Lighting of the Baroque Theatres

Lighting of the Baroque Theatres

Jennifer MacGregor

Lighting specifically for the theatre came into effect in the

Renaissance and was later refined during the Baroque era. There are

many documents and pictures left behind that help piece together what

the theatre going audience of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

observed, however some of them are partial and do not help to properly

portray the whole picture. The purpose of this paper is, through research

and experiments, to shed some light on what it meant to illuminate the

stages of the Baroque era.

The Baroque era, like all other time periods, does not have exact,

defined dates. Generally it can be said to encompass the 17th and 18th

centuries for most of Europe. One aspect of the Baroque era that differs

from the Renaissance is that most of the major European countries were

“brought into the same orbit [and] . . . there was less cleavage of the sort

which, during the sixteenth century, separated the English and Spanish

and French playhouses from those of the Italian courts.” According to the

Encyclopedia Britannica, the work that characterizes the Baroque period

has “the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses,

often in dramatic ways.” Nicoll states that the two endeavours which

provided the foundation for the Baroque theatre were music and

perspective.

This endeavour into music started with a group of artists and

noblemen who formed a society known as the ‘Florentine Carmerata’

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around the late 1500's. They focused their attention toward the musical

element of Greek tragedies, and producing them with this element played

a central role in the creation of a new type of spectacular performance. It

was this experimentation along with the intermezzi’s that were the

parents of opera. Nicoll also states that Guido Ubaldus’ work Perspectivae

libri sex, published in 1600, was the first basic investigation into the laws

of perspective that suggested a scenic method and opened up a new

world of wonders. These two new aspects of the Baroque ushered in a

new theatre intent on spectacle and music, one that appealed to the

senses of an audience that was no longer limited to the upper class. More

public playhouses were built and the Baroque era saw how the “prominent

and powerful middle class came to play a role in art patronage.” In Paris

alone the number of theatres grew from three at the beginning of the

1700's to 51 by 1791.

The new emphasis on spectacle had its influence on theatre

buildings built in the Baroque era. The new Baroque stages became much

deeper than they were wide to allow scenes of infinite perspective. Many

stages had some way of dividing the stage into two parts to create a

separate front stage and an inner stage. More room was now made

available in the heavens, beside the wings and under the stages for all of

the stage machinery. A new system for changing the scenery, the chariot

and pole system (brought in by Giacomo Torelli), allowed the increased

number of wing flats to be changed into an entirely new scene in a matter

of seconds. Because of the swiftness and ease of theses scene changes,

fifteen to twenty scene changes could occur in one performance and

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provide the spectacle Italian opera required. Gone were the limiting three

classical scenes recreated by Serlio for tragedy, comedy and satire. To this

new kind of theatre came hells and heavens, caves, groves, forests,

harbours and streets. And with them came many a wonderful spectacle of

hell fires blazing, lightning and thunder, and glory machines with the Gods

descending from the heavens. Although evidence of similar spectacles can

be found in Renaissance and even Medieval plays, it was the Baroque that

encompassed and refined them. The Baroque had the ability and

advanced machinery to make the spectacles happen. They became

something of a requirement of shows: the “spectacle . . . dominated over

all other considerations” of the performance.

The lighting of the Baroque era became more refined as well. In the

words of Bergman, “It was only in the early 17th century that a

normalization of lighting technique began and they arrived at a system

which would be normative for several centuries.” New inventions and

innovations were introduced into the theatre to create more control over

the lighting . The innovations which Bergman cites in his book Lighting in

the Theatre as coming into play are: turnable poles for the side lighting

which make variations in the intensity possible, foot lights that can be

raised or lowered to vary light intensity and detachable light boards that

can be attached to wing trolleys or set pieces to make the lighting system

flexible. This allowed for a change from light to dark to happen on stage

with a distinct ease.

