Table Of ContentScenography and Art History
ii
Scenography and Art History
Performance Design and Visual Culture
Edited by
Astrid von Rosen and Viveka Kjellmer
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Selection and editorial matter © Astrid von Rosen and Viveka Kjellmer, 2021
Individual chapters © their authors, 2021
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Cover Image: Rena Narumi, Dancer, The Royal Swedish Ballet (2014)
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Names: Rosen, Astrid von, editor. | Kjellmer, Viveka, editor.
Title: Scenography and art history : performance design and visual culture /
edited by Astrid von Rosen and Viveka Kjellmer.
Description: [New York] : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, [2021] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020046773 (print) | LCCN 2020046774 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350204447
(hardback) | ISBN 9781350204454 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350204461 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Art–Historiography. | Theaters–Stage-setting and scenery.
Classification: LCC N7480 .S34 2021 (print) | LCC N7480 (ebook) | DDC 709–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046773
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046774
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Contents
List of illustrations vi
List of contributors ix
Foreword: The stage of writing and drawing art’s histories
Marsha Meskimmon xiii
Foreword: At the borders of scenography Rachel Hann xvi
Acknowledgements xx
1 Introduction: Re-imagining scenography in relation to art
history Astrid von Rosen and Viveka Kjellmer 1
2 Black goats and broomsticks: Feminism and the figure of the witch
in Leonor Fini’s designs for Le Sabbat Rachael Grew 13
3 Scenographing the dance archive – keep crawling! Astrid von Rosen 29
4 Michael Chapman’s Rauschenberg: Mise en scène and scenography
in Taxi Driver Gillian McIver 47
5 A dynamic bipolarity: The Royal Holloway Chapel project,
scenography and art history Greer Crawley and Harriet O’Neill 65
6 Killed by drones: Embodying live performance scenography
Olga Nikolaeva 85
7 Evocations of the ‘sonore et voilé’: The scenographic world of
Der Ring in the art of Henri Fantin-Latour Corrinne Chong 101
8 Visual couture: Costume agency in the advertising campaign
Opera Papier Viveka Kjellmer 123
9 ‘Re-dressing the part’: The ‘scenographic strategies’ of
Ellen Terry (1847–1928) Veronica Isaac 141
10 Scenographing festival books: Towards a multisensory
archive Carmen González-Román 165
11 Scenographic events: Interfacing with digital fashion
stories Christine Sjöberg 183
12 Beyond change: Archaeology of a spook play Tamas Szalczer
and Eszter Szalczer 199
Index 219
Illustrations
Plates
1 Leonor Fini, Witches Cavern, set design for Le Sabbat, 1972
2 Leonor Fini, Costume design for a witch, Le Sabbat, c. 1972
3 Leonor Fini, Design for the black goats, Le Sabbat, c. 1972
4 Leonor Fini, Costume design for a dancer, Le Sabbat, c. 1972
5 Rubicon – the City Dancers, Götaplatsens trappor, 1986
6 Rubicon – the City Dancers, Götaplatsens trappor, 1986
7 Screenshot from Taxi Driver
8 Screenshot from Taxi Driver
9 Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Red Painting), c. 1953.
10 Chapel Interior, Royal Holloway, University of London
11 Empty Niches, Chapel, Royal Holloway, University of London
12 Muse, The Handler, 2016
13 Muse, The Handler, 2016
14 Muse, The Globalist, 2016
15 Muse, The Globalist, 2016
16 Muse, The Globalist, 2016
17 Fantin-Latour, Les Filles du Rhin, 1876
18 Rena Narumi, Dancer, The Royal Swedish Ballet, 2014
19 Anna Danielsson, Soprano, The Royal Swedish Opera, 2014
20 Emma Vetter, Soprano, The Royal Swedish Opera, 2014
21 Emilie Hörnlund & Ayman Al Fakir, Musicians, The Royal
Swedish Opera, 2014
22 Gina Tse, Dancer, The Royal Swedish Opera, 2014
23 Clyde Archer, Dancer, The Royal Swedish Opera, 2014
24 John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, 1889
25 Isabel Solís-Alcudia y Victoria Soto-Caba. Virtual polychromy of
the Arco de los Ingleses (Royal Entry of Philip III in Lisbon, 1619)
26 ‘Cut-outs’ (part of working material)
Illustrations vii
27 Image from the fashion story Terrene, Contributor Magazine,
25 September 2018
28 Image from the fashion story Dreams in Colour, Contributor
Magazine, 22 August 2018
29 Living Theatre’s Spook Sonata, contact sheet 1 showing images 1–12
