Seminar by Claudio Passera
07/06/2022 ore 15, Aula E Vetreria Sciarra
In the second half of the XVth century, before the diplomatic balances that led to the birth of the regional states, the Italian rulers in need of strategies to promote their public image made their nuptials a powerful communication tool. Ceremonies, pageants and temporary architectures in honour of the newlyweds had the task of making explicit the alliances between the reigning houses of different principalities, visually expressing the power of the lords over their capitals. This often required artists, musicians and craftsmen who turned their skill in festive design into a personal professional skill, becoming so popular that they were sought after by lords with the most up-to-date theatrical interest.
Documents of different types attest the variety of public celebrations organised: paintings and frescos, aristocratic guests’ diaries, ambassadors’ letters, civic chronicles, encomiastic texts required by princes or offered by writers in quest of notoriety.
Focusing on two examples of the XVth century Italian festive culture, this speech will illustrate how comparing historical sources on aristocratic weddings hosted in Rome during the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Alexander VI it is possible both to reconstruct the ceremonies morphology, and to identify the artists involved in their preparation and to understand the political meaning of the festivities and their performances. Reading the chroniclers' accounts, it will be also understood why Florentine Sacred Dramas and Plautine recitations were staged in those festivities. Such spectacles enriched the performative landscape of the Urbe, but they can only be considered as a specific expression of the Roman culture of Renaissance theatre through comparison with the Florentine and Ferrara staging practices of these two theatrical genres.
Biography
Claudio Passera obtained a MA in Italian Philology from the Catholic University of Milan in 2012 and a PhD in Visual and Performing Arts from the University of Florence in 2019. In the same year he was fellow at the Institute for Theatre and Opera of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. Since September 2019 he has collaborated in the project La città del duca. La politica delle immagini nella Milano sforzesca, promoted by the Department of Architecture of the Politecnico University, Milan. In 2020-2021, he was fellow of the Fratelli Confalonieri Foundation, Milan. The focus of his research is the celebration of princely power in Italy during the XV century through ceremonies, spectacles and feasts and the use of the descriptions of these events – both in manuscripts and incunabula – for the promotion of princes’ public image. In 2020 he published the book “In questo picolo libretto”. Descrizioni di feste e di spettacoli per le nozze dei signori italiani del Rinascimento, Firenze University Press. Currently he is ‘cultore della materia’ in Medieval and Renaissance Theatre History in the Catholic University, Milan.