La moda delle cineserie nelle Corti Europee: Le cinesi di Metastasio

Abstract

This essay proposes an overview of the chinoiserie trend that exploded across Europe in the eighteenth century, influencing tastes in dress, painting, furniture, and theatre, with a particular reference to the European courts, among which the Court of Vienna held a place of absolute relevance. Le cinesi, a celebrative short play by Metastasio, official poet of the House of Haupsburg, is a libretto that shows how the trend affected the social life at the emperors’ parties, offering also an important document of how European aristocrats and literary men imagined the Chinese way of life, people and costumes, often not actually in relation to the truth of that world, which lay so far away from them. With a strict textual analysis, this paper demonstrates how, in the end, Metastasio paints a wonderful picture of an allegorical representation of dramatic genres, creating a mirror effect between the European spectators and the Chinese characters, via which the author outlines a connection that binds the audience to the stage and leads them to reflect not only on themselves, but also on issues of the theatre itself.