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According to Bergman it was “[the] changes between illuminated,

brilliant scenes and terrifying scenes with dimmed light in dusk or

darkness belonged to the dramaturgy of the 17th century opera.” In his

book he also shares a lighting change viewed by Nicodemus Tessin the

Younger as described in his travel account of 1687 - 88. Tessin describes a

scene he witnessed at the San Giovanni Grisostomo Theatre (Venice)

where “‘the quite illuminated enchanted room was converted into a

terrible cave, which was quite wonderful because of the extremes of two

such different sets.’” Tessin describes the use of turnable poles and the

vertical movement of footlights at San Giovanni Grisostomo.

We also have earlier descriptions of the dimming of lights from The

Dialogues of Leone di Somi. In his dialogues (dated 1556) the character

Veridico describes when he had to produce a tragedy that starts off on a

happy strain and then ends with death and disasters. He explains how

“[during] all the time when the episodes were happy in mood I had the

stage brightly illuminated, but so soon as the first unhappy incident

occurred . . . I contrived (by prearrangement, of course) that at that very

instant most of the stage lights not used for the perspective were

darkened or extinguished.” Unfortunately di Somi does not give too much

detail of what his prearrangement entailed, one might surmise that either

the lights were extinguished or cylinders were dropped over the lamps to

cover their light. It also might have been a combination of both. The

dropping of cylinders or boxes of tin or black metal over lamps is

described as a technique in Sabbattini’s Practica di Fabricar Scene e

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Machine ne’Teari (1638) and Furttenbach’s Mannhaffter Kunstspiegel

(1663).

The exact origins of the turnable poles are not mentioned by

Bergman in his book but there is also reference in Book One of Nicola

Sabbattini’s work of poles that were in the side wings specifically for

lighting. Their purpose was to create a placement for the lamps that

would not touch the stage. This would keep the lamps firm and steady

even when the dancing and tumbling made the stage shake. Perhaps

someone saw that the idea of turning the poles was a much easier and

less awkward way to vary the light intensity. The ease of these new

systems is apparent: the changes in the stage lighting were now swifter

and could happen during the action of a performance without closing the

curtain.

With this new ability to easily change from light to dark there is no

mention of specific control over different areas. There are only reports of

a difference between the inner stage and the front stage to show things

like a hell mouth. Bergman makes the statement that light was not

synchronized with any movement of nature’s own light (sun or moon) and

that “graduation of the intensity of light was the only thing possible.”

However, we do have Sabbattini to inform us that illumination that falls

from one side of the scene will “have a finer appearance than by any of

the other methods.” He then states that the way of presenting illumination

from one side is through [the] painting of the scene and placing of the

light. It is not known if only illuminating the scene from one side was ever

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actually practiced but it may have been experimented with. I would be

inclined to say that they did try out altering the idea; the period was

known for its experimentation of the arts.

The opinion of dimming the auditorium lights was varied throughout

the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The concept of the darkened

auditorium was held as sacred in Italy whereas France and England kept

there auditoriums brightly lit. The best argument for the darkened

auditoriums is given by the character Veridico in di Somi’s dialogues. One

of the other characters points out that in Veridico’s auditorium there are

only 12 standing candelabra when he recalls as many as 250 torches in

the same hall. Veridico responds that it is a natural fact that a man who

stands in the shade sees an illuminated, distant object much more clearly

due to the fact that the sight can proceed more directly toward the object.

Veridico’s companions agree with his logic and also point out two other

advantages to the darkened auditorium: lower amounts of smoke and

lesser expenses.

From the works of Angelo Ingegneri we also have another advocate

for the dimming of the auditorium lights, though he actually suggests

dimming them before the curtain drops: “‘[the] darker the auditorium, the

more luminous seems the stage.’” We can see this convention of the

darkened auditorium in Furttenbach’s account of a religious spectacle with

he viewed at the Medici palace in 1608. There he talks about the beautiful

perspective scene that took place “in a great hall completely closed and

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made dark.” The convention of the darkened auditorium is a tradition that

we still carry over into today’s theatres.

