The hall of wonders

The combination of different materials, especially wood, and the continuous variation of the way in which the columns, boxes and gables rotate around the stage, contribute to the creation of a breathtaking vision, tempered by the softness of the colours used for the frescoes. 

The Bibiena Theatre is unique in its kind. Its dimensions are not impressive: almost seventeen meters wide, and more than twenty-five meters in length. Its function is ambiguous, as is its aesthetic quality: surely a place for performances, but with a fixed scene and lacking a proscenium. The style of the building is anti-classical, so much that the facade and the hall named after Empress Maria Theresa, completed in the same years, are very different from the interior. The style is more Late Baroque than Rococo, a style that is indeed able to bring together and create harmony between architectural elements from different periods.  

One of the most original ideas of Antonio Bibiena was to create a sudden opening in the stage area and to place two statues to the right and the left, slightly above the stage. These statues are of Baldassarre Castiglione and of Gabriele Bertazzolo. The surrounding area is filled with boxes, and two more statues, of Virgil and of Pomponazzo, are placed here. This arrangement seems to reflect the double nature of the venue: it is both theatre and academic hall, in theory allowing the audience to take place anywhere around the stage and the parterre, a stage that can be seen from anywhere in the hall. It is very difficult in this theatre to present plays with a complex scenography, even the least complex. Here the architecture itself serves as backdrop for the performances.

Admiring the ceiling from below, it is possible to see the characteristic bell shape that constitutes the essence of the theatre. It must be noted that this ceiling, a fascinating mix of geometrical and floral decoration, was built in wood in the second half of the nineteenth century. The ornamental fretwork is inspired by elements of the parish church in Villa Pasquali, a little town in the area of Mantua, close to Sabbioneta. This Church, dedicated to Saint Anthony Abate, was designed by Antonio Bibiena, who worked on the project in the same period he worked on the Theatre.

Antonio Bibiena’s desire was to place four statues of four of the most influential citizens of Mantua, protective gods of the city, inside the hall. The statues are in a prominent position, two of them are at the back of the stage, the other two on each side of the proscenium arch. The statue of the most important personality, Virgil (Andes 70 a.C., Brindisi 19 a.C.), is at the back, inside an elegant niche, above it a gable. The poet wears a wreath around his head, he is standing next to a tree trunk and is holding up a book containing his work. ​

His juvenile and kind look, together with tree he is standing next to, form a bucolic atmosphere similar to the one that characterizes his work.

Pietro Pomponazzi (Mantova 1462, Bologna 1525), also known as Peretto from Mantua, was a philosopher of remarkable importance. Professor at the Padova University, he lived in Carpi, Ferrara, and Bologna. His most remarkable work is  “Il Trattato sull'immortalità dell'anima”,a treaty on the immortality of the soul, in which he claimed that immortality cannot be rationally demonstrated, something which exposed him to the serious risk of being accused of heresy. His statue is placed inside a niche surmounted by a gable, at the back of the stage. He is wearing a doctoral hat and is holding up a book with one hand while with the other he is pointing to the text on the page.

 

Although this wide rectangular room is usually referred to as the "Sala Piermarini", the chamber,  which is located on the top floor of the theater just above the entrance hall, is dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa, as is indicated by a large marble plaque, placed under two winged male figures and above a fireplace. The room was designed by Paolo Pozzo, who created a bright space adorned by representations, that on the one hand honour the great Empress and on the other exalt genius, intelligence, the arts.The bas-reliefs of the hall are the work of Ticino Stanislaus Somazzi, designed by painter Giuseppe Bottani (1717 Cremona, Mantua 1784), director of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Three large paintings hang on the long wall, opposite the wall with windows and a fireplace. They are by Hubert Maurer, a fairly well-known academic painter, who worked at the Viennese court. On the right, Empress Maria Theresa of Spain (1717-1780), an enlightened genius, protects the subjects and strengthens the Academy that resides in the building. On her left, her son Joseph II, who became Emperor in 1765, and who continued to carry out his mother’s enlightened policy; further to the left, her husband Francis I, who became Emperor in 1745, who had already died at the time the portrait was painted.  

The work that appears above the dedicatory plaque, placed over the fireplace, shows two winged male figures holding up a large crown. The one on the left bears the emblem of the city of Mantua, the one on the right is standing next to a book, a compass, a goniometer, a palm leaf. It is evident that here that what is being celebrated is the intellectual union between the genius of the birthplace of Virgil and the genius of the Academy, the institution that presides over the sciences and the arts. The modeled stucco is particularly charming and expressive. Worth noting is the presence in the room of stucco reliefs, smaller, dedicated to different sciences and the fine arts.