Theatrocracy (1)
Bruno Cariou on April 20, 2015 by Elements of Racial Education

A nation is at the show
like a woman in front of her mirror;
she looks at herself and studies herself with pleasure,
sometimes she recognizes herself and approves of herself
in her beauty, often out of depravity
she takes pleasure in her vices and
she applauds her ugliness

Latour Saint-Ybars

The proud Romain needed nothing but
shows and bread;
But to the French more than Romain,
The spectacle is sufficient without bread.

Anonymous

Originally, the rite, in cults of Indo-European origin, was, to use the definition given by J. Evola, a constraining action on invisible forces and interior states, similar, in his mind, to that which is exercised today on physical forces and states of matter. What comes into play here are forces that must be qualified, even if the term is hackneyed, as spiritual: forces of a superhuman order. As soon as they withdraw because those who are responsible for practicing it are no longer qualified to do it, the rite degenerates into a ceremony, as happened in antiquity in Greece and Rome.

The case of the three Abrahamic theistic religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, is different; founded on devotion (1), that is to say a sentimental element, specific to the human state, they know of the rite only the "envelope": the ceremony, "a manifestation comprising a greater or lesser extent. deployment of an external pump, whatever the circumstances which provide the occasion or the pretext for it in each particular case ”(2). Now, it is from the ceremony that the theater arises; ceremonial uses and not ritual practices.

The theater represents less a degradation of the ceremony than an extension of a playful or educational nature, an extension, but also exteriorization. The language reflects it: the word "theater", which originally designates the building designed for the presentation of shows. , also comes to signify the particular framework in which certain events take place, certain manifestations of human life. We speak in the figurative sense of political theater, of social theater and, always in the figurative sense, those who are there are “puppets”, “puppets”, “actors”, “actors”, etc. .

We propose here to take them literally and to consider the historical processes that have made our continent what it is today as a progressive theatricalization. The very state of things invites us to do so. Everything, thanks first of all to the media, then to multimedia, is nothing more than spectacularization. There is no longer an event, a fact, which, mediatized, is not transformed into a spectacle. Thus, the spectacular is privileged, the emotion cultivated to excess in its crudest, most frenzied instantaneity.

The first part of our study will focus on pre-theatrical forms and the theater in Greco-Roman antiquity: popular drama, aristocratic drama and especially hieratic drama as well as the festivals in honor of Dionysus, of which he is issued. The second part, by far the most edifying, will take us from the “middle ages” to the modern era. Where a theistic religion informs and penetrates all social life, all the existence of each of its members, that, therefore, all social life, all the existence of each of its members, is punctuated by the ceremonies of this religion , the way is inevitably open to the theatricalization of life, public and political. Such was the case with the Judeo-Christian civilization of the “middle ages”. We will see that it was however only at the end of the 18th century, with 1789,that the process of theatricalization experienced a brutal acceleration, before reaching its end under representative democracy, which from Judeo-Christianity has retained the spirit, the law and the morality, that is to say its most dangerous for white civilization, that this process comes to an end.

Since the term “theatricalization” is taken in its specific sense, we will endeavor to take into account exclusively the cases where we are dealing with a formal identity, whether potential, in the process of becoming or complete, between the theatrical scene and the political world. The relations, the interferences, the reciprocal influence between political power, society in general on the one hand and the theater on the other hand will only retain us within this framework.

Theatricalization should not be confused purely and simply with tittytainment , a set of multimedia entertainment designed to appeal to the masses, with the aim, as its critics define it, to "prevent them from thinking (by themselves). ) ”. The tittytainment , far from being a facelift of panem and circuses, properly constitutes a perversion. Not only evergetism consisted in offering the plebs free shows, food and buildings, while, it seems to be recalled, the wand is paid, game consoles are paid, subscription to a cable or satellite television provider is chargeable, a subscription to an internet service provider is chargeable, the “contribution to public broadcasting” is chargeable, and so on. ; but also because the masses are naturally predisposed to entertainment and that, when they exist, any government must take it into account; make the masses think and even flatter them by making them believe that they can think and actually think for themselves, through education and media coverage,on the contrary, this is what the Republican clique did as it came to power and, one hundred and fifty years later, the psychological result is impressive: democracy has also become sentimentally and emotionally essential to the masses. than the media that punctuate their schizophrenic drives. Critics oftittytainment are based on the Marxist theme, largely irrigated by the crocodile tears of the prophets of Israel, of the almost ontological opposition between two frozen entities: a fundamentally good and healthy humanity and a ruling class which can only be fundamentally wicked and corrupt (that, in parliamentary democracies, the latter is maintained in power by the former by way of suffrage does not seem to disturb the supporters of this stupidity).

Then the tittytainmentis only one aspect of theatricalization. Disagreeing with the assertion of Marxist historiography and its epigones that politics is in itself a spectacle and politics has always been a stage, we will argue that politics began to become a stage in the theatrical sense. from the moment it was emptied of its substance because real power had passed from the hands of those officially charged with running the state into those of the economic "agents" who distribute roles and for whom they serve as a screen. The theatricalization of political life is synonymous with depoliticization. A single historical example will undoubtedly suffice to make the reader sense this: before the conquest of Greece by Rome,several Greek cities had confederated and held political assemblies at certain times. When Greece came under Roman domination, these assemblies, if they could continue to exist, were deprived of all political freedom and forced to confine themselves to the administration of games and shows.

I. The theater in ancient Greece

A. Parties and shows

The theater, as we know, was born in Greece, at least on our continent (3). He found there a favorable ground, because the inhabitants of Greece were fond of spectacles. “… Is 'Mediterranean', says J. Evola in a remarkably penetrating description of this racial type, the taste for exteriority and gesticulation. The Mediterranean type needs a scene, if not in the lowest sense of vanity and exhibitionism, at least in the sense that his commitment and enthusiasm (even for noble, worthy, sincere things) often proceed from 'a rapport with those who watch him, and concern for the effect it will have on them plays a significant role in his conduct. Hence, precisely, this inclination to "gesture",that is, to give to his action characteristics which draw attention to it and mobilize it - even when the one who acts knows full well that he has only himself as a spectator. In Mediterranean man, therefore, there is a certain duplication between an "I" which performs the role and an "I" which looks at it from the point of view of a spectator or a possible observer, and takes pleasure in it. : more or less like the actor does. These characteristics of this racial type should not be lost sight of in this chapter.and takes pleasure in it: more or less as the actor does. These characteristics of this racial type should not be lost sight of in this chapter.and takes pleasure in it: more or less as the actor does. These characteristics of this racial type should not be lost sight of in this chapter.

1. Taste of demos for shows

Solemn performances were expensive, not all cities could have a large theater and subsidize the performances. Moreover, those who were not of free status were excluded from the great theatrical solemnities. "It was therefore necessary for the needs of every day, of all conditions and of all places, that there should be actors of an inferior order, responsible for continuously and inexpensively providing the emotions of the drama to all. the classes of inhabitants ”(4): itinerant singers and dancers, ventriloquists, goblers and rope dancers, jesters, pranksters, mimes, who officiated in the streets, in the squares and at the crossroads. All were associated in brotherhoods.

2. Taste of the aristocracy for shows

The princes of the monarchical states were not to be outdone. They opened their palaces to all kinds of shows, in two particular circumstances: days of mourning and banquets.

Plutarch reports that it was customary to solemnize the funerals of kings and princes through the struggles of actors. For the immolations, forced or voluntary, around the tombs, fictitious combats were substituted: pyrrhics, since it is the name which was given to this spectacle, was born in the Bronze Age in Minoan Crete, that is to say - say pelasgic (5)

The mourners, kinds of actresses specializing in funerals that already existed in the monarchical era, are more present in the so-called republican era (509-31 BC). The same name ( θρύλοι ) designated the funeral laments and the songs of tragedies. In addition, funeral hymns were sung by hired actors, who differed from tragic actors only in costume. From the 6th century BC, tragedies were represented at the funerals of tyrants, who had returned to power at that time. In Homeric times, singers celebrated the exploits of heroes, not only in public assemblies, but also in royal palaces, "always preferring the newest song" ( L'Odyssée, I, v. 350-352); cubistics, or pyramidal dance, which it seems to have been originally dedicated to Cybele, is introduced into these festivals, before becoming popular.

Music, dance, and poetry continued to entertain citizens in the so-called classical era; many were the slaves and courtesans admitted to aristocratic feasts to engage in all kinds of dances of oriental origin. "Finally, when the luxury of Asia had completely invaded Greece, we saw rich voluptuous people calling to their feasts naked dancers, naked singers, naked harpists" (6). Besides the dancers and actors, the guests were entertained with jesters, trick-makers, hoop players and, like the Persian kings, madmen. The maintenance of mad servants was a custom which originated in Persia; another fashion peculiar to the East was the maintenance of domestic buffoons, the employment of dancers, musicians and musicians of all kinds.On the old paintings which decorate the tombs of the Heptanomide one sees rich Egyptians accompanied by counterfeit dwarves. These entertainments continued into the 19th century in Persia, India, Egypt and all Muslim countries. And, in antiquity, with the exception of the castle of Alexander, tyrant of Pheres, it is true Pelasgic, it was especially in the palaces of the kings of countries located on the outskirts of Greece, in Syria among the Attales, in Egypt at the court of the Ptolemies, in Sicily at the court of the Hierons, in Macedonia at that of Archelaüs, Philip and the successors of Alexander (7), which they had current. One of these entertainments was to choose a "king of the feast", to whom all the guests were required to obey. In the so-called republican era, he received the name of symposiarch. Here again,this practice turns out to have its origin in the religions of the Near East and, more particularly, in the Phoenician and Canaanite institution ofmarzeah (8). At regular intervals, the dead were honored, by the more fortunate members of the tribes, at elaborate funeral banquets which took place in a building called bet marzeah (house of marzeah ), under the supervision of a rb marzeah ("prince of the marzeah") (9) elected" democratically "by all the guests; these also elected the “deputies” of the “prince”, in a parody of the hierarchy which we will see below that it will be found in certain European brotherhoods in the “middle ages”. If we are to believe Posidonius, this form of worship of the dead was only a pretext for feasting and drinking. The fact remains that the voluntary and democratic character of this institution was fully preserved and even accentuated when it went to Greece, since, here, it was not uncommon for the guests who had elected the "king of the feast" and who, theoretically, owed him obedience, theatrically accuse him, during the feast, of excess of power and tyranny. Greek festivals, such as Cronies and Pelories,where the slaves played the role of free men and sometimes even masters, also find their origin in an oriental festival, more precisely Persian, that of Saceus, during which a slave, in each house, was dressed in a royal robe and exercised sovereign authority (on the last day of the feast, he was beaten with rods and placed on the cross).

Most of the spectacles which the inhabitants, peasants or nobles, of Greece gorged on were of exotic origin.

B. Influence of mysteries on the theater

1. The primitive Dionysiac festivals

If imitation is characteristic of man conceived in abstracto and the mimic instinct, the source of the drama, is found in all places, all times, all civilizations, it is therefore universal, it cannot becomes art only in contact with an irrational element. It may be that the Dionysian element is not the only one at the origin of the theater, but everything shows that it had a determining influence on its birth, at least on our continent.

Until the beginning of the 6th century BC, there were three festivals in honor of the pre-Hellenic god Dionysus: the rustic Dionysias, in the month of Poseidon; the Lenae, in the month of Gamélion and the Anthesteries, in the month of Anthesterion. They all gave rise to ceremonial representations, hymns, tumultuous and grotesque processions of bacchants and bacchantes, in which appeared, often evoked by rudimentary masks, the deities of the earth and of fertility. In the main one, the rural Dionysias, extreme freedom reigned; even the slaves entertained themselves there with full license. It is in this festival, in the jokes and antics in which the peasants indulged there, that the origin of the comedy would be to be sought. In any case, the first trestles and, soon,the first theater was erected during the Anthesteries, the only festival in which the secret ceremonies in honor of Bacchus took place, public in the other two. However, it should be noted that the representations they hosted “were not intended to… imitate realities and create illusions; they remained an amusement without any serious thought, and did not become for anyone a truth. The theaters isolated on trestles one or two meters from the ground had no decoration which suited them to their destination, and could serve as a framework for the play; the pine branches and the ivy garlands with which they were adorned,remembered at all times that it was only a matter of celebrating Bacchus and having fun after drinking ... The spectators were therefore perfectly aware not to see on the stage gods stripped of their divinity and vilified, but transvestite actors, and their pleasure came mainly from the contrast between the superhuman nature of the characters and their bad life, between their real role in the play and the one they were supposed to fulfill in the world ”(10).

In any case, these representations "counterbalanced the brilliance of the secret representations of the sanctuary" (11), about which, after all, little is known. “As traces of this mystical origin, we see the main priest of Bacchus occupying a place of honor on the first steps of the theater of Athens, much as we will see later our clergy in the person of the confreres of the Passion, keep for a long time a grilled box at the Théâtre-Français, under the title of Lodge of the Masters ”(12).

The temple of Eleusis itself opened up to increasingly scenic representations. According to Strabo, it could contain as many people as a theater. Of all the mystery cults, only that of Eleusis became a state institution, particularly under the two anti-aristocratic regimes that were tyranny and democracy, both of which made it a great plebeian cult: “In many cities the advent of tyrannies, which are based on the people, raised the mysteries to the rank of official worship; the democratic regimes that would follow would give them ever greater importance. The mysteries are, in fact, the true democratic Greek religion (13). »Hellenic art sought to realize an ideal,while the art carried by the mystery cults "wanted to fake reality and deceive the eye of the spectators": "usually, if not always, the Mystes, plunged in a frightening darkness, were transported in imagination to the underworld, and the sight of the tortures of great criminals absolved divine justice of its slowness. Without at least a momentary illusion, these phantasmagorias would have been nothing but puerilities unworthy of preoccupying the intelligence: the spectators had to be impressed strongly enough to suspend their common sense and persuade them that the staging was the truth itself, and the spectacle, a reality ”(14). In general, whatever the mystery cult, the goal was to stir the imagination, (to) amaze the eyes, (to) charm the ears ”(15), as was later the case with the theater .It is notable that a certain number of tragedians have been linked in one way or another to the mysteries: it is in a cave, place where the mysteries of Bacchus were celebrated, that Euripides is reputed to have composed most of them. of his pieces, several of which have the theme of Dionysian worship; according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of having revealed to laymen on the stage the secrets of the mystery ceremonies, without knowing that it was forbidden. Nietzsche, it will be remembered, links the birth of tragedy to the orgiastic festivals of Dionysus.several of which have as their theme the Dionysian cult; according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of having revealed to laymen on the stage the secrets of the mystery ceremonies, without knowing that it was forbidden. Nietzsche, it will be remembered, links the birth of tragedy to the orgiastic festivals of Dionysus.many of which have the Dionysian cult as their theme; according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of having revealed to laymen on the stage the secrets of the mystery ceremonies, without knowing that it was forbidden. Nietzsche, it will be remembered, links the birth of tragedy to the orgiastic festivals of Dionysus.

2. The theater and tyranny

Pisistratus (circa 600-527 BC), when he came to power, established a fourth festival in honor of Dionysus, celebrated around the 12th of the month of Elaphebolion: the urban Dionysias, which soon became the most important of the four and which, unlike the rural Dionysias, were open to foreigners. If it has been suggested, although no text or credible source mentions the theater before the beginning or the middle of the 6th century BCE, that theatrical performances took place during the rural Dionysias, it is certain that Pisistratus put the theater, perhaps tragedy, certainly comedy, at the center of the urban Dionysias. Pisistratus was himself, in his own way, an actor, judging by Herodotus' relation to his buffoonish schemes:“… In [s] a quarrel between the Paralians or inhabitants of the maritime coast, commanded by Megacles, son of Alcmaeon and the inhabitants of the plain, having at their head Lycurgus, son of Aristolaïdes, to clear a road to tyranny, [he] created a third party. He therefore assembled this party, under the pretext of defending the Hyperacrians. Here is the ruse he imagined: having injured himself and his mules, he pushed his chariot towards the public square, as if he had escaped from the hands of his enemies, who had wanted to kill him when he was going to battle. campaign. He conjured the Athenians to grant him a guard: he reminded them of the glory with which he had covered himself at the head of their army against the Megarians, the capture of Nisee, and cited several other traits of value to them. The people, deceived, gave him for guard a certain number of chosen citizens,who followed him, armed with sticks instead of pikes. Pisistratus caused them to be raised, and by their means seized the citadel. From that moment he was master of Athens… ”It has been argued that Pisistratus instituted the Dionysia not so much to worship Dionysus as to celebrate the prosperity of Athens, the determining cause of the advent of tyranny; however, the two motivations are not mutually exclusive. What is obvious is that their establishment corresponds to a determination to unite the people, through a collective celebration, around this political regime, which was carried by a large bourgeoisie enriched by trade.From that moment he was master of Athens… ”It has been argued that Pisistratus instituted the Dionysia not so much to worship Dionysus as to celebrate the prosperity of Athens, the determining cause of the advent of tyranny; however, the two motivations are not mutually exclusive. What is obvious is that their establishment corresponds to a determination to unite the people, through a collective celebration, around this political regime, which was carried by a large bourgeoisie enriched by trade.From that moment he was master of Athens… ”It has been argued that Pisistratus instituted the Dionysia not so much to worship Dionysus as to celebrate the prosperity of Athens, the determining cause of the advent of tyranny; however, the two motivations are not mutually exclusive. What is obvious is that their establishment corresponds to a determination to unite the people, through a collective celebration, around this political regime, which was carried by a large bourgeoisie enriched by trade.which was carried by a large bourgeoisie enriched by commerce.which was carried by a large bourgeoisie enriched by commerce.

3. Democracy and the theater

a) The so-called civic character of the Athenian theater

From Pisistratus, the theater would have taken on a civic character, which would have been accentuated under democracy. Three institutions mainly testify: the choreography , the theorikon and the competition. The city entrusted the richest citizens with the task of maintaining a dance choir with their funds for dramatic or musical competitions: it was the choreography. An allowance was paid to the poorest to enable them to pay the entrance fee to the theater: this was the theorikon, which quickly became a real show fund. The contests, organized as part of the Dionysia, were subsidized by the polis, which paid the actors, poets and musicians, at least those who had received its approval - Needless to say that the dramatic contests were "controlled from start to finish. end by political power. The content of the exhibits had to receive prior approval, for which one applied, as one and only criterion, “what was suitable to say in public”.

Under democracy, the theater effectively took on the dimension of a collective demonstration, in which the whole polis participated and which, even more than under tyranny, had the objective of uniting and "educating" citizens; in the absence of racial homogeneity, the link could only be external, artificial, let's say social. Participation in choirs - originally, the choir is the group of people who perform religious dances in the thymele, the altar, dedicated to Dionysus, which is at the center of the orchestra (16), then the group of people who present the action and comment on its development - was a civil and religious duty. The citizens discharged it all the more voluntarily since, according to Demosthenes and Ulpien, various privileges were attached to it: the choreutes were exempt from military service; their person was inviolable during their term of office; and, a little later, they even seem to have received a cash salary. Defamed persons, slaves and foreigners were excluded from these choirs.

However, the audience that attended the performances was not made up only of citizens, but also of metics, foreigners, women (allowed to watch tragedies, but not comedies) and even slaves and they had it all. captivate them, since, at least as far as tragedy was concerned, their themes, which revolved around the human condition, were intended to be universal. The theater can be seen as the keystone of the cosmopolitan project of the tyrants and, after them, of the Democrats. Indeed, it was not by chance that Pisistratus decided to have the urban Dionysias celebrated on the aforementioned date: the reopening of navigation in the month of Bellerophon attracted many foreigners to Athens and the urban Dionysias constituted for them an additional incentive to do so. the trip and,for the many foreigners and metics that Cleisthenes had admitted to the bourgeoisie, an invitation to settle there. Pisistratus in the 6th century and his successors had organized the theater with the aim of "attracting citizens from all over Attica to the heart of Athens, to the Acropolis, during the major festivals of the Panathenaea and the Dionysia ... The theater Greek was therefore a place of mass acculturation. This is evidenced by the very large capacity of the buildings, always dug into the hillside: 14,000 places in Epidaurus or Dodona, 17,500 in Athens and Corinth, 24,000 in Ephesus, 5,000 in an Attic deme or a small city ”( 17). When, under the Archontate of Callias, fortunes having been exhausted, partly because of the Peloponnesian War, it was necessary to authorize two citizens to unite their efforts to pay the cost of a choir (synchoregia),foreigners were also allowed to finance choirs on behalf of citizens unable to bear the expense.

The assertion that the theater had a “civic” character must therefore be seriously qualified. It is symptomatic of Hellenic decadence and of the correlative recrudescence of Pelasgic influence that the drama, originating from a foreign land, from a foreign spirit, ended up becoming a "national genre" (18), to which all Greeks identified themselves.

b) Theater, democracy, woman

Democracy was, as it still is, founded on what has come to be called “public debate” and, more generally, on logos, henceforth conceived only as “speech”, “discourse” (19) and it is therefore not difficult to understand why this political regime did everything to promote the development of an art where the word is king. Citizens were encouraged not only to participate fully in political institutions, but also to speak out openly on matters of “public interest”. They could do this in three places the assembly (it is interesting and symptomatic that once a year the assembly met, not in its usual place, the pnyx, but in a theater, which is what it is. alluded to in Aristophanes' Acharnians), the tribunal and, precisely, the theater. As,according to Aristotle, the assembly and the tribunal did not play a real role in this regard before the beginning of the fifth century BC, the theater was until this time the privileged place of public speech and, correlatively, the theater was the privileged place of democratic ideology. Theisegoria , the “right to speak”, was fiercely claimed in Euripides and the concept of popular sovereignty first appeared around 480 BCE in Aeschylus. The theater even gave "the floor to voices that were normally excluded from political life, in particular to women ..."

Women, in Greece, were not allowed to go on stage, but nevertheless they invaded it, because the woman and, more generally, the feminine values, were at the heart of the theater, as shown by an author whose insightful reading of Greek tragedies partially, albeit in a more analytical way, the considerations developed in section 361 of Gai savoir: "Women, if one believes [the] tragedians [Greek], not only invented personal freedom, but brought something special to its expression ... In all Greek dramas, tragic or comic, women vigorously defend and exclusively personal independence… which is universal and natural, as opposed to human justice; they also fight for the freedom to worship their own gods and to love the people of their choice. "" It is significant that the tragic heroine is often a slave: Cassandra in 'Agamemnon', the loyal Techmessa in Sophocles ' Ajax , and, most markedly, the Andromache and the Hecubus.of Euripides. This is even truer for many supporting female roles, but, in many of these dramas, the most important role is undoubtedly that of the choir of female slaves, especially that of the captive Troyennes in Hécube and Les Troyennes.… In Greek myth [which, as R. Graves has shown, can be read as a presentation of the transition from a Pelasgic matriarchal society to an Aryan patriarchal society], in Greek life and Greek theater, not only the "Servile power and female power are linked", but still the two are linked to the thirst for complete personal freedom and the dangers that it entails ... almost all of the women in the tragedy, especially those who are slaves, express a strong penchant for personal freedom (20)… ”In the Choéphores, "What is remarkable about the choir is that it is made up of female slaves who participate in a plot to assassinate their master and mistress in an attempt to achieve what they explicitly call freedom, both for free and semi-free men and, consequently, for themselves ”(21).

The importance of women in tragedy is naturally accompanied by the emergence of subjectivism: “… the study of interior life - debates, hesitations, contradictory feelings - takes on an importance hitherto unheard of. In Euripides' theater, a new concern is expressed to bring to light the real motives of the characters. The emphasis is on violent, contradictory feelings; psychological concerns thus take precedence over ethical considerations. And the personal involvement of the agent in the occurrence of the fault appears more and more clearly. The fault is now interpreted in the light of individual psychological dynamics, and no longer in reference to divine intervention, which, on the other hand, could possibly be invoked as a mitigating circumstance.The passage from exteriority to interiority of evil takes shape there, in the assumption of personal responsibility: little inclined to refer to the divine will, the hero of Euripides, prey to all human weaknesses, carries his destiny in his own heart (22). "

The hero thus leaves the battlefield for the stage, abandons living values ​​for feelings, action for states of mind, external battles for purely psychological internal conflicts.

d) Critique of the theater

The theater seems to have attracted the support of all the thinkers of the time in Greece. Aristotle, as we know, even praised the tragedy for its supposed ability to accomplish, "through pity and fear ... the purgation of the passions." Experience shows on the contrary that it would have rather the opposite effect. On the other hand, it is permissible to ask, without playing with words, whether "the imitation of a noble action" - assuming that, for example, the action of the Bacchantes, where, after being ridiculed and disguised as a woman, Pentheus, the king of Thebes, birthplace of Dionysus' mother, where the latter has just arrived to establish his worship there, is delivered to women made mad by Dionysus - would not be ignoble. All tragedies did not pay homage to the first of the virtues of the Athenian woman,namely modesty; “By one exception that was noticed, Euripides forgot that he spoke to mothers, wives, young girls. Sophist with the soul of a poet, incredulous with a lively faith in the religion of the beautiful, he pushed tragic emotion beyond the limits prescribed by a law that Aristotle had not yet written, but which lived in the depths of all consciences. He outraged the women by the oratorical invective, but still more by the frank portrayal of the most ardent passions. It was tearing the veil in which an austere modesty was enveloped. "(23).he pushed the tragic emotion beyond the limits prescribed by a law which Aristotle was not yet drafting, but which lived at the bottom of all consciousnesses. He outraged the women by the oratorical invective, but still more by the frank portrayal of the most ardent passions. It was tearing the veil in which an austere modesty was enveloped. "(23).he pushed tragic emotion beyond the limits prescribed by a law which Aristotle was not yet drafting, but which lived at the bottom of all consciousnesses. He outraged the women by the oratorical invective, but still more by the frank portrayal of the most ardent passions. It was tearing the veil in which an austere modesty was enveloped. "(23).

Unlike Aristotle, Plato criticizes the theater and he does so in several ways. First, he condemns imitation ( nemesis). The actor, like the poet, is blameworthy insofar as he is an imitator of the sensible and not of the being, a "maker of ghosts" cut off from reality and as a creator of imitators, capable of provoking a mimetic contagion, due to the Dionysian intoxication which transports it and which it can transmit to spectators. Each individual soul that succumbs to it comes to confuse ghosts with reality. Based on the confusion of identities, the theater tends to blur the perception that each individual soul has of its own identity and, ultimately, to dispossess it of its own form, causing it to alternately identify with different roles. that the actors play on stage. It follows that, in the theater, each individual soul can thus learn modes of behavior foreign to its nature,to become other and to be where it should not be, both literally and figuratively; literally, because Plato excludes "both the idea that artisans can be elsewhere than in their 'own' workplace, and the possibility that poets and actors can play roles other than their 'own' identity "(24); in the figurative sense, because the theater leads the amateur of shows to get used to taking a place which is not his in the polis. Its danger “comes from the power with which it invests spectators, without taking into account their delimited place in society” (25). Thus, the theater participates in the dissolution of laws and the destabilization and disorganization of the political space that these laws presuppose and allow to maintain.It was until this time the privileged place of the public speech to such an extent that Plato qualified the Athenian constitution of the time of “theatrocracy”, the government of a public assembled in a theater.

* * *

At this stage of our study, it is important to come back to the figure of Dionysus, to underline that he was first looked at with suspicion by the Hellenes, not only because he was a foreigner and was known to have precipitated more than one crisis in Greece, but because his cult involved on the one hand the liberation from prohibitions, the violent manifestation of individual or collective feelings without guilt or restraint and on the other hand the emancipation of the lowest fraction of society as well as of women, one of the audiences to whom, moreover, this cult was specifically addressed; Dionysus is "a god who dissolves identity in general and differences between the sexes" (26). In addition, the ancient feasts of Bacchus, the Agrionies, during which human victims were sacrificed,had left memories of murderous fury (27).

The birth of the theater in Athens signals the re-emergence of the pre-Hellenic Pelasgic substrate of Attica. It was the same in Rome, since, according to Livy, the Romans were initiated into the theater in the fourth century BC by Etruscan actors; Valére Maxime, Tacitus and, later, Tertullian and Augustin are of the same opinion.

II. The theater in Rome

The arts and poetry, which in Greece had flourished within the priesthood in primitive times, only to spread rapidly in civil society, did not have the same success in Rome.

On the one hand, they came up against a racial type who "had a fundamental aversion to pictorial thought. Thus, in the secular realm, one of the reasons for the contempt the Romans had for the artist was the pride originally given to them in being distinguished by very different ideals of image-making and of marble sculpture ”(28). Cato the Elder resolutely opposed the introduction of the arts and sciences into Rome, out of a fully justified fear that the luxury of Greece and Asia would encourage softness and sybaritism. The echo of this distrust of the arts was repeated until the empire; in the 1st century BC, Virgil could still write: “Romain! Remember to command the world! Your arts, here they are: to impose peace, to forgive the vanquished and to tame the superb. "

On the other hand, in Rome, priestly power was subordinated to political authority. The subordination of the priesthood to the imperium partly explains the rarity of initiation cults, of which the little that we know of their rituals indicates that they were strongly dramatized. No evidence exists of male initiations in early Rome, when women were already called to celebrate many nocturnal and mysterious festivals in honor of Bona Dea. The mysteries of Bona Dea took place until the end of the "Republic", in the presence of the vestals, in the house of the consul, the praetor or the great pontiff. Men were excluded, with the exception of the Grand Pontiff.

