much larger than classical prototypes warranted, free-standing columns, pilasters, pedimented niches and statues. The auditorium, slightly less than a semi-circle, abuts rather awkwardly on to the stage. There are twelve rows of seats. The back is formed by a colonnade which at the ends and at the centre is filled in and provided with niches and statues, but which is left open in the direction of the corners. The fact that the auditorium is semi-elliptical, not semi-circular, was probably due to the site. Palladio’s solution to the problem which was to trouble nearly all subsequent theatre designers, of how to fit a curved hall into a square building, was to use the corners for staircases.

It is not clear how Palladio intended to treat the ceiling. As Scamozzi completed it, the whole of it may have been originally like the part over the stage, in a heavy, coffered, so-called ‘Ducal Palace’ style. In the nineteenth century it was covered by a pseudo-tent roof, imitating the velarium of the Romans (this can be seen in some of the old photographs). In 1914 the coffered roof was reinstated over the stage and the rest painted to represent the sky.

The present perspectives that fill the arches are also by Scamozzi. Did Palladio plan them from the beginning? The issue is complicated by the fact that when the Vicenza theatre was begun there was actually no room behind the scaenaejrons; it was only after Palladio’s death that the Academy acquired the ground on which they are built, and the fact that the masonry between the old and the new work shows a straight joint supports the theory that they were an afterthought. On the other hand, the Academy’s very first proposal mentions perspectives, though Palladio’s drawing now at the R.I.B.A. shows nothing in any of the arches [Pi. 4^].

At any rate, Palladio can only have intended scenery in the central arch, the other two being too small. It was Scamozzi who enlarged them so that they were big enough for perspectives. The final set consists of five radiating streets, diminishing sharply as they recede [Pi. 43]; the effect from the auditorium is convincing but of course it is impossible for the actors to do anything with them. They represent a heroic attempt to combine practicality with Vitruvius.

The Accademia Olimpico, however, was satisfied. Around the central arch stand statues of Vicentine heroes, generals, scholars and the rich citizens who had contributed towards the building. Above them is a painting of the theatre, the words HOC OPUS and an inscription which means: ‘Through their virtue and genius the Olympian Academy raised this theatre upon its foundation in 1^84.’ By a fantastic piece of luck the Academy still exists and so, therefore, does the theatre. The festivals of classical drama that are held in it become annually more popular, despite the crippling discomfort of its seats.

Scamozzi’s later career was busy and successful. In May 1^88 he was commissioned by Vespasiano Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua, to build a theatre at his new model town of Sabbioneta. Scamozzi’s design relies heavily on that of his master but it had to be adapted to a completely different shape. The theatre at Vicenza is wide and shallow, at Sabbioneta narrow and deep. Consequently the semi-circle of seats has to be pinched in until it is almost a horseshoe. It is even smaller in scale, with only five rows of seats, but still manages to retain something of the dignity of its Palladian model. At the back of the seats is the same colonnade linked by a balustrade and surmounted by statues, and on the walls are excellent frescoes by the school of Veronese showing architectural motifs, Roman emperors and painted spectators leaning over an upper balustrade enjoying the play with the audience [Pi. 47].

Scamozzi’s stage was later demolished but can be (and is being) recon

the scaenaefrons and made one single arch (or rather a flat frame) embrace the whole stage. It was not yet a proscenium arch in the modern sense, however, since behind it he built a perspective even more elaborate than the one at Vicenza. It represented a piazza with a ‘strada nobile’ leading off into the distance, lined by palaces and rich houses and again rising and diminishing in scale as it receded. It was larger than the Vicenza perspec­tive, but was still so much wasted space as far as the actors were concerned, since they had to remain most of the time in front of it. Evidently it proved too hampering for later producers and an open space with movable flats was substituted.

Unlike the Vicenza theatre, which is hemmed in on all sides by other buildings, that of Sabbioneta is almost free-standing and Scamozzi could give it three imposing facades, severe enough in style to be called Palladian: a plain ground floor with rusticated quoins, doorways and windows, and a .piano nobile with coupled pilasters and niches. There are three bays on the two short sides, nine on the long. It is at first rather misleading to find that the doorway in the centre “of”the’ long side leads straight into the space between the stage and the auditorium. The main entrance, through a vestibule, is by one of the narrow sides.

If one turns from Vicenza and Sabbioneta to the rest of Italy and of Europe, the picture is at first bewildering. There seems to be an unending variety of theatrical forms bearing little or no relation to each other. It may help to keep in mind four basic types: Firstly, the revived classical theatre, as exemplified at Vicenza; secondly, the medieval arrangement of scaffolds making up a multiple set; the third type was the temporary platform-stage with a simple backcloth, used for travelling shows and ceremonial oc­casions; and then there was the teatro da sola, or indoor auditorium, which developed from the converted nobleman’s hall.

The last type I leave for the next chapter. It was here that the proscenium arch developed and here accordingly that we must seek the source for the standard European theatre of the next 300 years. Features from the other three occur in strange and often unexpected permutations. The three, or five, doors of a Roman theatre, for instance, which in classical drama stood for particular houses, had a function very similar to the mansiones of a medieval play. The remains of Roman theatres, therefore,