LE « THÉÂTRE MUET » DE LA PEINTURE INTRODUCTION A LA THÉÂTRALITÉ PICTURALE (APPLIQUÉE A LA PEINTURE RELIGIEUSE)
THE "SILENT THEATER" THE PAINT INTRODUCTION TO THEATRICALITY PICTURAL (APPLIED TO THE RELIGIOUS PAINTING)

Summary/Abstract: Historians of theatre and art historians often use the term of theatricality when describing pictures or more complex artistic phenomena. This article aims at introducing the reader to the plural significance of “pictorial theatricality”, or, in other words, theatricality manifesting itself in painted images. Taking the example of religious paintings, the author discusses different levels of meaning where theatricality can be perceived by the viewer of a painting be it due to the artistic conception, to the conventions of a certain “genre” aiming at transmitting a certain message, or simply to the subjective perception of the spectator. The different levels of manifestation of theatricality, as presented here, are thus: frame and framing, time and space, the construction of the character and the conception of the action. When a painting succeeds by visual means in reconstructing an acoustic space in the mind of the viewer, when it calls dialogue to the characters’ mouths, when it establishes some guide marks functioning the same way as the “didascalies” in a play, creating the potentiality of a transfer from a bi-dimensional to a tri-dimensional, scenic performance, we can talk about theatricality.

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