Trautson Palace, Vienna, Vestibule and Stair |
Mark Ashton and Esther Gordon Dotson
Fischer von Erlach: Architecture as Theater
Lecture
6pm, Wednesday, April 3, 2002
Graham Foundation, 4 West Burton Place, Chicago
The exhibition Fischer von Erlach: Architecture as Theater will run from April 3 to May 16
The work of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, imperial architect in Vienna around 1700, dramatized the relationship between a building and its users. Influenced by his early work on pageant architecture and his familiarity with current stage design, Fischer's architectural design techniques, such as sequences of light and shadow, corresponded directly with 17th-century stage practice. In his "architectural theater," Fischer employed diverse design elements to reflect the different functions, patrons, and users of a building, while his imaginative variations on standard architectural systems and sculptural forms evoked the interaction of dramatic protagonists or parodied familiar themes. The exhibition presents buildings Fischer completed in Central and Eastern Europe between 1688-1722. While previous photographs of Fischer's works have denied the dramatic intentions of the architect, the images displayed here employ experientially probable, varied viewpoints and natural lighting to capture Fischer's attention to theatrical framing, lighting, and sequencing, and his plays of form and reference.
Mark Ashton (Ph.D., Cornell University) has exhibited and published photographs ranging from still life to landscape, from social/historical commentary to architecture. He has taught baroque architecture and has published studies on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's frescoes in the Würzburg Residenz and the epistemology of the history of art.
Esther Gordon Dotson is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. Dotson has published on Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling frescoes and on Renaissance gardens, and is currently preparing, with Graham Foundation support, a book on the architecture of Fischer von Erlach.