A Review of J. B. Fischer von Erlach: Architecture as Theater in the Baroque Era

Abstract

What do we mean when we speak of the “theatricality” of Baroque architecture? A reputation for exceptional performative agency grants building from this era a privileged role in broader discourses about art’s capacity to embody spectacle, but the operations and implications of this historical phenomenon are not always clear. Caroline van Eck has recently argued that studies on art and theatricality in the early modern period have either accounted for concrete instances of exchange between visual arts and the theater or highlighted works’ aptitude for structuring affecting scenarios. In 'J.B. Fischer von Erlach: Architecture as Theater in the Baroque Era', Esther Dotson reconciles the two interests.

Keywords

• Fischer von Erlach, theatre, stage design, Vienna, Habsburg Empire, Esther Gordon Dotson, Mark Richard Ashton