Stage Design c. 1755

Editor: This is Mauro Antonio Tesi’s "Stage Design," made around 1755. The drawing, done in ink, really emphasizes the grandeur of baroque architecture. The multiple arches and grand staircases seem to defy gravity somehow. What draws your eye when you look at this piece? Curator: It's the sheer audacity of the vision, isn't it? Tesi teases us with impossible perspectives. The ink bleeds slightly, giving it the ethereal quality of a dream. Stage design... imagine the plays that never were, the dramas confined to paper. The perspective itself becomes the character, bending and shaping the very world around it. Don't you think it's also funny how it anticipates modern architectural renderings, with a touch of the absurd? Editor: It does have that unbuilt feel! What purpose do you think these stage designs served outside of theater? Curator: They're like architectural fantasies, little thought experiments on paper! It was the age of grand tours, you know, where young nobles sought culture. Maybe these drawings served as souvenirs or served as reminders. They speak to that desire to possess a piece of the sublime. Were these drawings just fantasies of control over nature and society? The grid and rendering represent that in a really distilled form. Editor: So it’s not just a stage, but a stage for the mind, perhaps? Curator: Precisely! Or maybe just really, really opulent wedding ideas, because, you know, that makes as much sense. I came into it thinking "stage design," but actually, it’s the freedom to be fantastical with geometric patterns and shape and architecture and depth… It makes it exciting to reflect on. Editor: It really shifts my perspective on what a "stage design" can be. Thanks for sharing your vision!