The advocates for the lightened auditorium felt the way they did

because the theatre events were as much for the audience to see as to be

seen; the auditorium lights were also thought to cast “a festive radiance

on the stage of the Paris Opera.” Though there is mention by Tessin of the

two foremost chandeliers in the auditorium being hoisted up at the start of

a performance at the Palais Royal (1687), Bergman points out that the

rest of the auditorium lighting remained for the duration of the

performance. The chandeliers were only raised to give the boxes better

sight lines. So in the Paris Opera houses “[the] gold-shimmering light from

all the crystal chandeliers and the lights of the stage wrapped actors and

spectators into a common dream-world of mythology and heroic legend.”

It wasn’t until about 1800 that Paris thought about introducing a darkened

auditorium.

It is Serlio who introduces us to the idea of transparent light, which

he refers to as “artificial lights of translucent colors.” It is here that we first

see this idea of transparent light which, Bergman reminds us, plays an

important role in the lighting of the Baroque era. The sole reason for the

coloured bozze placed in front of the lights was purely an aesthetic

consideration meant to dazzle spectators. There are often descriptions of

how the sets of the Baroque era gave off such a brilliant light and looked

as thought the stage was filled with thousands of jewels. At the wedding

festival of Francesco de’ Medici to Joanna of Austria in 1565 we hear of

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coloured water lit from behind. Transparent light wasn’t limited to just the

precious jewel effect. It was also used to show off the coat of arms at the

top of the proscenium. Also Serlio introduces putting torches behind oiled

papers placed in the windows to help give the scene life. The ideas of

coloured lights and especially transparent light are found in both the

French Renaissance theatre (there called transparencies) and with Inigo

Jones in England.

The method of having the source hidden started to take hold and

eventually become a new way to place the lights in the theatre. Again di

Somi logically explains the reason for this convention best with his

character Veridico. He explains “that a brilliant light striking directly upon

the eye for any length of time becomes exceedingly irritating. . . The

shading of the lights [with transparent or coloured glasses] was devised to

minimize the annoyance.” Angelo Ingegneri again agrees with di Somi and

states that concealed lights “enhance the charm of the performance.” We

can see, then, this logic of the hidden lights become convention in the

Baroque theatres. Festival accounts of the Medici festivals in the late

1500's repeatedly state that the lighting sources were hidden from the

eyes of the spectators. Furttenbach talks about hidden lights in practice

at the Medici festival in 1608 in Florence. He explains that there were

lights that were hidden in the heavens creating a spectacle of riches and

that “Several hundred oil lamps were so carefully placed that the actual

lamps could not be seen, but their glow sent out such a light that it

seemed to be day . . .” He was obviously very impressed with this idea and

carried it back to Germany with him. In “Recreational Architecture” (1640)

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he states the oil lamps within the scene are “all of course completely

concealed.”

The advancement of stage scenery made the proscenium arch serve

a dual purpose of framing the perspective picture and of concealing the

stage machinery. It now also served the purpose of concealing the lights.

We also have Sabbattini explaining that the parapet was made higher

than the stage for the purpose of hiding oil lamps behind it.

The concealed light added to the wonder and comfort of the

spectator. There were some, however, who felt that there was not as

much light directly on the stage as a chandelier hung in the center would

create. There are accounts of travelling Frenchmen who visited the opera

houses in Venice and remarked that “the decor was poorly illuminated.”

The difference noticed by the Frenchmen was probably due to the

difference in the auditorium light (Paris opera auditorium was brightly lit

while the Italian theatres, as previously discussed, were dark) and to the

fact that the Italian stages were wider, making the distance to the center

of the stage further than that of the narrower French stages. The light of

the candles drops considerably at great distances.

With an increase in the stage size and spectacle we also have an

increase in lighting instruments and the placement of the lights became

more of a science. Judith Milhous, in an article researching the paperwork

from a dispute over the bills of a man, Hayling, who provided the lighting

for the King’s Theatre in Haymarket, notes that there was a “trend is

toward a very substantial increase in opera illumination. There were fifty

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percent more lights in 1781 than there had been six years earlier.” Having

more instruments became more functional with the increased control over

the sources.

Lights could now be found on all parts of the Baroque stage as “a

practical lighting system well adapted to the requirements of the

perspective scene.” Live flame was the only source of light in the Baroque.