A. Dramatic religious festivals and shows

1. Cults of a mysterious nature

a) The cult of Cybele (and Attis)

The arrival of the stone of Cybele in 204 had given rise to games which were partly hieratic, partly popular, which had been called megalesians; ten years later, around 194 BC, according to Livy, actual stage games were for the first time celebrated on their occasion. The Pseudolusde Plautus was given there in 191 BC, in front of the temple of the goddess which had just been inaugurated in the Palatine; four pieces of Terence, between 166 and 161. It is important to note that the exotic fanaticism which characterized the oriental cult of Cybele had been circumscribed as much as possible, once it was transplanted to Rome: “… the lenders [there] appeared in parade clothes, sacrificed to the goddess, and celebrated games in her honor; but in this celebrity, they did not deviate in any way from the ancient customs, and were confined within the limits prescribed by the laws. Thus, the ceremonies, which were observed in these days of solemnity, were stripped of all the chimeras, which the fable had mixed with the cult of Cybele.The Romans abandoned the practice of these foreign superstitions to a priest and a priestess from Phrygia… They were allowed to walk through the whole city, and to make, according to their custom, a quest for the mother of the gods ”. This part of the ceremonies was strongly dramatized: “The two ministers carried on their chest, images which represented some of the adventures of the goddess (29) During their march, they performed angry dances, to the sound of flutes, cymbals and tambourines. What was bound to happen happened: the cult of Cybele, who by the end of the "republic" had made great progress among the plebs, gained further popularity under the empire. Thea quest for the mother of the gods ”. This part of the ceremonies was strongly dramatized: “The two ministers carried on their chest, images which represented some of the adventures of the goddess (29) During their march, they performed angry dances, to the sound of flutes, cymbals and tambourines. What was bound to happen happened: the cult of Cybele, who by the end of the "republic" had made great progress among the plebs, gained further popularity under the empire. Thea quest for the mother of the gods ”. This part of the ceremonies was strongly dramatized: “The two ministers carried on their chest, images which represented some of the adventures of the goddess (29) During their march, they performed angry dances, to the sound of flutes, cymbals and tambourines. What was bound to happen: the cult of Cybele, who had made great progress among the plebs towards the end of the "republic", gained further popularity under the empire. Thethe cult of Cybele, who by the end of the "republic" had made great progress among the plebs, gained further popularity under the empire. Thethe cult of Cybele, who by the end of the "republic" had made much progress among the plebs, gained further popularity under the empire. Theludi megalenses , originally intended neither more nor less than to commemorate the arrival of Cybele in Rome, took on a whole new dimension, returning to their Phrygian sources, when Claudius introduced there the ceremony called Arbor Intrat, mourning feasts for the death of Attis, consort of Cybele. She staged, in five days, from March 22 to 27, the story of a mother saddened to have lost her son and who rejoices when she finds him. Finally, Antoninus Pius (138-161), organized the complete cycle of the feasts of the death and resurrection of Attis and granted him the status of official deity (30). At that time, the party, accompanied by self-mutilation and bloodshed, had fully recovered the orgiastic and savage character that had always been its own in Asia Minor (31).

b) Isiac religion

The Isiac religion spread to Italy around the middle of the 3rd century BC Ennius, the first Roman author to mention the presence of Isiac priests in Rome, compares them more or less to crooks. They won't be much better for Virgil two centuries later. These priests relied on the strangeness of their ceremonies and their costumes to attract the curious and obtain alms. Their hieratic spectacles were not part of the national cult. Their temples, private temples, if they were not destroyed as soon as they were built, were thrown outside the urbs. Only matrons, according to Properce, were admitted to their mysteries. In Rome, only women were allowed to meet to practice nocturnal and secret rites, while any participation in such a meeting was strictly prohibited for the Romans. The most vigilant magistrates had understood that the mysterious societies, under the pretext of religion, had in view of modifying the civil establishment, offered to the most seditious and the most corrupt individuals of the "republic" the opportunity to meet to plot. , had severely repressed them.

2. The semi-religious festivals

Whereas, in Greece, the citizens took an active part in the spectacles, the combats of the amphitheater, long the only profane spectacle in Rome, were left there to the only slaves. While, in Athens, many were the citizens who took part in the scenic performances, either as choreographers, or as actors or choreutes, well, in Rome, with the exception of a few farces from Campania, reserved for the patrician youth and prohibited to the histrions, only the slaves and the freedmen appeared on the scene. However, the participation in choirs of young men and young girls of free condition was allowed during certain semi-religious and semi-popular festivals (secular games, quinquatries, apollinaries). Certain festivals gave the Romans the opportunity to play a dramatic role.During the Cerealia, semi-mystical and semi-public celebrations, they staged the adventures of Ceres and Proserpina. The courtesans had an important role in three semi-religious festivals: one of the two vinales, orgiastic festival dedicated to Venus, the liberals, equivalent of the Dionysias, the florals, celebrated in honor of the goddess of Sabine originFlore: The maids themselves had a feast and this feast was indicative of a certain dramatization of life: the day of the caprotine nuns, theancillae sacrificed in the company of women of free status in the chapel of Juno caprotine, where they appeared dressed in the stole, the distinctive garment of the matrons. This privilege had been granted to ancillaeby the Senate as a reward for the devotion they had shown to their mistresses at a time of extreme danger for Rome. After the retreat of the Gauls, several nations of Italy had joined forces against Rome and one of them, encamped at its gates, declared itself ready to make peace with the Romans, on condition that the latter surrender to them. matrons, in order to renew, by marriage, their old alliance. A slave named Philotis then proposed to the Senate to go find the enemies with some of her companions, decked out as matrons. Once in the enemy's camp, they intoxicated them, then, when they were asleep, they gave the Romans the signal to attack. To preserve the memory of this event, the caprotine nuns were instituted.

3. Saturnalia

The representation of equality was at the center of another holiday, which the Romans celebrated in honor of Saturn: the Saturnalia, equivalent in Lazio to the Cronies and Pelories in Greece. Macrobe traces the institution back to the times of Tullius Hostilius, while Livy places it under the consulate of Aulus Sempronius and Mr. Minucius, in 257 BC. The Saturnalia, preceded, like all Roman feasts, by sacrifices, were followed by a meal, frugal, but joyful. At first limited to one day, its duration continued to be extended, until it reached seven days. During this festival of primitive equality supposed to have existed under the reign of Saturn, the slaves not only sat at the same table as their masters, but they were served there by their masters. Augustus bids on this practice, when,following a vision, he felt it necessary to exchange a faith in his dignity of emperor for the role of beggar. Later, Heliogabalus, dressed as a coachman of the green faction (at the circus games, there were four kinds of factions (factiones ), who stood out among themselves by the color of their costume; they represented the four seasons. The green faction ( factio prasina ) represented the spring) had chariots run inside the palace in front of his family and the people of his household and, in order to play his role to the end, he asked for money and saluted to the way of the coachmen, the agonothetes and even the soldiers on guard.

4. The festivals of the trades and craftsmen

To these celebrations were added the festivals of trades and craftsmen. An anecdote relating to that of the musicians, which took place at the Ides of June, shows that the congenital immunity of the Romans to refinements had weakened. Around 83 BC, as the musicians gradually softened Roman mores, the magistrates took it into their heads to restrict their privileges. As a result, the musicians collectively decided to leave Rome and refuse to participate in the sacrifices, where their presence was deemed necessary. The senate, by employing a stratagem, succeeded in making them return to Rome and restored them their privileges, so that they again attend to the sacrifices.

5. The triumphs

In the early days, the Romans' taste for reality still clearly prevailed over representation, as evidenced by the physiognomy of their triumphs. The Greeks, especially since Alexander, honored the return of their victorious generals with a pomp more bacchic than warlike. Nothing like it then in Rome, where it was not until the time of the first conquests for the triumphs, until then of great simplicity, to take on a dramatic character. The procession, which entered the city by the Triumphal Gate, to join the Capitol, was made up, among others, of soldiers, or public slaves, who carried on stretchers, either plans of the cities which had been taken, or paintings representing the battles that had been won, the rivers, the animals,the plants and the simulacra of the divinities specific to the lands of the conquered peoples. However, the Romans always preferred the sight of conquered remains, weapons taken, kings and princes conquered and hostages, and the presence of foreign animals. In fact, the only truly theatrical element of the triumph was made up of grotesque figures who, like themanducus , a mannequin with enormous jaws, his mouth open and his teeth moving with a loud noise, who, either at the head or following the procession, were responsible for entertaining or frightening the multitude; it is difficult to know with certainty when they were incorporated into the triumphs; what is certain is that the atellane, a buffoonish farce of Osque origin in which the manducus was one of the main characters, dates back to the 4th century BC.

B. Development of stage games

It is from 364 before our era, time of the introduction in Rome of the stage plays, that the beginnings of the theater itself date. He was subjected to two very unequal influences: Etruscan influence and Greek influence.

1) Etruscan influence

Latin authors attribute an Etruscan origin to the theater in Rome (by which we must understand that the theater in Rome would come from rituals of the Etruscan religion, in particular from necyomancy, the art of evoking the dead to predict the future) (32). According to Livy, followed later by Valerius Maximus, the plague had raged in Rome around 363 BC And, to prevent its return, the Senate decided to institute a feast of a new kind , that is to say, scenic games and, for this purpose, "jugglers were brought from Etruria who danced to the sound of the flute and performed, in Etruscan fashion, movements which were not without grace. … ”; and, as "bateleur" was called (h) ister in Etruscan, the actors took the name of histrio. According to the historian Cluvius Rufius, whose testimony is reported by Plutarch, “in the early days of the republic, under the consulate of C. Sulpicius and Lic. Stolon, the plague destroyed all the actors, without excepting one. Several very able men were brought from Etruria. The most famous of them, the one who had the most talent and experience in his art, was called Histrus; and it was by his name that all the actors were called histrions. This testimony therefore differs from the first in that it implies that Rome hosted actors before the arrival of an Etruscan element in the urbs . Be that as it may, another argument would argue in favor of the thesis of the Etruscan origin of the theater in Rome, if it turned out that larva is indeed, as the inscriptions (33) tend to show, of Etruscan derivation: the fact that this term (which originally meant “wandering spirit”, before taking on the meaning of “evil spirit”) also designated a mask scenic (34).

2) Greek influence

The "Greek" influence, direct or indirect, resulted from the immediate contact between Rome and the arts of Greece. In the study of the influence of the arts of Greece on Rome, we must distinguish two periods: the first, which begins with the capture of Taranto in 272 BC, sees the customs and poetry of Greece begin to be known and appreciated in Rome, some Greek actors called in the urbs , to appear in public games; the second, which followed the capture of Corinth in 146 before our era, is remarkable for the borrowings that the writers of Rome made from Greece in terms of staging.

Greece, orientalized, directly influenced the theater in Rome, while it indirectly influenced it through an art that the Romans brought back from it: eloquence, which moreover only appeared in Greece the end of the fifth century BC, that is to say under the democratic regime. Eloquence is the art of expressing oneself with persuasive elegance, of moving and persuading by speech; when it comes to moving and persuading the demos , it is demagogy, the search for the favor of the demos to obtain its votes. However, the demos , which does not reason, as Lamy reminds us following Aristotle, “is subject to being wrong… This is why, to persuade the [ demos] that we are telling the truth, it suffices to speak with more boldness than his opponent j all we have to do is shout louder, and say more insults to him than he says, complain about him more bitterly, to propose everything that one puts forward as oracles, to mock his reasons as if they were ridiculous, to cry if necessary, as if one had a real pain that the truth which one defends was attacked and obscured. These are the appearances of the truth. The people hardly see anything but these appearances, and it is they who persuade them. (35) By whom was the first treatise on eloquence co-written? By two sophisticated rhetoricians, Corax of Syracuse and Tisias of Syracuse, both considered to be the founders of rhetoric (36).

The comparison between speaker and actor is made implicitly in the passage just quoted. In fact, the similarity of the speaker and the actor is obvious: hypokrisis , which, in Aristotle, even if he does not yet have the modern meaning of "hypocrite", is a pejorative term, means at the same time the theatrical interpretation and oratorical interpretation; likewise, in Latin, actiodesignates "the interpretation of a speech, by voice and gesture, and more particularly the art of the actor" (37). In Greece, actors and orators used the same terminology to describe their art. ; the same will be the case in Rome, where, however, the orators, apart from Cicero, were not without a certain nervousness regarding the similarities between their profession and that of actor, while in Attica they merged together : Demosthenes had been trained in declamation and oratorical action by the actor Satyrus (38), Aeschine (387-312 BC) had started by being an actor in a traveling company (39), before become a lawyer, then secretary of the People's Assembly. Quintilian, in Institutio oratorio, constantly insists on the fact that the good speaker must be careful not to behave like an actor (40). If some actors admitted to finding a certain inspiration in the performances of the speakers, laughing does not prevent the thinking that they could have been secretly inspired by the play of those, since, according to the Syrian epicurean Philodemus of Gadara, most actors were reluctant to take lessons from orators; "We know that Cicero learned from the two greatest actors of his time, the tragedian Aesop and the actor Roscius, and conversely Aesop and Roscius went to observe Cicero's rival, Hortensius, to transpose some of his effects to the theater oratories ”(41).

The indirect influence of Greece on the development of the theater in Rome lies in the fact that it transmitted to the Urbs oriental customs which, due to their ostentatious character, favor a theatricalization of private life and of life. public, once a sufficient number of Orientals had settled there. This, basically, is why Tacitus considers that the theatrical tradition of Greece has a corrupting influence on the Romans.

It was at the beginning of the second century BC, when the first table bed was brought back from Greece, that oriental luxury first appeared in Rome. Until then, the Romans, like the ancient Hellenes, had their meals seated. Frugal meals were followed by banquets, then feasts ( dubia ) and the cook, who was previously only a second-rate slave, became the most esteemed servant of a large house and what was until then - where a vile profession was considered an art. Syrian musicians and harp players, as well as jesters ( ridiculi) were not long in being introduced there (under the empire, the feasts themselves offered, in this period of unbridled luxury, entertainment of all kinds. Heliogabalus sometimes invited to supper eight bald, eight one-eyed, eight gouty eight deaf, eight giants and eight obese, which, for fun, he made lie down in a bed which could not contain them. Commode one day had two stunted hunchbacks covered with mustard served in a large dish, for, immediately after, clothe them with dignity and cover them with silver. As for Domitian, his black banquet remained in all memories, particularly in those of the guests, for its impeccably macabre character. (42) The little convivial drama was also imposed. whose existence we have reported in Greece and, previously,in the East and which consisted for the guests to choose among themselves a king of the feast; However, the democratic element specific to the original and its Greek copy was missing.

From Sylla to the fall of the "Republic", luxury was evident and, with luxury, corruption. The excesses of the aristocracy were only surpassed later by the imperial orgies. One of the proconsular festivals described by Salluste ( ap. Macrob., Saturn., II, 9) recalls, by its theatrical extravagance, the narcissistic debauchery of Alexander. Sylla lived surrounded by actors, Antoine only traveled with actors. Not only did the debauchery surround themselves with actors, but they themselves took part as actors in saltations. These saltations had nothing to do with the serious and military dances which had taken place among the first Romans. The libertine nobles of the last years of the “Republic” practiced foreign exercises the use of which had infiltrated Rome at the time of Scipio Emilien and which had until then been reserved for slaves. Caligula dressed as Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter, played the roles of Bacchus, Apollo and Hercules, disguised herself as Diana, Juno or Venus. Commode who, from his childhood, had been practiced in pantomime,once an adult, not content with dressing up as Hercules and Mercury, vice pushed so far as to show himself as an Amazon. Caracalla was content to dress as Bacchus.

All the dramatic rituals practiced in Rome at burials, with the exception of gladiatorial shows, were borrowed from Greece. Solon's Law and later the Law of the Twelve Tables tried in vain to restrict funeral expenses and to prevent women from bruising their faces on this occasion. In vain did they also seek to put limits on the signs of false pain which mingled with true pain: the mourners continued to make revenue, so much so that some of these actresses succeeded in raising enough money to hire mourners. at their own funerals: not only mourners, but also musicians, dancers, buffoons and actors, who came after them. The funeral looked like a stage performance. The actor in charge of the main role,that is to say, of the role of the deceased, anticipated the coffin, striving to imitate the approach and the language of the deceased. Doubtless, however, this usage dates only from the Empire.

C. The "Republic" and the theater

1. Pantomime

Until the middle of the 1st century BC, the scenic games took place on a mobile stage temporarily raised in the enclosure of the circus. In 154 BC, the attempt to build a theater built in stone and in Greek form aroused such opposition that it was destroyed, by order of the Senate, at the insistence of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica who, not happy to demand its demolition, asked that, henceforth, the Romans attend the theatrical performances standing up, so as not to fall into the effeminacy in which the Greeks were delighted. It was not until 55-54 BC that Pompey had a permanent stone theater built in Rome; “He deceived the Senate, saying that he was raising an altar to Venus, below which a few steps had been made for shows; gold,the stands held twenty-seven thousand spectators, and the temple which rose above was no larger than the imperial box of the circus ”(43). If it was a lie, it was probably only partial. Be that as it may, certain scenic games continued to be given in circuses and amphitheatres, often even in the Champs de Mars or in the middle of the forum, on trestles.

The construction of this first permanent theater coincided with the development of a particular theatrical genre: pantomime (44), which quickly came to almost entirely supplant tragedy and comedy, which until then had dominated. Pantomimes were appreciated and even adored by Roman youth; they lived in the privacy of knights and senators. Some of them won the favor of the emperors, dabbled in the intrigues of the palace, seized important offices. The racial chaos that began to reign in Rome at the time of the end of the "Republic" explains the vogue for pantomime. This art could serve as a universal language and therefore a factitious link between the various ethnic groups and races of the imperial mosaic. The flattering verses that Martial slavishly addresses to Domitian reflect this: “Caesar,what nation so far away and so barbarous does not have some of its own seated as spectators in your city? To contemplate Rome, the inhabitant of Thrace comes from the summit of Hemus, home of Orpheus; we see the Sarmath rush there, who feeds on the bloody flesh of his steeds, and the one who drinks the waters of the Nile at their source, and the one whose shore is beaten by the last wave of Thetis. The Arab and the Sabean flock there; the Sicilian, in your amphitheater, thinks he is wet with the mists of his country; one sees the Sicambre, with curly hair, meeting in this place; the Ethiopian, with frizzy hair. All speak various languages; but they have only one language to name you the Father of the Fatherland! "(the inhabitant of Thrace comes from the top of Hemus, home of Orpheus; we see the Sarmath rush there, who feeds on the bloody flesh of his steeds, and the one who drinks the waters of the Nile at their source, and the one whose shore is beaten by the last wave of Thetis. The Arab and the Sabean flock there; the Sicilian, in your amphitheater, thinks he is wet with the mists of his country; one sees the Sicambre, with curly hair, meeting in this place; the Ethiopian, with frizzy hair. All speak various languages; but they have only one language to name you the Father of the Fatherland! "(the inhabitant of Thrace comes from the top of Hemus, home of Orpheus; we see the Sarmath rush there, who feeds on the bloody flesh of his steeds, and the one who drinks the waters of the Nile at their source, and the one whose shore is beaten by the last wave of Thetis. The Arab and the Sabean flock there; the Sicilian, in your amphitheater, thinks he is wet with the mists of his country; we see the Sicambre, with curly hair, meeting in this place; the Ethiopian, with frizzy hair. All speak various languages; but they have only one language to name you the Father of the Fatherland! "(The Arab and the Sabean flock there; the Sicilian, in your amphitheater, thinks he is wet with the mists of his country; one sees the Sicambre, with curly hair, meeting in this place; the Ethiopian, with frizzy hair. All speak various languages; but they have only one language to name you the Father of the Fatherland! "(The Arab and the Sabean flock there; the Sicilian, in your amphitheater, thinks he is wet with the mists of his country; we see the Sicambre, with curly hair, meeting in this place; the Ethiopian, with frizzy hair. All speak various languages; but they have only one language to name you the Father of the Fatherland! "(Of spectacular, 3) Scenic pleasures were the only way to bring together the diverse and varied races, impossible to unite, which made up the Roman Empire, as artificial and volatile as this bond was. The second reason which prompted Augustus to favor the propagation of pantomime is that it apparently lent itself less to political criticism than tragedy or comedy. The histrions, a term that was assigned to pantomimes from his reign, nevertheless found a way to surpass themselves to scratch the power by certain particular gestures or, since the pantomime was not entirely silent, by the text ( canticum) which was an integral part of it. If they ended up being repressed and punished under Augustus, it is above all because the frenzy they aroused among the Romans led them, whatever their class, to take sides with one or another of them and thus forming factions which "sometimes degenerated into parties as heated against each other as the Guelphs and Ghibellines may have been under the emperors of Germany" (45).

Like all the arts we have mentioned above, pantomime was not originally from Rome; it had been imported there from Etruria and brought to its perfection under Augustus by Pylades, a freed slave of this one, born in Cilicia and by Bathyle, pupil and rival of Pylades, former slave freed from Maecenas. An interesting fact in this regard, which corroborates what we have already pointed out about the link between theater and the emancipation of women, is that, while in the tragic and in the comic, in Rome as in Greece, female roles were performed by men, women were allowed to perform in both mimes and pantomimes.

Under the "Republic", the theater played a central role in the religious rituals of the Urbs.. The theatrical performances were an integral part, not only, as we have seen, of the funeral games commemorating the death of a notable and the celebration of triumphs, but also of the consecration of the temples. On the other hand, the theater had become an outward sign of power and wealth. The magistrates were to provide, in addition to games, theatrical performances as well as the theaters in which they took place. The number of days the Romans could entertain themselves in the theater continued to increase, reaching hundreds around 350 BCE. Members of the upper class were required to attend plays, especially magistrates and, subsequently, emperors themselves. The place occupied by spectators in theaters depended on their social status. As in Athens,the theater mediated between the government and theplebs , whose influence grew in the economic, military and political life of Rome from the mid-fourth to the middle of the third century BC: it is therefore not surprising that the theater experienced spectacular development during of this period. The theater was, like the circus, a double-edged sword for power: by attending a theatrical performance, the representatives of authority were supposed to show the plebsthat they shared his tastes and, therefore, reconciled it and, on the other hand, they exposed themselves to criticism from plebeians, because the theater was, with the circus, the only public space where a " public opinion " ; she did not deprive herself of it, whistling or applauding, depending on her mood, such or such dignitary when she arrived in the audience. Suetonius reports a number of cases where spectators expressed their disapproval of an emperor. The plebs' resentment could be better contained, controlled, and channeled inside a theater than in the streets.

2. The actor

Like many other professions in the empire, acting was hereditary. The association that many Roman authors made between the theater and foreign influence was well founded: the actors were foreigners, captives, or, more frequently, slaves who had been able to buy their freedom.

Whereas, in Greece, the actors had always enjoyed a good reputation and a great respect; their condition was initially mean and contemptible in Rome. The actors were deprived of civic rights and excluded from public office, for a reason provided by Cicero: people were deprived of the honors of the Roman citizen; and even more, that the censor drove them ignominiously out of their tribe ”( Treaty of the Republic, IV, X) Laws prohibited civil servants from marrying actresses. Livy teaches us that the actors did not have the right to become soldiers, because they were concealers, individuals who pretended to be what they were not. They were viewed as dangerous misfits and were associated with idleness, license, effeminacy. While the Greeks admired the actors, the fact of showing off on stage, of performing, was considered shameful by the Romans (46). Ovid, in the Fasti, observes that theatrical performances are not proper honors on Mars. In the same vein, Tacitus puts his finger on the main problem posed by the profession of actor from the point of view of civilization, by judging that the theater is foreign to those who are warriors by nature. The virile character of the ancient Roman was not maintained only among the few members of the elite who still proved themselves worthy of their rank and their functions: a soldier, placed in the presence of Nero after his participation in the conspiracy of Pison had been discovered, told her that he had been loyal to her until one day he learned that he was a parricide, a matricide and an actor.

The image of the actor in Rome began to change, under the unconscious impulse of corrupt members of the elite. As in Greece, the actors, under cover of their profession, enjoyed a freedom of expression, which many, even in the senatorial and equestrian orders, envied them. They had made "freedom of expression" fashionable.

The actors formed corporations (47), brotherhoods that were both “religious and professional, bringing together, in their ranks, various specialists in the scene, endowed with a certain know-how. The objective of their members was to put their artistic practices at the service of divine worship, and more particularly to honor the god Dionysus, under whose patronage they had placed themselves. At least that was their stated objective. The fact that these artists' corporations were "organized on the model of the poleisof their time… endowed with their magistrates, even with their own coinage (if one is to believe a recent discovery) ”(48) leads one to suspect that they did not stop there, because any association endowed with institutions and a hierarchy parallel to those of the potentially subversive civilian establishment. In fact, we learn, unsurprisingly, that “They carried out a political activity which brought them into contact, through their ambassadors, with the various powers of the time: kings, dynasts, cities and towns. the peoples, to use the well-known formula of diplomacy at the time, to which we should add the Romans, from the 2nd century BC ”(49). Suffice to say that they were engaged in what is now called lobbying; and they did so with impunity.Rome understood that mysterious societies, under the guise of religion, were working to destroy institutions, providing plotters with the opportunity to come together to secretly prepare their criminal designs; she had understood it and had repressed them. She had also felt that corporations of actors potentially exposed her to the same danger; this is why, whereas, in Greece, the brotherhoods of actors "had become like the refuge of individual freedom", it subjected them to a tight and strict control. Of course, nothing could eradicate the seditious and vain character of the members of this profession. Accius, a renowned Umbrian actor, is known to have refused to stand up, when Caesar entered an assembly of poets in which he was participating, arguing that in such a place,pre-eminence is due to talent rather than dignity (Valère Maxime, II, 7) (50).

In the second century of our era, “The actors became in the State a powerful body, honored by all, sponsored by the emperor, whose name they take”; "The theater enjoys all the favor, and the brotherhoods are associated with public worship": "there is no longer an actor who is despised because of his profession" (51). From Scipios to Augustus, famous actors were honored and showered with riches. Tiberius tried to put an end to this prevarication. Following a serious incident which had taken place at the circus games between the various factions which supported such or such squads of gladiators, a decree was issued aimed at condemning the actors of the theater, the circus and the amphitheater to the flogging and thereby suffocate the factions which they raised, but a tribune of the people opposed it.The emperor however succeeded in passing laws modifying the privileges of the actors, he limited the sums that could be spent on theatrical performances, gave the lenders the right to punish unruly spectators from exile, forbade any senator to put the foot in the house of an actor, forbade all citizens, particularly women, to associate with actors and "suppressed the senseless honors which the young nobility of Rome rendered to these Kings of the Theater" (52). His successors were much less informed in this regard, some of them, it is true, much less Roman in origin as well.forbade any senator to set foot in an actor's house, forbade any citizen, particularly women, to associate with actors and "suppressed the senseless honors which the young nobility of Rome rendered to these Kings of the Theater" (52 ). His successors were much less informed in this regard, some of them, it is true, much less Roman in origin as well.forbade any senator to set foot in an actor's house, forbade any citizen, particularly women, to associate with actors and "suppressed the senseless honors which the young nobility of Rome rendered to these Kings of the Theater" (52 ). His successors were much less wise in this regard, some of them, it is true, much less Roman in origin as well.

5) Nero: a representative case of the softening of a certain part of the Roman nobility

Nero, initiated into the theater by his tutor, the Stoic Seneca, himself performed on the stage. It is perhaps no exaggeration to think that he spent more time there than in the Senate, where, moreover, he could not help acting as well. Suetonius gives him the image of a man who constantly moved from the role of emperor to the role of actor, regardless of his audience. This had several serious consequences.

The first was the spectacular degradation of the imperial function. The episode Suetonius relates of the triumph of Nero in Naples is when the triumph was the supreme honor bestowed on a general having achieved a great victory, Nero obtained the honors of the triumph for having been crowned at the Olympic Games and, instead , like any general having won a badge of victory, to make a solemn entry into Rome at the head of his army and followed by prisoners and booty, he entered Naples surrounded by musicians and actors from all over the world, preceded by "ten- eight hundred and eight crowns which he had won in the various Games in which he had taken part ”(53) and followed by Augustans, "Hired applauders (54), shouting, as in ovations, that they were the companions of his glory and the soldiers of his triumph" (Suetonius, Néron , XXV)

The second was, by ricochet, the spectacular degradation of the patriciate. All Rome was seen by Nero as an audience: his youth, that is to say the descendants of the great patrician families, “was divided… into two troupes: one engaged on stage with him, to assist him, the another seat for the orchestra to applaud him (55) ”. When he encountered her reluctance, he forced her to go up there. Whether she performed there willingly or under duress, she offered the opportunity to the plebs, as Juvenal deplores it, to make fun of the nobility at will. Gone were the days when a well-stocked Roman who took the stage was covered with infamy. A complete reversal had taken place in the space of a few generations: after having long despised the histrions, of plebeian extraction, the nobility, because some of its members took themselves for histrions, could henceforth be held in contempt by the plebs. Regarding the audience of Nero, the descendants of the patrician families who formed his audience, the scenic escapades of the emperor-actor forced him to hypocrisy: “because of the length of the pieces in which he played, it would seem that, in the audience, it happened that women simulated the pains of childbirth, men pretended to be on the verge of death,in order to leave the theater before the end of the performance ”(56).

