatricked the eye with its pub- Venetian empire establishedon the sea. Torelli'sVenetian lic buildings copied from nature, and one continued to enjoy the trick, columns of empire, however, were doomed to be a boast almostforgetting, through that falsifyingof the real,where one reallywas). The in the are renderedwith a certainnumber of inaccura- with a limited duration.In 1647, five years after the pro- buildings print cies, perhapsdue to the haste with which Nolfi's librettowas preparedfor duction of Bellerofonte,the Turks began a lengthy siege of publication. the of Venetianoverseas that led to Crete, jewel possessions, 8. An effect recognized by Nicola Ivanoff,"La LibreriaMarciana: Arte e the fall of the islandin 1669. But no one could have foretold Iconologia,"Saggi e memoriedi storiadell'arte 6 (1968): 38. that event in 1642, when Torelli used the theatricalspace 9. For an accountof the buildinghistory of the Libreriadi San Marco, see that Sansovinohad completed to createa visualcelebration DeborahHoward, Jacopo Sansovino Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice Haven and 1975, and 2nd edition with cor- of the just empire of Venice. (New London), 15-27, rections(New Haven and London, 1987), 14-28, as well as Howard,"Two Notes on Jacopo Sansovino,"Architectura 4 (1974): 137-146. See also the important article by Giulio Lorenzetti, "La Libreria Sansovinianadi Venezia,"Accademie e bibliotechedItalia II, 6 (1928/29): 73-98, and III, 1 Notes (1929/30):22-36, as well as additionalbibliography in ManfredoTafuri, "Il In memory of Michael Wurmfeld. pubblico e il privato.Architettura e committenzaa Venezia,"in Gaetano Cozzi and Paolo Prodi, eds., Storiadi Veneziadella origini alla cadutadella I would like to thank Patricia Fortini Brown, Ralph Lieberman,Ronald Serenissima,VI, Dal rinascimentoal barocco(Rome, 1994), n. 32. Manuela Malmstrom,and MarvinTrachtenberg for helpful comments on different Morresi,Jacopo Sansovino (Milan, 2000), is due to appearafter this articlehas versionsof this paper,and RalphLieberman for his handsomephotographs. gone to press. I am particularlygrateful to Deborah Howard for her graciousand gener- 10. The length of Sansovino'soriginal design is the subjectof controversy. ous assistance.An earlierversion of this study was given in the Landscape in 1969 Tafuri,Sansovino, 76, offered the hypothesisthat Sansovinoorigi- and Theater session at the annualmeeting of the Society of Architectural nally may haveplanned only seventeenbays, instead of the presenttwenty- Historiansin Los in Angeles 1998. This essaygrows out of a largerproject one. Sixteen bays were built during Sansovino'slifetime, the last five bays to investigatethe architectureof Italianpublic theaters of the sixteenthand towardthe water by Vincenzo Scamozziafter Sansovino'sdeath. Giovanni seventeenthcenturies. Translations, unless otherwisecredited, are mine. BattistaStefinlongo, "La Libreria di SanMarco," in GiuseppeSamona, ed., PiazzaSan Marco l'architettura la storia lefunzioni (Padua, 1970), 169, argued 1. Ralph Lieberman, RenaissanceArchitecture in Venice1450-1540 (New for the seventeen-bayhypothesis and provided,170, a reconstructionplan. York,1982), pl. 93, put the point succinctly:"In the view from the waterthe Howard,"Two Notes," 139-144, publisheddocuments that would seem to Piazzetta is one of the greatestcity stage-setsever conceived,a perfectthe- demonstratethat the present length was plannedduring Sansovino'slife- atre for Venetiancivic ceremonies." time. Tafuri,however, returned to defendhis hypothesisin Tafuri,"Il pub- 2. ManfredoTafuri,Jacopo Sansovino e l'architetturadel '500a Venezia(Padua, blico e il privato,"406-410. ManuelaMorresi, Piazza San Marco. Istituzioni, 1969), 46. Tafuricredits the observationto Pompeo G. Molmenti, La Sto- poterie architetturaa Venezianelprimo Cinquecento (Milan, 1999), 67-115,

