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A Computer Reconstruction of Richelieu's Palais Cardinal Theatre, 1641

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Christa Williford
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Extract

A small, anonymous grisaille(Figure 1)from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is among the more familiar images of seventeenth-century French theatre history. It depicts Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII, and other members of the royal family at the theatre. The setting for the scene is the Grande Salle of Richelieu's Parisian home, the Palais Cardinal. Designed by the palace architect Jacques Lemercier and completed in 1641, this theatre was among the first purpose-built proscenium theatres in France. In the 1660s it became the site of the public performances of Molière's most successful plays; after the playwright's death, it housed the Paris Opéra until a fire destroyed it in 1763.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2000 , pp. 233 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2000

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References

Notes

1. The lesser known Petite Salle at the Palais Cardinal, completed in 1636, was probably the very first proscenium theatre in France, while the Grande Salle was the second. See Hall, H. Gaston, Richelieu's Desmarets and the Century of Louis XIV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p. 136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. See Lawrenson, T. E., The French Stage & Playhouse of the XVIIth Century: A Study in the Advent of the Italian Order (New York: AMS Press, 1986), p. 239Google Scholar; or Scott, Virginia, The Commedia dell' arte in Paris, 1644–1697 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990), p. 88.Google Scholar

3. Sauval, Henri, Histoire et recherches des antiquités de la Ville de Paris (Paris, 1724)Google Scholar. The relevant passages are Vol. II, pp. 161–3, and Vol. IE, pp. 46–7.

4. Ibid, Vol. II, p. 162.

5. Ibid, Vol. II, p. 163.

6. Transcriptions of these documents appear in Jurgens, and Maxfield-Miller, , Cent ans de recherches sur Molière (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1963), pp. 351–5.Google Scholar

7. Agne Beijer found these drawings in the National Museum of Stockholm and is responsible for dating them. See his ‘Une maquette de décor récemment retrouvée pour le Ballet de la prospérite des armes de France dansé à Paris, le 7 février 1641’, in Jacquot, Jean's edition of Le Lieu théâtral à la Renaissance (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968), pp. 377–403.Google Scholar

8. 1 French toise (1.949 m.) is divided into 6 pieds (0.324 m., or 32.4 cm.), which in turn are divided into 12 pouces (2.7 cm.) each.

9. Lawrenson, , The French Stage, p. 241.Google Scholar

10. See Deierkauf-Holsboer, S. Wilma, L'Histoire de la mise en scène dans le théâtre français à Paris de 1600 à 1673 (Paris: Librairie A. Nizet, 1960), pp. 29–32Google Scholar; Hall, , Richelieu's Desmarets, pp. 131–9Google Scholar; Hall, H. Gaston, ‘Ce que Molière doit à Scaramouche’, in Comedy in Context: Essays on Molière by Hugh Gaston Hall (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1984), pp. 36–55Google Scholar; Lawrenson, , The French Stage, pp. 238–43Google Scholar; Murray, Timothy C., ‘Richelieu's Theater: The Mirror of a Prince’, Renaissance Drama 8, pp. 275–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Scott, , The Commedia dell' Arte in Paris, pp. 87–95.Google Scholar

11. The final stage setting was constructed in consultation with Christian Silva of the Teatro alia Scala, Milan.

12. Sauval's dimensions do seem reliable, despite the fact that his estimates of the theatre's audience capacity (three to four thousand) are almost certainly exaggerated. See Lawrenson, , The French Stage, pp. 239–40.Google Scholar

13. Jurgens, and Maxfield-Miller, , Cent ans de recherches, p. 351.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p. 355.

15. Sauval, , Histoire et recherches, Vol. III, 47.Google Scholar

16. Of course, flat wings painted in perspective would also have been possible.

17. Sauval, , Histoire et recherches, Vol. II, p. 162.Google Scholar

18. Alternatively, if the depth of the original theatre's auditorium was not as square as the later plan suggests and was instead closer to the 11 toises which Sauval also mentions, a covered walkway with arches would have been possible. Since a reconstruction of such a structure would be merely guesswork, the simpler solution of the three archshaped windows seems preferable at the present time.

19. Sauval, , Histoire et recherches, Vol. II, p. 162.Google Scholar

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. See Scott, , The Commedia dell' Arte in Paris, p. 91.Google Scholar

23. Sauval, , Histoire et recherches, Vol. II, p. 162.Google Scholar

24. Although it is outside the parameters of this publication, it is possible to render an animation with constantly changing light levels to try to recreate the missing aspect of the original environment.