According to some accounts, emperors of non-Roman origin like Heliogabalus used to blur the line between fact and fiction by demanding that acts that were normally simulated in the theater actually be performed there. If Nero was not there, the theatricalization to which he subjected Rome naturally had the effect of blurring the line between reality and fiction, as evidenced by this striking anecdote "It is said that at the performance of" Hercules furious " , a young soldier, who was on guard at the entrance to the theater, seeing him loaded with chains, as the subject demanded, came running to lend him a hand. "(Suetonius, Nero, XXI) In fact, this young soldier had confused spectacle and reality only insofar as he did not know what the spectacle was or, at least, insofar as it had not occurred to him that an emperor can put on a spectacle. play a role.

The fourth disastrous consequence was an intensification of the Asianization of Rome: "Nero dramatized reality and installed mythological fiction at the center of his individual imagination," but "by proposing the fantasies of his Greek culture as a model of life to the Romans. . Mythology then ceased to be a cultural language in order to analyze reality: it identified itself with it in order to invest it with all its monstrosities ”.

* * *

When the emperor became a Christian, it was no longer the same. He must henceforth enforce what it is agreed to call Christian morality. However, Tatian calls for the theater to be banned because the actors "on the stage teach adultery" ( Discourse to the Greeks, XXII); Tertullian attacks the “obscenity” and the “license” that reign in theatrical performances (57). Besides the accusation of immorality and indecency, the theater had to face that of "paganism". And "... How then the influence of Christian orators is very great ... how they demonstrate very well to the emperor that these are not feasts of God, but of gods, feasts of the polytheism of these pagan divinities who 'they cut down, and which the Emperor himself has sworn to abandon, he is forced to respect the scruples of the Church and to act accordingly. Thus he is led to deprive corporations of a large number of their privileges,at the risk of upsetting the people (58) ... "Chrysostom affirms that the theater" is the plague of cities "and" it is from there that all seditions and all troubles are born "(59). Much more interesting is the comparison he draws between theater and magic, despite the fact that the term only has in him the meaning of "diabolical methods" which it has in Christian rhetoric (60). He does not see that this should be understood to mean the art of the illusionist, of the one who produces illusionary effects by various mechanical and psychological processes and, more recently, due to technological progress, by various special effects ( 3D image synthesis, digital processing, pixilation, makeup, etc.).in spite of the fact that the term has in him only the meaning of "diabolical methods" which it has in Christian rhetoric (60). He does not see that this should be understood to mean the art of the illusionist, of the one who produces illusionary effects by various mechanical and psychological processes and, more recently, due to technological progress, by various special effects ( 3D image synthesis, digital processing, pixilation, makeup, etc.).in spite of the fact that the term has with him only the meaning of "diabolical methods" which it has in Christian rhetoric (60). He does not see that this should be understood to mean the art of the illusionist, of the one who produces illusionary effects by various mechanical and psychological processes and, more recently, due to technological progress, by various special effects ( 3D image synthesis, digital processing, pixilation, makeup, etc.).).).

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the theater gradually decayed until it disappeared behind the scenes in the 6th century, only to be taken out by the Church, several centuries later. The theater was reborn from its ashes in contact with the Christian liturgy. This is hardly surprising, for, as we have seen, in antiquity there was something profoundly theocratic in the origin and development of theater ."Middle Ages", as in decadent antiquity, the lords and the princes will welcome the scenic games as an object of luxury and of parade, the people will abandon themselves to them with frenzy, but only the clergy will seize the instinct dramatic, cultivate and develop it for a specific purpose. From the beginning of the period which extends from the 6th to the 12th century, scenic games and even the use of masks will be introduced in certain monasteries of women; in the 8th and 9th centuries, the funerals of the abbots and abbesses ended with small funeral dramas, in which the monks and nuns shared the roles; in the 10th century, the lives of the saints and the legends of the martyrs will be represented in the convents. Finally, in the 11th and 12th centuries,the ecclesiastical drama will unfold in the cathedrals on the days of great festivals, supported by music, sculpture and painting, in “tragic” as well as comic representations.

BK, 2015

(1) "It is high time," said R. Guénon in "Reform of the modern mentality" ( Regnabit , June 1926), to show that there is in religion something other than a matter of sentimental devotion, something also other than moral precepts or consolations for use. minds weakened by suffering, that we can find there the "solid food" of which Saint Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Hebrews ". Twenty-four years later, when he died, had he done so?
(2) René Guénon, Insights on initiation , Les Éditions Traditionnelles, Paris, 1946, p. 103.
(3) Religious theater existed in Africa long before the invention of the alphabet, mythological tragedies accompanied by song and dance were frequently performed in India during the Bronze Age; the Indus Valley civilization (2700 - 1500 BC) had a god of actors and dancers, called Siva. In China, ritual performances by dancers, singers and imitators were given under the Zhou dynasty (1122 - 256 BC); in the current state of research, it seems that the first tragedy was performed in Egypt around 2000 BC: its theme was the sufferings and the triumph of Osiris and it is reminiscent of the "passions" "Middle Ages" Christians (see 'Egyptian' Passion'Plays "[ http://www.theatrehistory.com/origins/egypt001.html]; Eric Csapo and Margaret C. Mille,The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond: From Ritual to Drama , Cambridge University Press, 1st ed., 2008, chap. 13, which provides an update on the matter; Christine Schnusenberg, The Mythological Traditions of Liturgical Drama: The Eucharist as Theater, Paulist Press, 2010, chap. 1, which explores the theater which, long before entering and settling in Greece, flourished in Egypt, Babylon, among the Canaanites, Israel and Syria; see also Christianne Desroches-Noblecourt, Etienne Drioton, "The Egyptian Theater [report]", Journal des savants, vol. 4, n ° 1, 1943, p. 166-176 [it is, however, advisable to introduce precise reservations on one of the arguments advanced by the author to conclude that the Egyptian theater would not have arisen from the mysteries, namely that the Egyptian mysteries "do not include spectators : the assistants are priests or faithful who all take part in the action ”. The argument is anachronistic. Indeed, the distinction between actors and spectators, as surprising as it may seem, does not date,as we will see in the second part of our study, appeared only recently; see especially Peter Ukpokodu, “Egyptian origins of the Western theater: scholastic obscurantism or culpable ignorance? », L'Annuaire théâtral: journal québécoise d'études théâtrales, n ° 15, 1994, p. 9-20, available for consultation at the following addresses;http://www.erudit.org/revue/annuaire/1994/v/n15/041193ar.pdf, accessed April 17, 2015). Regarding the controversial title of this article, it should be noted that Eurocentric literature which, since the nineteenth century, has endeavored to pass off as a product of white civilization a culture that was not originally its own and center of which are fetishized the by-products of action that are the sciences and the arts, whose progress only reflects the growing internal and external agitation of the geniuses who allow them and accentuates the general agitation of those who are the paying guinea pigs; it should therefore be noted that this Eurocentric literature is generally the work of cosmopolitan globalists; The Europe of their dreams, whether they are aware of it or not, is the Negro-Semitic society that is being built there,on the ruins of traditional Rome, since the advent of Christianity.

Regarding the cosmopolitan, a case little studied by psychiatry, the conclusions of the research of a Swedish psychiatrist, presented by Levi-Strauss ( Le regard loiné, chap. 12), are worth quoting: “… at the origin of the disease, we find an abnormal family configuration, characterized by a lack of maturity of the parents and more especially of the mother, or that the latter rejects her child or that on the contrary, she does not resolve to imagine him separated from her. If, for the newborn, the world is reduced first to a solidary body where he and his mother merge, then gradually widens to their perceived and accepted duality, then into a family constellation, later finally to society as a whole, it is conceivable that the persistence of an initial pathological situation can be expressed in the schizophrenic by the oscillation between two extreme feelings: that of the insignificance of the ego in the eyes of the world, and that of his disproportionate importance in the eyes of society,resulting in a fear of nothingness in one case, in the madness of grandeur in the other. So the schizophrenic would never gain the normal experience of living in the world. For him, the part would be equivalent to the whole; unable to establish a relationship between his ego and the world, he could not perceive their respective limits: "While the normal individual has the concrete experience of his being-in-the-world, the experience of the schizophrenic is that of itself as a world. »At the four successive stages of the apprehension of the world - own body, mother, family, society, grasped as worlds - there would be the same indistinction which, depending on the stage to which the patient regressed, would result in different disorders always affecting the double aspect. , contradictory only in appearance, of cleavage or confusion:from echolalia and echopraxia, to the alternating feelings of being entirely controlled by this or that whole perceived as a world, or of being able to exercise a magical and sovereign control over it. Particularly interesting, from a point of view far superior to that of psychiatry, is the view that schizophrenia arises from an abnormal relationship with its mother, when one relates it to the lunar, undifferentiated and leveling worldview that is. peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that arose, by “secularization”, that is to say, to put an end to it. this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given period, of these religions.up to the alternating feelings of being entirely controlled by this or that set perceived as a world, or of being able to exercise over it a magical and sovereign control. Particularly interesting, from a point of view far superior to that of psychiatry, is the view that schizophrenia arises from an abnormal relationship with its mother, when one relates it to the lunar, undifferentiated and leveling worldview that is. peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that arose, by “secularization”, that is to say, to put an end to it. this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given period, of these religions.up to the alternating feelings of being entirely controlled by this or that set perceived as a world, or of being able to exercise over it a magical and sovereign control. Particularly interesting, from a point of view far superior to that of psychiatry, is the view that schizophrenia arises from an abnormal relationship with its mother, when one relates it to the lunar, undifferentiated and leveling worldview that is. peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that arose, by “secularization”, that is to say, to put an end to it. this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given period, of these religions.or to be able to exercise over it a magical and sovereign control. Particularly interesting, from a point of view far superior to that of psychiatry, is the view that schizophrenia arises from an abnormal relationship with its mother, when one relates it to the lunar, undifferentiated and leveling worldview that is. specific to religions which, such as Christianity, have arisen from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that have arisen, by "secularization", that is to say, to put an end to this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given period, of these religions.or to be able to exercise over it a magical and sovereign control. Particularly interesting, from a point of view far superior to that of psychiatry, is the view that schizophrenia arises from an abnormal relationship with its mother, when one relates it to the lunar, undifferentiated and leveling worldview that is. peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that arose, by “secularization”, that is to say, to put an end to it. this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given period, of these religions.is the view according to which the schizophrenia would be born of an abnormal relation with his mother, when one relates it to the vision of the lunar world, undifferentiated and leveling which is peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that had emerged, by "secularization", that is to say, to put an end to this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given era, of these religions.is the view according to which the schizophrenia would be born from an abnormal relation with his mother, when one relates it to the vision of the lunar world, undifferentiated and leveling which is peculiar to religions which, such as Christianity, arose from the matriarchal cult of the grandmother or, in modern times, to the various egalitarian ideologies that had emerged, by "secularization", that is to say, to put an end to this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given era, of these religions.to put an end to this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given era, of these religions.to put an end to this catch-all term, by tactical adaptation to the conditions of a given time, of these religions.
(4) Pierre Magnin, The origins of modern theater or the history of dramatic genius , vol. 1, L. Hachette, Paris, 1838, p. 138.
(5) Regarding the chthonic religions of the mother goddess and the racial substratum of the peoples linked to them, see Julius Evola, Révolte contre le monde moderne , chap. "The civilization of the mother".
(6) Pierre Magnin, op. cit. , p. 187.
(7) The following testimony amply confirms the overall negative judgment that can be made on the historical role of the Macedonian sovereign: “Often, Alexander would sit at table dressed as a god; sometimes he took on Ammon's purple robe, his slashed shoe and his horns, as if he were that very god; sometimes he dressed as Diana and climbed thus dressed, on his chariot, wearing a Persian robe and showing on his shoulder the bow and javelin of the goddess. He still sometimes dressed as Mercury. But her everyday garment was a crimson chlamys and a white-embellished tunic; her hairstyle was a headband topped with a diadem. In meetings of friends, he wore a winged petasius and heels like Mercury, and held a caduceus in his hand.Often also we saw him covered with the skin of a lion and armed with the club of Hercules ”, Ephippus,On the death of Alexander and Hephestion.  Cited in  Athen. , lib. II, p..537, EF
(8) Patrick E. McGovern, Uncorking the Past , University of California Press, 2010, p. 179; Shalom M. Paul, Michael E. Stone and Avital Pinnick (eds.), 'Al Kanfei Yonah: Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology , 2 vols., Brill, Leien, 2001, p. 910.
(9) It seems that some of them carried the title of high priest.
(10) Édélestand Du Méril, History of comedy , Didier et Cie, Paris, 1864, p. 279.
(11) Pierre Magnin, op. cit. , p. 94.
(12) Ibid.The presence of the main priest of Bacchus in these places is among the elements that invalidate the author's thesis according to which the different arts have escaped the hands of the representatives of the mysterious institution, in which they had emerged, to fall into profane hands between which they would have merged in theater.
(13) Jacques Pirenne, Ancient Civilizations , Albin Michel, Paris, 2013, p. 424.
(14) Édélestand Du Méril, op. cit., p. 236-37.
(15) Ibid. , p. 234.
(16) http://jfbradu.free.fr/GRECEANTIQUE/GRECE%20CONTINENTALE/PAGES%20THEMATIQUES/theatre/schema-theatres.php3
(17) Marie-Françoise Baslez, The literary sources of Greek history, Armand Colin, Paris, 2003, p. xxii.
(18) Marius Sepet, The Christian Drama in the Middle Ages , Slatkine Reprints, 1975, p. 10.
(19) See, for Heidegger's etymological reflections on the term “logos”, Michel Fattal, Logos, thought and truth in Greek philosophy , L'Harmattan, Paris, Montreal, Budapest and Turin, 2001; see also Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, La notion de nomos dans le Pentateuque grec , Biblical institute Press, 1973.
(20) Orlando Patterson, Freedom in the Making of Western Culture , 1991, Basic Books, p. 109-10.
(21) Ibid. , p. 111.
(22) See Évelyne Pewzner, Jean-François Braunstein,Histoire de la psychologie , Armand Colin, Paris, 2010 (see also http://www.armandcolin.com/upload/Histoire_de_la_psychologie.pdf , p. 11, consulted on April 15, 2015).
(23) Émile Egger, Memoirs of Ancient Literature , A. Durand, 1862, p. 438.
(24) P. Hallward, “Jacques Rancière et la théâtrocratie ou The limits of improvised equality”, available at the following address: http://www.marxau21.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view= article & id = 97: p-hallward-jacques-ranciere-et-la-theatrocratie-ou-les-limite-de-legalite-improvisee & catid = 47: ranciere-jacques & Itemid = 7 , accessed June 15, 2015.
(25) Casiana Ionita, “L'Insoutenable Théâtralité de la Commune”, Théâtre (s) Politique (s), n ° 1, March 2013, available at the following address: theatrespolitiques.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013 /03/CI-PDF.pdf , accessed April 19, 2015).
(26) In Martina Handler, Retelling the Nicaraguan Revolution as a Dionysian Ritual , Lit Verlag, 2011 p. 28.
(27) Charles Victor Daremberg and Edmond Saglio, The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities , Article “Dionysia”, t. 2, part 1, 1877, Hachette, p. 230-46.
(28) EA, “Sul sacro nella tradizione romana”, in Introduzione alla magia , vol. II, Edizioni Mediterranee, 1994, translated from Italian by BK
(29) François Catrou,Roman history from the founding of Rome to AD 47 , t. 9, Paris, 1727, p. 289-90.
(30) See Marcel Van Doren, “The evolution of the Phrygian mysteries in Rome”, Classical antiquity, vol. 22, n ° 22-1, 1953, p. 79-88.
(31) See Ludwig Preller, The gods of ancient Rome , Didier et Cie, Paris, 1865, p. 484-85.
(32) The necyomantic oracles seem to have used statuettes with springs; see, for example, Cicero, De divine. , II, 41; Martial, V, Epigr. I, v. 3.
(33) http://www.maravot.com/Translation_ShortScripts_e.html .
(34) Pierre Magnin, op. cit., p. 326: “We seem to have originally given the name of larvae or manias to the imprints of clay or flour which one took on the faces of the dead and which one sometimes buried with them. Often to appease a lemur who frightened his parents and complained of not being admitted into the larorum, his mask was removed from the tomb and placed on the face of one of the familiar lares. When a house or a village was threatened with some danger, the danger was averted by placing above the door, or by hanging from the neighboring trees, larvae or masks intended to replace the heads of men that on such an occasion was offered. once to Saturn to redeem himself. These hanging heads were called oscillated ”.
(35) Bernard Lamy, La Rhétorique or the art of speaking, Paris, 1757, p. 385-86
(36) Twenty-four centuries later, unsurprisingly, it is eloquence that will be "the architect of the Republic". http://www.fabula.org/acta/document9190.php .
(37) http://www.lycee-chateaubriand.fr/cru-atala/publications/conferences09_10/NavaudOrateurActeurAntiques.pdf , p. 2.
(38) Athanase Auger and Joseph Planche, Complete Works of Demosthenes and Aeschines in Greek and French , Volume 5, Paris, 1820, p. 517.
(39) Clément Plomteux and Henri Agasse, Methodical Encyclopedia , Tome 6, 1804, p. 627.
(40) Whitney Shiner, Proclaiming the Gospel , Bloomsbury T&T Clark; 1st ed., 2003, p. 84.
(41) Françoise Desbordes,Scripta varia , Peeters, Leuven, 2006, p. 131.
(42) see Émile Lefranc Histoire romaine , Meyer, 1833, p. 432.
(43) Latour Saint-Ybars, Néron: his life and his time , Michel Lévy, Paris, 1867, p. 234.
(44) It is not uninteresting to note that Lucien, in his dialogue on dance, compares the Pythagorean rule to pantomime.
(45) Encyclopedic or universal journal , t. 8, 1778, p. 16.
(46) To suppose, as some do, that the hostile attitude of a certain part of the Roman elite towards the theater and the actors was due to the poor quality of the plays in Rome is a rather ridiculous one. to serve as the subject of a vaudeville.
(47) It should be noted that the first corporations of this type were formed in the third century BC in Ptolemaic Egypt and in Asia Minor, from where they then spread throughout the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire (John Marie Pailler, Les mots de Bacchus , Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2009, p. 102). Originally, they brought together traveling artists who moved on demand, according to festivals and competitions.
(48) Brigitte Le Guen, “The association of Technites of Athens or the springs of a successful cohabitation”. In J.Ch. Couvenhes and S. Milanezi, Individuals, groups and politics in Athens from Solon to Mithridates , Presses Universitaires François Rabelais, Tours, 2007, p. 339-364.
(49) Ibid.
(50) It is from a line of one of his tragedies that Caligula borrowed his motto: “ Oderint, dum metuant ” (“ May they hate me, as long as they fear me”). Another sign, not yet of theatricalization, but of the feeling felt by the Roman elite that life was a theater, Augustus, on his deathbed, asked his friends "if he had played the comedy of life ( mimum vitae ) and that, their answer having been affirmative, he added, citing a Greek tragedy: "If you have taken a liking to these recreations, do not refuse them your applause" (Suetonius, Augustus , 99).
(51) Émile Egger, op. cit., p. 419.
(52) François Catrou, Histoire romaine: Tibére Empereur , J.-B. Delespine, 1737, p. 198-9.
(53) Henri d'Escamps, Galleries of ancient marbles of the Campana museum , 2nd ed., Vol. 1, p. liii,
(54) The hired applauders would have been invented by the emereur of Syrian origin Caligula.
(55) Latour Saint-Ybars, op. cit ., p. 243.
(56) William Missouri Downs, Lou Anne Wright and Erik Ramsey, The Art of Theater: Then and Now, Cengage Learning , 3rd ed., 2012, p. 292.
(56) Paul-Augustin Deproost, Laurence Van Ypersele and Myriam Watthee, Mémoire etidentité , p. 110
(57) Gourcy (abbot of), The Apologetics and Prescriptions of Tertullian, Rivoire, Lyon, 1825, p. 583 - It is true that the arguments advanced by the Roman literati of the time, including Ovid, against the theater hardly exceeded this level.
(58) Émile Egger, op. cit. , p. 419-20.
(59) Chrysostom was well placed to pass this judgment, since the various Christian sects never ceased to fill the empire with troubles and sedition.
(60) Homilies and Sermons of S. Jean Chrysostôme , Pierre le Petit, Paris, 1665, p. 229-30.
Theatrocracy (2)
Posted on July 14, 2015 by Elements of Racial Education

Quite originally, that is to say in the ninth
and tenth centuries, the theater, it can be said, was
completely confused with the cult, or rather it
was the cult itself that was a theater. … ..
External worship consists of ceremonies, these
ceremonies are symbolic; there are songs,
stories, marches and risers,
characters dressed in various clothes. Now a
symbolic representation , what is it other than a drama, in the
primitive and absolute sense of the word? Drama means action:
history, morals or dogma put into action. Now the
Catholic liturgy being the putting into action of Christian dogmas
and of their history, this liturgy is necessarily
dramatic, today as in the Middle Ages, but in the
Middle Ages it was more so than today.

Marius Sepet, The Christian Drama in the Middle Ages , Didier et Cie, 1878

The Christian drama of the Middle Ages was born, among the pomp
of the Church, of the ceremonies, readings and songs
of the Catholic liturgy. This liturgy, in fact,
contains, at least in germ, the three elements whose
reunion constitutes the drama: the subject or the action, the
setting in scene and the dialogue. 

Marius Sepet, op. cit .

III. The world of theater in the "middle ages"

The appearance of the "liturgical drama" is the ultimate consequence of the efforts made to make Christian teachings comprehensible to the people: it speaks first of all to the imagination and to the sensitivity.

A. Dramatic genres

1. Genesis of the different dramatic genres

at. The liturgical drama

In the "Middle Ages", the faithful, for the vast majority of them uneducated and superficially Christianized, did not understand much of the biblical stories and did not understand service in Latin, so that all means were available. implemented to express as sensitively as possible the dogmas of Christian doctrine.
The "liturgical drama" arose from the tropes sung, during the service, by two choirs placed one opposite the other. The song brought to life in the imagination the event which had just been read in the Gospel of the day. Soon the different verses of the Bible were attributed to different soloists and the localities (mansions) where the action was taking place were pointed out in the choir or in the nave.
At the end of the tenth century, when each feast day had its dramatic representation, the tendency to vary the long services by the introduction of rituals likely to strike the spirits strongly with their dramatic form reached its highest point. intensity. A little later, towards the beginning of the 11th century, it was decided to dramatize the two cycles in which the Christian festivals are articulated: the Christmas cycle and the Easter cycle (62).
There were two types of “liturgical dramas”: some were closely linked to religious ceremonies and followed word for word the biblical texts, which were then paraphrased lightly, in order to be put into dialogue for the need of action. “The others, while having the same religious character, did not have such an intimate connection with worship. They were already real dramatic creations. Their subject is the sacred text; but the development which was given there made special compositions, the extent of which no longer allowed them to retain their place in the offices. They were sometimes represented in processions, sometimes during or after the ceremonies, either in the choir or in the rood screen ”(63).

b. The miracle and the mystery

From the liturgical drama emerged two types of dramatic genres: one includes miracles and mysteries, it is intended to edify the people or to teach them morals, while amusing them; the mysteries borrowed from the lives of saints often have a marked advertising character: many were composed for a certain city or a certain brotherhood, in order to celebrate a patron, to recommend a relic or to extol a pilgrimage; to the other belong jokes, stupidities, joyous sermons and morals; it is only intended to amuse him.

i) The miracle

From the early "Middle Ages", episcopal or monastic schools constituted real universities. The novices rubbed shoulders with the students themselves. These were destined to reenter the world, while the former were to be formed for conventual life. The life of the latter was much less austere than that of the former; the freedom which was left to the students could even go as far as the license. Poetry and music were the most decent entertainments they mixed with their studies. “But both made, sometimes beyond measure, borrowings from popular poetry and music, and even from that tradition of goliardic buffoonery that low-level jugglers had transported ... trestles Lower Empire in the fairs of the High Middle Ages ”(64). The poetry of the students,lyrical and dramatic, was not devoid of satirical spirit either. They are the ones who composed the first miracles that have come down to us. They were represented at Christmas, Easter and the feast of their patron, who was also that of youth, thieves and treasure keepers: Saint Nicholas, one of the most popular saints in the "middle ages". The subject of these plays was not borrowed from the “authentic” life of the saint, but from the more or less fabulous legends which surrounded him, more favorable to the satirical developments which the students liked. Their miracles enjoyed immense popularity with Christians of all walks of life.at Easter and on the feast of their patron, who was also that of youth, thieves and treasure keepers: Saint Nicholas, one of the most popular saints in the “middle ages”. The subject of these plays was not borrowed from the “authentic” life of the saint, but from the more or less fabulous legends which surrounded him, more favorable to the satirical developments which the students liked. Their miracles enjoyed immense popularity with Christians of all walks of life.at Easter and on the feast of their patron, who was also that of youth, thieves and treasure keepers: Saint Nicholas, one of the most popular saints in the "middle ages". The subject of these plays was not borrowed from the “authentic” life of the saint, but from the more or less fabulous legends which surrounded him, more favorable to the satirical developments which the students liked. Their miracles enjoyed immense popularity with Christians of all walks of life.more conducive to satirical developments favored by the students. Their miracles enjoyed immense popularity with Christians of all walks of life.more conducive to satirical developments favored by the students. Their miracles enjoyed immense popularity with Christians of all walks of life.

ii) The mystery

Until the end of the 14th century, a mystery was a figurative and mimed representation, silent or almost silent, which was given at festivals and royal or princely entrances. The term very rarely referred to the actual religious pieces. It was not until 1450 that it began to be used to designate the serious pieces of the repertoire, those where the mysteries of the incarnation and redemption were staged or those which dramatized the life of such and such. such saint. Born in the Church, the mystery, like any other religious drama, was inspired exclusively by religious sources, without however being limited to the orthodox accounts of the lives of the saints, the Old and the New Testaments. The authors of the mysteries also drew on the legends, not the original text,but in French or Latin translations or imitations several times revised by anonymous authors.

2. External staging

at. Hall, stage, decor ("spectators" ...)

