Merveilleux et Mathématique: Theatre Machines and Their Dual Iconographical Representation
Merveilleux et Mathématique: Theatre Machines and Their Dual Iconographical Representation

Summary/Abstract: Theatre machines are an integral part of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court opera and its representation of power. They contribute to the performances of the sovereign’s entry on stage and display his power over the realms of scene, court, and country. Few original machines have survived to this day, but we get a glimpse of their perceptual frame through iconographical representations such as frontispieces, scene designs, and sketches of machines. These sources often combine a rational mode of revealing with a phantasmagorical one of dazzling and concealing. Given this dual nature, researchers have often presumed the contradictory manner in which they are represented. By contrast, the author proposes an understanding of these images as a blending of representation ideals which serve as potent tools of power display and shape a specific reception behaviour.

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