The instruments that were used came in the forms of candles, lamps or

torches. They were placed in all areas of the stage with varying purposes,

and most of them were now hidden from the eyes of the spectator. The

works of Sabbattini and Furttenbach lend to us a detailed description of a

well used system of lighting the stage and scenery in the 1630's.

Modifications were made on their designs further into the Baroque era, but

their system gives us its’ origins.

At the front of the stage footlights are now typical of the Baroque

stage lighting. Furttenbach places these in his front pit which catches the

curtain and Sabbattini places them behind the parapet at the front edge of

the stage. In the King’s Theatre in Haymarket we there is an account of

“Front Lights three Rows, 150 each” for a total of 450 lights downstage

with a fourth row that could be added on special occasions. In France,

Lavoisier (1781) tells us that the audiences themselves forced a shift from

overhead chandeliers to footlights due to irritation. In the later part of the

Baroque era the footlights appear on a system that allowed them to be

raised and lowered, as previously mentioned, making a variation in their

intensity possible. We there are accounts of this system from Tessin at

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San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice and at the Palais Royal in Paris (1687 -

88). The footlights are most often talked about as being arranged using

lamps with multiple wicks or more rarely, as with Furttenbach, with

candles.

For the lighting of the heavens (overhead) there is a wide range of

techniques used. At San Giovanni Grisostomo, Tessin reports little

overhead lighting. He talks of a batten which could be lowered to the

stage for lighting and maintenance. The fact that he only mentions it in

the singular implies that there was only one, which was possibly because

of the great risk of fire of the overhead battens. From Furttenbach, we

have a more elaborate overhead lighting system. He gives diagrams of

glass oil lamps (perhaps bozze?) attached to the backs of the arched cloud

pieces. The placement is marked at three places vertically on each cloud

piece, but he does not tell us how many are placed across each cloud. He

remarks several times how these lights “[send] down a glow like day.”

There are other references in the French and English theatres of many

brilliant lights overhead.

Sidelight also came in a few different forms. Of movable lighting

there were turnable poles and detachable boards as mentioned at San

Giovanni Grisostomo. Other theatres simply had poles that didn’t turn or

there were rings which could be attached to boards on the scenery or

behind the proscenium. At the court theatre in Krumlov in the Czech

Republic, the light was attached to the scenery itself. At Hayling in the

King’s Theatre there was a significant difference between stationary and

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removable lights. The binding feature of all of these sidelights is that their

placement was chosen so that they were hidden behind the wing pieces

and would cast light on the proceeding piece of scenery. These lights were

either lamps or candles.

Lights were also used that were not specifically for the visibility of

the scene. One example of those are transparencies or the precious jewel

effect as mentioned above. Other lights that were not used for visibility

can placed in the category of “Special Effects.” Effects that fall under this

category are lights that imitate nature like the sun, moon and stars or

lightning. There were also effects for showing a fiery hell. The sun and

moon both followed a popular method described by Furttenbach, Vasari

and Tessin. Its base idea consists of having a glass vessel filled with water

and placed in front of a bright light which could then move across the

backdrop of the sky if desired. If the vessel was to be used as a moon it

would have the face of the moon painted on the glass. Furttenbach’s

description only tells us of water filling a space between two pieces of

glass. He does not tell us the shape of the glass he used.

In the theatre festivals of the Medici family we have accounts of

Vasari’s setup of “A crystal sphere twenty-three inches in diameter filled

with distilled water and placed in front of the lantern, in which two torches

were burning.” In this method the sphere acts as a focusing lense and

doesn’t really spread the light out. When looked at from an angle an out of

focus image appears on the glass. Only when looked at directly does it

become a ball of yellow light.

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Tessin shows us a vessel that acts like a concave/ convex lense with

the light placed on the concave side. The vessel acts as a lense that would

disperse the light (concave) and then give it some focus (convex) which

would create a large semi-focused ball of yellow light visible from a range

of angles. The method described by Tessin was probably the most

effective one for the reasons described above.