30 Living Theatre’s Spook Sonata, contact sheet 2 showing images 13–20
31 Living Theatre’s Spook Sonata, The Cook, enlargement of contact
sheet image #8
Figures
3.1 Rubicon – The City Dancers, poster for Götaplatsens trappor, 1986 35
3.2 Rubicon – The City Dancers, Götaplatsens trappor, 1986 37
5.1 Confucius, external wall of the chapel, Royal Holloway,
University of London 73
5.2 The Apse, Royal Holloway Chapel, University of London 73
5.3 Alternative model for the Apse, Royal Holloway Chapel,
University of London 75
5.4 William Crossland, Chapel Interior, 1879 75
5.5 1:1 scale replica of a niche 78
5.6 Anastasia Crossley sketchbook page 79
5.7 A page in Sophie Mercer’s research sketchbook showing some of
her preliminary experiments 80
5.8 Woman wearing a stefane ornamented with a third eye. Portal of
Royal Holloway Chapel, University of London 81
7.1 Fantin-Latour, Scéne première du Rheingold, 1876 102
7.2 Unknown artist, postcard (depicting the sunken orchestra
in Bayreuth) sent from Antoine Lascoux to Fantin-Latour,
17 August 1894 104
7.3 Götterdämmerung: Siegfried et les filles du Rhin, 1897 109
7.4 Fantin-Latour, Finale du Rheingold, 1877 110
7.5 Fantin-Latour, Finale du Walküre, 1879 111
7.6 Fantin-Latour, Évocation d’Erda (Siegfried Act III), 1876 111
8.1 Pompe Hedengren, Sketch for the Opera Papier Campaign, 2014 126
9.1 Ellen Terry as Ellaline in The Amber Heart, 1887 152
viii Illustrations
10.1 Mnemosyne, panel 32 170
10.2 Screenshot of the video in which the four elements enter the
great exterior ‘theatre’ on triumphal chariots, in the order
described by Francesco Sbarra 175
10.3 Screenshot of the video in which the emperor’s entry is
announced from the staging that represented the Temple of Eternity 175
10.4 Annotations on a photocopy of the Guerreiro’s accounts,
reflecting descriptions of the Arch of the German Merchants
(left) and a hypothetical 3D model and drawings of the structure
of the Arch of German Merchants, Lisbon, based on textual sources 177
10.5 Urban study on the topography of early modern Lisbon before
the natural disaster of 1755 178
11.1 Snapshot of working collage 187
Contributors
Corrinne Chong completed her PhD on the The Musically Vague in the Art,
Writings, and Critical Reception of Henri Fantin-Latour at the University
of Edinburgh in 2016. From 2017 to 2019, she was a leading member of the
curatorial team for the Early Rubens exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in
Toronto. As a freelance art historian and curator, she is currently developing a
number of independent and collaborative projects. These include an exhibition
on the intersections between art history and opera scenography, as well as an
edited volume on the dialogue between art, music, and mysticism in the long
nineteenth century. Corrinne is also deeply committed to arts education and has
been a teacher with the Peel District School Board since 2005.
Greer Crawley is a senior lecturer in spatial design, Buckinghamshire New
University and Honorary Research Fellow in Department of Theatre, Drama
and Dance at Royal Holloway University of London. Her research interests are in
scenographic practices in exhibition design. Publications include ‘The Generous
Deceit’ in Every Landscape is A State of Mind (2019); ‘The Scenographer as
Camoufleur’ in War and Theatrical Innovation ed. Victor Emeljanow (2017);
co-author with Donatella Barbieri ‘Dress, Time and Space: Expanding the field
through exhibition making’ in The Handbook of Fashion Studies, ed. Helen
Thomas (2013); ‘Staging Exhibitions: Atmospheres of Imagination’ in Museum
Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (2012).
Carmen González-Román is a senior lecturer in Art History at the University of
Málaga, Spain. González-Román has been the principal investigator of a research
project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness,
Appropriations and Hybridizations between Visual Arts and Performing Arts
in the Early Modern Period (2015–2019). She has published studies on Visual
Culture and Performing Arts. Recent publications include “Teatralidad y
performatividad: perspectivas conceptuales y metodológicas para el análisis de
las artes visuales y escénicas de los siglos XVI-XVIII” in the Bulletin of Spanish
Visual Studies, 3 (2019). Her current research concerns scenographic cultures in
the Hispanic world and the relations between temporary architecture, festivals
and the multisensory dimension.