The performances, as we have seen, first took place in the church and, in the 12th century, the theater left the church to settle in the open air, on the square, in the cemetery, on the place, even in a disused quarry. The first permanent theater in a closed room was inaugurated in 1458 by the Brotherhood of the Passion. The church could still be used occasionally for the mysteries.

i) Literature drama

The setting for the liturgical drama was first limited to the main altar of the choir, then gradually extended to other parts of the church. In the tenth century, a device was imagined to spice up the Christmas cycle, another to dramatize that of Easter.
On December 25, the manger was closed with a carpet, which was pushed aside when the time had come to show the baby Jesus to the pastors.
The staging of Easter deserves to be reported in full, as described by the English Benedictine Æthelwold of Winchester († 984) in his Regularis Concordia: “To celebrate the entombment of our Savior on this feast and to strengthen the faith of the common ignorant and neophytes, by imitating the laudable custom of certain religious, we have decided to follow him. In a part of the altar where there will be a hollow, an imitation of the Sepulcher is placed and a veil is stretched all around. Let two deacons come forward carrying the cross and wrap it in a shroud, then carry it away singing antiphons. until they reach the place of the Sepulcher and place the cross there as if it were the Body of Our Lord that they were burying. May the Holy Cross be kept in this same place until the night of the Resurrection.
“On the holy day of Easter, before matins, the sacristans will remove the cross to place it in an appropriate place. While the third lesson is being recited, four monks get dressed, one of whom, dressed in an alb, enters, as though occupied with something else, and secretly reaches the Sepulcher, where, holding a palm in his hand, he s' sits silent. In the third response, the other three appear, wrapped in dalmatics, carrying the censer, approaching the Sepulcher step by step, like those who are looking for something, because all this is done to represent the Angel sitting in the tomb. and the Women coming to anoint the body of Jesus. When therefore the one who is seated has seen approaching those who seem lost and seeking, let him sing in a soft and hollow voice the Quem quaeritis[who are you looking for] this one sung until the end, the three answer in unison "Jesus of Nazareth", and it is answered to them: "He is not here he is risen as he had predicted. Go and announce that he has risen from the dead. "Then obeying this order, that the three monks turn to the choir, saying" Hallelujah, the Lord is risen. This said, the one who is seated recites to them this time, as if to remind them, the antiphon "Come and see the place", and, saying this, he stands up, lifts the veil, shows them the private place of the cross. and where only the linen in which it had been wrapped remain. Having seen this, they place in the same Sepulcher the censers which they brought, take the shroud, extend it towards the clergy, as to show that the Lord is risen,since it is not wrapped in it, and they sing the antiphon "The Lord is risen from the Sepulcher", then placing the shroud on the altar. The antiphon finished, the abbot, rejoicing at the triumph of our King who, having conquered death, resuscitated, sings the hymn TeDeum laudamus and, as soon as it has started, all the bells are ringing at once. "
It was little. But the music; but the choirs with many voices; but the processions, led by priests dressed in an embroidered chasuble and a sumptuously decorated cope, the shimmering stole around the neck, enveloped in clouds of incense, in the mysterious half-light of the aisles of he churches whose stained-glass windows drew light patterns on the walls and paving in varied colors and changing shapes, were what gave the service a dramatic and spectacular character.
Let us remember from all this, from a technical point of view, that the shroud which envelops the cross and the carpet which closes the crib announce the curtain, a curtain making it possible to hide from the audience certain parts of the decoration where things must be happening. 'she is not supposed to see, which curtain foreshadows the curtain, the retractable drapery that separates the stage from the hall.
Let us also note that the first scene, in its most rudimentary form, that is to say a free space in front of the sets and reserved for the performers, was installed in the 12th century, on the occasion of the performances of the "Resurrection of Lazarus. ".

ii) Miracles and mysteries

The performers of miracles and mysteries played on a platform called - the reader is invited to keep this term in mind - scaffold. This was half-moon or rectangular, or even circular. Its dimensions varied a lot (65). On the scaffold were the secondary decorations, while the main decorations were placed on the three sides. Whether they were arranged inside churches or, later, under their porches or along the length of the square, they were formed of mansions, places, built at different heights all along the three sides of the stage, in which successively took place (66). They were rudimentary. For example, in the first play that was not performed in a church, the “Representation of Adam”,we could see two stones representing the altars where Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, two or three benches on which the entertainers could sit when the room demanded it, a few shovelfuls of earth materialized the field where Adam and Eve, after the fault , had to work with the sweat of their brow. Behind the scenes did not exist; in general, the performers remained on the stage the entire time of the performance, whether or not they had finished playing their roles.whether or not they have finished playing their role.whether or not they have finished playing their role.
The "spectators", at least those belonging to the lower classes, were massed in front of the stage or surrounded it on three sides, as the case may be. The notables of the city and the region, lay or religious, attended the performances seated at the surrounding windows or, later, in boxes - paying. The audience could be very large - several tens of thousands of "spectators", many of them women. In the 14th century, it seems that in some cases "spectators" surrounded the stage from all sides. Towards the end of the "Middle Ages", it seems that they gathered in front of the scaffold.
And here is why the word "spectator" was put in quotation marks: "We drink, we eat, Apples fly towards the stage. One day, the spectators of the “pit” overturn the scene. In the room is erected a post to which one attaches the pickpocket caught in the act. This is a description of Shakespeare's audience, but in France it was no different at the same time. For example, a columnist relates that, "While games and pranks are performed before Queen Yolande and her people, thieves approach a spectator Yvonnet Coyrant, cut off the sleeve of her dress and steal 10 sols from him. and a seal ”(67).We will come back to the particular atmosphere which always reigned during performances at the beginning of the "Renaissance" and even until the middle of the 18th century, and which made it difficult to speak of "spectator" in the sense in which we are speaking. 'let's hear.

b. Machinery

In ancient Greece, the decorations consisted of pivoting prisms ( periaktoi ) and sliding panels ( pinakoi ). The first stage machine was, it seems, the deux ex machina, an articulated arm provided with a hook to which was attached a harness or a basket, by means of which an actor was lowered onto the stage (68). Only Aeschylus seems to have used it in some of his pieces; in fact, with the exception of Aristophanes, no other playwright of antiquity used machines as much as he did. The other three main mechanical devices were the bronteion , which reproduced the rolling thunder, the encycleme, a machine turning on itself and which was used to show the interior of a palace and the anapeisma , a kind of trap door used to bring up the divinities from under the theater. Some of these devices were still used in the “middle ages”.
The depiction of mysteries and miracles involved complex machinery, which was called "secrets". It allowed “spectacular effects of appearance, torture, disappearance, theft, fires, etc. The effects of machinery were based on mechanical principles of multiplication of forces by means of pulleys, hoists and drums, principles used since Antiquity for construction, the navy and the theater. These mechanical effects of machinery were supplemented by what one might call "tricks" of magic, such as, for example, the disappearance of characters through traps made on the floors of mansions ... "(69) - the traps were one of the means of predilection of medieval playwrights. “The Conductor of Secrets was implementing much anticipated effects for the martyrdom scenes,effects resumed later by the big puppet: swiveling boards allowing the substitution of the actor by his bloody "corpse", "probable" beheadings by means of traps, overflow of blood from pierced bottles, etc. "(70). To all this was added mechanical animals (lion, dog, bear, leopard, etc.). It should be noted that every mystery had its scene or scenes of execution and torture and that the most prized were those which contained the most.It should be noted that every mystery had its scene or scenes of execution and torture and that the most prized were those which contained the most.It should be noted that every mystery had its scene or scenes of execution and torture and that the most prized were those which contained the most.
Neither the acting, nor the staging, nor even the stage machines were capable of producing the illusion. First, the local color was unknown to the literature of the "middle ages". Then, in the dramas which deal with ancient subjects, the heroes were interpreted as feudal knights, the palaces described as castles of the "middle ages". Finally, the fact that all the places were present simultaneously on the stage did not make it possible to create nemesis, the histrions had to compensate for the shortcomings of the staging by indicating to the audience the place where they were and the one where they were. returned and, since they played several roles, indicate their identity to him, each time they changed. "... where the moderns try to copy reality,so that the space represented is as similar as possible to real space, medieval artists rely on a whole set of auditory and visual conventions known to the spectator, responsible for creating the theatrical illusion himself ”(71). Visual conventions prevailed. The dramas "were in fact reduced to a succession of pictures" (72). What counts here is "the designation of events, their presentation in the form of simple, immediately recognizable images" (73). As Mortensen puts it, "the theater of the Middle Ages was a kind of"it is "the designation of events, their presentation in the form of simple, immediately recognizable images" (73). As Mortensen puts it, "the theater of the Middle Ages was a kind of"it is "the designation of events, their presentation in the form of simple, immediately recognizable images" (73). As Mortensen puts it, "the theater of the Middle Ages was a kind of"biblia pauperum ", a Bible with images for the poor in spirit" (74).

vs. Outsourcing of liturgical drama - "dramatic fever"

Three factors contributed to breaking the narrow framework of the “liturgical drama”.
The first was the substitution of French for Latin as the language of offices. This resulted in greater freedom: first written in Latin and in prose, the text of the “liturgical dramas” was written more and more in French and in verse; we moved away from the biblical text, we added freely invented scenes, new characters introduced themselves into the representations, whose subjects had until then been exclusively biblical: the merchant, Judas and the devil. In addition, comic interludes began to be inserted into the action.
The second factor was the tendency to add more and more biblical episodes to “liturgical dramas”. Their duration was thus considerably lengthened and, from the intervals they had been in the service, they became the most important part of it. They demanded a more complex staging, a greater number of entertainers and a more varied setting than that provided by the churches.
The third factor, which should be particularly emphasized, is the permeability between the religious world and the secular world. “Besides the fact that the two societies kept elbowing each other, there was a whole class of people who lived, so to speak, on the borders of the two worlds, and even passed and repassed from one to the other with a singular ease. I mean simple clerics who having received only minor orders, returned after more or less completed studies in the ranks of civil society, and held various offices there which, by their nature, kept their owners a link with society. clerical and scholarly. Such, for example, notaries, lawyers, doctors, etc., who generally, at the time we place ourselves,belonged to the numerous category of interior clerics and even married clerics ”(75). “The pious brotherhoods which, from the beginning of the twelfth century, began to compose and represent, alongside the Latin dramas of the students and on the same patron, but extended, sacred dramas in the vulgar language, were certainly recruited, for the most part , among the former pupils of episcopal or monastic schools, who became good bourgeois without ceasing altogether to be clerics and academics. At that time, in France, these last two words would have been synonymous. Clerics returned to the world provided, all the more reason, a good number of members to these academies which, towards the end of the same century, developing the literary side of the first associations, were established in several cities,especially in the north and north-east, under the name of Puys and generally placed themselves under the protection of Notre-Dame ”(76).
Due to their growing success, the repraesentationes , ludi , or historiae , as they were called at the time, soon came to be played outside, first in the cemetery or on the forecourt, then on the market square and, still later, on the village square. At the same time, they ceased to be given exclusively by ecclesiastics, to be given by bourgeois. Hence, no doubt, the increasingly "realistic" character of the situations.
The theater acquired an incredible popularity in the 14th century, which continued to grow during the 15th and the first half of the 16th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the mysteries assumed enormous dimensions; they now embraced long series of biblical events and reached up to sixty thousand verses. Some were played for days on end and required hundreds of entertainers. They were real public festivals. The longest that has been performed without interruption is the drama of the Acts of the Apostles: performed in Bourges in 1536, it lasted four days. "The whole of France, and not only France, but Germany, England, Italy, Spain, indulge in this passion, this dramatic fever" (77).
The mysteries reached their peak around the middle of the 16th century, when they died their beautiful death, not without experiencing a new metamorphosis, turning into a historical and chivalrous drama. In 1548, the Parliament of Paris definitively prohibited by decree the public representation of the mysteries (78). But can one seriously think that, aware "of the danger which the representation of the sacred mysteries in such a profane theater could run to religion", Parliament took more than five centuries before pronouncing their definitive ban? Can this be done, all the more so since, as we will see, the initiators of this secularization were the ecclesiastics themselves?
De Julleville points out that the theater in general and the mystery in particular supplanted the song of gesture, bearer of more virile values, in the imagination of the lower classes and that this substitution corresponded to the rise of the bourgeoisie and the third estate. . Is it forbidden to think that the cultivation and propagation of the theater by the ecclesiastics was one of the means that the Church deployed to carry out its enterprise of devirilization? In view, so to speak; of the humidity level of Christianity, maybe not.

3. Internal staging

at. The histrions

i) The ecclesiastics-histrions

The repraesentationes were interpreted by the canons, monks, deacons and sub-deacons and by the sacristan and altar boys. The common people soon took part. Then it was the bourgeois, who mingled with the ecclesiastics and ended up supplanting them in certain roles, before meeting in secular brotherhoods.

ii) Dramatic brotherhoods

The bourgeois, taken separately, were without rights; their strength lay only in their spirit of solidarity; so they formed associations for the most diverse purposes. These were trade unions, industrial corporations and literary associations.
These bore the name of puys or brotherhoods. Some were craft guilds, which had a practical purpose; the others, pious and philanthropic circles, kinds of academies which organized competitions between authors and of which most of the members, at the beginning, were priests. Although there were laymen, most of them placed themselves under the patronage of the Virgin or some saint. The feast of the patron or saint was celebrated by the performance of a dramatic play and it is in this way that these societies came to play a major role in the history of the theater, especially in the development of the miracle. Under their impetus, the subjects, historians observe, believing to detect a significant evolution in it, diversified, by integrating Eastern legends and tales into biblical stories,like that of Théophile, whose finder Rutebeuf made, on order of a puy, a miracle, which has remained famous, in which he attacked the vices of priests and religious orders. But isn't the Bible itself a collection of oriental stories?
In the 15th century, three corporations gave public performances: La Basoche, farces and moralities; Carefree Children, fools; the Brotherhood of the Passion, religious dramas, at least at the beginning; in 1402 she obtained the exclusive privilege of representing the Passion, the Resurrection and any other mystery of saints in Paris and kept it until the middle of the 17th century.
The Brotherhood of the Passion was made up of bourgeois. La Basoche was made up of jurists, clerks and bailiffs from the Paris court; the Children without concern were recruited from the Bohemia; many members of one also belonged to the other.
The three brotherhoods had a parody character.
It resided in the comic scenes that the Brotherhood of the Passion began to mix with religious scenes, to the delight of the public, in the interpretation of miracles.
It was part of the decorum of the Children without concern. This brotherhood was in fact organized like a society of fools or fools, the leader of which was the "prince of fools", assisted by the "Foolish Mother"; once a year, the prince of fools made his solemn entry into Paris, accompanied by his subjects.
It was part of the Basoche and it is for this reason that an investigation of this brotherhood has quite its place in this study on the theatricalization of life.
The basoche was very precisely a hierarchical association of mutual protection of the clerks of prosecutors of the Parliament of Paris and of certain provincial towns. It is believed to have been created in 1303, under Philippe le Bel. However, the term does not appear until the middle of the 14th century and the first statutes that we know date from 1543 (79).
Many privileges were granted to the Basoche. It had a special jurisdiction. She exercised a right of sovereign justice over all the clerics of the palace. Its organization was modeled on that of the Parliament, from which it had also borrowed the title of its dignitaries, their attributions and, to a certain extent, their authority and their costume.Dignitaries of the Basoche thus bore the titles of chancellor, master of requests, grand referendum, etc., La Basoche received from its origin the title of kingdom and its leader was authorized to take that of king, as had been previously many other associations ((there was already a king of ribauds, a king of crossbowmen, a king of minstrels and even a king of barbers, who was the king's barber (80)) The king of Basoche (title deleted by Henri III) was elected by the Basochians; he judged all disputes between the clerics and regulated their discipline.He was endowed with all the attributes of royalty, the crown, the cap, the mantle, the coat of arms and even the name of the monarch with a number (81) There was a court of the Basoche, whose dignitaries, in accordance with their parody titles,were allowed to wear the most pompous insignia and decorations.
Another privilege of the Basoche was to enjoy a box at the comedy of the Hôtel de Bourgogne (82).
La Basoche had two main aspects (83): the first was obviously judicial, the second artistic.
Under the first aspect, its role consisted of defending the professional interests of the clerics of justice, lawyers, prosecutors and advisers of the Parliament and of supervising the training course of the apprentice prosecutors.
The second aspect of the Basoche may surprise. It will be less surprising, if we remember the similarities that Cicero and other ancient orators had already noticed between judicial practice and the theater.
In the "Middle Ages", the interference between the theater and the judicial forms became more marked. “Before the theatrical performances, the Parliament and the Courthouse, the bailiwicks, the provosts, the seneschals, were, so to speak, the meeting place of all the unoccupied people, who, by recreation and curiosity, attended the moving scenes. of the pleading. The oratorical struggles of the Palace were, in a way, popular spectacles, and the eloquence of the lawyers already fascinated the public mind ... After the transfer of the papacy to Avignon, the jurisconsults and practitioners of Italy hastened to compose , for the instruction of the bar, elementary works,in which the procedure was presented in all its detours and under all its faces ... To make this study more attractive they imagined kinds of trials between the great figures of antiquity, who attacked, defended themselves by the ministry of prosecutors and of lawyers, developing in the eyes of the reader all the resources of legal discussions. Then they took in the Bible and in the Gospel litigants and subjects of dispute. Such was the origin of these singular treatises which appeared from 1300 to 1350, in which we see Satan and Lucifer, God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the prophets and the apostles, sometimes claimants, sometimes defendants. , sometimes lawyers, sometimes prosecutors, judges or clerks, giving each other citations, repelling each other by exceptions,provoking inquiries and interrogations on facts and articles, serving writings, rendering judgments, police the hearing, disturbing it if need be, and being called to order ”(84).
The "court", that is to say the tribunal, was in vogue. Poets, like Marot, drew their lines from judicial formulas (85). The troubadours, from the 12th century, brought their debates and their moods to courts of love, which, let us remember, were originally held by women (86). Some notaries went so far as to rhyme marriage contracts. Were the fantasies of the jurisconsults inspired by contemporary poets, or, on the contrary, were the acts of the “courts of love” drawn from the judgments of the jurisconsults? The influence must have been reciprocal, since a certain number of jurisconsults were also poets. Will it be believed that most of the authors and men of the theater came from the social group of jurists (87)?
Their texts lent themselves to a certain extent for theatrical performance. Moreover, "Does not every judicial affair, every procedure necessarily affect a form of dialogue, which is quasi-dramatic?" With a sitting of a tribunal or an assize court, haven't we often made a whole act of a drama or a comedy these days? Most lawsuits put in opposition; and in open struggle human passions, with a liveliness, a naturalness, even a variety, that the theater does not always reach ”(88).
There is no reason why the Basochians did not find in the exercise of their profession a taste for dialogue and for the setting in scene. On fat days, they pleaded in rhyme what were called "fat causes", that is to say causes, real or fictitious, "the matter of which was suitable to cheer up", such as accusations. adultery or powerlessness, brought against a lawyer, a prosecutor or a notable; they could also be questions of state. The pleadings were "more worthy of a theater or a cabaret than of the temple of justice" (89) and, in fact, some of these "fat cases" were actually performed in the theater.
At the same time, in England, mock trials played an important role in the training of jurists. In the Inns of Court, English law schools, these legal fictions were dramatized and performed on stage by apprentice lawyers (90). They are reputed to have had a decisive influence on the formation of Elizabethan theater.
The organization of parties was written into the statutes of the Basoche. The main one, the "monster," or general review, made with great pomp and a great variety of costumes, was held at the end of June or the beginning of July. It was a sort of masquerade, which made all Paris run. The dignitaries of the Basoche were there in full force. The clerics were distributed in companies of a hundred men, each of whom chose a captain, a lieutenant and an ensign. Any captain, once elected, adopted the color and costume that the clerics placed under his orders should wear. This costume was reproduced on a piece of vellum, which remained attached to the standard of the company. It took a name suited to the outfit put on the agenda. A judgment tells us that in 1528,"One of the companies had even adopted a woman's costume" (91); this company was made up of women and clerics disguised as women. The playful nature of this exhibition cannot hide the fact that the mixture it contains of democratic practice and inversion is part of a current which we have seen above has its origin in the Dionysian cult.
The Basochians, animated by the taste for the spectacle and the setting in scene, were not long in larding this "monster" of comic plays, of which they were themselves the authors and the actors. They then came to give performances three times a year: jokes and silly things, with a carnival and cynical spirit. It was a “satire of the people of the palace: clerks, bailiffs, prosecutors, lawyers, even judges, were the object of biting mockery; she rebelled against the absurdities and abuses of Lady Justice; it was a sort of comic tribunal before which itself appeared, on certain days, the grave tribunal charged with sanctioning the laws; and these little clerks, leavers, paper scrapers, each benefiting from the collective privileges of the association, and who became characters to be reckoned with,acquired, on the big dates of their scenic entertainments, The exorbitant rights of these Roman slaves who, during the Saturnalia, could avenge themselves with impunity in free talk of the tyranny of their masters. Then the circle spread by degrees, and soon the farces and morals of the Basochians embraced in their vast framework all the human comedy, or at least all that could be penetrated by the buffoonish and mocking, but naively crude verve, of these Thespis of the French theater ”(92). Their success was so brilliant that the magistrates invited them to perform at official festivals and princely entrances. But little by little they acquired such a pronounced satirical character that they drew the wrath of the authorities. Charles VII, the English driven out of France and civil peace restored in the kingdom,forbade the Basochians to play without his permission. In 1442, parliament censored their representations. The Basochians having overruled, some of them were sentenced to a few days in prison. The ban on gambling was renewed against them at regular intervals during the reigns of Charles VII and Louis XI. It should also be noted that the defenses only concerned public performances. Hardly had they been again authorized to play in public under the successor of the latter, Charles VIII, that this was once again forbidden to them, following the representation of a morality in which the king was strongly attacked. Louis XII reinstated them, on the grounds that he wanted "each to represent the abuses of his court and his kingdom" (93). "Let these young people play in freedom," he declared,let them talk about me and my court; if they notice abuses, let them show them to us, since so many others who say they are wise do not want to do so; only that they refrain from speaking of the queen, for I want the honor of women to be respected ”(94). According to a tradition, the actors would have dared to put on the stage Louis XII in person in the guise of an insatiable miser who drank from a large golden vase. Whether genuine or not, it is certain that he was criticized on the scene as a miser and a miser and that it was courtiers, irritated by the thrifty character of the king, who engaged the Basochians in this villainous plan (95 ). Informed of the success of the performance, Louis XII replied: "I like much better to make the courtiers laugh at my avarice, than to make my people cry at my profusion".His maxim was that "the justice of a prince obliges him to owe nothing, rather than his greatness to give much". In short, what was criticized against Louis XII was, on the one hand, not to squander the royal treasury and, on the other, to have reduced taxes and therefore, potentially, food costs which were paid to the Basochians, who did not look at the expense, as long as the money did not come out of their own purses.as long as the money did not come out of their own purses.as long as the money did not come out of their own purses.
The content of the numerous measures and the text of the repeated decrees and defenses that the parliament took against the Basoche (on the other hand, the parliament never ceased neither to recognize the jurisdiction of the Basoche, nor to help it to face at his representation expenses) indicate that what earned him the wrath of the authorities was not solely and directly his artistic production. Their farces and their foolishness were characterized by "the license and the vivacity of their attacks against royalty, the church, the nobility, the magistracy, in a word against all the great bodies of the State. aspirations for freedom, emancipation and independence are there at every step, and if new ideas were produced with more calm and authority in the writings of thinkers, poets and historians,on the theater of the clerks of the Palace they had a more direct influence on the masses, because they borrowed the language which was within the reach of all and that they were popularized in all the classes by the representation ”(96). Their plays were considered too satirical not to constitute a danger to public order; they were also important for civilization, since one of the topoi of Basochian farces was that of women who express social demands and end up taking power.Their plays were considered too satirical not to constitute a danger to public order; they were also important for civilization, since one of the topoi of Basochian farces was that of women who express social demands and end up taking power.Their plays were considered too satirical not to constitute a danger to public order; they were also important for civilization, since one of the topoi of Basochian farces was that of women who express social demands and end up taking power.
It is not for nothing that, in 1545, it was forbidden by order to the Basochians to "make no seditions, mutinies and dissensions, on penalty of prison and of arbitrary fine". La Basoche, under the reign of Charles VII, was involved in the disturbances which broke out in Paris thanks to the war with England. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Basoche gave satirical and licentious theatrical performances and, under the reign of Henry III, in certain regions of France, it took to the streets and excited the people to revolt (97), as it will do. still under Henri IV, at the time of the League.
By promoting farce and foolishness, Louis XII introduced the theater into his politics, into politics; he thought he could make use of the stage to influence opinion and turn it to his views: he was doing this, a rare thing with this sovereign, a bad calculation.
After the death of Louis XII, the theatrical performances of clerics were again subjected to censorship, before being definitively banned in 1582. La Basoche as a judicial institution was abolished in 1790 with the Parliament.

b. From the histrion to the "actor"

The secular histrions, the "players" were taken in all ranks of society: the theater is a factor of social leveling, just as its god, Dionysus, is a force of sexual indifferentiation. Most of the histrions belonged to the lower classes; the theater could allow the most appreciated to rise socially; to others, to have the illusion of it, by wearing, back to ordinary life, the clothes of the great characters (kings, saints, popes, etc.) that they embodied on the stage, a mania whose vanity was mocked by moralists and satirists of the time. But the nobility, the clergy, the nobility, the bourgeoisie, particularly the petty bourgeoisie, also provided histrions for the mysteries. The "actor" will most often come from the populace.

i) Birth of the "actor"

The word "comedian" did not enter the French language until 1500, in the form of "comediain"; that of "actor, actress" than in 1661, in the sense of "the one who represents one of the characters in a play"; previously, “actor” meant “author of a book” and “actress” “one who plays a role in a business”. The term came from Italy, with the profession it designates. The art of representing one or more characters on the stage was not a profession in itself in France before the reign of Henry II.
The "middle ages" had their "jugglers", heirs to the mimes of the Roman Empire, but there is no evidence that they played the part. The oldest histrions in France are undoubtedly, as we spoke about above, the "schoolchildren", that is to say the students of a university, who had long played semi-liturgical dramas, before stating devote to farces and satirical plays, the Basochians as well as the members of the pious brotherhoods (there were hundreds of them in France) and the members of the puys, those semi-literary, semi-religious academies which, from the end of the 11th century gave repraesentationes french.

ii) Theater in the process of professionalization

Until the end of the 14th century, there had only been provisional theaters in France on the scaffolding of which performances were given at irregular intervals by troops of "players" formed, so to speak, off the cuff. The prohibition which was made to the Brotherhood of the Passion by the provost of Paris in 1398 to give performances marked a turning point. A standoff immediately began between the confreres and the provost. In 1402, Charles VI attended one of the suspicious representations of the brotherhood and, in the following weeks, recognized it and endowed it with all the privileges of the most favored corporations. The professionalization of the theater was under way. The confreres of the Passion had not obtained their letters patent which they established, in the buildings of the hospital of the Trinity,regular performances; to attend, you had to pay an entrance fee. Founded in Saint-Maur in 1390, according to a plausible hypothesis (98), in association of edification and piety giving pious and gratuitous representations, it had bided its time and its time had come quickly to derive maximum benefit from charity. and volunteering, by extending its repertoire, from its official recognition, to farce and foolishness, more likely to attract the public, by flattering its taste for the trivial and the obscene.she had bided her time and her time had come quickly to make the most of charity and volunteering, by extending her repertoire, as soon as it was officially recognized, to farce and silliness, more likely to attract the public, by flattering his taste for the trivial and the obscene.she had bided her time and her time had come quickly to make the most of charity and volunteering, by extending her repertoire, as soon as it was officially recognized, to farce and silliness, more likely to attract the public, by flattering his taste for the trivial and the obscene.
However, the Brotherhood of the Passion was not made up of professional "actors" and it was not until the middle of the 16th century that the first proper theater company set foot on French soil. “On September 27, 1548, to celebrate the stay in Lyon of King Henry III and Catherine de Medici, a troop of Italian actors, called by the archbishop, represented in this city, in the presence of the sovereigns and the court, the Calandria of Cardinal Bibbiena. The success of this troop, which was perhaps that of the Gelosi and headed by Domenico Barlacchi, exceeded all expectations. She showed what could be done by experienced actors, familiar with all the skills of their art, and who possessed a repertoire, how much they were superior to makeshift actors, without cohesion and without style,and who were not used to declamation ”(99). In the ten years which followed, two theatrical troupes were formed in France, itinerant troupes. But it agreed to point out that, from the end of the 15th century, the royal or princely persons had appointed “character players” (this custom continued until the 19th century). The prelates themselves had "players" at their service. Many towns had official ones, which they subsidized at the expense of the public.Many towns had official ones, which they subsidized at the expense of the public.Many towns had official ones, which they subsidized at the expense of the public.

iii) The theater woman

Women played a decisive role in the professionalization of the theater.
The view, propagated over the last few centuries, that in the “Middle Ages” women were forbidden from the stage, has become established. It is not based on any text. It would be hard to find a decree, conciliar or otherwise, to back it up (100). One could just say, like de Julleville, that it was custom which prohibited them from appearing on the stage in the mysteries; in the mysteries, because "it authorized their presence in the mimed mysteries, and in the representations of all kinds by which one usually celebrated the entries of the great characters" (101). However, it happened exceptionally that female roles were held by women in the mysteries (102); female roles were therefore not systematically played by men, generally hairless young people,dressed as women.
In fact, the first theatrical works of the "Middle Ages" were composed in the tenth century by a woman, the Abbess Hroswitha von Gandersheim, and from the "High Middle Ages" nuns appeared as actresses in plays set in convents. , pieces written by women and performed in front of an exclusively female audience. These plays featured both female and male roles: the nuns performed both (103). Let us say then that, in "the Middle Ages", women usually took the stage, even if they did so mostly and almost exclusively inside religious buildings. The theater was part of the education of the nuns (104), who in turn introduced the young girls who were educating there. the young girl, once out of the convent,where she received a theatrical education (105), could hardly forget and not apply what she had learned there in this field. Most of them were noble young girls, but, as Régine Pernoud has shown, nuns and monks (106) provided instruction to commoner children. Noble young girls ever took the stage - at least in public and outside convents and monasteries -; the first actresses emerged from commonplace. It seems that the first professional actresses were the comedians' concubines and that they led such a dissolute life that they were, to use Tallémant des Réaux's expression (107), the "common women" of the whole company.is it a coincidence that the prostitute was in the eyes of the founder of this religion "the model of a heroic faith" (108) and a reference ("Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes arrive before you in the Kingdom? of God. " (Matthew 21:31)?
Be that as it may, the custom of entrusting feminine roles to women spread at the beginning of the 16th century and it is not excluded that the convents, intellectual centers of the “middle ages”, played an important role. in establishing this usage. The advent of the professional actress brought about a profound change in the relationship between theater and society: “… all actresses,” Julleville remarks with modest irony, did not marry gentlemen, but the theater became, in French society, a element of gallantry; which it had by no means been in the Middle Ages (109). "
In England, things look different: official permission to take the stage was granted to women by Charles II in 1662 (110), on the grounds that the roles of women "were played by men in costume as women" and that this "(shocked) certain people": it must be believed that it had taken the English monarchy six centuries to realize this and draw all the consequences. With undoubtedly consummate hypocrisy and perhaps total ignorance of the feminine nature, actresses were expected to return to the theater a respectability it had never had. Of course, the exact opposite happened.
In the meantime, the theater was for the actresses "the means of a career and social success ... Like her male partners, the English actress learned to manage her image, to use publicity and to earn money, thus actively contributing to the modern development of the status of actor ”(111).

iv) The status of the histrion

Although, as early as the 4th century at the Council of Elvira and that of Arles, the Church "struck the actors with all kinds of penalties", preventing them, by irregularity, "from achieving sacred orders" and , by excommunication, to receive the "sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, unless they renounce the theater", it was the profession and not the person who exercised it that the Church condemned; the Church “does not prejudge anything… on the morality of such and such an actor; she does not claim to deny him any of the qualities they may possess ”(112). In any case, the Council of Elvira and that of Arles were regional councils and their jurisdiction in canonical matters was not universal in scope. No ecumenical council has ever anathematized the actors;"We still have no sentence of legal excommunication concerning theater actors pronounced on the scale of Western Christianity ... The canons listing the excommunicated in the great provincial councils do not mention them, which cannot be explained by an evidence of the penalty incurred insofar as simonic and Nicolaitan priests are just as logically condemned, but extremely explicitly ”(113). On the contrary, an ordinance of 537 of Justinian recognizes them the right to make their salvation.which cannot be explained by an evidence of the penalty incurred insofar as simonic and Nicolaitan priests are just as logically condemned, but extremely explicitly ”(113). On the contrary, an ordinance of 537 of Justinian recognizes them the right to make their salvation.which cannot be explained by evidence of the penalty incurred insofar as simoniac and Nicolaitan priests are just as logically condemned, but extremely explicitly ”(113). On the contrary, an ordinance of 537 of Justinian recognizes them the right to make their salvation.
Perhaps it is not unrelated to the fact that Justinian was courting an actress, Theodora who was also, both already far from being mutually exclusive, a prostitute. While in the Western Empire, senators were always forbidden to marry actresses, daughters or granddaughters of histrion, the very Christian emperor of the East was the first sovereign to unite to an actress, once she has converted to Christianity. Empress, she used her influence to defend what, at that time, was not yet known under the denomination of “women's rights” and to facilitate the birth of the Orthodox Church (114).
In the 13th century, canon law softened its position. In the glossa ordinaria at Liber extraby Gregory IX, "From the possibility of the actor's lack of conviction, we move on to the possibility of an appreciation of his practice", coupled with "the explicit recognition of the legality, and even of the legitimacy of the theater. , therefore of the actor's gesture ”(115). This text, written not by a theologian, but by a jurist, opened the way for the complete and definitive rehabilitation of the actor by Thomas Aquinas in the following century. How could it have been otherwise, when, throughout France, most religious, regulars, seculars or brothers, performed in the theater and, as indicated above, the performances took place in the churches themselves?
In 1210, Innocent III forbade ecclesiastics to perform in shows. Except in Rome, the defense remained almost ineffective in other Catholic countries until the 15th century, when the roles of God and saints were still held by priests. In France, priests continued to organize mysteries and to intervene as histrions until the 16th century.

v) Status of the "actor"

The first real comedians, who, as we have seen, appeared in regular troupes around the middle of the 16th century, were immediately held in suspicion and badly treated by the clergy and parliaments. The authorities had great indulgence for the "players". “The prejudices, so widespread, especially in France, against people of the theater, these entrenched prejudices, which for so long made a life apart in society, date from the time when professional actors appeared, having no another profession, another social state than that of representing pieces. As long as one was an actor out of taste, by occasion, but by being linked by birth or profession to a well-defined social condition, by being, like everyone else, priest or nobleman, bourgeois or craftsman, schoolboy or basochian,the very usual exercise of the theater was highly regarded ”(116). The fact that it was a question of itinerant, “wandering” troupes, on the other hand explains the mistrust which the professional actors who composed them were immediately the object. The players of mysteries or pranks were all good bourgeois from the region where they played them, well known to their mayor and their parish priest. Professional actors were strangers, unknown vagabonds: they legitimately lent themselves to suspicion.The players of mysteries or farces were all good bourgeois of the region where they interpreted them, well known to their mayor and their parish priest. Professional actors were strangers, unknown vagabonds: they legitimately lent themselves to suspicion.The players of mysteries or pranks were all good bourgeois from the region where they played them, well known to their mayor and their parish priest. Professional actors were strangers, unknown vagabonds: they legitimately lent themselves to suspicion.

