Looking for the Light: Researching Stage Lighting in Renaissance and Baroque Eras
Looking for the Light: Researching Stage Lighting in Renaissance and Baroque Eras

Summary/Abstract: The author believes that research on the history of stage lighting is not conceivable or interesting only from the age of electric lighting in theatres, and aims to illustrate how, even for the early modern theatre it is not only possible but desirable to define a larger research field, which is still virtually unexplored. For this task adequate methodological tools are needed, starting with the identification of the many types of sources that are useful for reconstructing this side of the history of the performing arts, such as iconography, visual arts, chronicles, documentation on court festivals, or archives of historical theatres and academies; but also the history of lighting techniques and devices; and the history of light also on the social and cultural side in the broadest sense. Far from pretending to be exhaustive in describing such a vast and diversified domain, a few exemplary sources will be quoted or noted in passing that are useful in reconstructing this branch of theatre history, in order to highlight problems and develop methodologies of research and study. Given the scarcity of sources available, the recurrence of similar information in different sources is essential to establish widespread practices and concepts.

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