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 449 proposednew argumentsin favorof a seventeen-bayoriginal design. The time of Coryat'svisit to Venice, shows their little stages placed in the controversyshows no sign of abating. Piazzetta.Giacomo Franco,Habiti d'Huomeni et DonneVenetiane con la Pro- 11. SebastianoSerlio, Delle antichita: il terzolibro nel quale sifigurano e descrivono cessionedella Ser.ma Signoria et Altri Particolaricioe Trionfi Feste Cerimonie le antichitadi Romae le altreche sono in Italiae sopraItalia (Venice, 1540), XLIX. Publichedella Nobilissima Citta di Venetia(Forma in Frezariaal Sol), (Venice, This plateis missingfrom the ChapinLibrary copy of the 1540 edition,and c. 1610). This particularprint bears the inscription:"Intartinemento che so the platefrom the Englishedition of 1611 is illustratedhere. dano ogni giorno li Ciarlataniin Piazza di S. Marco al Populo d'ogni 12. Wolfgang Lotz, "The Roman Legacy in Sansovino'sVenetian Build- natione che mattinae sera ordinariamenteui concore." ings," SAH 22, no. 1 (1963): 3-12. In the 1960s Lotz publisheda series of 22. Lorenzetti(1928/29): 85 (see n. 9), dates the print to the middle of the essayson Sansovinoand the Libreria:"La Libreriadi S. Marco e l'urban- sixteenth century and notes, n. 35, that it was "ristampatanel 1816 dal istica del Rinascimento,"Bolletino del centro internazionale di studidi architet- Becker: e tratto da questa ristampa l'esemplareche conservasial Civico tura AndreaPalladio III (1961): 85-88, and VIII (1966): 114-122; "La Museo Correr,"which is the print illustratedhere. Howard,"Two Notes," trasformazionesansoviniana di PiazzaSan Marco e l'urbanisticadel Cinque- fig. 10, identifiesthe coat of armsas that of FrancescoDonato, doge from cento,"Bolletino del centro internazionale di studidi architetturaAndrea Palla- 1545 to 1553.A similararrangement for tightropewalking appears in a now dio VII (1966): 114-122; "Palladio e Sansovino," Bolletinodel centro lost drawingthat showed the Piazzettain 1564. This drawingwas in the internazionaledi studi di architetturaAndrea PalladioIX (1967): 13-23; collectionof MichelangeloGuggenheim, a Venetianart dealer and furniture "SansovinosBibliothek von S. Marco und die Stadtbaukunstder Renais- manufacturer,when it was publishedby Lionello Venturi,"Le compagnie sance,"Kunst des Mittelalters in Sachsen,Festschriftfiir Wolf Schubert (Weimar, della Calza (sec. XV-XVII),"Nuovo Archivio Veneto n.s. 16, no. 2 (1908): 1967), 140-151; "ItalienischePlatze des 16. Jahrhunderts,"Jahrbuch 1968 161-221, and 17, no. 1 (1909): 140-233, opp. p. 232. Lina PadoanUrban, derMax-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Firderungder Wissenschaften(Rome, 1968), "Teatrie 'teatridel mondo' nella Veneziadel cinquecento,"Arte Veneta20 41-60. I was fortunate to be a student of Lotz's at the very time he was (1966): 139, fig. 158, reproducesVenturi's reproduction of the drawing. workingon the Libreria. 23. Ovid, TheArt of Loveand OtherPoems, with an English translationbyJ. Thomas Hirthe, "Die Libreria des Jacopo Sansovino,"Miinchner H. Mozley (London and Cambridge,Mass., 1969), 18. "Sicruit in celebres Jahrbuchder Bildenden Kunst 37 (1986): 131-176, esp. 150-157. Hirthe cites cultissima femina ludos.... Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut Cesare Cesariano'sreconstruction of a Roman forum (Vitruvio,De Archi- ipsae ... " I am gratefulto MirandaMarvin and ElizabethMcGowan for tecturatraslato commentato et affiguratoda CesareCaesariano, 1521, A. Bruschi, this reference. A. Carugo, and F. P. Fiore, eds. [Milan, 1981], 72v.) as a precedent for 24. EdwardMuir, "Manifestazionie ceremonie nella Venezia di Andrea Sansovino'sdesign, but the visual parallelis not quite exact. Also Hirthe, Gritti," in Manfredo Tafuri, ed., "RenovatioUrbis": Venezia nell'etadi "Il 'foro all'antica'di Venezia:La trasformazionedi Piazza San Marco nel AndreaGritti (1523-1538) (Rome, 1984), 59-77, gives an extensiveaccount cinquecento,"Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani,Quaderni 35 (1986): 28-30. of this festival.See also Tafuri,Civic Ritual in RenaissanceVenice (Princeton, 13. MichelaAgazzi, Platea Sancti Marci. I luoghimarciani dall'XI al XIII sec- 1981), 156-181, for furtherdiscussion of Venetiancarnival rituals. oloe laformazionedella piazza (Venice, 1991), andJuergen Schulz, "La piazza 25. Muir, "Manifestazioni,"63. The diaristMarin Sanudo,however, in his medievaledi San Marco,"Annali di architettura4/5 (1992/93): 134-156. variousaccounts of the giovedigrasso festivities during the firstthree decades 14. Schulz, 146. of the sixteenthcentury, often recordsthe beheadingof more than one bull. 15. Hirthe, "Foro all'antica,"17, connects the nonbearingcolumns of the For instance, Sanudo (M. Sanudo, I Diarii, R. Fulin et al., eds. [Venice, facadeof the librarynot to Roman theatersbut ratherto the columns of 1879-1903], 57: 530). the Doge's Palace and the facadeof San Marco, which have, in their free- 26. For Gritti's election, see Robert Finlay, "Politics and the Family in standing character,a symbolic function. Hirthe's interpretationdoes not RenaissanceVenice: the Election of Doge AndreaGritti," Studi Veneziani excludethe possibilityof the interpretationproposed here. n.s. 2 (1978):97-117. The importanceof the Procuratorsof St. Markis dis- 16. Plautus,Titus Maccius, Venetiis, per Melchiorem sessam & Petrum de cussedin ReinholdC. Mueller,"The Procuratoriof SanMarco in the thir- ravannissocios. Anno domini M.D.XVIII. die duodecio Augusti. 1518, teenth and fourteenthcenturies: a studyof the office as a financialand trust 173v. See also Ludovico Zorzi, II teatroe la citta (Turin, 1977), 316-318. institution,"Studi Veneziani 13 (1971): 105-221. Cesare Cesariano,Vitruvio, 82v, reconstructsthe Vitruviantheater with a 27. Howard,"Two Notes," points out that in March 1552, "elaboratepro- similararticulation. Giorgio Vasari,Le vite de'piu eccelentipittori scultori ed visionswere drawnup allowingthe Procuratorsto watchthe annualGiovedi architettoriscritte da GiorgioVasari pittore aretino con nuove annotazioni e com- Grasso festivitiesfrom their buildingsin the Piazza."Also Howard,Jacopo mentidi GaetanoMilanesi (Florence, 1906), 7: 490 (as Hirthe, "Foroall'an- Sansovino,165, n. 72. tica,"13, notes), saysthat Cesareand Sansovinoknew each other in Rome. 28. Howard,"Two Notes," 139-140, recordsthat from 1552 on the procu- 17. Tafuri, Sansovino,100-103, describes the view of nature through the ratorsdrew lots annuallyfor windowsand balconiesfrom which they could rearwall as "la'scena satirica' della natura retrostante, inquadrata dalla porta watch the festivals.In 1554 fourteen balconieswere allotted, and in 1556 centrale dalle finestrelaterali." sixteen balconieswere available.Thus, by 1556 sixteen bays of the facade 18. Howard,Jacopo Sansovino, passim, makes clear the individualityof each facingthe Piazzettahad been completed.In a forthcomingvolume of essays Sansovinodesign, derivedfrom the particularnature of each commission. to be published by the Centro internazionaledi studi Andrea Palladio, 19. Hirthe, "Die Libreria,"141, discussesthe dates at which variousnames Howard, in an essay entitled "Allaricerca di Sansovino architetto,"also I am or functionsfor the buildingwere recorded. notes that the procuratorsoccupied what amount to theater boxes. 