B. The Holidays

The Church had almost stuck her liturgical calendar on the calendar of feasts that took place in ancient times in Rome. The saturnalia took place from mid-December to the fifth day of January and the Church found it useful to divide this long feast into several special feasts: the feast of Christmas, the feast of Saint Stephen, the feast of the Evangelist and that of the Holy Innocents, from December 20 to 25, the feast of circumcision and that of Epiphany or of Kings, January 1 and 6. The lupercalia, which were celebrated in February in honor of Pan, were divided into two distinct series: the carnival cracks, which opened the day after Epiphany and ended on Ash Wednesday; the May holidays, which, if they could last sometimes all month,were generally limited to the first day of the month and the three days of rogations. All these extravagant festivals received the generic designation of feasts of fools, in a way in honor of King Solomon who had declared: "Stultorum infinitus est numerus ”(“ the number of fools is infinite ”), but above all in perfect consistency with the Gospels (1 Corinthians 1, 18:20; 1 Corinthians 1, 10) and with Augustine (" The wisdom of the serpent had us deceived; the foolishness of God disillusion us. Divine wisdom was foolishness in the eyes of those who despised God; and divine folly became true wisdom for those who triumph over the devil "( On Christian Doctrine , I, xiv , 13)
The mask and in general the disguise were at the heart of these burlesque celebrations.

1. The mask

a) Origin and functions of the mask

The mask is presented as universal. It would be more correct to say that it has become universal.
The mask has been known from time immemorial among the Negroid populations of West Africa, the Yellows of Oceania and the Amerindians, where it is for religious use, whether in a social, funeral, therapeutic or festive setting, but, for that it makes its appearance in the European area, it was not until the institution of rustic festivals in honor of Dionysus, that is to say the second millennium BC In the processions that had place during the Dionysians, the priests of Dionysus and initiates of both sexes, disguised as fauns, satyrs, silenus, their faces stained with dregs or covered with a grotesque mask, bells in one hand, thyrsis in the other, danced frantically, shouting and invoking Dionysus.It is remarkable that the first cave representations of masks date from the Paleolithic (35,000 BC) (117), that is to say from a period when, as we have seen elsewhere (118) , appeared a "new religion", that of the bull and the Woman; equally remarkable is the fact that they are worn by hunters, in dance scenes.
Dionysus is the god of the mask (119). The priests of the temple of the god Banebdjedet - compared by the Greeks to Pan - in Mendes wore a goat mask (120) as part of rituals of sacred prostitution. However, according to Herodotus, the Dionysian cult had brought back to Greece by a certain Melampus ("black foot").
Another point seems to indicate a possible link between “sacred prostitution” and the use of the mask, from the moment when the latter became generalized in the theater. The first masks were made of grasses, leaves, large plants, bark and even earth, then leather lined with canvas or cloth and, as these easily deformed, of wood. Some represented natural people, others monsters, still others gods and heroes. In all cases, whether they were intended for tragic, comic or satirical roles, they were misshapen and hideous (121); in addition, most masks covered the face up to the shoulders. The poet and playwright Thespis of Icarus (6th century BC) innovated: after using wine lees or white chalk to smear the faces of his actors,he made a linen mask (122). However, the veil is the traditional accessory of the prostitute in the regions of the Middle East (123).
“The original meaning of this rite appears to have been twofold. In the dithyramb, which featured Dionysus himself and his divine procession, the mask was undoubtedly intended to transform and idealize the faces, too well known and too familiar, of the extras. In the phallic comos , on the contrary, where the peasants exchanged many jeers and insults, the disguise was, it seems, only a precaution to conceal the identity of the joker ”(124) Similarly, the women who took part in the celebration of orgiastic feasts in honor of Dionysos had the habit, in order not to be recognized, to wear a mask, a habit which will be encountered again in the Renaissance during public celebrations (carnivals, etc.) or semi-public (balls, etc.) (125).
In Rome, the histrions were not allowed to appear masked on the stage until the beginning of the 1st century BC This is because, according to Pliny, the Roman youth amused themselves by playing the atellane under masks and heard not to be confused with professional histrions. The tragedian Roscius would be the one who would have introduced the use of stage masks in Rome, for a personal reason: to hide a deformity he had in the eye. The use of the scenic mask was first reserved for rustic festivals of a cult of foreign origin: rustic festivals, imported from Etruria, which were called the Fescennine games. It was lawful to wear one during megalenses games , also called hilaria, as well as during the festivals in honor of Isis, goddess who presided over prostitution in Rome and throughout the Roman Empire and whose cult, at least in the Italic peninsula, was associated with that of Dionysus (126 ): according to Apuleius, the priests of Isis, already mentioned in the first part of this study, wore a mask with the head of a dog, when, dressed in a filthy linen robe, they gave alms in the streets.

b. Prosôpon - persona

Before examining the question of the use of the stage mask in Christian Europe of the “middle ages”, it is appropriate to develop some semantic and etymological considerations.
Prosôpon means both "face" and "mask". The etymology allows us to shed light on what appears to us at first glance as a contradiction: what appears ( pros ) to the view ( ôps ), when we look at the part of the human body which is located between the head and the neck can be either a mask or a face, depending on whether the individual looked at is wearing one or not.
Prosôponcame to designate by extension a role held in the theater, then one whose profession is to interpret a character in a play. It then took on the meaning of function exercised in life, of social individual and, finally, that of individuality, of me. The Stoic Panetios of Rhodes (185 - 110 BC) was the first to use the term prosôponin the sense of the role held by a man in society, even if the idea that man plays a role, or even several roles, in life was already present among the first stoics as well as among the cynics, notably in Theodore de Cyrene (c. -340 - c. -250) and Bion of Antisthenes (444 - 365 BC) (127). As we will see below, dramaturgical metaphors were frequently used in Middle Stoicism to account for the human condition and social life.
In Rome, the noun personaseems to have appeared for the first time in Plautus; “Used in the plural, (he) takes the meaning of“ characters ”from the theater. Gradually, it comes to designate a literary character, a role or a behavioral type encountered in everyday life, to which it is possible to assimilate an individual in order to enhance or sully him. We must then distinguish two possible meanings of the term persona , depending on whether it retains the meaning of role - a role that one can take on ( induere personam ) or abandon ( deponere personam ) as one wishes - or whether it comes to this. correspond to the characteristics making it possible to define an individual. In the first case, the personacorresponds to a social or family role, but also civic when it designates the role of the magistrate. In this sense of “official role”, the persona also corresponds to the way in which an individual occupies a function, and then takes on the meaning of “public figure”, thus indicating the place occupied in the city independently of the magistracies ... It can then designate an individual whose worth we recognize, a "great man".
“In contrast to these jobs, we find a use of persona allowing to designate the specific characteristics of an individual, all of his character traits, his acts and behaviors that we know him, once again in a positive or negative way ... Taken in this sense, the personamakes it possible to make axiological judgments, to deduce the probability of a behavior, but also to evaluate the property of an (sic) action or an attitude according to what an individual should be considered as the sum of his acts, the honors he has acquired and the place he intends to occupy in the city. The persona thus comes to designate an individual taken as a whole, like all of his characteristics, without the latter necessarily being mentioned: the notion then approaches, by its abstraction, the meaning of "subject of law" that it assumes. in legal context. But this personamay also represent only a simple appearance: returning to its theatrical origins, the term then designates the qualities or the attitude that an individual displays to deceive others or to adapt to a particular situation ”(128).
Cicero was inspired by Panetios to conceptualize his theory of the four persons, which he exposes in his De officiis . At home, the term personaretained the meaning of personage or social role, that of prominent personality or constituted in dignity and that of personality or concrete character of an individual, while taking on that of person in the legal sense and of human nature as strictly individual or as as participating in reason (129). It lost the meaning of apparently deceptive… Whatever meaning the Stoic author gives it, it has a more or less pronounced theatrical connotation. Cicero sees everything through the distorting prism of the theater. Since Pliny, actor has meant the one who plays, represents. Cicero gives it the meaning of “the one who pleads a case”. Conversely, agere, among other meanings, had those of exercising magistracies and pleading a cause; Cicero writes about his friend and mentor, the entertainer Roscius: “ noluit hodie agere . "
The interpretation of J. Evola of the term persona , although it does not always correspond to the use of the term in antiquity, proves just the case of a normal human type: the essential part of the individual is the "face", while "the external, artificial, acquired part which is formed in social life and creates the" person "of the individual" is the "mask", persona (130). CG Jung adds: “Basically the personais nothing real; it is only a compromise between the individual and the society on what a man should appear to be… in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned, it is only a secondary reality, the result of 'a compromise… (131). It is indeed the result of a compromise, in a being in which the genotype is overwhelmed and neutralized by the phenotype. In and of themselves, the “face” and the “mask” are and remain complementary, as long as there is correspondence, conformity, transparency between them and the “face”, so to speak, shapes the “mask”. . Otherwise, the persona has a negative function, either that it serves as a support for a feigned attitude, or that it serves as a bulwark. It should also be noted that the personais "the result of a compromise, in the establishment of which others often have a greater share than this person" (132), "others" can refer here, not only to people, like the 'Jung says, but also to things. In other words, which are those of J. Evola and which make it possible to raise the examination of the question on a level higher than that of the "psychology of the depths", the person, in this case, is acted more than 'she does not act. She is thus properly possessed - more or less like the corybantes in the festivals in honor of the chthonian goddess Cybele.
The etymology of personaAlthough obscure, most of the hypotheses put forward to explain the origin of this word refer to chthonic deities. The word could come, either from a contracted form of a variant of the proper name of the chthonic deity Persephone, namely Persepona, or from an archaic adjective relating to the Etruscan proper name Phersus (133), which could be either the infernal husband of Phersipnai (Etruscan name of Persephone), either Perses, the father of Persephone, or still Perseus, or finally an agent, an "executioner", masked by Persephone (134). In any event, it should be noted, since we have just discussed the goddess of the underworld and the mysteries of Arcadia, that, during the feasts in honor of one of her daughters , Despoena, the faithful wore masks (animal masks) (135); Moreover,the priests of the mysteries of Demeter Kidaria, mother of Persephone, donned the mask of the goddess for the main ceremony (136); finally, Persephone spends six months of the year on earth and the other six months underground, that is to say in an invisible, "masked" place. CG Jung is absolutely right that thepersona is a fragment of the collective psyche. Indeed, all these divinities belong in their own right to the typical cults of “natural” races, in which the feeling of race and blood “always represents something subpersonal, quite naturalistic” and “the collectivist element, like instinct, "genius of the species", spirit and unity of the horde ", predominates (137).
With the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the use of masks was discouraged throughout the Western Empire, as part of Christianity's so-called struggle against the practices of “paganism”. However, it was never banned. It remained in the liturgical drama and in the mystery. It was carried there by actors personifying demons or animals, Satan or one of the seven deadly sins; during the performance, they circulated in the pit to give shivers to the audience. In general, these hideous masks served to dramatize the ugliness of sin. But ecclesiastical theater also had recourse to masks for the characters of god, angels and saints (138).

2. The ceremonial disguise

at. In ancient times

In the Bacchantes, Dionysus, to avenge himself for King Pentheus's refusal to accept his worship at Thebes, manages, by depriving the latter of his reason, to persuade him to disguise himself as a woman, so that he can visit the maenads in the mountains. The verse 821 could allude to a time when only women practiced mysterious cults and when the man who wished to attend was obliged to disguise himself as a woman, to assimilate to Dionysos, to become Pseudanôr ("false man" ), one of the four epithets of the god (139).
Cross-dressing was a feature of the festivals of Dionysian worship; in the oschophoria, which had been instituted to commemorate the departure of Theseus for Crete and his victorious return (among the seven boys whom, besides the seven girls whom Athens was to pay in tribute each year to the Minotaur, Theseus, for the first time in charge of the mission, had hidden two young men dressed as young girls), the procession was led by two boys disguised as girls; in the ithyphallic festivals, the phallophores wore women's clothes and festivals in honor of Cybele, whose priests were disguised as women; etc.
In the Hellenistic period, it appears that the disguise of a man as a woman was the order of the day in the kômoi(night drinking in honor of Dionysus) and symposia (140). The reverse disguise, that of the woman as a man, was also common in ritual ceremonies. A certain number of vases dated from the 5th century BC show men dressed as women, but also women dressed as men and for certain phallophores, at the festivals of Lenaia (141). In Macedonia, the priestesses of Dionysus were called the "imitators (of men)" ( mimellones) (142). In Cyprus, according to the testimony of Philophorus, the women made sacrifices to Venus in men's clothes and the men in women's clothes. The priestesses of the temples of Aphaca, Tire and Sicca Venerea, near Carthage, who served the divinity by offering their bodies, were usually disguised as men (143); among the "Chaldeans", women sacrificed to Venus disguised as men, men as women (144); Macrobe, the Greek historian of the 3rd century BC, similarly reports that among the Cyprians, men sacrificed to Venus dressed as women and women as men (145); the 4th century grammarian Servius, in his commentary on the Aeneid (II, v. 632), makes the same observation about the inhabitants of another town in Cyprus, Amathunte.
This ritual of sexual reversal was then found in the carnivals of the “middle ages” (146).

b. In the middle Ages "

“A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God ”, says Deuteronomy (22.5) (147). Christianity will comply with this command, without however being as severe with transvestites as with transvestites in its legislation, but by showing more leniency for transvestites than for transvestites in practice.
It was in the middle of the 4th century that the first laws against cross-dressing were adopted by the Church. They arose from the need to react against heresies and in particular against the practices, linked to the development of the ascetic life of women, which these heretical movements encouraged. A provincial council met in Gangres in 340 to examine the case of Eusthate de Sebastée ((† v. 377). This Christian religious, who had just established monasticism in Asia Minor, imposed unnatural accoutrements on his followers. , men and women (148). He was condemned, the practices of his disciples too, but only those of women. Canon 13 of the Council condemns women who disguise themselves (149), but not men who disguise themselves; will be the same in the decree of Gratien (v. 1150),which will take again word for word the canon 13 of the Council of Gangres. Burchard de Worms' penitential also: "Si qua mulier propter continentiam quaeputatur, habitum mutat, and pro solito muliebri amictu virilem sumit, anathema sit ”(150). It was not until the Synod of Auxerre (561 - 605) that disguises and disguises were prohibited for both sexes (151). The ban had no effect. In contrast, in the Germanic world, the Grágás , the old Icelandic criminal law, provided that transvestites and transvestites could be banned. The level of determination with which the Church fought against cross-dressing is evident in the fact that the more Iceland fell under the yoke of Christianity, the less these laws were enforced (152).

3. Literary travesty

The theme of cross-dressing is very present in the literature of the "Middle Ages", whether religious or secular, however anachronistic the latter term may be.

at. The transvestite: the knight

The motif of the knight disguised as a woman (153) is represented in the song of gesture, but especially in the novels of the round table ( Meraugis de Portlesguez , Guiron le Courtois , Prophesies de Merlin , Claris et Laris , Isaÿe le Triste ).
In the song of gesture, "he who disguises himself, however vulnerable he may be, has power over the one he abuses: he makes him ridiculous and always succeeds in defeating him, by laughing and then by arms" (154 ). In the Arthurian novel, the desire to ridicule the adversary while defeating him is found in certain transvestite heroes; thus, in the Prophesies of Merlin, Lancelot, disguised as a young lady during a tournament in Surluse, defeats Dinadan who, as if the cup was not already full, is then dressed as a woman: he is doubly ridiculous. The hero, disguised as a woman, is never ridiculous. A number of Arthurian novels stress that women's clothing looks great on her and enhances her beauty. They don't make them any less strong; thus, in Claris and Laris, Calogrenant, transformed into a "virgin" the instant he enters a bewitched city, manages to resist Mordred's assaults and to flee by stealing his horse. Calogrenant, despite his transformation, continues to behave like a true knight. Cross-dressing is temporary and it is linked either to war or to love. It is above all a ruse and, as such, it appears to be hardly compatible with the displayed values ​​of chivalry.
Finally, a few words should be said about the main work of a thirteenth century Austrian aristocrat named Ulrich von Lichtenstein. Its title does not say everything, but it says a lot: Frauendienst("Ladies' service"). This is a fictionalized autobiography, of which it is very difficult to say to what extent it is. Ulrich, a happy husband, is in love with a woman who is also “glücklich verheiratet”. To prove his love to her, he decides to go from Italy to Bohemia disguised as "Frau Venus" and, before setting off, he writes to all the knights in the area, to offer them a game in honor of his "Lady"; Not devoid of altruism, he tells them that, if they take up the challenge, they will fight themselves in honor of their lady. "It is a question, specifies with a singular seriousness, the doctoral student who was occupied, without ever losing it throughout her work, of a project carried out in the name of love in itself and not of 'love of one woman' (155). Will we believe itthat the women Ulrich von Lichtenstein meets on his way all feel honored by his company? That the knights, with one exception, who will be thanked by a lance to the head, accepted his proposal do not lose their respect for him, when, once the game is over, he reveals his secret to them? The trip comes to an end and Ulrich von Lichtenstein puts his Venus outfit in the locker room; he became famous and won the respect of all. What is particularly interesting, without being surprising, is that, on several occasions in his account, Ulrich von Lichtenstein not only claims to have never been worried nor by the Church , nor by political power, during hiswho will be thanked by a lance to the head, have accepted his proposal do not lose their respect for him, when, once the game is over, he reveals his secret to them? The trip comes to an end and Ulrich von Lichtenstein puts on his Venus accoutrement in the cloakroom; he became famous and won the respect of all. What is particularly interesting, without being surprising, is that, on several occasions in his account, Ulrich von Lichtenstein not only claims to have never been worried nor by the Church , nor by political power, during hiswho will be thanked by a lance to the head, have accepted his proposal do not lose their respect for him, when, once the game is over, he reveals his secret to them? The trip comes to an end and Ulrich von Lichtenstein puts on his Venus accoutrement in the cloakroom; he became famous and won the respect of all. What is particularly interesting, without being surprising, is that, on several occasions in his account, Ulrich von Lichtenstein not only claims to have never been worried nor by the Church , nor by political power, during hishe became famous and won the respect of all. What is particularly interesting, without being surprising, is that, on several occasions in his account, Ulrich von Lichtenstein not only claims to have never been worried nor by the Church , nor by political power, during hishe became famous and won the respect of all. What is particularly interesting, without being surprising, is that, on several occasions in his account, Ulrich von Lichtenstein not only claims to have never been worried nor by the Church , nor by political power, during hisVenusfahrt , but to have even had the opportunity to go to church and participate in religious ceremonies such as the kiss of peace, even though those who had allowed it knew they had to deal with a male (156).
What impact did these more or less romantic figures have on readers of this period when, in the East, the Crusaders were "more often at public baths than on the battlefield" (157) and where, in Western Europe? , the woman, in the absence of her husband, of whom she had not been the last to whip up the desire to deliver Jerusalem, took over, occupying functions that were traditionally her prerogative, at least when she was not participating itself to this or that expedition (158)? How, when, at the time, every transvestite man was ridiculed in everyday life, even despised, is it that, having become a romantic character,is he crowned with glory? If it is impossible to answer the first question, that is to say to assess the influence that the very popular works that we have mentioned could have on their readership, the contradiction between the negative view of the transvestite in life current and its positive representation in literature has nothing that should necessarily be puzzling. Literature is often used to condition minds.

b. Transvestites

Crossdressers are much more common than crossdressers in the literature of the time.

i) The holy transvestites

Christian ascetic literature and hagiography teem with holy transvestites; for some, cross-dressing is temporary; for others, permanent (159).
Marie takes the clothes of a monk and the name of Marin to follow her father to the convent; the latter, who retired there after the death of his wife, succeeded in convincing his abbot to allow his only child to join him there; he didn't tell her it was a girl; dressed as a man, her hair cut short, she therefore entered the convent; she is soon expelled from it, having been accused of having raped a young girl and having impregnated her; she is finally forgiven and reintegrated into the community; the monks - it is a constant of the topos: the cross-dressing is perfect - do not realize his sex until his death. Eugenie takes the name of Eugene and the clothes of a monk to enter the monastery, her hair cut very short. One of the women she cares for falls under her spell. Eugene rejects his advances. Humiliated,the woman accuses him of rape; the trial is held; the verdict will fall… Eugene tears his tunic and thus gives proof of his femininity to the audience, in which are his father, his mother, his brothers and his sisters, who then throw themselves into his arms (160). Nathalie disguises herself as a man to help Christians; Theodora, Euphrosine, Pelagie, to preserve their virginity; Thècle, to be able to follow Paul of Tarsus (161).
Here, cross-dressing has four main functions: “it allows the heroine to escape danger, to hide her body from male lust, to travel incognito or to sneak into human society (162). In no case is it presented as a transgression and this is no wonder, since Christianity itself is largely based on transgression and reversal.
Here, the disguise is nourished by the interpretation of certain eschatological scaffolds of the New Testament and the patristic conception of man and woman.
First, don't Ephesians 4:13, Romans 8:29 and 12/2 imply that women will be resurrected as men? This is what deduced from these verses, not only heretics (Encratists, Origenists, Priscillians), but also at least one Orthodox: Tertullian ( De cultu feminarum , 1-2). Augustine sought to refute their exegesis in The City of God (XII, 27).
Second, faith is identified purely and simply with masculinity: Ambrose ( Expositio Evangeliis secundum Lucam , PL, t. 15) thus comments on the apostrophe of Jesus Christ to Mary, “ dicit ei mulier ”: “ Quae non credit, mulier est, and adhuc corporei sexus appellatione signatur; nam quae credit, occurrit in virum perfectum. ("She who does not believe is a woman and is also designated by the quality of her sex according to the body; for she who believes arrives at the perfect man, in the measure of the completed age of Christ"; she has not plus his name of the century, the sex of his body, the mobility of youth, the chatter of old age ”) (163). Augustine speaks of the "virile courage" that Félicité and Perpétue "deploy in their battles", not without adding that this "virile courage", "despite the weakness of their sex, can only be attributed to Jesus Christ" (164) . However, this is an aberrant identification. Faith, like any sentimental fact, is subject to change and, as such, is peculiar to the feminine spirit, whether it is in a woman's body or in a man's body (165 ).
Third, the illusion is present among the fathers of the Church that virginity gives women a masculine character (166). In Jérôme's eyes, […] as long as the woman is for childbirth and the children, she is as different from the man as the body of the soul. However if she aspires to serve Christ more than the world, then she stops being a woman and must be called a man ”(167). The illusion, in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicityand in the Letters of the Martyrs of Lyons, is perfect. In the account of the vision in which Perpétue is surrounded "by beautiful young people" in the middle of an amphitheater, she is suddenly transformed into a man: "I am undressed, and here I am a man" (168). With regard to Blandine, "suspended from a pole and exposed to be the food of the beasts unleashed against her", the Christians who witnessed her martyrdom "saw with the eyes of the body, through their sister, the one who had been crucified for them. "(169).
By freeing herself from her femininity, the woman, according to certain fathers of the Church, can equal the man, even surpass him (170). This feeling bursts forth in Christine de Pisan (1364 - 1430), with accents which fully justify the status granted to her as initiator of feminism (171), in particular for the writing of the allegorical novel La cité des dames.. The work is divided into three parts, each of which, besides describing a particular phase of the construction of the city under the direction of an allegory sent by the Christian god, is the pretext to pay homage to famous women of the past. . First, Raison helps Christine to build its foundations and walls with blocks of stone representing illustrious women of antiquity who, like the Amazons, have distinguished themselves in the field of politics and war; Reason also helps her, to borrow from psychology a term that suits the character perfectly, to "rebuild herself" by persuading her that women are not evil or useless creatures and that, as far as she is concerned, she does not. must not doubt his intellectual qualities.Then Righteousness lends her support for the construction of houses and buildings, representations of virtues including women, at least that is what she seeks to make Christine understand, taking as examples of great Jewish, Christian and “women”. pagan "of antiquity, are just as endowed as men; One of the virtues that Christine takes above all in the exemplary women she portrays is undoubtedly chastity. Of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, she said: "This princess despised all carnal love and was long rebellious to marriage, because she wished to keep herself intact throughout her life"; “She was of exemplary chastity, because not only did she avoid other men, but she only slept with her husband to ensure his descendants…” Regarding Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons,she declares: "This woman was so proud and so haughty that she never deigned to mate with a man and remained a virgin all her life". Is it an exaggeration to deduce from these passages that they present “sexual contact with a man as demeaning” (172)?
Finally Justice guides her in the finishing works and in the choice of the inhabitants of the city, which will be governed by a queen surrounded by virgins and martyrs: the Virgin Mary, "head of the female sex"; and it is the occasion for Christine to speak precisely with some of the above-mentioned holy transvestites: Marine, Euphrosyne and Nathalie. Christine justifies her choice, asserting that these legends are beautiful and prove that the women show consistency (173). But, basically, a woman who, in one of her first works, had expressed her desire to be born a man and who, in "La Cité des dames", imagines herself "truths men", could she not know? to identify with and magnify transvestite saints (174)?
Did the temptation to disguise herself cross Christine de Pisan, whom the chancellor of the University of Paris qualified as “virilis femina” (175)? The question, trivial and out of place in itself, will appear much less so in the light of the fact that cross-dressing is one of the best means for a woman to blunt, even to extinguish, male desire (176).

