Theatrum mundi
Theatrum mundi ( Latin for "world theater") is a metaphor for the vanity and nothingness of the world, which is often used in the Renaissance and Baroque periods . With the pretext of warning (see Vanitas ), such world theaters were staged with elaborate means (such as the great world theater , peasant war panorama ). This tradition of exhibitions has been preserved for centuries. - Since the 19th century, the term has primarily been understood as a mechanical miniature theater. Mechanics, too, were a symbol of nothingness before the modern upgrade of engineering.
Ancient and Middle Ages
The expression Theatrum mundi "corresponds to the worldview in which the whole world is a passing spectacle and consequently every human being has to play his role imposed by fate (in antiquity) or by God (in Christian theater)". As a literary motif and likeness , it has been widespread in Roman antiquity since the Stoics and in the Middle Ages from Augustine on. In the baroque theater , with Lope de Vega , Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare , monologues of the main characters often philosophize about the acting character of life, about its fleetingness, externality or foreign determination.
Mechanical world theater
A component of puppet theater programs in the 19th century was often a “theater in a theater”, a “Theatrum mundi” or “mechanical world theater” with brightly painted figures made of cardboard or sheet metal that were drawn across the stage on several rails. The individual figure was moved by eccentric wheels and sophisticated translations. The puppet theater director of the 19th century often built these mechanical stages as well as his marionettes or fantoches himself and therefore proudly referred to himself as a “mechanic”.
During the puppet performance, the Theatrum mundi was covered in the breakthrough prospectus, after which it played what is known as the aftermath . Some puppeteers skillfully included the Theatrum mundi in their plays: “Dr. Fist. In the 5th act Faust's journey to hell is shown in the Theatrum mundi ”or“ Fridolin or the walk to the iron hammer. Great knight play in 5th acts. In the 3rd and 4th act large iron hammer mill, completely repainted and mechanically furnished. You can see the annealing furnace and the iron hammer in action. "
As a forerunner of the cinema newsreel , the Theatrum mundi gave viewers a glimpse into the big wide world. It was a machine comedy on a small scale. The presentation of current events alternated in the program with exotic and instructive-entertaining images. Panorama-like decorations, light and sound effects as well as rapid transformations with folding backdrops enlivened the depiction of battles, fairs, biblical and historical scenes, geographical images in the changing seasons with moving seas, thunderstorms, moonlight and volcanic eruptions. "
“According to today's announcement, Th. Bläser's original mechanical theater will be set up here for viewing these days. About the same thing is written: Do not confuse the mechanical theater with a panorama or any other institute in which one sees through glasses, but rather imagine a real theater in which the acting beings are animated by an ingenious and artistic mechanism as if animated on the Appear on stage. But while in a real theater the changes of the scenery take place almost exclusively behind a closed curtain, here the changes take place in constant progress without interrupting the action in front of the viewer's eyes. Landscape and sky, night and day, sunshine and stormy air alternate in endless succession. Sometimes the foreground is the blue sea with its foaming waves, on which three-masters and steamers come and go, sometimes it's the country road or the open country, where people and animals act in the most free manner. There is no guiding wire, no ruling hand to be seen, nothing reveals the wonderful gears. Only the ingeniously used researches in the field of mechanics and the applied experience make this rich action possible. Art and mechanics celebrate equal triumphs in this theater. "
Large Theatra mundi were often the sole attraction of a show booth at the fair . A popular subject was mines, large pits "en miniature", which had their origin in the portable " humpback mines" with which (disabled) unemployed miners from the Ore Mountains wandered around. The figures of the humpback mines and "mechanical mines" in show booths were often fully plastic, the transitions to the mechanical theaters with plastic figures and the machine cabinets were fluid.
literature
- Hermann Sagemüller: art rider juggler water diver. Nördlinger newspapers from the period 1770 to 1900 report on merrymaking, shows and circus-artistic attractions and sensations. Nördlingen-Baldingen 1989.
- Wolfgang Till: puppet theater. Pictures, figures, documents. Munich 1986.
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: Theatrum mundi. Mechanical scenes in folk art and puppet shows. Dresden 1984
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Adriana Hass: Theatrum Mundi, in: Manfred Brauneck, Gérard Schneilin (ed.): Theaterlexikon, Vol. 1, Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, p. 1130.
- ↑ Dresden State Collections 1984, p. 13.
- ^ Wolfgang Till: Puppet Theater. Pictures, figures, documents. Munich 1986, p. 175.
- ^ Rieser Volksblatt October 23, 1891. In: Hermann Sagemüller: Kunstreiter Gaukler Wasserspringer. , P. 82f.
- ↑ See Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: Theatrum mundi.