Beyond Magnificence: The Caduta and its Imagery in the Performing Arts In Seventeenth-Century Rome

Abstract

This essay offers a thematic analysis, in three parts, of the concept of caduta (falling) as it was imagined and represented in the performing arts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Rome, focusing in particular on its material aspects and symbolic meanings. Our analysis illustrates how the caduta was performed, its functions on the stage, and its communicative importance beyond the stage, thus bringing to light the interdisciplinary significance of the caduta through the integration of its various aspects and styles. From the stage to iconographic context, from music to social reality, from behavioural patterns to dance, through the caduta we highlight issues of far-reaching socio-cultural, philosophical, religious, and political significance that are linked or even attributable to the power of aristocratic magnificence and its modes of expression.