ii) The bearded woman

The figure of transvestism is found in the literature of the "Middle Ages" under another variant, that of the heroic woman, who saves her city, her country or her people, by taking up arms. Her virility does not come from the clothes she wears, but from her hairiness: either she is bearded or she wears a false beard, or even she has a very developed hair system. This theme emerges in Arab chronicles in the 10th and 11th century, to be taken up shortly after by Christian historiography. For example, in the Arab Chronicles, Theodomir, who had taken refuge with a handful of men in the fortress of Orihuela, made the attackers believe that he had numerous troops, by making all the women of the city, wearing their caps, come up to the ramparts. in men and provided with sticks, which, from a distance, can pass for spears. In hisGesta langobardorum (I, 8), Paul Deacon relates that, the mother of the two chiefs of the Winili having gone to Freya to ask him to make her people victorious over the Vandals, the goddess "advised her to order the women to defeat their hair and arrange it on their face in the shape of a beard ”. Contrary to what the Grimm brothers thought, who include the episode in their German Vigils , this tradition is not of German origin, nor even of Germanic origin. This is the transposition of the Middle Eastern motif of the bearded goddess, a motif linked "to calendar inversion liturgies generally comprising rituals of bilateral transvestism ..." (177) and therefore to Dionysian worship.
The motif of the hairy woman fades considerably in the dampness of the Christian conception of heroism. There are three saints of this type: Wilgeforte, Paule barbue and Galla. According to some Spanish sources, Wilgeforte was "the daughter of a pagan king of Lusitania who having had his states invaded by a king of Sicily, Wilgeforte promised him for his wife in order to have peace. The princess, not knowing how to escape this marriage, would have asked God to help her, and a long beard suddenly lines her chin. Furious at this unexpected resource that the saint had found, the father had her crucified ”(178); according to other sources, she begged Jesus to make her as ugly as possible, to counter the incestuous passion that her father felt for her (179); finally,other texts report that she made this vow to escape rape. Forced marriage, incest, rape, it's all there. Paula d'Avila, wanting to avoid the prosecution of a debauchery, took refuge in a chapel dedicated to Saint Lawrence, where she threw herself at the foot of a cross, to implore her god to make her grow a beard, a wish instantly granted. (180). As for Galla, according to Grégoire, “The doctors had threatened her… with a beard eruption if she renounced the marriage. She ignored it, and the prognosis of the disciples of Hippocrates was verified. But, says Saint Gregory, it did not matter to the generous widow if she lost a beauty which did not attract the gaze of the heavenly Bridegroom whom only she claimed to please henceforth ”(181). Thus, the woman is virilized, no longer to protect her people or her country, but to defend her virginity.His virile character is still the hairiness, no longer a false beard or male hair, but a real beard, which completely obliterates his femininity and makes it repulsive for men (182).

vs. Diffusion and popularity of the theme of the holy transvestite in the "middle ages"

What could be the actual popularity and influence of the figure of the transvestite woman in the "middle ages"?
The motif is essentially literary. Very few in the "Middle Ages" are the women who took up arms in men's clothes. In fact, the only documented case is that of Jeanne de Flandres, Duchess of Brittany in the 14th century (183). However, Pelagie, Euphrosine and the others seem to have been emulated (184). The best known is Hildegund von Neuss (1170 - 1188) who lived dressed as a man in the monastery of Kloster Schönau (185).
If it is obviously impossible to know how many women thought of making the same request to Jesus Christ as that which Wilgeforte had made of him, it is certain that the worship of this saint enjoys immense popularity (186), particularly, one suspects it, with the women (187). It was established in the 14th century in Portugal, France, the Germanic countries and Scandinavia - it was inscribed in the martyrologist two centuries later. Moreover, she is one of the only saints to have been represented crucified (188). Relics from Wilgeforte were brought to Castile by the bishop of Siguenza in 1082, others were brought to Grandselve a few years later, on the occasion of the founding of the abbey there (189).
Whether these characters really existed or not is therefore of no great importance in absolute terms: they were part of apologetic literature and were venerated by the people, for whom "their life came from authentic" historical "sources" (190) .
The legends of holy transvestites exist in many texts and have many variations. It seems that they flourished in the monastic communities of Greece from the 4th to the 6th century. The eschatological theme of sex change is found both in Orthodox writings (the Acts and Passions of the early Christian martyrs) and in heretical writings (The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and the Apocryphal Gospels) (191). Eugenie is named in a Gallican sacramentary taken from a 7th century manuscript (192). Various transvestites are mentioned in the “Vie des Pères” by Grégoire de Tours (538-594), then with Bède (672-735), with Raban Maur (780-956), with Notker Balbulus (840–912) and Flodoard. (894 - 966). Eugenie and Thecla are exalted in Aldhelm's De laudibus virginitatis (639–709),Abbot of Malmesbury and first Bishop of Sherbone. The legends of transvestite saints were translated into Latin in the early "Middle Ages" and were widely distributed throughout Europe thanks to collections of legends and collections of moral stories and, later, some of these stories, translated into vernacular, were taken up in works as popular as theHistoriale speculum (1264) by Dominican friar Vincent de Beauvais and Legenda aurea by Archbishop of Genoa Jacob de Voragine (193).

4. Masquerades

at. The feast of fools

The feast of fools was celebrated in the Latin Church as in the Greek Church. "The Christian Church," declares a historian of fairly Christian sensitivity, did ... not have any difficulty in declaring herself, in a way, the mother of fools, repeating with Jesus Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit! The Church of these first centuries was associated in fact and in intention with all the acts of her children, with their joys as well as with their sufferings; it thus retained in its midst and under its immediate authority the pious Saturnalia who were the cradle of modern theater. The councils and synods never ceased to protest against these scandals, brilliant vestiges of paganism; but the bishops in their dioceses, the priests in their parishes, the abbots in their convents,showed themselves more indulgent and did not venture to thwart popular sentiment by proscribing the Feast of Fools, which Christian Europe had introduced into its liturgy ”(194). We will see below the real reason why they did not "venture there".
It is mentioned for the first time in 1182, in a liturgical work, which calls it “freedom of December”. Churches, cathedrals, episcopal houses, but also all convents of men and women, were subject to it. The feast of fools usually spanned three or four periods, each of which had its particular actors and spectacle. On the first day, which was the feast of Christmas, the clerical and monastic plebs shouted in unison: Christmas, Christmas! and was jubilant. On December 26, St. Stephen's Day, the feast of the sub-deacons was celebrated, derisively named the feast of drunken deacons. Deacons and sub-deacons held a council to elect a bishop of fools, or even a patriarch or a pope of fools; once elected, he was dressed in priestly vestments, sacred,blessed and walked through the city to the sound of the bells. On the day of circumcision, that is to say New Year's Day, the clergy went in procession to the bishop of fools, led him with a feigned solemnity to the church, where his parodically triumphant entry was greeted by the ringing of bells. Arrived in the choir, he placed himself on the episcopal seat and gave the signal for high mass. The ecclesiastics were disguised, some as baladins, others as women; their faces were smeared with soot or covered with hideous bearded masks, called barbatoires (195). The "freedom of December" consisted not only in disguising oneself, but also in reversing the roles and ranks of the clergy: clerics, deacons and sub-deacons officiated in place of priests; these danced lustful dances,sang obscene songs and played dice, palm, boules and other games of chance, in front of the altar, on which they ate blood sausages and sausages, while the altar boys, masked and covered with screeds , occupied the stalls of the canons. After Mass, “disorder, extravagance, profanation took on a new character of gravity. The ecclesiastics, emboldened by usage and by Bacchic fumes, indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which was celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.at the ball and other games of chance, in front of the altar, on which they ate blood sausages and sausages, while the choir boys, masked and covered with clevises, occupied the stalls of the canons. After Mass, “disorder, extravagance, profanation took on a new character of gravity. The ecclesiastics, emboldened by usage and by Bacchic fumes, indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which was celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.at the ball and other games of chance, in front of the altar, on which they ate blood sausages and sausages, while the choirboys, masked and covered with copes, occupied the stalls of the canons. After Mass, “disorder, extravagance, profanation took on a new character of gravity. The ecclesiastics, emboldened by usage and by Bacchic fumes, indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which was celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.masked and covered with clevises, occupied the stalls of the canons. After Mass, “disorder, extravagance, profanation took on a new seriousness. The ecclesiastics, emboldened by usage and by Bacchic fumes, indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which was celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.masked and covered with clevises, occupied the stalls of the canons. After Mass, “disorder, extravagance, profanation took on a new seriousness. The ecclesiastics, emboldened by usage and by Bacchic fumes, indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which was celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which were celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.indulged in the delirium of a coarse and noisy joy, and offered the image of the ancient Saturnalia, which were celebrated at the same time. Jumps, lascivious dances, struggles, gestures of lust, cries, obscene songs were the main actions of this ecclesiastical orgy, but were not the only ones ”.
“We saw deacons, sub-deacons, inflamed by wine, strip themselves, and engage among themselves in the most criminal debauchery. Others, in whom anger had succeeded joy, increased the uproar by quarreling, by fighting. It sometimes happened that the floor of the church was covered with blood ”.
The party didn't end there. “The ecclesiastics, having left the church, were pouring out into the streets; some, mounted on wagons loaded with mud and garbage, amused themselves by throwing them at the crowd of people who followed them, and thus marched in triumph in the squares and streets wide enough for the passage of a dumpster. ".
“Other ecclesiastics, confused with secular libertines, erected trestles in the form of a theater, and represented the most scandalous scenes. The most ordinary was very worthy of the times. Actors, dressed as monks, attacked other actors dressed as nuns: the latter succumbed, and then, to the shame of this century, we saw them, in indecent postures, simulating acts the publicity of which is prohibited among all civilized peoples ”(196).
One point especially should be emphasized here from the point of view of ideas: it is that the Christian masquerades went much further than the bacchanalia of ancient "paganism", not perhaps in turpitudes and furious orgy, but in impiety, since the ecclesiastics who participated in it parodied their own liturgy.
The feast of fools which had been celebrated in Sens since the 11th century was of an equally parodic character. It was the famous feast of the donkey, or donkeys, also instituted, with variations, in Rouen, Autun, Beauvais and in other towns still, in memory of the donkey (sse?) That Jesus -Christ was going up when he entered Jerusalem. On that day, the donkey, dressed in a priestly cope, was introduced into the church, where he / she appeared to be an officer in place of the priest. They presented him / her in front of the altar and sang to him, with organ accompaniment, the conductus ad tabulam (the song of the donkey), whose refrain "is certainly a consonant imitation of Evohé Bacche., which the worshipers of Bacchus repeated ”(197). Once they had finished singing, the clerics put on the papal clothes and covered their faces with hideous masks; deacons and sub-deacons, dressed as women, gave the blessing to the people, while some clerics began to dance in the choir and others to prepare the feast in another part of the church.
The convents of men and women also had their feast of the fools: the feast of the innocents, celebrated especially in Normandy and in Flanders. Here, at dawn, the abbess handed over full powers to the youngest novice, who commanded the congregation until dusk (198). In men's convents, “on December 28, the lay brothers, dressed in torn clothing and turned inside out, would sit on the seats intended for the fathers and do the office in their place; they held their books upside down and shouted at the top of their lungs, looking at a lectern through glasses whose worms were orange peels ”. There, the feast of the innocent went further: "it was an occasion of debauchery and indecency for all communities of both sexes" (199). The nuns disguised themselves as men,elected an abbess-mad, usurped the power of the abbess and sang funny lessons at the office, while, in the monasteries, the monks chose an abbé-fou, an abbé des Sots or an abbé des Conards and passed good time with the abbesses-folles.

b. The procession

The processions and cavalcades were the last expression of the feast of fools in civil society. Each town had its procession. The most famous is undoubtedly that of Corpus Christi in Aix. It took place the day before, the day and the octave of the Blessed Sacrament, Pentecost Monday and Trinity Sunday. It was made up of two distinct parts: the procession and the interludes. One of these consisted of a sort of parody of Olympus; others, in episodes from the Bible and the life of Jesus Christ, in the form of pantomimes and more or less burlesque allegorical dances. The "players", for the most part, were no longer ecclesiastics, but lay people. Corpus Christi lasted until the Revolution.

5. Dionysian-Christianity

Sexual inversion in hagiography, social inversion, use of cross-dressing and in particular of the mask in Christian bacchanalia, of the mask and of cross-dressing in the liturgical drama, then in the mystery and in the miracle, everything indicates that a Dionysian current is crossing Christianity (200).
Opinion made its way from the beginning of the 19th century and then gradually took hold of the minds that Christianity, failing to be able to uproot the practices of "paganism", had formally adapted them. It is both true and false; true, because a certain number of Christian customs, beliefs and ceremonies actually constitute an extension of "paganism", that is to say not of the mos maiorum, but, essentially, of the chthonian, lunar and women of Near and Middle Eastern origin that he found strongly established in Rome; false, because he never sought to eradicate them, for the simple reason that he could not, being himself an oriental cult.

The first Christians, like the followers of Dionysus, assembled at night in remote places. These meetings sometimes lasted until dawn. The taste for nocturnal assemblies was so pronounced among early Christians that all ecclesiastical feasts ended up being celebrated preferably at night (201); because it was a taste and not a necessity, proof is that these nocturnal meetings continued until the beginning of the sixth century, several centuries after the measures taken by Rome against Christians had ceased. to be in force. “And, surprisingly, it was precisely within religious practices that the disorder began and took a prodigious development. For example under the pretext of celebrating the martyrs,people went to cemeteries at night and indulged in unheard-of debauchery. After obscene feasts, all the assistants, men, women and children under the influence of drunkenness, formed immense circles, similar to those which later existed under the name of Dance of the Dead ”(202). As early as the fourth century, some of the accusations which Celsus had leveled against Christians and which Origen had strived to refute were fully proven, not by the few men still faithful to the mos maiorum, but by certain ecclesiastical authorities themselves ( 203).some of the accusations which Celsus had leveled against the Christians and which Origen had endeavored to refute were fully proven, not by the few men still faithful to the mos maiorum, but by certain ecclesiastical authorities themselves (203).some of the accusations which Celsus had leveled against the Christians and which Origen had endeavored to refute were fully proven, not by the few men still faithful to the mos maiorum, but by certain ecclesiastical authorities themselves (203).
Indifferentiation, the Dionysian leveling was also at the heart of early Christianity and its feasts, this evening meal taken together and during which the Eucharistic rite was celebrated. “The Church found in this a means of ever further weakening the differences in social positions, races and nationalities, by bringing together all the faithful in feasts where all divisions disappeared. It substituted for worldly bonds, the common attachment to the Master, it replaced the differences of position by the new title of disciple of Christ, and the religious festivals of the primitive Church were to remind those that they united the precepts of equality and of mutual benevolence that Jesus came to bring to the world ”(204). The distribution of the Eucharist was preceded by a more substantial meal,if we are to believe Tertullian's recriminations against his “brothers”: “Your agape is simmering in the pots… your faith is warmed by the fire in the kitchen, your hope rests entirely in good dishes (205). »As to the question of knowing if« The brothers (slept) with the sisters before or after the Eucharist, the comments of the Berber writer do not allow to answer it.
It is not until Corybantism (206) that has not found refuge in, or on the fringes of, the Church. The feast of fools gave rise to four types of frantic dances: that of the Levites or deacons, that of priests, that of children or clerics and that of sub-deacons (207). But those we want to talk about here are considered properly pathological: the dance of Saint John and the dance of Saint Vitus, so called because the saints in question were reputed to heal those who suffered from this "nervous disease". To cure or, on the contrary, to make sick. In fact, the dance of Saint Vitus was “designated as an“ evil of a saint ”. The belief in the “evil of a saint”, attested throughout Europe, refers to a double power of the saint over the disease that bears his name. Being the only one who can cure this disease,he can also provoke or inflict it ”(208).
The descriptions given by the authors of the "Middle Ages" of people who had it recall those that ancient authors gave of corybantes in the grip of ecstatic convulsions and those that European travelers of the nineteenth century made of fakirs, dervishes and sufis in trance (209). In Christian Europe, however, the sick were considered demon possessed and the only remedy available to them was exorcism. Several epidemics of dansomania broke out in the 11th and 17th centuries, most of them in the 14th century, in Western Europe and especially in Northern Europe, some near religious buildings and, curiously, the dancers saw their chorea suddenly worsen. at the approach of the feast of Saint Vitus; no less curiously, they were asked,once they arrive in a church or a chapel dedicated to the saint at the end of their pilgrimage, to dance to the sound of music, to heal (210); less curious is the fact that the exorcism only lasted a year and that the sick therefore had to make the pilgrimage every year, when we know that the exorciser did not operate for free and that, in addition, the salary more or less high which was paid to him "depended the more or less rapid flight of Satan or of his companions" (211). Several authors, including Ami Perrier, have underlined the causal link between Christian superstition and danceomania. Hermann Ewerbeck identified the problem: “The clergy made rather fruitless efforts to calm this somewhat too generalized Molochism; he had provoked it indirectly by the mystical excitement of Christian souls,perpetuated from generation to generation for thirteen centuries ”(212).

6. Outsourcing the masquerade

We said above that the masquerade gradually disappeared from the festivities that punctuated the life of Christianity in the "Middle Ages". His mind evidently remained. Just as the “liturgical drama” had left the Church and had spread throughout civil society, so the masquerade began to appear outside the hieratic framework, inviting itself to the court, where, in passing, it took on an attenuated, more subtle and therefore more dangerous form. In the 14th century, masquerades were already part of the celebrations of most European courts. In France, it was in 1393, the Tuesday preceding Candlemas, under the reign of Charles VI, that the first was organized, at the Saint Pol hotel, by the court: a "dance in semblance of wild men", which will be known thereafter under the name of "ball of the ardents".The king appeared there dressed in "coats covered with linen hairline in shape and color of hair", accompanied by five gentlemen disguised in the same manner. The Chronicle of the religious of Saint Dionysius depicts with indignation the king and his companions frolicking from side to side with howls of wild beasts, performing "Saracen dances", as if in the grip of a diabolical frenzy "(213). During the feast, the linen clothes of the king and his companions caught fire and several of the young men were burned alive; the king narrowly escaped the same fate.performing "Saracen dances", as if in the grip of a diabolical frenzy "(213). During the feast, the linen clothes of the king and his companions caught fire and several of the young men were burned alive; the king narrowly escaped the same fate.performing "Saracen dances", as if in the grip of a diabolical frenzy "(213). During the feast, the linen clothes of the king and his companions caught fire and several of the young men were burned alive; the king narrowly escaped the same fate.
The arts and luxury, which were already widespread in Italy, began to enter France under Francis I, under the leadership of Catherine de Medici. This introduced "pleasures into politics as a means of governing ..." (214).
From then until Louis XIV, the masquerade, now called ballet, was one of the court's favorite entertainment. The ballets consisted of entries by characters in various disguise according to the subjects represented. The subject was explained in a musical narrative sung by a character just before each entry. The first masked ball which was held in France, under the reign, as we have just seen, of Charles VI, had been placed under the sign of exoticism. The subject of the following was no less so. Thus, in the grand ballet given by Louis XIII in his Hôtel-de-Ville in February 1626, the Duke of Nemours interpreted the role of a Mohammedan doctor; the king himself played the role of Mohammed (215). In the carousel given by Louis XIV in 1662 in the courtyard of the Tuileries to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin,the prince of Condé had obtained that of the emperor of the Turks.
Under Louis XIV, Isaac de Benserade (216) was the great composer of ballets, in which the king almost always appeared. At the time, dance was then among the exercises which entered into the education of the nobility and "a gentleman who had ignored the art of dancing would have passed for a savage" (217). Two centuries earlier, was not ballet synonymous with "dance in the semblance of wild men"?
Catherine de Medici had brought from her country a large number of artists, including attori dell'Arte . The commedia dell'arte, a theatrical genre which seems to have its origin in the Atellane osque, was born in Italy in the middle of the 16th century; the actors, at least the supporting roles, were masked. Perhaps this is what gave the queen the idea of ​​introducing a new type of party to the court, bringing together the masquerade, the ball and the dance: the masked ball. "It is certain," declares the Marquis de Paulmy without malice (218), without malice since he is pleased with it, that, by this invention, this Queen has infinitely increased the sum of the pleasures of our nation: and what princess was more? what she did to take advantage of the mask? "
It was at this time that, thanks to masquerades, the use of masks began to spread in France. In these festivals, the mask allowed “princes, princesses, lords and ladies” to indulge incognito “to all the excesses of debauchery” (219). Soon it spread to everyday life. "The fashion of great ladies and little mistresses was usually to go out only in masks" (220). The fashion for masks was all the rage, to such an extent that it gave rise to serious disorders: by covering their face with a mask to commit crimes (theft, murder, adultery, etc.), some avoided the prosecution of the justice. From 1508 to 1514, the parliament of Paris issued three judgments prohibiting merchants from selling masks. In 1539,François 1er saw himself forced to prohibit “all mask makers and sellers, who now do not sell any masks publicly, otherwise; and to all of whatever state and condition they are, not to wear… masks not otherwise disguise, on penalty of prison and to be punished by justice… ”(221). This ordinance, which Martial d'Auvergne amended a few years later, limiting the ban to “merchants and people of low status”, had no more effect than the aforementioned judgments. It is true that François 1er indulged with enthusiasm in this new entertainment (222). Later, Charles IX and Henri III will continue to devote themselves to it greedily. They will go through the streets dressed in "matelotte skirts," wearing "test clothing of black velvet adorned with silver facing" accompanied by their cute,her face hidden under thin Venetian masks, disguised as women, for the most part, with veils of gold and silver gauze, followed by a large troop of musicians, singers, lute players in beautiful disguise and escorted by pages carrying flaming torches ”(223).
The mask became fashionable again during the reign of Henry III. The courtiers, following the example of the king's mignons, wore the wolf, like the ladies. Henry III himself slept with a mask coated inside with pomade and make-up. Under Henry IV, the ladies covered their faces with a wolf. Only aristocrats were allowed to wear the mask (224). Henri IV did not deprive himself of it, displayed in this entertainment the same exoticism as some of his predecessors. Thus, on Sunday February 23, 1597, "he made a masquerade of sorcerers" (225). Sunday February 23 was the first Sunday in Lent.
Masquerades had been defended without effect, among others, by the Council of Basel (1436), then by the Councils of Rouen (1445), Soissons (1456), Sens (1485) and finally Toledo (1566). The most successful carnivals were undoubtedly these councils.

***

The theater in France and in most European countries resuscitated within the Church in the “Middle Ages”, both in churches and in convents. The rural Dionysians of antiquity were followed by the various feasts of fools and, in a less acute form, processions; to the urban Dionysians, during the ludi , repraesentationes , historiae, that is to say the “liturgical drama”, which already presented most of the characteristics of what we call a stage performance. He staged religious subjects. Few in number at first, the scenes multiplied, the subjects diversified, which lengthened more and more the duration of the service. Certain particularly dramatized parts of the office were detached from it and constituted real dramatic scenes, which found their place after mass. They were interpreted into Latin by the clergy. The theater was useful for the propagation of Christian ideology and the extension of the influence of the Church and it is therefore logical that it ended up being transported into civil society and that the vernacular was substituted for the Latin in the repraesentationes .
The theater was outsourced, leaving the church, where it had grown and prospered, to be disseminated throughout civil society, where it quickly established itself as the favorite distraction of the French, whatever the order in which they were. belonged. The feast of fools left the ecclesiastical framework to enter the court, in the form of the ballet, the masked ball, etc. The repraesentationes , ludi , historiae gave birth to miracles and mysteries. The first were interpreted by ecclesiastics, the second by bourgeois, traders, craftsmen and merchants.
The progressive secularization of the theater led to its progressive professionalization, initiated by the creation of the first theater company in Italy in 1545: the appearance of the first permanent hall and the first professional "actors" made it a full-fledged commercial enterprise.
At the start of the "Renaissance" not everyone could take the stage any longer, unless they embraced the profession of "actor", but, as we shall see, it was always possible for everyone to play the role of "actor". comedy: in the parterre. And some indeed left their profession to become actors; from the middle of the 16th century, certain provinces were skimmed by numerous troops (226). The profession opened up almost immediately to women, who knew how to benefit socially. Unlike the histrion, the professional “actor” was viewed with suspicion. The term is put in quotation marks and will continue to be, like that of "spectator", as long as it is used to designate people who lived at a time when, for reasons which we will explain in due course,there was as yet no demarcation between who played a role in a play and who attended a performance, nor was there a clear separation between stage and hall (the distinction will appear in made in the middle of the 18th century). “Actor” one day in a mystery, a person can find himself “spectator” the next day and vice versa.
The first permanent theater hall in France dates from 1518; in England, 1640s; in Italy, from 1580: the Italian-style room, designed with the specific aim of producing the illusion, did not spread to other European countries until the end of the 17th century. Until then, it was up to the “spectator” to produce it himself, relying on a whole series of auditory and visual theatrical conventions, especially visual. The “Middle Ages”, as we will show below, was already a "world of the image"; the theater addressed itself more and more to the sight, attached itself more and more, thanks to the perspective, rediscovered by Italian architects infatuated with the refined abstractions of the Arab science of the beginning of the "Middle Ages", to produce a as complete an illusion as possible.
Cross-dressing is part of illusionism. Cross-dressing is twofold: clothing and psychological. The goal is either to become someone else, to change nature, state, or parody, alter the nature of something (the hierarchy, the established order), for subversive ends. The two goals are not mutually exclusive; the first is individual, the second collective.
Cross-dressing is closely linked to Dionysian worship; ancient feasts in honor of the god of the mask he passes in Christianity, in his liturgy; discreet in the “liturgical drama” and its epigones, the miracle and the mystery, diffused in hagiography and courtly literature, it is unleashed in burlesque celebrations such as the feast of the fools, before breaking into court life in the end of the 14th century.
In the nobility, that of patron was no longer the only role of the aristocrats, whose main concern had become "to appear, to play their own role, to show that they were still worthy of themselves, and this concern grew as the absolute monarchy reduced their prerogatives. Conscious of being actors that the people should admire, they have, moreover, been gradually brought to the rank of decorative staff tending to highlight the sole sovereign: the Versailles of Louis XIV was little more than an immense theater ”(227). Politics tends to become a spectacle.
The development of the theater represented the rise of the third estate, both of the bourgeoisie and of the people, and the theatricalization of court life reflected in a certain way the gentrification of the nobility and, correlatively, the insensitive passage of the power in the hands of the nobility in those of the bourgeoisie, under the gaze of the Church, whose conciliar firmness with which it regularly condemned the theater and the profession of actor was equaled only by the self-interested complacency with which she tolerated, even encouraged them. The semantic evolution of the term “representation” is eloquent: from “the act of placing in front of someone's eyes”, as, for example, in a play, a repraesentatione, it came to take on a political meaning from the first half of the fourteenth century, that of "group of people representing a city" and, in the early 1770s, in Raynal, "body of representatives of a people". Will we believe it, that at the dawn of the pseudo-French revolution, many actors reached important positions in the army, the government and the administration (228)?
Comparing the courtier to an “actor” has become commonplace. This does not detract from the accuracy of this comparison. To understand it, you have to place yourself on the psychological level. The soul of the actor is "made up of scattered and, so to speak, floating elements, which never come together around a center and hence are not able to form a unit either" (229). Hence his ability to play a role, to change characters at will. He may have to perform several roles during the same play and therefore change his costume and personality as many times as necessary; and, of course, he is likely to embody several of them during his career (it is not without relevance that this protein phenomenon could be compared to what spiritualists call transmigration). Likewise,the courtier goes from one character to another, depending on the circumstances, on the stage, because he prides himself on "playing", as well as in everyday life - but can scene and everyday life still be distinguished in this framework from the 17th century?
This human type is characterized by instability and the search for instability, by a taste for appearances and ostentation, for the strange and the ephemeral, for staging and disguise; it is the baroque man; internally feminine, it is a weather vane particularly sensitive to suggestions of the atmosphere, especially those which take a playful, festive form. However, the theater has become politicized, it has become a platform and, from the “wings”, influence, at least trying to influence, not only the course of events, but also the thoughts, feelings and behavior of people. The theater serves as a sounding board; prohibited in principle, or at least subject to restrictions, in everyday life, from a certain period, cross-dressing gives free rein on the stage. "Omnis mundus texercet hisirioniam , said Pétrone, Thus everything is masked in the world, by the admission of the theater itself. I know that he was not the first to form false and hypocritical men, perhaps even a false and hypocritical spirit helped to form him; but he greatly increased their number, instructed, shaped, and trained the culprits. Tartufe made more hypocrites than he corrected; he did not correct any of them, he taught them to disguise themselves better, or to disgracefully lift the mask, rebelling virtue and practicing vice openly ”(230).
From a racial point of view, let us remember, the Baroque man corresponds quite well to the Mediterranean type as well as to the race of Western man: "Is" Mediterranean "in the first place the love of exterior appearances and gesture. The Mediterranean type needs a scene, if not, at worst, out of vanity and exhibitionism, at least in the sense that he often draws his enthusiasm and motivation, even to accomplish noble, remarkable and sincere actions, in his relationship with those who watch him and that concern for the effect he will have on them has a very important part in his conduct. Hence, precisely, his propensity for "gesture", that is to say to give to action the characteristics of something which attracts attention and imposes itself, even when the one who acts knows that he has not. than himself as a spectator.In Mediterranean man there is therefore a sort of duplication between an "me" which plays a role and another "me" which considers him from the point of view of a possible spectator and observer, as do the actors ”(231 ). Likewise, according to HFK Günther, the will to appear rather than to be is "a characteristic of man of the Western race, which would therefore have a pronounced, but rather superficial and sometimes even theatrical, sense of honor". The Western breed is found in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean and, today, mainly in Spain, Portugal, Italy - where modern theater was born - and in the Mediterranean islands, that is, in areas where important crossings have occurred since antiquity with the Semitic and black races. By its volcanic emotivity, its artistic sensitivity,his power of imagination, his taste for the marvelous, the baroque man also derives from the negroid race (232).