20. For an excellentdiscussion of ways in which the PiazzaSan Marco and very gratefulto Dr. Howardfor sendingme a copy of her unpublishedman- the Piazzettawere used by the state for importantceremonies, see Howard, uscript. "autocele- "RitualSpace," passim. 29. Hirthe, "Foro antico," 4, rightly sees the building as an columns 21. Thomas Coryat,Coriat's Crudities, 2 vols. (Glasgow,1905, reprintof ed. brazione"on the part of the procurators,but, 17, he relates the della of 1611), 410, placesthe mountebanksand charlatansin the piazzadirectly perhapstoo generically to "un tema vecchio ed aulico, cioe quello in front of San Marco, but Giacomo Franco, in a print made around the 'colonna',che apparenelle facciatedi PalazzoDucale e sopratuttoin quelle

450 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 della chiesa di San Marco."Tafuri, "Il pubblicoe il privato,"441, cites the Cosenotabili di Venetiaof 1561, says that beyond being a "placefor books," fifteenth-centurytabernacle of the Mercanziaon Or SanMichele, Florence, it would also be the "Procuratia").Hirthe, "Die Libreria,"131, rathersin- as the sourcefor this element in the librarydesign and suggeststhat Sanso- gle-mindedlystates: "Die Libreriaam Markusplatzin Venedigist kein Bib- vino may thus have made a "dichiarazionedi fiorentinita."One wondersif liotheksgebaiide,sondern der Stadtpalastder Prokuratorenvon SanMarco" the procuratorswould have wished to be displayedin Florentineframes. (The Libreriaon PiazzaSan Marco in Veniceis no librarybuilding, but the 30. Otto Demus, The Churchof San Marcoin Venice.History. Architecture. city palaceof the Procuratorsof San Marco). Sculpture(Washington, D.C., 1960), 122-123, dates the relief to the sec- 46. Vasari,Milanesi, 7: 501. The clearingwas not completelypermanent; ond half of the twelfth century. othersshops appeared and disappearedon this site duringthe sixteenthcen- 31. Otto Demus, TheMosaics of SanMarco in Venice(Chicago, 1984),vol. 1, tury (Howard,Jacopo Sansovino, 13-14). According to Giuseppe Tassini, part 1, text, 21-30; part 2, plates, 1-9. CuriositaVeneziane, nuova edizione a cura di Lino Moretti (Venice, 1964), 32. For example,Debra Pincus, TheTombs of theDoges of Venice(Cambridge 440, the columnswere erectedin 1172, afterbeing broughtto Venice from and New York,1999), 34, who notes "the talent for creativeamalgamation an Aegean island sometime in the twelfth century. FrancescoSansovino, that was to be a long-lived hallmarkof Venetianart." Venetiacitta nobilissima (1968), has the columnsbrought from Constantino- 33. RalphLieberman, "Real Architecture, Imaginary History: the Arsenale ple. Schulz, "Lapiazza medievale," 138, cautionsthat the columnsare not Gate as VenetianMythology," Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes documentedin place until 1283. 54(1991): 117-126. 47. Norwich, 118. Sansovino(1968), 16. 34. Morresi, esp. 77-92. 48. Coryat, 324. Sansovino(1968), 317, states that "S'eintrodotto, che fra 35. ManfredoTafuri, "Il problemastoriografico," in ManfredoTafuri, ed., queste colonne si fa giustitiade Rei, la qualeprima si solevafare a San Gio- "Renovatiourbis," 33, makesthe felicitous point that in the Piazzettathe vanni Bragola"(It was introducedthat between these columns the guilty Libraryis the House of Wisdom and the Ducal Palacethe House ofJustice, were broughtto justice,which used to be done at San GiovanniBragola). an idea he restatedin "Ilpubblico e il privato,"398. Howard,"Alla ricerca," 49. See ASV,Consiglio dei Dieci, Parti