Über Malerei: Theater als Bild – vice versa / Gloria Pagliani, Alice Dal Bello, Alexander Harvey

The expanded concept for the new series of On painting will be held over four events commencing in the 2023 summer semester. Artists will be invited to bring in their own painting, which will be exhibited in the Exhibit Eschenbachgasse space alongside a referece object ad a copy of a historical painting.

Theater als Bild – vice versa
Gloria Pagliani in conversation mit Alice Dal Bello und Alexander Harvey

At the end of the 15th century, studies on perspective influenced both painting and theatre design simultaneously. At the same time there began to appear in European cities indoor theatre buildings, this is notable because before this theatre was typically practiced outdoors or inside of churches. This new type of theatre featured what is called a proscenium - a frame like structure functioning both as a viewing port and as a division between the audience and what is happening on the stage. This division may also be referred to as the “fourth wall”. Enabled by the recent studies on perspective, those designing for the theatre began to create scenery by “projecting” a two dimensional image onto the proscenium as if it were a screen. The scenery was then constructed according to this projection. According to this scheme the three dimensional space of the theatre stage came to be planned as if to create a two dimensional image, which is to be observed by those seated in the audience. Because of this a representation of depth similar to the one seen contemporaneously in painting found its way onto the stage. Notably, the Italian term for the theatrical fourth wall is “quadro”, which can also mean “painting”.