BK

(62) The first has as its nucleus an apocryphal prophecy of the birth of Christ, attributed to the sibyl and inserted in a lesson of matins. "We first personalized the sibyl by inviting a separate cantor to come and sing his prophecy in appropriate clothing, then we added other prophets to him, and finally we composed entire scenes sung and performed on prophetic themes of the coming. of Christ… ”( Larousse encyclopedia online , liturgical drama, available at the following address: http://www.larousse.fr/archives/musique/page/335 , accessed July 14, 2015).
The second has as its core an introit trope comprising the dialogue of the gospel between the angel and the three Marys at the tomb of Jesus Christ. “It was not enough to read in the Gospel the account of the Visit of holy women to the Sepulcher of the Savior; this pious eagerness of their love, these worries and these joys had yet to be staged… ”(Jacques Louis Antoine Marie Lochet (abbot), La province du Maine, Galienne, Le Mans, 1846, p. 115) The staging of the Trois Maries ceremonial grew over time. Here is what it consisted of at the monastery of Saint Benoît sur Loire: “To imitate the scene of the sepulcher, three religious will appear first, prepared in advance and dressed in such a way as to imitate the Three Maries. They will come forward slowly, looking sad, and will sing in dialogue the following verses… (These are complaints about the death of the Savior, and the resolution to embalm His body)… When the three brothers representing the Three Marys will have come to the choir, they will approach the tomb, like people who seek, and they will sing together the following verse:… Who will take away this stone, etc. An angel seated outside, at the head of the tomb, dressed in a golden alb, before a miter on his head, a palm in his left hand,and on the right a branch laden with candles, announces to them that Jesus is risen…. the Three Maries announce it to the people… After that, Marie-Madelaine separating from the other two Maries, approaches the tomb, and looking at it frequently, complains of being deprived of the presence of a beloved master. Then she walks quickly to meet two people who represent Peter and John ... Then stopping in front of them in an attitude of sadness, she says to them: They have taken away my Lord, etc. Peter and John hear these words, rush off running towards the tomb. Jean, younger, is the first to arrive and stops at the door. Pierre follows him and enters quickly; Jean enters with him. They move away, and Marie-Madelaine, looking sad, moans, as above: o pain, o cruel anguish!I am deprived of the presence of a beloved master! ", Etc; (ibid ., p. 177). Whatever church or cathedral where the Three Marys ceremony took place, it was theatrical, in a way there is no reason to believe it was less sentimental and bombastic than in the excerpt that follows. to be cited; and this theatricalization continued to grow until the 18th century. In addition to their dramatization, the number and frequency of depictions of episodes from the life of Jesus Christ in religious buildings increased. Thus, the feast of the “birth of the Savior” came to be celebrated several times in the year. The whole formed what was called at the time repraesentationes , ludi , historiae, etc. and which the romantic authors later baptized “liturgical drama”.
(63) Edmond de Coussemaker, Liturgical Dramas of the Middle Ages: Text and Music , Librairie Archéologique de Victor Didron, Paris, 1861, p. ix-x.
(64) Marius Sepet, Origines catholiques du théatre moderne , Lethielleux, Paris, 1901, p. 164.
(65) As de Julleville judiciously points out ( Les comédiens en France au Moyen Age , Léopold Cerf, 1865, p. 73), “the judgment expressly applied only to the capital”
(66) see Johan Mortensen, Le Théâtre Français Au Moyen Age , Picard, Paris, 1903, p. 174.
(67) Nicole Decugis and Suzanne Reymond,The theater set in France from the Middle Ages to 1925 , Compagnie française des arts graphics, 1953, p. 16.
(68) Gustave Cogen, History of staging in the French religious theater of the Middle Ages , Champion, Paris, 1906, p. 258.
(69) Patricia Vasseur-Legangneux and Florence Dupont, Greek tragedies on the modern scene: a theatrical utopia , Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2015, p. 63.
(70) See Anne Surgers, Scénographies du théâtre occidental , 2nd ed., Armand Colin, Paris, 2011,
(71) Ibid .
(72) Dominique Bertrand, Le Théâtre , Armand Colin, 2005, p. 75.
(73) Johan Mortensen, op. cit., p. 169.
(74) Maurice Accarie, The sacred theater of the end of the Middle Ages , Droz, Geneva, 1979, p. 67
(75) Marius Sepet, op. cit., p. 177. In some cases, the distinction between religious and laity was purely nominal. It should in fact be known that "By a slow but uninterrupted work of nearly two thousand years", the Church had made penetrate "(his) spirit, (his) tradition, (his) tendencies and all (his) aspirations until" at the heart of humanity, to the very bowels of civil society. It has enveloped this society on all sides with an immense network of institutions… ”of lay people in all fields (see https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/les-racines-asiants-du- globalism). Today there are countless associations of this type, under private law, but also under public law, not to mention institutions. "Secularism" is itself a distillation of the primitive substratum of Abrahamisms (see, for the recurrent use of religious vocabulary in politics in modern times in the United States, Lucia Bergamasco, "Evangelism and politics in the young Republic" , Transatlantica 1, 2002, available at:   http://transatlantica.revues.org/505 , accessed July 15, 2015; Mark A. Noll and Luke E. Harlow (eds.), Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007; David C. Leege and Lyman A. Kellstedt, Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, ME Sharpe, Inc., 1993, with regard to France, the main promoter of "secularism", the anticlerical Ferdinand Buisson (1842 - 1931), co-founder and president of the League of Human Rights, whose the statutes are a rehash of the Gospels, did he not declare: "the religion of Jesus is the religion of every republican citizen"? (see http://www.seuil.com/livre-9782020985215.htm ).
(76) Ibid. , p. 186.
(77) Marius Sepet, The Christian Drama in the Middle Ages , 1878, Didier, Paris, 1878, p. 46.
(78) Maurice Accarie, op. cit ., p. 67.
(79) Bernard Ribémont, Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès, "The clerics of the Basoche and the political theater (Paris, 1420-1550)", Medieval and humanist research papers, 2007, available at the following address: http: // crm.revues.org/3283 , consulted on July 15, 2015.
(80) see Pierre Larousse, Great universal dictionary of the XIXth century , vol. 2, Paris, p. 314-16.
(81) Torsten Hiltmann, The “other” kings , Ateliers Des Deutschen Historischen Instituts, Paris, 2010, p. 119.
(82) See M. Vaïsse Cibiel, “A retrospective note on the Basoche toulousaine”. In Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, inscriptions and belles-lettres de Toulouse, vol. 6, 1868, Toulouse, p. 221-43; Michel Cassan, "Basoches et Basochiens in Toulouse in the modern era". In Annales du Midi: archaeological, historical and philological review of southern France, vol. 94, 1982 [p. 263-276], available at the following address:  http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/anami_0003-4398_1982_num_94_158_1994 , consulted on July 15, 2015.
(83) Doubtless it also had, at least that of Toulouse, a religious aspect, since, on the days of major religious feasts, it grouped itself in brotherhoods under the invocation of the Holy Trinity and then sat in the Church of the Holy Trinity. Grands Carmes… ”(Jean-Baptiste Dubédat, History of the Parliament of Toulouse , vol. 1, A. Rousseau, 1885, p. 317). But, at the time, what was the association that had no religious character? If the Basochians staged moralities and farces in which they ridiculed the vices of the clergy. however, they had one notable point in common with the ecclesiastics: they had to be celibate (see Pierre Larousse, op. cit ., p. 314)
(84) Adolphe Louis Fabre,Historical studies on the clerics of La Bazoche , Potier, Paris, 1856, p. 178-79.
(85) Désiré Nisard, Precis of the history of French literature , Classical Bookstore, Paris, 1841, p. 176.
(86) Less light than Alexandre-Joseph-Pierre de Ségur, his editor makes the following point on the influence of women on mores in the “Middle Ages”: the “love court” “had a great influence on mores of the century, and perhaps caused the destruction of chivalry by its ridiculous decrees, which often changed the warriors into shepherds of Arcadia. Fickleness, indiscretion were crimes, penalties arose from the nature of the offense. A discourteous knight was condemned not to bear his arms for a certain period of time; a lover not to pronounce the name of his mistress until the moment. this penance had sufficiently punished the outrage of which he had been guilty.
“These decisions were all the more fatal to morals, as they were punctually executed; they made the idea of ​​honor less important, and often gave the vices of women a dangerous approval. From this new empire was born a relaxation in almost all the institutions of the century. On the other hand, the women softened the ferocity of these Gothic times, and prepared the spirits to receive the lights which soon after spread on Europe.
“It was around this time that the first troubadours also appeared. These poets devoted their songs to beauty. Guillaume IX, Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine, born in 1071, had given the example. He was followed by a string of others, and soon this noble profession became more famous and counted among its followers emperors, kings and princes: there is no doubt that the troubadours have contributed much to changing their century, which unfortunately , losing its barbarity, lost many virtues. »(Alexandre-Joseph-Pierre de Ségur, Women, their condition and their influence in the social order, flight. 1, Raymond, Paris, 1820, p. 195-7); the least gallant passage of Ségur's work is undoubtedly the one in which he declares that Europe "seemed plunged into a state of uncertainty and imbecility" ( ibid ., p. 188), in which, apart from a few rare virile awakenings during the following centuries, it has not ceased to be found ever since. “The development which the order of knights took in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the excessive exaltation of spirits, made gallantry no longer a distinction of good taste, a gracious testimony of deference and respect, but a rigorous law in above all the others. The slightest desire, however difficult it was to satisfy, became an order. In short, passive obedience to the whims of ladies was proclaimed in principle.
“This excess engendered love lessons. So much care, submission, unalterable devotion must have aroused in women an ambition other than that of pleasing. This wreath of roses that love had placed on their heads, could have seemed to them for a moment the royal band… ”(Francisque Mandet, Histoire de la langue romance , Paris, Dauin et Fontaine, 1840, p. 369-70)
Franz Christian Dietz, in a pointed, close study, affirms, in a more or less convincing way according to the arguments which it supports against the undoubtedly exaggerated thesis of Raynouard, that "there never existed of course of formally constituted and permanent love where the lovers would have come ... indulge in publicity and their differences and the secret of tender relationships. But in case of misunderstanding or quarrel and lack of being able to come to an agreement, the loving couple referred to the arbitration of one or more people, in other words of a small court of circumstance elected by the interested parties, and in which they usually confided only under the protection of the anonymous and through a third party.
“There was no more law or code of love that the courts or judges could have applied. But in fortuitous meetings, in guest circles, nobles, knights, and chatelaine riders liked to practice the subtleties of mind; the difficult questions of erotic doctrine were raised; we discussed them; we gave the solution. It was just a social pastime. (See, for a review of the work, Miller and Aubenas, Revue de bibliographie analytique, vol. 4, Paris, 1843, p. 41-46)
These practices, formal or informal, nevertheless bear witness to the growing influence of women and feminine values ​​in the “middle ages”.
(87) Trestles, vol. 2, n ° 2, International Society for the Study of Medieval Theater, 1980, p. 39.
(88) Louis Petit de Julleville, op. cit ., p. 95
(89) Armand Gaston Camus and André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin, Letters on the profession of lawyer , H. Tarlier, 1833, p. 47.
(90) Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès, Les clercs de la Basoche and the comic theater : Paris, 1420-1550 , Honoré Champion, 2007, p. 169.
(91) Louis Petit de Julleville., Op. cit., p. 92. Let's take a closer look at this episode: “This female company appeared in public. The Paris official took offense, and had the captain of women summoned to him; and a clerk of this company refused to attend the watch in this disguise. These two acts revolted the king of Basoche, then very powerful. He called as an abuse of the official's citation, who was obliged to withdraw from it, and condemned the clerk who had refused to appear at the watch dressed as a woman to ask forgiveness; and, in the formula of this pardon, we read that: "For his defenses ... he protests" not to say anything derogatory to the royal majesty of the very illustrious "king of the Basoche." (Jacques Antoine Dulaure, Physical, Civil and Moral History of Paris , 7th ed., Vol. 1, 1839, p. 621)
(92) Pierre Larousse,op. cit ., p. 314.
(93) Carl Schnabel, Abridged of the history of French literature , Leipzig, 1847, p. 22.
(94) Jules Lacroix de Marlès, Paris ancient and modern , Gosselin, Paris, 1837, p. 243.
(95) JG Masselin, History of Louis XII, king of France , Paris, 1822, p. 374.
(96) See Adolphe Louis Fabre, Etudes historique sur les clercs de la Bazoche, Potier, Paris, 1856, p. 268-69.
(97) Pierre-Amable Floquet, History of the Parliament of Normandy , Édouard Frère, Rouen, vol. 3, 1841, p. 280.
(98) Bulletin of the Society for the History of Paris and the Ile-de-France, Ecole nationale des Chartes, Champion, Paris, 1898, p. 42.
(99) See George Lotte, Histoire du vers français, t. 4, University Press of Provence, 1988, p. 211-17.
(100) Does Pope Sixtus V (1521 - 1590) prohibit women by decree from taking the stage? If this is the case, we would like to be able to read the decree in question, which, in any case, dates from the “Renaissance”. In 1588, did Pope Sixtus V ban performances by the Desiosi, Italy's first theater company, until they replaced women with men, as it is claimed here and there? No. This is what it is: he granted the Desiosi permission to give public performances, on condition, among other things, that the roles of women were taken by men (Joseph Alexander Hübner (Baron), Sixtus V: from unpublished diplomatic correspondence, t. 2, Hachette, Paris, 1882, p. 99).
(101) Louis Petit de Juleville, op. cit ., p. 277.
(102) Germain Bapst, Essay on the history of the theater , Hachette, Paris, 1893, p. 46.
(103) See, for example, Silvia Evangelisti, Nuns: A History of Convent Life 1450-1700 , Oxford University Press, 2008.
(104) Daniella Cavallaro, “Catholic Theater for Women in Post-War Italy: Education, Morality , and Social Change ”. In Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (ed.), Catholic Theater and Drama: Critical Essays , McFarland & Co Inc., 2012, p. 125; see also Jelle Koopmans and Darwin Smith, “A French theater of the Middle Ages? », Médiévales, 59 (autumn 2010), available at the following address:http://medievales.revues.org/6055,:  accessed July 15, 2015.
(105) See L.-V. Gofflot, The theater at the college from the middle ages to our days , Champion, Paris, 1907.
(106) Régine Pernoud, To end with the Middle Ages , Éditions du Seuil, 1977, p. 94
(107) Louis-Jean-Nicolas Monmerqué, Les historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux , vols. 9-10, p. 40, 2nd ed., Garnier, Paris, 1861.
(108) Abbé de La Chadenède, Le christianisme demonstrated , Bibliothèque Universelle de la Jeunesse, Paris, vol. 2, 1837, p. 447.
(109) Louis Petit de Juleville, op. cit ., p. 11.
(110) Michel Adam,Women-playwrights & actresses in England (1660-1706) , 1983, Publications de l'Université de Rouen, p. 42-3.
(111) Christine Bard, Prostitutes, Clio and Presses Universitaires du Mirail, Toulouse, 2003, p. 279. As an anecdote, in 1629, the actresses of a French troupe invited to perform in a London theater were greeted with throwing eggs and rotten apples as they entered the stage (Karl Mantzius, The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Duckworth & Co, 1903, p. 280). Was the public allergic to actresses or French women? Or were they just not to his liking. Indeed, forty years later, actresses, or rather the charms of actresses, less and less concealed in increasingly daring plays, had become one of the means by which the two London theaters attracted and retained their audiences. (Elizabeth Howe, “A State of Undress: The first English actresses: 1660 - 1700”. In Elizabeth Woodrough (ed.),Women in European Theater , Europa, 1995, p. 16).
(112) Jean Baptiste Glaire and Joseph-Alexis Walsh (Vicomte) (eds.), Encyclopédie catholique , vol. 1, Paris, 1840, p. 305.
(113) Simon Gabay, “The legal status of the actor in canon law in the Middle Ages”. In Le theater de l'Eglise, 1st ed, LAMOP, Paris, 2011, p. 28, available at the following address: https://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/IMG/pdf/Gabay.pdf , consulted on July 15, 2015.
(114) see William Downs, Lou Anne Wright and Erik Ramsey, The Art of Theater: Then and Now , 3rd ed., CENGAGE Learning, 2012, p. 290.
(115) Simon Gabay, op. cit ., p. 29-30.
(116) Louis Petit de Julleville., Op. cit., p. 7.
(117) The evolution of rock art in this regard is instructive, even if, as the author of the following lines considers, it is not absolutely certain that these drawings represent masks stricto sensu: “ When we bring together all the known human profiles, we see that we pass imperceptibly from the normal profile to that of an animal's head. This passage is done in particular by the exaggeration of the straightening of the nose: the back of the nose lengthens and appears almost horizontal, which causes the lower part of the face in exaggerated protrusion, so that finally the whole face lengthens. in muzzle. This transformation appears only for male figures, female figures following other canons. Henry Pernet, Mirages of the Mask, Labor and Fides Editions, 1988, p. 36. See also François Soleilhavoup, “A propos des masques et faces rupestres du Sahara”, Archéo-Nil, l, p. 43-58, available at the following address: http://www.archeonil.fr/revue/AN01-1991-Soleilhavoup.pdf, consulted on July 15, 2015.
(118) See https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com / 2014/12/07 / black-arabia-and-african-origin-of-islam-ii .
(119) Followers of Dionysianism used to gather around a mask placed in a basket (David Wiles, Greek Theater Performance: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 147) Ancient vases show women dancing around Dionysus represented by a robe suspended from a staff surmounted by a mask (Michael Gagarin (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome , t. 1, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 429).
(120) “It happened, while I was in Egypt, tells Herodotus (v. 484-v. 420 BC), an astonishing thing in the Mendesian name: a goat publicly traded with a woman. , and this adventure became known to all ”(II, 46)
It is asserted that "The question of bestiality is settled", under the pretext that Plutarch, "better connoisseur of the instincts of the beast ... (how should we understand this sentence? [Ed]) corrects in one of his dialogues of the 1st century of our era the relation of the Greek traveler ”, noting that“ the goat of Mendes (here is therefore a goat several times a hundred years old [N. D E.] remains indifferent to the beautiful women with whom he is locked up and that he does not 'ignites only for the goats' (see Florence Maruéjol, L'Amour au temps des pharaons , Éditions First, 2011). The question of the zoophilia of the goat or that of these "beautiful women"?
(121) François Joseph Michel Noël , LJ Carpentier and Louis Puissant, Dictionary of inventions, 4th ed., Revised and corrected, JP Meline, Cans et companie, 1837, p. 332.
(122) Karl Kerényi ( Dionysos: Urbild des unzerstörbaren Lebens , Langen Müller, 1976, p. 308) points out that, according to this tradition, the crowns with which he adorned the heads of his actors were made of komaros fronds , a intoxicating plant of wild strawberries whose fruits are used to fortify wine. According to the Hungarian philologist and historian of religions ( op. Ci t., P. 207), “The massive presence of followers of a non-Greek religion between Lake Gennesareth and the Phoenician coast is attested by the founder of Christianity, who traveled in this region to Tire ”.
(123) http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/68303.
(124) Jules Girard, “Dionysia”. In Charles Daremberg and Edmond Saglio, The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, t. 2, part 1, Paris, Hachette, 1892, p. 230-46; see also Octave Navarre, “Persona”. In ibid. , t. 4, part 1, Hachette, 1873, p. 406,. In practice, it is certain that the use of the mask was necessary. Indeed, only three hypokritai were allowed in a tragedy and any tragedy had more than three characters. However, this very rule testifies to the Dionysian hold on the theater: it responds to the protean and elusive nature of Dionysus.
(125) Those who took pleasure in masking themselves were called satyrs - a term that Lucian of Samosate relates to the Hebrew word "  satur "," Hidden "- or fauns, in Hebrew fanim ," mask "(Encyclopedia of the nineteenth century, 3rd ed., Vol. 9, Paris, 1870, p. 166.
(126) In Pompeii, for example, Isis is represented alongside Bacchus on a fresco and on a silver leaf (Michel Malaise, The Conditions of Penetration and Diffusion of Egyptian Cults in Italy , 1972, Brill, Leiden, p. 197.
(127) Andre Laks and Malcolm Schofield, Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political , Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 150.
(128) Charles Guérin, Persona: Greek Antecedents and First Latin Rhetoric , vol. 1, Vrin, 2009, p. 16- 7.
(129) Maurice Nédoncelle, “Prosôpon et persona in classical antiquity. Linguistic assessment test ”, Revue des Sciences Religieuses, t. 22, fascicle 3-4, 1948, p. 277-99.
(130) Julius Evola, Métaphysique du sexe, L'Âge d'Homme - Guy Trédaniel, Lausanne and Paris, 2006, p. 48.
(131) Carl Gustav Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology , 2nd ed., Routledge, London, p. 158.
(132) Ibid .
(133) The name "Phersu" is inscribed on a fresco painted in the tomb of the omens of the Etruscan necropolis of Monterozzi, near the Italian town of Tarquinia. This inscription is located behind the head of a masked figure who is holding another figure on a leash. Regarding the Etruscan mask, see Jean-René Jannot, “Phersu, Phersuna, Persona”, In  Sports and scenic shows in the Etruscan-Italic world . Proceedings of the round table organized by the Etruscan-Italic Research Team of UMR 126 (CNRS, Paris) and the French School of Rome. Rome, 3-4 May 1991, French School of Rome, 1993, p. 281-320.
(134) Maurice Nédoncelle, op. cit ., p. 288-89.
(135) Martin Nilsson, Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion, flight. I, CH Beck, 1955, p. 461-462; Georg Friedrich Schömann, Greek Antiquities , vol. 2, A. Picard, 1887; see also Honoré d'Albert de Luynes, Numismatic studies on some types relating to the cult  of Hecate , Firmin-Didot frères, Paris, p. 64.
(136) C. Goudineau, “Ιεραι Τραπεζαι”, Mixtures of archeology and history, vol. 79, n ° 79-1, 1967 [p. 77-134], p. 100.
(137) Julius Evola, Sintesi di dottrina della razza , Ar, Padua, 1978, p. 155.
(138) Lindley Powers Spencer, Masks in Theater , vol. 2, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1968, p. 243.
(139) Sylvain Lebreton, “The epicles in the Orphic Hymns: the example of Dionysos”, in Richard Bouchon, Pascale Brillet-Dubois and Nadine Le Meur-Weissman (eds.), Hymns of ancient Greece: Literary and historical approaches , House of the Orient and the Mediterranean, 2012, p. 205.
(140) See Margaret C. Miller, “Reexamining Transvestism in Archaic and Classical Athens: The Zewadski Stamnos”. In American Journal of Archeology, vol. 103, n ° 2 (April, 1999) [p. 223-53].
(14) Ibid .
(142) Here are the circumstances under which this name must have been given to them: “Aghea was king of Macedonia, and Galaure was of the Taulantians. The Taulantians waged war on the Macedonians at a time when Aghea had few troops. He ordered the daughters of the Macedonians, when the enemies brought forward their phalanx, to come down from mountain Erebea and to show themselves to the enemies. As the Taulantians approached, these girls came down from the mountain, shaking thyrsis, instead of darts, and their faces shaded by the crowns they had on their heads. Gaulaure, struck with astonishment, and taking this troop of men from afar, gave the signal to retreat. The Taulantians fled, threw down their weapons, and left their baggage. Argée having had the victory without combat, builds a temple and dedicated it to Bacchus deceiver;and the girls that the Macedonians previously called Ctodones (from a name formed to express the noise they made in the orgies of Bacchus), he ordered that they be called Mimallones (as who would say imitators), because they had imitated men ”(Polyen,Ruses of war , 4, 1).
(143) Ferdinand Hoefer, The Universe: History and Description of All Peoples , vol. 3, Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1852, p. 76.
(144) Bernard Picart, Ceremonies and religious customs of all the peoples of the world , Jean Frédéric Bernard, Amsterdam, vol. 7, p. 148.
(145) Works of Macrobe, translated by Ch. De Rosoy, vol. 2, Firmin Didot, Paris, p. 32-3.
(146) It should be noted in passing that, under Henri III, according to Mézerai, “the most unbridled license reigned in court festivals. He gave a feast, among other things, to his mother, where women served disguised as men ”(in Jean Gaume, La Révolution , vols. 7-8, 1857, p. 180).
(147) This verse, as most secular commentators have observed, might imply that cross-dressing was more or less common in ancient Israel.
(148) “… the eusthatians had advised women to wear men's clothes, that is to say, monk's clothes; they wanted to show by this that, in the state of holiness which they had reached, there was no longer any distinction between man and woman ”(Karl Joseph von Hefele, Histoire des Conciles , vol. 2, Adrien Le Clere, Paris, p. 177). Anathemized, they had, however, only, so to speak, take Paul of Tarsus at his word ( Galatians 3:28): "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free. , there is no longer either man or woman; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ".
(149) See François Bovon, Bertrand Bouvier and Frédéric Amsler Brepols, Acta Philippi, vol. 12, Brepols, 1999, p. 507; see also L'Émoi de l'histoire, n ° 23-29, Historical and archaeological association of the pupils of the Lycée Henri IV, 200, p. 40; M. Delcourt, "The Diana complex in Christian hagiography", Revue de l'histoire des religions 1958, vol. 153, 153-1, p. 1-33, p. 21.
(150) Hartmut Hoffmann, Rudolf Pokorny and Burchard (Bishop of Worms), Das Dekret des Bischofs Burchard von Worms, Hahnsche Buchhandlung , 1991, p. 311.
(151) In the event that a man dressed as a woman, the conviction was based on the belief that the culprit was doing so, either to gain a woman's trust for sexual purposes or to engage in magic rituals. (this is the only reason given by the penitential of Silos [John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance , Columbia University Press, 1938, p. 289]) for prohibiting men from wearing female clothes, the only prohibition male cross-dressing in canon law), or again to satisfy homosexual impulses. In all cases, he was tried and sentenced (Marie de Rasse, “Travestement et transvestisme feminine à la fin du Moyen Age”, Questes, n ° 25, p. 16, available at the following address:http://questes.free.fr/pdf/bulletins/0025/06-art_Marie.pdf , accessed July 15, 2015.
Cross-dressing in this sense, if we can put it that way, was tolerated in two cases: when the man who wore women's clothes was recognized as such (a stunning example is a playful joust organized by Henry II in 1286 in Tire, in which the knights fought dressed as women (Antoine Charles Gidel, Études sur la Littérature Grecque Moderne, Paris, 1866, p. 48); when he performed a social function forbidden to women. He was also in a third case: the theater, in which, as we have repeated many times, the female roles were played by men dressed as women (This practice had not entirely fallen into disuse in the great mysteries of the 15th and 16th centuries century, or even later, if only exceptionally, in secular theater: with Molière,some female roles, including that of Mme Pernelle and Mme Jourdain, were played by men; at Corneille too.). Finally, it was in a fourth case: carnivals and burlesque celebrations associated with liturgical feasts, such as the feast of fools, during which ecclesiastics and choirboys used to disguise themselves as women.
These celebrations were naturally an opportunity for women also to disguise themselves as men. Apart from this ceremonial framework, there would have existed in the "Middle Ages" "many concrete cases" of transvestites, which would indicate that "the attitude of the society of the late Middle Ages, vis-à-vis female transvestism, remains relatively pragmatic and tolerant. ”(See Marie de Rasse, op. Cit .).
As for homosexuals disguised as women, they risked the stake, in the event of an accusation of sodomy. This is what happened in 1372 to a certain Remon, brought to justice for "sin of crap and sodomy" and for having "lived carnally with several men from whom he received profit". It was the first trial of a transvestite in France (Maurice Lever, “La Répression de l'homosexualite”, Historama, n ° 17, July 1985, p. 36-43). In England, the first was held in 1395, when the Lollards accused the clergy of sodomy and the Church accused the Lollards of being sodomites. The accused's name was John Rykener, alias Eleanor. As Isaac Bershady puts it (“Sexual Deviancy and Deviant Sexuality in Medieval England”, Primary Source, vol. 5, n ° 1, p. 14, available at the following address:http://www.indiana.edu/~psource/PDF/Current%20Articles/Fall2014/2%20Bershady%20Fall%2014.pdf, accessed June 15, 2015) "it was not sin in itself that scared the clergy", but the negative publicity that scandals caused the Church. During his interrogation (Internet Medieval Source Book, Paul Walsall, "The Questioning of John Rykener, A Male Cross-Dressing Prostitute, 1395", available at the following address:   http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ source / 1395rykener.asp, viewed July 15, 2015), Eleanor claimed that many of her clients were priests, monks, and nuns and that her favorites were priests because they paid well; there is nothing to cast doubt on his testimony (Isaac Bershady,; DOI: 10.4000 / clio.253 , accessed July 16, 2015. op. cit ., p. 15).
(152) Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough, Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender , University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993, p. 45-6.
(153) See, for the corpus and not for the interpretation of the motif, Delphine Dalens-Marekovic, “The motif of the hero disguised in the Arthurian novel”, 22nd congress of the international Arthurian society (Rennes, 2008), available for consultation) at the following address: http://www.sites.univ-rennes2.fr/celam/ias/actes/pdf/marekovic.pdf, accessed July 15, 2015.
(154) Hélène Gallé, “Disguises and unveiling in the Charroi de Nîmes and the Prize for Orange (compared to other songs of gesture) ”. In Gesture songs: proceedings of the XVI International Congress of the Rencesvals Society, for the study of Romanesque epics, Granada, 21-25 July 2005, Rencesvals Society. University of Granada International Congress, 2005, p. 275.
(155) Debbie Kerkhof, “Transvestite Knights: Men and Women Cross-dressing in Medieval Literature”, Master's Thesis, 2013, p. 51.
(156) Ibid ., P. 62-3.
(157) See Alain Demurger, Croisades et croisés au Moyen Age , Flammarion, 2010.
(158) Neal Bonenberger, “The Forgotten Crusaders - A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of and Effects on Christian Women in the West and the East during the Crusading Era ”. In Binghamton Journal of History (fall 2013 / spring 2014), p. 4; p. 9-10, available at the following address:https://www.binghamton.edu/history/resources/journal-of-history/n-bonenberger.pdf , accessed July 15, 2015.
(159) No less than thirty-four have been found in hagiographic writings from the fourth to the sixth centuries. See Valerie R. Hotchkiss, op. cit ., p. 14.
(160) Delphine Dalens-Marekovic, op. cit ., p. 2.
(161) Basil of Caesarea, The life of Saint Thècle , translated by Joachim Trotti of La Chétardie, N. Jacquard, 1668; see also Frédérique Villemur, “Saintes and transvestites of the Middle Ages”, Clio. History ‚Women and Societies, 1999, available for consultation) at the following address: http://clio.revues.org/253  The
Acts of Paul and Thecla  were denounced as apocryphal, but they were not until the sixth century, that is to say four centuries after their composition. The Christians of the 4th and 5th centuries held them "to be as valid as the Gospels or the Pauline Epistles" (Academy of Inscriptions & Belles Letters, Reports of the sessions of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Letters , Klincksieck Publishing, 1968, p. 60) and “The most orthodox authors will recognize in her not only a historical saint benefiting from a worship (essentially Eastern, one meets it however in the West), but also the prototype of the ideal of chastity on which rests the female (and male) monasticism. Better yet, she becomes the model of holinessby supplanting Perpétue, mother and martyr ”(Frédérique Villemur, op. cit. In Femmes Travesties: un“ bad ”genre , Clio and Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 1999, p. 57 [emphasis added]).  The legend finds a basis in a cult which was paid to Meriamlik in Seleucia, where Thècle is from (see André-Jean Festugière, “Les enigmes de sainte Thècle”, Reports of the sessions of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- Letters, 1968, vol. 112, n ° 1, p. 52-63).
(162) “The Life of Saint Eugenie”, available at the following address: http://orthodoxievco.net/ecrits/vies/moniales/eugenie.pdf, consulted on July 16, 2015.
(163) In Iogna-Prat Dominique, “La Madeleine du Sermo in veneratione sanctae Mariae Magdalenae attributed to Odon de Cluny”. In Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Middle Ages, vol. 104, n ° 104-1, 1992 [p. 37-70]), p. 59.
(164) It will not be out of place to point out the custom which consisted for women to feminize Jesus Christ. “… On some crucifixes, Christ is dressed to the point of being transformed in his own way: in Perpignan, he wears a wig made with a woman's hair, and under his tunic, a feminine shirt; at l'Escorial, another has long hair and a tunic embroidered up to his knees ”. (see Frédérique Villemur, op. cit.)
(165) He says of his mother, virtuoso of the oxymoron, that she hid "under her woman's clothes a heart filled with a virile faith" (Augustine,The Confessions , IX, p. 307, in Masterpieces of the Fathers of the Church , t. 12, Paris, 1838).
(166) See Laila Abdalla, “Man, woman or monster: some themes of female masculinity and transvestism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance”, Doctoral Thesis, McGill, 1996, available at the following address: http: // www. nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq29865.pdf , accessed July 16, 2015.
(167) In Yelena Mazour-Matusevich, “The position of Jean Gerson (1363-1429) towards women” , The Middle Ages, t. CXII, 2006; p. 337 - 53.
(168) In Dominique Arnauld, History of Christianity in Africa: the first seven centuries , ARTHALA, 2001, p. 328.
(169) Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, V, 1, 41.
(170) Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin (ed.), François Poullain de La Barre, On equality of the two sexes , Vrin, p. 298-9. On the other hand, the feeling of the equality of man and woman is very present in patristic literature, from Hierosme to Clement of Alexandria and, naturally - from Gobineau judiciously pointed out that he did not is that the inferior who can speak of equality and that the discourse of the inferior on equality is the means he uses to usurp the place of the superior - that of the superiority of women is emerging there .
(171) See, for de Pisan's feminism, Sarah Hanley, “Identity Politics and Rulership in France: Female Political Place and the Fraudulent Salic Law in Christine de Pizan and Jean de Montreuil”. In Michael Wolfe, Changing Identities in Early Modern France, Duke University Press, 1996, p. 78-94.
(172) Isabelle Constant, The sparkling words of Christiane Rochefort: languages ​​of utopia, Editions Rodopi BV, Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA, 1996, p. 158. Why would a woman have disguised herself as a man to enter the monastery, since, like the convent, it was not forbidden to women? To be able to be deacon or priest, the women not having been admitted any more to the priesthood since the decree of Gratien (1140). But this explanation can only apply to those who disguised themselves to enter these religious institutions from the second third of the thirteenth century, because the decree of Gratian, curiously enough, did not enter canon law until 1234.
(173 ) Bernadette McNary-Zak, “Christine de Pizan's Vision for the Exemplary Parenting of Mother Marina”, available at: http://www.readperiodicals.com/201411/3522786971.html, accessedJuly 16, 2015.
(174) Christine McWebb, “Le Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun and the Book of the Three Virtues by Christine de Pizan: a catoptric palimpsest”, Doctoral Thesis, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario , Canada, available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0009/NQ40277.pdf, accessed July 16, 2015.
(175) Nicole Pellegrin ( ed.), Histoires d'historiennes , Publications of the University of Saint Etienne, 2006, p. 26.
(176) This is evidenced by the case of Joan of Arc, whose fellow soldiers “repeatedly declared during her trial that they had never felt any sexual desire towards Joan the transvestite, even when they slept in the same bedroom she and saw her naked body. John II, Duke of Alenyon experienced the same phenomenon although he saw her breasts. Gobert Thibault, a royal lord, testified that the soldiers in the fields with Jeanne "believed that it was impossible to desire her" "(Amy Christine West," Christine de Pizan: the construction of a female 'authority' ", Thesis de Maîtrise, McMaster University, May 2001, available at: https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/13562/1/fulltext.pdf , accessed July 16, 2015
(177) It seems to have for origin two ancient anecdotes, one told by Aeneas in his Poliorcetics, the other by Polyen in his Stratagems; both are apparently based on oriental folk traditions and, in any case, they are of Dionysian inspiration. François Delpech, “Heroic pilosities”, Bulletin Hispanique, t. 100, Number 1, 1998 (p. 131-164), p. 144.
(178) Charles Cahier, Characteristics of saints in popular art , 1867, p. 121.
(179) See Frédérique Villemur, op. cit .
(180) Augustin Fangé, Memoirs to serve in the history of the beard of man , Liège, 1774, p. 57.
(181) Charles Cahier, op. cit ., p. 122.
(182) The figure of the transvestite warrior, haloed with marvels, will become a topos in the Spanish novel in the 15th century. Much more realistic are the features of the young orphans who enlist in the king's army to follow their lover and defend their country arms in hand, in the novels, given as true-false memoirs, by Madame de Villedieu ( 1640-1683).
In the 17th century, the theme of the young girl who disguises herself as a man to achieve warlike exploits in the absence of a sick father or a dead brother and who leaves her male clothes once her mission has been accomplished is recurrent in tales of Mademoiselle L'Héritier de Valandon. Influenced or not by these accounts, it was precisely from the 17th century that women disguised as men introduced themselves en masse into European armies (Augustin Redondo, Relations between men and women in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries , 1995, p. . 59).
(183) Nicole Dufournaud, “Women in arms in the 16th century. Thinking about women's violence ”, Paris, 2010, p. 3, available at the following address: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00687858/document, p. 3, accessed July 16, 2015.
(184) See, for documented cases of women disguising themselves as men to enter the monastery, Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe , Routlege, 2012 , p. 15-16.
(185) Yongku, Cha, Hildegund von Schönau - Eine Mittelalerliche Transgender - Eine historisch ‐ psychologische Analysis , Chung ‐ Ang University, Seoul, available at the following address: http://medsociety.or.kr/layouts/MLT_Simple_sub/2010Yong -Ku,% 20CHA.htm , accessed July 16, 2015.
(186) “Saints, Cult of the”. In Carl Lindahl, John McNamara and John Lindow (eds.), Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 356.
(187) The name of Liberata which was given to the saint "because of the way in which Heaven had rid her of marriage, made her call more or less Saint Debarras ... As a result of this denomination, had come to England the idea that the saint could be particularly helpful to women who wanted to get rid of their husbands ”(Charles Cahier, op. cit . p. 60).
(188) Frank Dufossé, “Sainte Wilgeforte”, available at the following address: http://www.mincoin.com/infos/sainte-wilgeforte.php, consulted on July 16, 2015. It is present in the iconography in Italy (under the name Liberata - see Federico Troletti, The continuity between pagan and Christian cult, available at the following address:http://www.rockartscandinavia.com/images/articles/santea10.pdf (189) Jacques Baudoin, Big book of saints: worship and iconography in the West , EDITIONS CREER, 2006, p. 310. (190) Valerie R. Hotchkiss, op. cit ., p. 16., accessed 16 July 2015), France and England (Worstead, Boxford, Norwhich and, under the name Uncumber, at Westminster Abbey - see Christine King, “Shrines and Pilgrimages before the Reformation”, History Today, vol. 29, n ° 10, October 1979, p. 664-69, available at the following address:   http://historyonline.chadwyck.co.uk/getImage?productsuffix=_studyunits&action=printview&in=gif&out=pdf&src=/pci /c172-1979-029-10-000006/conv/c172-1979-029-10-000006.pdf&IE=.pdf , accessed July 16, 2015).