Criminali,Registro 25, 1608, 26r, expandson this notion by pointing out that the procuratorsin their win- where two executions are ordered for 21 May; 26v, one on 22 May; and dows would have been surroundedby the image of Wisdom created by 29v-30r, three on 31 May. Franco Mancini, Maria Teresa Muraro, and Sansovino,who in the Libreriafollowed Serlio's notion that the Ionic order Elena Povoledo, I teatridi Venezia,Vol. 1, Teatrieffimeri e nobiliimprenditori is properfor buildingsconcerned with learning. (Venice, 1995), 150, n. 3, note that Coryat'saccount of his stay containsan 36. John Julius Norwich, A Historyof Venice(London, 1983), 158. unresolvedcontradiction, in that he describesthe festivalof the Ascension, 37. Muir, CivicRitual, 194-197. which took place on 15 May. 38. PatriciaFortini Brown, VenetianNarrative Painting in theAge of Carpac- 50. Giuseppe Tassini,Alcune delle piu clamorosecondanne capitali eseguite in cio(New Haven and London, 1988), pl. 21. Howard, "RitualSpace," 6-7. Veneziasotto la Repubblica(Venice, 1966), 16-18. I am grateful to Ralph 39. Fortini Brown,passim. Liebermanfor this reference. 40. Howard, "RitualSpace," n. 25. 51. Tassini,Alcune ... condanne,111-114. Other executions are cited in 41. The plate bearsthe inscription:"Il giovedi grassop. memoriadi certa Muir, CivicRitual, 245-249. See also Guido Ruggiero, "Lawand Punish- uittoria ottenuta d:la Rep.ca nel friuli si fa pub:cafesta nella piazza di S: ment in EarlyRenaissance Venice," Journal of CriminalLaw and Criminol- M:co doue assisteil Doge et la Sig:riap. non derrogareall'a.tica istitutj.ne." ogy69 (1978):243-256. 42. Elena Povoledo, "Le theatre de tournoi en Italie pendant la renais- 52. Tassini,Alcune... condanne,103-104. sance,"inJeanJacquot, ed., Le lieu theatral la renaissance(Paris, 1964), 97, 53. ElizabethHorodowich, who is completinga dissertationin the history n. 3, who cites A. Angelucci,Armilustre e torneocon armi da battagliatenuti departmentof the Universityof Michigan,Ann Arbor,on the regulation a Veneziaai giorni28-30 maggio1458 (Turin, 1866), who in turn quotes a of speech in sixteenth-centuryVenice, has generouslyshown me numerous document contemporarywith the tourney: "Item impetraturab Ill.mo documentsshe has foundrelating to punishmentfor blasphemycarried out domino nostro locus in Platea SanctiMarci a latere ex opposito palatij,in between the columns.These will appearin her dissertation. quo loco per hanc comunitatemordinetur quod fiet una beltrescha"(Item 54. Molmenti 1: 367, n. 1. a place was obtainedby our most illustrioiuslord in Piazza San Marco on 55. LionelloPuppi, Torment in Art. Pain,Violence and Martyrdom (New York, the side oppositethe palace,in which placeit was orderedthat a grandstand 1991), 15, I am gratefulto John Hunisakfor referringme to Puppi'swork. be built by this community).Howard, "Alla ricerca," cites occasionsin 1535 56. "sopraun eminente soler alto di modo che possa ben esse visto."ASV, and 1554 when grandstandswere erectedin the Piazzetta. Esecutoricontra la bestemmia,Busta 56, notatorioe terminzioni,Registro 43. For what is known of this building,see Agazzi, 120. 1561-82, llv. I am gratefulto ElizabethHorodowich for this document. 