Baroque Stage Curtains: Space, Spectacle and the Monarch

Abstract

In this article I explore the stage curtain's role in the folding of real and illusionistic space, examining, through Deleuze's notion of the fold, both its function in court theatre to join-yet-separate such spaces and its dynamic relationship with the loa. An analysis of the striking use of the curtain to depict space in Francisco de Bances Candamo's 1687 court production, Duelos de ingenio y fortuna, and a comparison of this with Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Hado y divisa de Leonido y Marfisa (1680) and Marcos de Lanuza Mendoza y Arellano's Las Bélides (1686)—with which productions, I argue, Duelos is in open dialogue—leads to an examination of the representation of the monarch in court drama. Drawing parallels with Velázquez and Bernini, the article considers the implications for the monarch of being caught within the folding of illusion and reality that typifies Baroque space, for in each of these spectacles the king, queen, or queen mother in the auditorium faces an image of themselves on, or being created on, the stage. In such specular moments, the monarch is revealed as always subject to the (omni)presence of his own idealized image; as mere parecer to its ser.