Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris 1825 - 1890

This stage set design, an ink wash on paper by Eugène Cicéri, conjures a landscape dominated by a cavernous archway. These dark portals, seen across eras, are liminal spaces, charged with symbolic weight. Consider the arch as a motif: from triumphal arches celebrating Roman emperors to Gothic cathedrals reaching for divine light, it marks a transition, a passage between worlds. In the ancient Mithraic mysteries, the cave was a sacred space of initiation, echoing the psychological depths explored by Plato in his allegory of the cave. Even in our dreams, caves represent the subconscious, hinting at hidden aspects of our psyche. Does this stage set, with its gaping entrance, invite us to confront our own shadows, our own unacknowledged desires? Cicéri’s arch is not merely architectural; it is a threshold into the collective unconscious, a stage upon which the drama of human experience unfolds in an ongoing cyclical performance.