44. Sansovino'sson, FrancescoSansovino, Venetia citta nobilissima etsingolare One wonders if the rectangularform shown between the columns in the (Venice, 1581), with additionsby GiustinianoMartinioni (Venice, 1663), map of Jacopo de' Barbarimay have been such a platform. reprinted with an analyticalindex by Lino Moretti (Venice, 1968), 309, 57. "moltospaventevole, & horrendo."Cesare Vecellio, Degli HabitiAntichi, wrote: "Parendoadunque al Senato, che all'incontrodel Palazzo publico et Modernedi DiuerseParti del Mondo Libri Due, Fatti da CesareVecellio, & con dovesse apparirqualche edifitio honorato (percioche per inanzi vi erano Discorsida Lui dichiarati(Venice, 1590), 174. botteghe & hostarieper forestieri)"(thus seeming to the Senatethat oppo- 58. ASV,Capi del Consiglio de' Dieci, Notatorio 24, 1575-1577, 30v: "... site the publicpalace there ought to appearsome honorablebuilding [since sabadoprossimo damattina a hora solita debbi far poner in una piatasopra before there were shops and hostelriesfor foreigners]). doi soleri eminentiVenantio di medici cavall.,et Zanon da bagnacavallo,et 45. Ivanoff, 42, notes that "La fabbricasansoviniana era quindi una Bib- condurliper canalgrando fino a s.ta Croxe, dove faraitagliar la man destra lioteca, una Scuola e un Museo. Ma Francesco Sansovino,nelle sue Cose a tutti doi, via dal brazo,con le qual attacateal colo li faraistrasinar a coda notabilidi Venetia del 1561, dice che, oltre ad essere un 'luogo per i libri,' de cavallofino in mezo le due colone di S.o Marco,con uno Commandador, sarebbe diventataanche la 'Procuratia"'(Sansovino's building was there- che Cridi cosi per aqua,come per terrale loro colpe, et poi li faraicondurre fore a a Library, School, and a Museum. But FrancescoSansovino, in his soprauno soler eminentein mezo ditte due colone, dove gli faraitagliata la

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 451 testavia dal busto, et li loro corpi siano divisiin quatroquarti per corpo, et tion of Public Life and TheatricalSpectacle in Scamozzi'sTheater at Sab- poi posti soprale forchesolite: Dati die 9 junij1575." Also see Puppi, 18-21, bioneta,"Oppositions 9 (1977): 63-87, noted the tendencyto treat the inte- for an accountof such processions. riorsof earlymodern theaters of the sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies as For the chargesagainst them, see ASV,Consiglio dei X, Parti crimi- outdoor spaces. nali, Registro 12, 27v. On 20 October 1574 they were accused of having 65. For an extensivediscussion of the earlyhistory of publicopera in Venice, "usatidiverse violentie alla stradacon archibusi,et alle case de particular see Ellen Rosand, Operain Seventeenth-CenturyVenice: The Creationof a persone alla motta, et suo Territorio,et altrove." Genre(Berkeley, 1991). 59. ZirkaZ. Filipczak,Hot DryMen, ColdWet Women. The Theory of Humors 66. ElenaPovoledo, "Lo SchioppiViniziano, pittor di teatro,"Prospettive 16 in WesternEuropean Art, 1575-1700 (Omaha, 1997), 14. (1957): 46. 60. Vecellio, 121: "... la qual perspettiva,& vista, e tanto vaga, & bella 67. Even if Chenda was not the architectof the Teatro San Cassiano,he quantoogn'altra possa esser veduta,per vedersiun'aere aperto, continuato was the scene designerand architectmost closely associatedwith the earli- quasiin infinito, & l'acquacon le sue piacevolionde." Puppi, 21, noted that est public performancesof opera in Venetian theaters. Chenda is docu- the executionstook placebefore the sea, and that the processionof the con- mentedas the designerin 1639 of the sceneryfor Delia,the firstopera given demned by land and water "reflectedthe ritualisticdialect of the two nat- in the TeatroSS. Giovannie Paolo, a secondVenetian house quicklyopened ural elements that makeup Venice." for the new genre. He was probablythe architect of the SS. Giovanni e 61. For a carefulassessment of previouslypublished information about these Paolo, since he designed the scenery for its opening opera. Chenda had theaters,see Nicola Mangini,I teatridi Venezia(Milan, 1974), 5-25; andidem, plannedthe temporarytheater in Paduain 1636 for Ermiona,the tourney "Alleorigini del teatromodemo: lo spettacolopubblico nel