Article
Conjuring the Concept of Rome: Alterity and Synecdoche in Peruzzi’s Design for La Calandria
Sixteenth Century Journal
(2014)
Abstract
This essay sets forth a nuanced interpretation of Baldassare Peruzzi’s stage design for La Calandria (1514) that addresses the spatial disassociations found in the drawing in relation to active modes of visual engagement . Eschewing traditional and overarching generalizations about scenography in the sixteenth century, like the pictorial manifestation of Aristotle’s theory of unity through single-point perspective, it shows that Peruzzi presents a multifarious and het- erogeneous space, not a defined place in which the action is contained . Using as a fulcrum the flattened, disproportional and paradoxical arrangement of the ruins of Rome, the space in the drawing can be understood to present Rome as a monumental concept . Peruzzi’s drawing thus articulates an interplay of relations that, maximizing the artificial by conjuring an anomalous space, displaces the phenomenological expectations of the viewers in order to create a fantastic albeit impossible space that is, ultimately, truer to Rome than any mimetic instantiation of the city .
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
Citation Information
Jimena Berzal de Dios. "Conjuring the Concept of Rome: Alterity and Synecdoche in Peruzzi’s Design for La Calandria" Sixteenth Century Journal Vol. 45 Iss. 1 (2014) p. 25 - 50 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/berzal/20/