Design for Stage Set: Centralized Villa with Cupola ("Villa rotunda" Style) and Colonnaded Wings. 1696 - 1756

Giuseppe Galli Bibiena created this stage set design with graphite in the 18th century. Envision a grandiose stage set dominated by a centralized villa, its cupola reaching towards the heavens. The columns, arranged in perfect symmetry, echo forms found in ancient temples, symbols of stability and order. Notice how this architectural motif reappears through time: from the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, where each level brought one closer to divinity, to the Baroque palaces which served as stages for displays of power. Consider the circle of the dome, a symbol of totality that can be seen reflected in Byzantine mosaics and Renaissance paintings. These images, filled with cosmic significance, trigger our collective memories of the eternal and the divine, stirring deep, primal emotions. This cyclical return to the same forms—columns, domes, symmetry—reveals how certain archetypes persist, adapting themselves to new eras and new emotional necessities.