Interieur van een schouwburg 1818 - 1897

This is a print made by Willem Bal showing the interior of a theatre. Though undated, Bal was active in the nineteenth century, meaning it depicts a scene already long past. Here we see the architecture of theatrical space, boxes arrayed around a stage. It is a space of social display. What relations of power are enacted and reinforced here? Who has access to which seats? What is the relationship of the stage to the audience? The artist asks us to consider the theatre as a social institution and to look at how theatrical imagery relates to politics. As historians of art, we ask questions about the social conditions that make this image possible. What can period publications and archival records tell us about the audiences for theatre in the Netherlands in the early modern period? How did civic and state authorities regulate theatrical productions? The meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.