There are two similar descriptions of the creation of lighting and

hell fires on stage. One is described by both Serlio and Sabbattini. It

consists of a box filled with powdered resin containing holes on the top

and a lighted candle or torch in the center. To create the flash of light, the

box is raised quickly to let out the resin which is lit by the flame. This was

probably the method used by Hayling in the King’s Theatre, as he lists the

need for “Ten Lighting Flashers three feet long tubes” and “Six pound

Ground Rosin sifted fine.” The other method described by Furttenbach

made a “long bright flame in the air like lightning” and is not quite as

sophisticated. He indicates the use of a fine meal-like yellow coloured

resin which is put in a shaped piece of tin in the right hand. The arm is

extended and the meal is then thrown into the light of a lit wax candle. He

points out that this method will not set fire to anything or cause any

damage, as well, it left a pleasant odour behind. The reason that the resin

will not set fire to anything is because, being finely ground, it burns quickly

and brightly and therefore has little chance of falling lit onto the stage.

Powdered resin in a clump or pile also does not combust, it will only melt

and act like a fuel to a wick. The colour of the flame produced by this is a

very orange-red colour. The only downfall to either method is the problem

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of the resin which does not catch fire (as it is not an exact thing to get all

the powder into the flame) will fall and make the floor sticky. This

probably did not create too much of a problem as even nowadays dancers

use rosin on their feet to prevent slipping. The odour it leaves behind is

one of pine.

There were two main sources of light of the Baroque era that come

up countless times in a wide range of literature, records and research.

These are beeswax and tallow. Of the range of others there are rosin or

pine sap, olive oil, canola or rape oil, linseed oil, palm oil, kitchen fat,

indeed anything that could be used as a fuel to burn with a wick.

Obviously live fire on stage was very dangerous. There are countless

theatres that have been lost to fire such as Drury Lane Theatre, the Globe

Theatre, and many others. These lights also ran the risk of dripping onto

actors or audience and were also very smoky. Some sources were better

than others.

Beeswax candles were commonly held as the light of all lights.

Beeswax as a source of fuel can be found as far back as Ancient Egyptian

times. Bees themselves can be found all over the world where there is

nectar for them to gather. It generally takes 8 pounds of honey to create 1

pound of wax. This output made beeswax candles a lot of work and

therefore they were expensive “upper class” items. The candles were

held in high appraisal above the other sources because of their low smoke,

bright light and lack of dripping.

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Beeswax, when rendered, comes out as a yellow cake. For an even

brighter light with less smoke the beeswax was bleached to make a white

wax that was praised by many as being the brightest, least smelliest and

best source of light. The beeswax to be bleached would be formed into

thin strips, laid in the sunlight and frequently watered. The process could

be sped up from four weeks to five days by the addition of a pure spirt of

turpentine oil that disappeared by the end of the process. This white wax

burned cleaner and brighter due to the lack of impurities in it. Many

accounts of the theatre lighting are unclear if, when they say wax, they

are referring to white or yellow beeswax.

Beeswax candles are made by being dipped, drawn or poured. In the

Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1910 moulding is said to not be possible as

the wax sticks to the moulds.

Tallow is next on the list as far as formation of candles is concerned.

Tallow is the rendered fat of mutton or cows, and is usually made from the

hard fat from the loin and kidney area (also called suet). Because of its

availability to even the poorest of households it was the most common

among the lower classes. It was used more in the public theatres than the

court theatres but still in conjunction with beeswax and oil lamps. Candles

of tallow were white and greasy to the touch. The melting point of tallow is

much lower than that of beeswax. This makes the tallow candles much

more susceptible to dripping and takes them longer to harden at room

temperature. This means that there was more of a chance of hot liquid

tallow dripping onto people below.

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The light given off by the tallow candle was the weakest compared

to the other sources: yellow beeswax candles burn two to three times as

bright as tallow candles do. Tallow candles only burned a little bit more

than half the time of a yellow beeswax candle of the same dimensions.

