Perspective for a Stage Set with Stairs and Arches 1684 - 1737

Serafino Brizzi made this stage set design with pen and brown ink, over graphite. The graphic quality is paramount; the architecture is described with sharp lines and hatched shadows, rather than volume or mass. This emphasis makes sense, given that the drawing is for the theater, a highly artificial environment. Consider the labor involved in the original building of such a space, with its massive arches, columns, and stairs, hewn from stone by skilled hands. Brizzi is not only imagining the physical structure, but also translating that process of material transformation into a drawing on paper. The design itself invites us to imagine the activity that would take place within it. The theatrical tradition has always been about using visual means to conjure emotional and social realities, and drawings like this one played a vital role in that process. Here, the worlds of manual craft, performance, and politics converge.