Venetotra Cinque- cum musical entertainmentthat became the catalyst for the first public cento e Seicento,"Biblioteca Teatrale n.s., 5/6 (1987): 87-103, reprintedin operaperformance a yearlater in Venice.Indeed, the sametroupe of singers Nicola Mangini,Alle originidel teatromoderno e altri saggi(Modena, 1989), and musicianswho had performedErmiona in Paduawere responsiblefor 11-31. Also the more recentMancini, Muraro, and Povoledo, xv and 90-99. Andromedain Venice. Thus, the drawingfor his theater in Bologna may 62. These theatersand their remarkablybrief durationwere the subjectof a well give us a sense of what the Teatri San Cassianoand SS. Giovanni e paperI presentedat the annualmeeting of the RenaissanceSociety of Amer- Paolo looked like. ica in March2000 in Florence.The paperis being preparedfor publication. 68. Nino Pirrotta, "Commediadell'arte and Opera,"Musical Quarterly 41 63. The miniatureby Giacinto Lodi, inscribed"Prospettiva della meta del (July,1955): 305-324. teatro che servi al torneo festeggiato in Bologna l'anno MDCXXXIX,"is 69. Irving Lavin,Bernini and the Unityof the VisualArts, 2 vols. (New York preservedin the Archiviodi Stato, Bologna, "Insignia,"vol. VII, 15r. See and London, 1980), 150. Archiviodi Stato di Bologna, Le Insigniadegli Anziani del Comunedal 1530 70. Rosand, 112. al 1796, catologo-inventario(Rome, 1954), 4: 15a. The Insignia volumes 71. Ibid., 110-124, containsa detailedanalysis of the libretto. recordedthe members of the governing body of the city who held office 72. For a synopsisof the literaryorigins of Astraeain antiquityand subse- for only two months. From time to time, a significantevent of the two- quent interpretationsof the goddess in the Middle Ages and the Renais- month periodwas illustratedalongside the coats of armsof the officehold- sance, see Frances A. Yates,Astraea, The ImperialTheme in the Sixteenth ers. The Lodi miniaturebears the following legend at the bottom:"A. Una Century(London and Boston, 1975), 29-38. In my text, I use the spelling delle scene rappresentantela Sicilia/ B. Ultima machinacon Deita no. VIII Astrea,as it appearsin the libretto of Bellerofonte. (only six are actuallyshown) / C. Pente per il qualescesero i Cavallieri/ D. 73. Nolfi, 11-12. "NETTUNO:Tempo verra,ch'ad onta di Natura/ Si l'in- Proscenio alla parteverso Levante/ E. Iride che sceso dal Cielo nel mezo stabil mio dorso / Alzera stabil Reggia altere mura;/ In questa troverai del la Sala che da Ponente havevaun altro simile Proscenio / F Piano nel gl'estintipregi, / Quivi il tuo seggio.... [Venicerises.] Mira cola, che sorge qualesi armeggioa piedi & a cavallo/ G. Luogo per i Sig.riCardinali Duchi / Opra del mio poter la bella immago, / Gloriosa, e superba.... ASTREA: et Prencipi(marked by a red cloth to the left) / H. Luogo dei Sig.riAntiani Questo e dunque il bel nido / Ov'io rintraccerbl'eta de l'oro? / O caro e Confalon (markedby a blue cloth to the right) / I. Ponti 160. in tuto per albergho,e fido, / Travelami de l'ombre,ecco t'adoro.... / Ch'horhor vor- i spettatoriet quali (two words illegible) continuandosi alungavanosino rei cangiare/ Col palaggiodel Ciel Reggia del mare." all'altrascena figurantela citta di Laurento"(A. One of the scenes repre- 74. That AstreaandJustice were understoodas the same characteris made senting Sicily. B. Last machine with VIII deities. C. Rampsby which the clear by the fact that in his descriptionof the settings of the opera, Giulio horsemen descended. D. Proscenium at the eastern end. E. Iris who del Colle (see n. 7 above) refers to the characteras Giustizia: "sopravi descendedfrom the sky in the middle of the room, which on the western sedevala Giustiziacon un Leone a lato la spada,e le Bilancienelle mani," end had another similarproscenium. F Floor on which were combatson while in Nolfi's libretto the characteris namedAstrea. foot and on horseback.G. Place for the Lord CardinalsDukes and Princes. 