Tallow could also be found in the form of lamps. Liquid tallow would

be poured into clay pots or molds with a wick. The burning time of these

lamps was much longer than that of the candles, mostly due to lack of

dripping and slower combustion.

Tallow candles could be dipped, poured, drawn or molded. Dipped

candles were the most common ones in the households as it could be

done with homemade equipment. Tallow candles give off a buttery, greasy

odour. The main reason that tallow candles were used, despite all of their

disadvantages, is because they were cheap and easy to make.

Lamps were either be made of glass, clay or metal (tin or iron for

cheaper ones, brass or silver for the courts). The wicks were floated in the

oil or held up by rings of iron or cork or by modification of the lamp to hold

the wick in its center. Usually, water would be placed in the bottom of the

lamps to keep the oil at level with the wick, since the oil would float on top

of the water. As the oil burnt down during a show, someone would go

around and fill up the lamps with more oil. Furttenbach tells us that this

method of water under the oil saved considerable trouble and expense.

Lamps had the advantage of being able to have many wicks in one lamp;

Tessin mentions five wicks burning in each of the tin lamps at the Palais

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Royal. The many wicks in one place would help shed more light but they

would also produce more smoke.

In some ways the lamps were smokier than the candles and

sometime it would be the other way around. The shape of most lamps did

not allow for fresh oxygen to come up to the base of the flame to allow for

clean combustion (soot, given off as black smoke, is caused by the

imperfect burning of the wick). (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860-1), 21 & 48.

Candles also smoke if they are not properly trimmed or “snuffed”. Snuffing

is the trimming of the part of the twisted wick which was not wholly

consumed by the flame. If the candles were not snuffed charred matter

would accumulate and choke the flame.

It is rare to find specific mention of the different types of fuel used in

the lamps in preserved writings about Baroque theatre lighting. The lamps

are simply referred to as oil lamps. We do have Furttenbach kindly informs

us that he uses olive oil for his lamps. Other sources mention the use of

linseed oil and rape (now known as canola) oil. The rape oil was said to

burn brightest and cleanest of the two. The light given off by the olive oil is

the brightest and least smoky of all three, with the canola coming in

second. More then likely the oil in the lamps at the King’s Theatre in

Haymarket burned olive oil as it was stated that their “tallow and candles

are much dirtier than oil, if the oil is of good quality.” The only oil of the

previously mentioned types that might compare to beeswax candles is

olive oil. Most of the lamps produced visible black smoke when burned.

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Candles sometimes tend to be less smoky because they have smaller

wicks.

The other form that light could be found as in the Baroque theatre

was as a torch. Torches were made by bounding four or more long wicks

with either wire or wood cores. These were then dipped into resin from

pine trees, wax or tallow. The torches tended to give off the brightest light

due to having the largest flame but they were also susceptible to giving off

the most smoke. The torches were generally placed in view of the

audience either in the auditorium or as a set decoration.

The most common material for the wicks is cotton but they are also

made of flax or of the soft inside part of rushes. The wicks were made by

twisting the fibers together like yarn and then twisting together until the

desired thickness was achieved. Van der Heyden was the man responsible

for the street lighting system in Amsterdam in the 1600's. He leaves

behind detailed descriptions to the creation of the wicks. The thickness

and tightness were of large importance for a well burning lamp; even after

he gave over the job of Director of Street Lighting he still kept the making

of the wicks under his private control. Van der Heyden also points out the

downfall of many other street lighting systems, like that of Paris’: they

didn’t provide air holes on the bottom of the lamps in addition to the

chimney’s at the top. Van der Heyden insists that these air holes “are

absolutely essential to expel the singularly heavy smoke from the oil.”

Air flow in the form of drafts and wind is also an aspect not normally

addressed in writings of lighting preserved from the Baroque, yet surely it

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must have been an issue of concern. A draft of any amount can cause

burning lamps, candles and torches to smoke excessively, burn unevenly

or faster and to drip. It is interesting to see the lack of attention paid to

this detail by authorities on the subject at the time.

