Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1998 - 59

of houses with properly situated exteriors and doors, one of
which was in the center and decorated as a temple door to
represent a palace.') On either side of this were other doors
through which the actors could enter and exit'! according to
the requirements of the play.
There are three types of poets who are represented in
Theatre: the tragic who describe the misfortunes of kings, the
comic who relate the affairs and concerns of fathers at the
head of fanlilies,H and the satiric who sing of the loves of shepherds and the delights of the country.'; There was even a machine which revolved on an lL'(is" and had faces depicting
scenes which appeared in an instant; now an atrium, now a
house, and now a woods according to needs of the play. Such,
then, was the manner of the orcbestra, the gradients, and the
scenic artifice of the pulpitlllJ/.
One of the most important parts of the theatre is the portico, which, as I said, was designed to make the voices more
clear and resonant. It was located on the highest level of gradients and the colonnade on the front of it faced the orcbestra.
We shall give an account of it now.
The ancients learned from the philosophers that air, receiving the percussion of the voice and the reverberation of
sound, was set in a radial motion, not unlike water when
something is suddenly plunged into it. This is similar, for instance, in a cythara or in an enclosed valley, especially one that
is woody; the sound and the voice are rendered much more
resonant and clear, because the swelling orbs of air, so to
speak, strike against something which causes the emanations
of the voice, issuing forth from the center, to rebound as a
ball, for exanlple, bounces back from a wall against which it is
thrown. In a like fashion, the orbs of sound rebound and become more dense and forceful. For this reason, the ancients
decided to build their theatres in a circle. So the voice should
not encounter any obstacle to hinder its free ascent to the very
top of the theatre, they built the gradients in such a manner

that their angles lay in one exact line,6 and on the very highest
gradient they erected a portico which was most useful. This
portico, as I Said, faced the orcbestra and its front was as
open and free as possible but the back was entirely closed by a
continuous walP- Then, a low wall was set beneath the columns to serve as a pedestal for them, to coUect the swelling
orbs of the voice,'s and deflect them into the more dense air of
the portico,,9 itself, so they did not, therefore, rebound violently, but are returned more clearly and strengthened. In addition to this, to provide comfort in the shade as well as to
retain the voice, a large canopy60 was spread out as a ceiling
over the theatre. It was decorated with stars a.nd provided
shade for the orcbestra as weU as the gradients a.nd all the
spectators. This portico also had a great many works of art,
since, in order to support it, there were other columns beneath it and other open porticos and arches on the outside of
the theatre. In large theatres it was made double so that, in the

53. Latin:paterjalllilins. Thepnterjalllilias had absolute power over

somehow creates denser air inside the portico.
60. I.e., the /le/nriUIll.
61. I.e., pilasters.
62. Each tier of colonnades was rendered in one architectural order The mLxing of orders in the same colonnade would have been unthinkable.
63. The entire section of the wall with a column centered in it, measured
from edge to edge, is one half the width of the openings between the
wall sections.
64. Insulate columns are full columns that stand away from the wall.
65. They are half-column pilasters.
66. I.e., the overall height of the cm'ea from the orchestra floor to the top
of the uppermost gradient or seat.
67. The circulIlval/atiol/ is a wrap-around, colonnaded enclosure at the
top of the caven.
68. It is the same point used to describe the circles of the orchestra, gradients, circunwallation, etc.
69. Latin: nppil/gel/tur, which actually means painted. He is referring
here to pilasters, such as those on the wall around the top of the
Colosseum.
70. These same brackets still may be seen on the Colosseum.
7l. See endnote 28.

his family, (theoretically at least), including life and death.
54. Alberti's literary explication of the three scenes is interesting. Vitruvius
makes no such statements, but only comments on the decorations:
"There are three kinds of scenes, one called the tragic, second
the comic, third the satiric. Their decorations are different and unlike
each other in scheme. Tragic scenes are delineated with columns.
pediments, statues and other objects suited to kings; comic scenes
exhibit private dwellings with balconies and view representing row
of windows, after the manner of ordinary dwellings; satiric scenes are
decorated with trees, caverns, mountains and other rustic objects
delineated in landscape style." (Morris Hickey, VITRUlfIUS - The 11m
Books ojArchitecture, p. 150, Harvard, 1914.)
55. Latin: versatili lIlachil/n. These were the famous periaktoi.
56. The slope of the gradient seating in the cm'ea was aperfectly straight Jine.
57. I.e., the portico wrapped around the outside of the cm'ea and was
open on the inside, towards the orchestra.
58. These "expanding orbs of the voice" are three dimensional radiations
emanating from their source just as, in the earlier example, the
waves in a pond radiate in concentric circles from the point where
something has been plunged into it.
59. There is an implication, here, that the low wall beneath the columns

. .. the best and nwst ingenious architects provided
two sets of stairs in the main entrances, one more
steep and direct for the young and agile and
another, more broad and easy with more resting
places, to be used by matrons and older people.
event of heavy rain or a storm, the spectators could use it for
shelter to avoid getting wet. The columns and colonnades
placed under the upper portico were not the type used in
temples and basilicas, but a very strong, solid part of the
wall,61 in imitation of triumphal arches. We shall speak first of
these lower ones which were built to support the upper.
The apertures in the porticos are reckoned in this man-

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1998