La retórica del ingenio. Imágenes de invención, entre el arte militar y la escenografía: The rhetoric of ingenuity. Images of invention, between military art and scenography

Abstract

This work tries to demonstrate how the technical renewal process that took place in Italy as from the last third of the 16th century influenced the origination of an hybrid space between military engineering and scenography, which essentially conditioned the practice of performance. To achieve this goal, the study analyses the essential factors that influenced the creation of such hybrid space: the renewal of technical literature and the theatrical process experienced by the machine representation; the way by which the engineers, in their attempt to claim for themselves a new social and professional status linked to the liberal arts, made the ‘act of producing machines’ an example of human talent keenness; the influence exercised by the usefulness and the pleasure conveyed by the reflexion of the machine over the mechanization of the performance, or the capacity developed by the exhibition of the technique by means of the performances as a propaganda instrument related to the authorities. Special attention is paid to the work carried out by a group of professionals, trained in the new technical culture, acting at the same time as military engineers and state designers, establishing the key which allows us to understand the hybrid process between military art and scenography.