What we have for the lighting in the Baroque theatres is a flickering,

smokey source that illuminates performers and an infinite perspective

scene. The Baroque gave us many conventions which today we take for

granted: controlled intensity, hidden lights, a flexible, movable system and

lighting’s art. There were men like Furttenbach who “showed the germs of

creative thinking that has borne full fruit only in the recent theatre . . .”

The sole purpose of the theatres of the Baroque was to delight, impress

and entertain. From accounts of performances they seem to have done

that quite well. Unfortunately for us, the only view of the “festive

radiance” of the Baroque that we will experience is in our heads. We can

only imagine the brilliance and spectacle a performance at the court

theatre of the time would convey.

20

Allardyce Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre (London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1970), 103.

“Baroque period,” Encyclopedia Britannica [encyclopedia online], accessed 20 April, 2001, available from http://www.Britannica.com

Allardyce Nicoll, 103.

Ibid., 103.

“Baroque period,” Encyclopedia Britannica.

“History of Theatre - Middle class drama” Encyclopedia Britannica [encyclopedia online], accessed 25 April, 2001.


Gosta M. Bergman, Lighting in the Theatre (New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 69.

Gosta Bergman, 98.

Ibid., 96-97.

Ibid., 94 - 95.

Leone di Somi, “The Dialogues of Leone di Somi.” The Development of the Theatre. Trans. Allardyce Nicoll, 274.

Nicola Sabbattini, “Manual for Constructing Theatrical Scenes and Machines.” The Renaissance Stage. Ed. Barnard Hewitt. (Florida: University of Miami Press, 1961), 111 - 112.

Joseph Furttenbach, “Noble Mirror of Art.” The Renaissance Stage, 230.

Nicola Sabbattini, 95.

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Gosta Bergman, 104.

Nicola Sabbattini, 59 - 61.


Gosta Bergman, 66.

Joseph Furttenbach, 180.

Gosta Bergman, 124 - 126.

Ibid., 135.

Sebastiano Serlio, “The Second Book of Architecture,” The Renaissance Stage, 33.

Gosta Bergman, 96.

A. M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1964), 15.

Sebastiano Serlio, 29.

Gosta Bergman, 59. In one of Inigo Jones’ scenes in a Masque of Oberon (1610) there is a description of “a bright and glorious palace, whose gates and walls were transparent.” (Bergman, 121)

Leone di Somi, 274.

Gosta Bergman, 66.

Ibid., 71.



Nicola Sabbattini, 95 - 96.

Furttenbach gives accounts of the hidden light that made it seem like day (180) but we also have in Serlio’s book the advice that the scene is best lit from the middle (28 - 29). It seems that Furttenbach followed what became the Itallian way where Serlio’s idea was taken up more by the French and English theatres.

Gosta Bergman, 125.

See Sections 5.3 and 5.5 in Appendix.

“Lighting at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket 1780-82,” Theatre Research International 16, no. 3 (1980): 218.

Gosta Bergman, 73.

Ibid., 73.

Judith Milhous, 218 - 219.

Gosta Bergman, 152.

Gosta Bergman, 96.

Joseph Furttenbach.

Judith Milhous, 219.

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A. M. Nagler, 10.

See Appendix, Section 5.7.



Nicola Sabbattini, 93.

“Wax,” Encyclopedia Britannica: 1895, pg unknown.

“Candle,” Encyclopedia Britannica: 1910, 179.

The melting point of beeswax is 60 C. The melting point of tallow varies due to its’ purity but ranges from 25-45 C.

See Appendix, Section 5.3 and 5.5.


Gosta Bergman, 124.

In Michael Faraday’s lectures on the Chemical History of the Candle it states that an irregular airflow around the flame causes a guttering of the flame and incomplete combustion.

“Candle,” 179.

Lettie Multhauf, “Street Lighting in 17th Century Amsterdam,” Technology and Culture 26, no. 2 (1985): 236 - 250.


Lettie Multhauf, page unknown.

Barnard Hewitt, “Introduction.” The Renaissance Stage, 17.

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Documents

Lighting of the Baroque Theatres