75. In the 1530sthe new thronefor the doge thatJacopoSansovino installed H. Place for the Lords Ancients and the Gonfaloniere.I. Boxes 160 in all in the choir of San Marco had a representationof Justice in intarsiaon its for the spectatorsand which ... continuingreached all the way to the other back. See Andrew Hopkins, "Architectureand Infirmitas.Doge Andrea scene showing the city of Laurento).The drawingis signed "Lodi E" on Gritti and the Chancelof SanMarco," JSAH 57, no. 2 (1998): 190, fig. 13. lower right part of floor. 76. Howard, "RitualSpace," 8. For a discussionof this theater,see Deanna Lenzi, "Teatrie anfiteatri 77. David Rosand, "Veneziae gli dei," in Tafuri,ed., "RenovatioUrbis," a Bologna nei secoli XVI e XVII," in Marcello Fagiolo and Maria Luisa 208, quotesFrancesco Sansovino, who refersto Veniceas a virginof"incor- Madonna,eds., Baroccoromano e baroccoitaliano: il teatro,l'effimero, l'allego- rotta purith,"who is "incorrotta,& intattada gli altruibarbari, & tirannici ria (Rome, 1985), 174-191. The Teatro Salone had, unusually,two stages, Imperij."Venice could also be considered the sister of Astraea;cf. E. located on the short sides of a long and narrowroom. The performanceof Rosand, 131. For a discussionof the theme of Venice in seventeenth-cen- 1639 was a tourney,with actiontaking place on both stagesas well as on the turyVenetian opera, cf. E. Rosand, 125-153. floor between the two walls of boxes (see n. 62 above). 78. Ovid, Metamorphoses,trans. by FrankJustus Miller (New York, 1929), 64. KurtW. Forster,"Stagecraft and Statecraft:The ArchitecturalIntegra- vol. 1, I, 149-150: "victaiacet pietas, et virgo caede madentisultima cae-

452 JSAH / 59:4, DECEMBER 2000 lestum terrasAstraea reliquit." nobiliet ingegniosede diversiPrencipi, et d'altripersonaggi illustri .. (Venice, 79. Yates,32. 1578), n. 6. 80. Virgil, Eclogues,trans. H. RushtonFaircloth (Cambridge, Mass., 1974) 83. PierreMatthieu, L'Histoire de la France(Paris, 1605), Yates,fig. 42c. 1: 28-29, in the Fourth Eclogue prophesiedher return:"Now is come the 84. CarolOckman, "Astraea Redux: A MonarchistReading of Ingres'Unfin- last age of the song of Cumae;the great line of the centuriesbegins anew. ished Muralsat Dampierre,"Arts Magazine (October 1986):23. Now the Virgin returns,the reign of Saturnreturns; now a new generation descendsfrom heaven"(Ultima Cumaeivenit iam carminisaetas; / magnus Illustration Credits ab integro saeclorumnascitur ordo. / Iam redit et Virgo, redeuntSaturnia Figures 1, 3, 10, 11. Bohm, Venice / nova regna; iam progeniescaelo demittituralto). Figures2, 6. BibliotecaMarciana, Venice 81. Yates,passim. Figures4, 7, 9, 18, 19. RalphLieberman 82. 3a. See also "Ritual 8. Earl "Plus Yates,fig. Howard, Space," Rosenthal, Figures 5, 17. ChapinLibrary, Williams College Non Plus Ultra, Ultra, and the ColumnarDevice of EmperorCharles V," Figures 8, 13, 14, 16. Museo Civico Correr,Venice the and CourtauldInstitutes 34 n. lists two Journalof Warburg (1971): 204, 1, Figure 12. Accademia,Venice. Photographby RalphLieberman. books in Venice in the sixteenth that included of published century images Figure 15. SpencerCollection, The New YorkPublic Library, Astor, Lenox the columnardevice of CharlesV: GirolamoRuscelli, Le impreseillustri con and Tilden Foundations et discorsi expositioni (Venice, 1566), 111-114; and [BattistaPittoni], Imprese Figure 20. Archiviodi Stato, Bologna

THE THEATRICALITY OF THE PIAZZETTA IN VENICE 453