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Theatre Iconography: An Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Robert L. Erenstein
Robert L. Erenstein
Affiliation:
Robert L. Erenstein is Professor of Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam.
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Extract

Theatre iconography systematically attempts to integrate the pictorial representation of theatre as a vital source of information in researching the history of theatre. Given the primacy of the written word (lógos) in western culture, the status of the illustration as a source of historical research has remained low in the West where it is the norm to give the text priority over illustrations, which serve merely as decorations, to support a conclusion or confirm a statement made in the text. Theatre iconography, however, involves the search for a new dialectical relationship between the written word and the theatre illustration, one in which the illustration is not immediately interpreted as an appendage to a text. It involves an autonomous ‘reading’ of the image in which the use of other documents, preferably from other sign systems, cannot and may not be discounted. The aim here is to study theatre history with the help of tools that are more effective than those used previously.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1997 , pp. 185 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1997

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References

Notes

1. See Molinari, Cesare, ‘About Iconography as a Source for Theatre History’, unpublished lecture, Istituto Interna-zionale per la Ricerca Teatrale, Venice, 1991, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

2. See Ruffini, Franco, ‘Restauro e iconografia dell'attore’, Quaderni di Teatro, VII, 28 (05 1985), pp. 9–18.Google Scholar On the actor's portrait and the aesthetics developed in the eighteenth century for capturing the moment in actors’ portraits, see Aliverti, Maria Ines, Il ritratto d'attore nel Settecento francese e inglese (Pisa: ETS, 1986)Google Scholar, and West, Shearer, The Image of the Actor: Verbal and Visual Representation in the Age of Garrick and Kemble (London: Pinter, 1991).Google Scholar

3. See Barnett, D., ‘The Performance Practice of Acting: The Eighteenth Century. Part V: Posture and Attitudes’, Theatre Research International, 6, 1 (1980–81), pp. 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. See the interesting ‘Presentazione’ by Cesare Molinari in the special issue ‘Teatro e arti figurative’, Quaderni di Teatro, 14, 1981.

5. See, for example, Kowzan, Tadeusz, ‘Iconographie—iconologie théâtrale: le signe iconique et son référent’, Diogène, No. 130 (04–06 1985), pp. 51–68Google Scholar; Aliverti, , Il ritratto d'attore, pp. 24–32Google Scholar; Aliverti, Maria Ines, ‘Per una iconografia della Commedia dell'arte’, Teatro e Storia, IV, 1 (04 1989), pp. 71–88Google Scholar; Katritzky, M. A., ‘Italian Comedians in Renaissance Prints’, Print Quarterly, IV, 3 (1987), pp. 236–54Google Scholar; Katritzky, M. A., ‘Lodewyk Toeput: Some Pictures Related to the Commedia dell'arte’, Renaissance Studies, 1, 1 (1987), pp. 71–125CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guardenti, Renzo, ‘Il dipinto dei ‘Farceurs françois et italiens’ e le immagini dei divi’, Biblioteca Teatrale, 11 (1989), pp. 1–22Google Scholar; Holm, Bent, ‘King, Carnival and Commedia: Images in the Copenhagen Fossard Collection‘, Nordic Theatre Studies, 4 (1991), pp. 110–31Google Scholar; Katritzky, M. A., ‘Eight Portraits of Gelosi Actors in 1589?’, Theatre Research International, 21, 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 108–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Gombrich, E. H., ‘The Evidence of Images’, in Singleton, Charles S., ed., Interpretation: Theory and Practice, The Johns Hopkins Humanities Seminars, VIII (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969), p. 97.Google Scholar

7. The study group consisted of Robert L. Erenstein (University of Amsterdam), Thomas F. Heck (Ohio State University), M.A. Katritzky (Wimbledon School of Art), Frank Peeters (University of Antwerp), and Lyckle de Vries (University of Groningen).

8. Important Dutch-language articles by Hummelen in which iconography plays a key role include Inrichting en gebruik van het toneel in de Amsterdamse Schouwburg van 1637, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel LXXIII, No. 3 (1967) and Amsterdams toneel in het begin van de Gouden Eeuw (‘s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1982). Articles published in English: ‘Illustrations of Stage Performances in the Works by Crispijn de Passe the Elder (c. 1560–1637)’, in Essays on Drama and Theatre: Liber Amicorum Benjamin Hunningher (Amsterdam: Moussault, 1973), pp. 67–84; ‘Types and Methods of the Dutch Rhetoricians' Theatre’, in Hodges, C. Walter, Schoenbaum, S. & Leone, Leonara, eds., The Third Globe: Symposium for the Reconstruction of the Globe Playhouse: Wayne State University, 1979 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 133–48Google Scholar, and ‘The Boundaries of the Rhetorician's Stage’, Comparative Drama, 28 (1994), pp. 235–51.

9. See, for example, Krogh, Torben, Musik og Teater (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1955).Google Scholar