Appointment by the School of Theatre and Exhibit Design.
Lecture held in English.
Urban design is profoundly influenced by the theatre; or, rather, stage design and urban design are intensely interpenetrative. From Vitruvius to Serlio, and beyond, theorists have described and shaped the way cities are built according to principles that are rooted in the theatre, to maximise visual impact and create a dignified background for the drama of urban life, or what the sixteenth-century Spanish dramatist Calderon de la Barca called "the great theatre of the world".
The theatricality of urban design reached its high point in the Renaissance and Baroque, and of the many cities that can provide examples, none is better than Rome. This intervention will examine the different ways that different architects and sponsors in Rome from 1450 to 1750 used theatrical effects to shape the city, from the rediscovery of ancient proportion and ancient writings about architecture in the fifteenth century through Serlio's three theatrical modes of set design, highly influential for urban planners of the seventeenth century, to the great "teatri" designed by and for Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) and beyond, to the last great showpieces of Roman theatricality in the eighteenth century, including the piazza di Trevi.
Anthony Majanlahti was born in Montréal, in Canada, is actually teacher in the Northeastern University of Boston he teaches in Rome, where is associated of the Accademia Britannica. He is published his book The Families who Made Rome: a history and a guide (Londra: Chatto & Windus) in 2005, traduces in Italy by Vallardi in 2007.
