Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2008 - 63

figure 9. parigi's quadrilateral periaktoi.

figure 10. furttenbach's double periaktoi - angle wings.

offstage (with difficulty) while the setting for the play was in use. The size
and awkward shape of the wings and the coordination of the shift would
be a problem. Sabbattini also warned that the doors and windows in the
houses must line up with the doors and windows in the other wings
nested behind them. The sliding angle wing technique would seem to be
unusable for the opera productions where completely different settings
succeeded each other. In addition, the sliding angle wing technique
could not be used to change the first set of wings.
Sabbattini offered a second method of changing angled wings (fig.
5) by covering each wing with a cloth cover (Hewitt 1954, 47). Pulling
a cloth cover over the angle wing would be faster and easier than moving the sliding wing. However, painting on fabric would have probably
looked less realistic than painting on a framed angled wing. In addition,
the cloth cover might not always lie realistically flat on the angled wing.
As in the case of the sliding angle wing, coordination of the wing change
would have been a problem. Sabbattini pointed out that chimneys could
not be used with this method (Hewitt 1958, 100) and the description
of La Pellegrina states that smoking chimneys were used on the setting
(Nagler 1964, 80).

Three-sided Periaktoi
Rotating Devices

Ignazio Danti's illustration shows that Baldassare Lanci used a five-periaktoi arrangement for La Vedova in 1569 (figs. 2 and 6). This type
of setting was probably much easier to shift than angle wings, since it
would merely require revolving each of the five periaktoi. It could be

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preset for three settings by mounting panels on the three sides of the
periaktoi. If the productions required more than three settings, the offstage panels could be changed to allow additional settings.
The biggest problem with the floor plan as drawn is that there is
no room between the units for entrances; it would have had to be used
as a three dimensional background. In addition, if the stage floor was
raked to preserve the illusion of depth, the bottoms of the units could
not rest on the floor. This would be very obvious for the large upstage
unit. Again, coordination would be a problem, since Danti did not mention any way of connecting the units. It is likely that this method was
discarded in favor of more effective techniques.
Sabbattini's Pratica seems to describe two different types of periaktoi. He refers to the periaktoi as being in the form of an equilateral
triangle (Hewitt 1958, 104). This would indicate that only one face of
the periaktoi would be visible to the audience and that face would probably be parallel to the front of the stage to allow entrances between the
units as shown in figure 7. It would have probably required better painting techniques to create a two-sided house on a single flat surface than
on the two angled surfaces. Serlio had noted in 1545 that "if the house
is set very far to the back, however, one frame will be sufficient, so long
as all its parts are skillfully designed and painted" (Hewitt 1958, 29).
Sabbattini, however, goes on to describe a periaktos as having one
side that would show the straight face of the wing and second side that
would show the perspective face of the wing (Hewitt 1958, 105). The
third side of the periaktoi would show the scene for the intermezzi. This
would suggest that two faces would be connected at an obtuse angle

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2008