(191) Jennifer Lynne Henery, “Early Christian Sex Change. The Ascetical Context of Being Made Male in Early Christianity ”, Doctoral Thesis, Marquette University, 2009, p. 13-14, available at the following address: http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1153&context=dissertations_mu , consulted on July 16, 2015 (192) Jean Mabillon, Museum italicum , t. 1, pars alt., P. 281, 1687. The accounts of the martyrdom of certain transvestites still form part of the liturgy of John Chrysostom, the most common in the Byzantine rite. In the Catholic area, many catechisms still refer to such or such a transvestite saint in the 19th century. This is the case, for example, of the Catechism of Montpellier by Charles Colbert de Croissy, reissued until the middle of the 19th century. (193) Valerie R. Hotchkiss, op. cit ., p. 14.

(194) Paul Lacroix, “La Fête des fous”. In Paul Lacroix and Ferdinand Seré (eds.), The Middle Ages and the Renaissance , t. 1, Paris, 1848, p. 110.
(195) In the 6th century, the nuns of Poitiers, known for their shamelessness, were accused, among other offenses, of having celebratedbarbatoria , masquerades where fauns were represented. The presence of barbatories in the feast of fools seems to indicate that it is only the continuation of the barbatoria and that it is therefore older than we think. Incidentally, the barbatoria , like the other Christian liturgical celebrations of the "Middle Ages", have their origin in Roman antiquity, but in this case, in a properly Roman custom which had no connection with Dionysian worship: that which consisted in giving a meal to his friends, the day we had a beard for the first time (Jacques Antoine Dulaure, op. cit ., p. 307.
(196) Jacques-Antoine Dulaure, Histoire de Paris et of its monuments, flights. 1 - 2, Furne et Cie, p. 115, 1846.
(197) Paul Lacroix, op. cit ., p. 114.
(198) Still in the 19th century, in the Netherlands, an Ursuline convent celebrated the feast of the Innocents in this way.
(199) Hermann Ewerbeck, What is the Bible ?: according to the new German philosophy , Paris, 1850, p. 129.
(200) The similarities between Christianity and the cult of Dionysus are numerous in other respects. “Dionysus, whose father, as in Christian history, was 'god', but whose mother was a mortal (Semele), was represented in the East in the guise of a young bearded man with a majestic look, who not only had taught men to cultivate vines, but also gave them laws, while promoting the arts, preaching happiness and promoting peace. Like Jesus, he had a violent death and had descended to hell. But then he had experienced a resurrection and an ascension; and these were commemorated in sacred ceremonies. According to a legend, he had turned into a bull and had been cut to pieces by his enemies; according to another legend, he had been changed into a ram.Its worshipers used to cut up a bull or a goat and eat its meat raw. He was associated with various animals, including the goat and the donkey. And it was said that he had mounted two donkeys and then transformed them into constellations ”(Acharya S.,Suns of God , Adventures University Press, 2004, p. 99; see also Karl Kerény, op. cit .) Moreover, according to the historian Theopomp of Chios (378-323 BC), Dionysus changed water into wine every year on the island of Naxos. The similarities between the cult of Dionysus and Christianity were so numerous that the Romans of the 2nd century AD confused these two cults, as evidenced by the Dialogue of Saint Justin with the Jew Tryphon (X).
(201) This would be the origin of the night services still celebrated today, at certain times, in Catholicism.
(202) Ami Perrier, Dance, masquerades and processions in the Roman Church , Geneva, 1870, p. 13.
(203) Ibid ., P. 14.
(204) Ibid ., P. 15.
(205) De Jejunio , 17. In Stuart A. Donaldson, Church life and thought in North Africa, AD 200 , Cambridge University Press, p. 70; see also Louis Joseph Antoine de Potter, Philosophical, Political and Critical History of Christianity and Christian Churches , 1830, p. cxxxv.
It should be noted that Tertullian does not target “heretics” in particular and that he does not give any details on the course of the feasts. Perhaps it is for this last reason that his accusations are not declared “suspicious” by the very few academics who have dared to take up the quoted line of De Jejuno. On the other hand, the detailed testimony of Epiphanes of Cyprus on the agapic practices of the Phibionites (as well as those of the Cataphrygians, Quintillians, Pepuzians and Priscillians) is challenged by specialists, who are also very rare, who undertake to do so. attack it.
According to Epiphanius, these sects “engage in sumptuous feasts which begin with a very special greeting: the men shake hands with women, secretly stroking and tickling their palms from below ( Panarion , 26, 4, 2) … But the festivities don't really begin until the company is seated with food and drink. Married couples separate to engage in a liturgy of sexual intercourse, each with a different member of the community ( ibid., 26, 4, 4). The union is not meant to be successful however, as the man withdraws before orgasm. The couple then collects the seed in their hands and swallows it together, exclaiming: “This is the body of Christ”. When possible the couple also collects and consumes the woman's menstrual blood, saying, “this is the blood of Christ” ( ibid.  26, 4, 5-8). If by any chance the woman becomes pregnant, the fetus is allowed to develop until a manual abortion can be performed. Then, says Epiphanes, it is dismembered, coated with honey and spices, and devoured by the community as a special Eucharistic meal ( ibid ., 26, 5, 4-6).
“The leaders of the group who have achieved perfection no longer need women for this celebration. They engage in homosexual relations with each other (Panarion 26, 11, 8). Moreover, Epiphanes informs us, the adepts practice sacred masturbation. They can then consume the body of Christ in the privacy of their own room ”.
Bart Ehrman, the author of these lines, inclines to think that Epiphanes' account is not very credible and only aims to slander the Phibionites in order to discredit them (see Bart T. Ehrman, Lost Christianities , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 199-20, available at the following address: https://thebibleisnotholy.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/ehrman-lost-christianities_the-battle-for-scripture-and-the-faiths-we- never-knew-2003.pdf, accessed July 16, 2015.
The fact remains that the Phibionites could rely on certain biblical verses to justify their practices; other “heretical” sects too (John of Damascus indicates that the Pepuzians, “To make their initiations… kill a young child with brass needles” and that, “like the Cataphygasts, they knead flour with his blood of wheat, they make bread and take their share of the oblation ”(Pierre Champagne de Labriolle, The sources of the history of Montanism, Greek, Latin, Syriac texts, The University of Friborg, 1913, p. 248); Augustine reports that the Cataphrygians, Pepuzians and Quintilians have "culpable mysteries", which would consist "in serving, to compose their Eucharist, the blood of a one-year-old child whose body they would cover with pinpricks, and that they would mix with flour to make bread. If the child dies as a result of this treatment, they consider him to be a martyr; and if he survives, they make him a high priest ”(Augustin, De haeresibus , 26. In Complete Works of Saint Augustine , t. 25, Paris, 1870, p. 222); Philastre says that the Cataphrygians "pass to mix, in the celebration of the Passover, the blood of a child with their sacrifices" (in Thomas Rogers, The Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England, The University Press, Cambridge, 1854, p. 295)). They could rely, among other things, on John 6:53: “Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. "
Béranger de Tours, after having contested the real presence of Jesus Christ in the host, was condemned at the Council of Tours (1050) and was obliged to retract at the Council of Rome (1079): “Me Bérenger, I believe from the heart and I professionally profess that the bread and wine placed on the altar, by the mystery of sacred prayer and by the words of our Redeemer, are substantially converted into the true, life-giving and clean flesh and into the blood of Jesus- Christ our Lord, and that after the consecration it is the true body of Christ, who was born of the Virgin and, offered for the salvation of the world, was suspended on the cross, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and it is the true blood of Christ, which shed from his side, and this not only in sign and by virtue of the sacrament,but in property of nature and in truth of substance ”(Louis Georges Bareille,The Roman catechism , t. 4, 1906, Soubiron, p. 427-28).
In 1418, the Council of Constance condemned forty-five propositions drawn from the doctrine of de Wyclif, including the following: " Christus non est in eodem sacramento identice et realiter propria praesentia corporali  " (Gaetano De Folgore, Institutiones theologicae ad usum studiosae juventutis , t. 5, Naples, 1822, p. 480). He rectifies it as follows: “  quod post consecrationem sacerdotis in sacramento altaris sub velamento panis et vini non sit panis materialis et vinum materiale, sed idem per omnia Christus, which flees in cruce passus, and sedet ad dexteram Patris; - Quod facta consecratione per sacerdotem, sub sola specie panis tantum, and praeter speciem vini. sit vera caro Christi and magnis and anima and deitas and totus christus. ac idem corpus absolute and sub una qualibet illarum specierum singulariter . »(Karl Joseph von Hefele, op. Cit ., Letouzey and Ané, 1916, 1876, p. 523)
The Council of Trent will confirm this: "If someone says that in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist are not really, really and substantially contained the body and the blood at the same time as the soul and the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and, consequently, the whole of Christ, but says that they are only there as in a sign or a figure or virtually: let him be anathema. »Pius X will reaffirm it (Great catechism of Rome: prescribed by HH Pope Pius X to the dioceses of the province of Rome. Authorized French translation, Lethielleux, 1908). Paul VI (1897-1978) will drive the point home, as is the case: "the Holy Council teaches and professes openly and without detour, except in the venerable Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, after the consecration of bread and wine. , our Lord Jesus Christ,true God and true Man, is present really, really and substantially under the guise of these sensible realities. »(Gervais Dumeige, Doctrinal Texts of the Magisterium of the Church on the Catholic Faith, KARTHALA, 1993, p. 405).
Who are the "heretics"? Who are the “Orthodox”?
The academics or students who have taught us learnedly for several decades that “vero”, “really”, etc. in these texts should not be taken literally no longer forced to retract. It is not certain that, to take one example among a thousand, the Anabaptists whom the inhabitants of Leyden at the beginning of the 17th century saw running naked in the streets, on the grounds that "the truth is bare and that one should not be clothed only in virtues ”(Mathieu-Richard-Auguste Henrion, General History of the Church, t. 11, 4th ed., Gaume Frères, 1841, p. 439), would have followed them. Admitting that it is naive to take the Bible literally, it is even more so to think that the common people, who have always formed the main body of Christianity, have never been able to grasp its meaning " anagogic ”, especially since the doctrine of the four senses (literal, moral, mystical and, precisely, anagogical) of Scripture was not outlined until the middle of the third century by Origen, only to be systematized until the 5th century. century by the Scythian Cassian (360-435) (Donald Senior and John J. Collins, The Catholic Study Bible, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 58); all the more so since Origen, no more than the Fathers of the Church, “does not (volatilize) the historical or literal meaning. It is the first meaning of the text and the basis of any interpretation ”(Jacques Liébaert, Les Pères de l'Eglise: Ier - IVe siècle , vol. 1, Desclée, Paris, 1986, p. 96).
To return from there to the specifically orgiastic character which would have been that of the sexual practices of the phibionites, first of all, it will not have escaped the reader that some of these refer to Tantrism. Then, there is evidence, with regard to the “Middle Ages”, of the holding of orgies within Christian movements, like that of the reformer monk Tanchelin († 1115), the fossarians, the turlupins and their high priestess, the good named Guillermine the Milanese, the brothers of the free spirit, etc.
(206) Othon Brunsfels, in his Onomasticon Medicinae (1524), is one of the first to have assimilated corybantysm to the dance of Saint Vitus.
(207) Paul Lacroix, op. cit., p. 115. Plato ( The Laws) approves of certain dances and condemns others, in particular those of the Tuscans, because they are lascivious and involve indecent postures; they were moreover danced to the saturnalia and the bacchanalia and, in Rome, they took the name of nuptial dances. As these dances caused disorder in Rome, they were abolished under the reign of Tiberius; endowed with a keen sense of what was properly Roman, he ordered the expulsion from Rome, by a decree of the senate, of all the dancers and all the dance masters, who had been established there for a very long time for the education of the young; passionate about dance, his successor, Caligula, had it reestablished in all its forms (Jacques Bonnet, Histoire générale de la danse, sacrée et prophane, Paris, 1724, p. 180-81; more Roman in spirit, Domitian drove out of the Senate senators who publicly danced this type of dance ( ibid ., p. 24).
“You would like to know perhaps, asks François Henri Joseph Castil-Blaze, what was the nuptial dance? My respect for antiquity forbids me to tell you; but read the Promenade around the world, published by M. Arago: if I remember correctly, you will find there the description of the chica, dance of the negroes of Africa. Suppose the actors are white and dressed in Roman costume, you will get an exact idea of ​​the entertainment that was all the rage at the opera house in the capital of the Caesars Empire then. »(François Henri Joseph Castil-Blaze,, Dance and ballets from Bacchus to Mademoiselle TaglioniPaulin, 1832, p. 14).
(208) Claire Biquard, Le mal de Saint Vit (or Saint Guy) , Bulletin of the Center for the Study of the History of Medicine. n ° 39, January 2002, p. 33-50.
(209) Alfred Maury, Du Corybantisme , Annales medico psychologiques, t. 10, Victor Masson, Paris, 1847, p. 63-4.
(210) Claire Biquard, op. cit .
(211) Ami Perrier, op. cit ., p. 53.
(212) In Hermann Ewerbeck, op. cit., p. 128-29. Let us also quote Jacques le Goff ( L'Occident médieval, Paris, 1964, p.303. In Claire Biquard, op. Cit.): “We have to think about this physical fragility, this physiological ground suitable for sustaining in sudden blooms of collective crises, diseases of the body and soul, the extravagances of religiosity. » Historical-Portable Dictionary
(213) Paul Rayher, The English Masks , Hachette, B. Blom, Paris, 1909, p. 2-3.
(214) Dupontel, “Les bals costumé”, La revue de Paris, vol. 1 (p. 55-65), p. 58.
(215) Ibid ., P. 64.
(216) The bishop who gave him the confirmation having asked him if he did not want to change his Jewish name of Isaac, he answered him: "With all my heart, as long as I do not lose anything. »(Jean Baptiste Ladvocat,, vol. 1, Jean-Jacques Schorndorff, Basel, 1758, p. 154). Isaac de Benserade seemed to be more interested in his surname: he liked to give himself a Moorish origin, claiming that "Benserade was a corruption" Abencerade "(Charles-Joseph Panckoucke (ed.), Encyclopédie Méthodique, flight. 1, Paris, 1784, p. 594).
(217) Ibid. , p. 64.
(218) Antoine-René de Voyer by Paulmy d'Argenson, Mélanges drawn from a large library , 1782, Moutard, p. 280.
(219) Benjamin Gastineau, “Paris en rose (the carnival)”. In Le Moniteur de la mode, January 1, 1866, p. 30.
(220) Claude Noirot, The origin of masks , Constant Leber, 1609, p. 126.
(221) Ibid., p. 127.
(222) Henry Prunières, Le ballet de cour en France avant Benserade et Lully , Henri Laurens Paris, 1913, p. 37.
(223) Ibid ., P. 38.
(224) Benjamin Gastineau, op. cit ., p. 30.
(225) Pierre-François Godard de Beauchamps, Recherches sur les theatres de France , Prault, 1735, p. 39.
(226) Claude Longeon, A French Province at the Renaissance, Center d'Etudes Foréziennes , 1975, p. 196.
(227) Georges Forestier, The theater in the theater , 2nd ed. Augmented, Droz, 1996, p. 38.
(228) Paul Friedland, “Métissage: The Merging of Theater and Politics in Revolutionary France”, Princeton, Institute for Advanced Studies, Occasional Papers N ° 4, available at the following address: https: //www.sss.ias. edu / files / papers / paperfour.pdf , p. 2, consulted on June 10, 2015. Réflexions sur theater
(229) “The great majority of individuals are in this sense deprived of a nucleus, but it is only in remarkable and important individuals that we are struck by this absence, observed moreover mainly in those who have a talent for recreation, especially among brilliant actors and more particularly actresses ”(Arthur Schnitzler, Relations et solitudes. Aphorismes , Rivages pocket, 1988, p. 13.
(230) Bertrand de La Tour ,, in  Complete works, t .. 4-7, JP Migne, 1855, p. 888-89. Although criticism of the theater is conducted from a strictly moral point of view and the author, a clergyman by trade, finds it difficult to come to terms with the idea that the propagation and success of the theater are largely due party to his employer; although it is not devoid of historical errors and one-sided explanations, this pamphleteous work is remarkably stripping.
(231) Julius Evola, Gli Uomini e le rovine , Edizioni Mediterranee, 2013, p. 208.
(232) "The power of the arts over the masses will always be found to be in direct proportion to the quantity of black blood which they can contain" (Arthur de Gobineau,, Essay on the inequality of human racesPierre Belfond, 1967, p. 317).
Theatrocracy (3)
Posted on September 30, 2015 by Elements of Racial Education

“  A generation has arisen which, in order to resolve the difficulties
of supernatural systems, imagine a vast and powerful thing
which has no form, but which represents itself to it as a
Great Eye. They take this infinite perspective for the natura
naturans, or formative principle. According to the opinion of the
readers of this old legend so ridiculed that is the Bible
that man is made in the image of his creator, it is claimed that
the human soul is qualitatively similar to its original.
The soul of man, in the opinion of these naturalists, is therefore an
immense optical principle which is prevalent in all its parts,
although it sits mainly in his head. From where they conclude
that all beings are reduced to eyes…  ”

Daniel Defoe, The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon

“ It's because there are unspectacular looks.
The worker can observe the operation of a machine,
he is not the spectator. It is because he is looking for a
dysfunction, it is because he is paid for it and that
is his activity. This gaze, like that of the man
who scans the surroundings to find his way, is
subordinate to action. In this way, man manifests his
interaction. Watching is a way of acting, of responding,
of taking part in the movements of the world. On the contrary,
the spectator stands entirely in the gaze, but
in a gaze absolutely separate from the action. What makes
the spectator is the exteriority of his gaze ”.

Thomas Dommange, Instruments of Resurrection

“  The opening of the camera obscura corresponds to a single point,
mathematically definable, from which the world can be
logically deduced by a progressive accumulation and a combination
of signs. It is a device that embodies the position of man
between God and the world. Based on the laws of nature (optics),
but transposed to a plane external to nature, the camera obscura
provides a point of view on the world analogous to the eye of God. It is
an infallible metaphysical eye more than a "mechanical" eye. The
testimony of the senses was thus rejected in favor of the representations
of this monocular apparatus, the authenticity of which was incontestable.  "

Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer on Vision and Modernity in the Century

Theatron ("theater") derives from the verb theaomai, "to watch, to contemplate" ("to look by absorbing oneself in the sight of the object") and "to be a spectator", that is to say, literally, attend a performance, a show and, in the broad sense, be content to observe a phenomenon, an event, without getting involved. To dramatize, initially, it will be, if it is permitted to express oneself thus, to make the theater theatrical: to give to the theater all the characteristics likely to make the spectator detached, or better: passive; and, in a second step, to make him the spectator, not only, from time to time, of a performance, but, continuously, of his own life: to duplicate him, to make him exterior to himself and to ensure that he himself is the object of his own contemplation.A screen should be interposed between his gaze and reality and he should be used to staring at the image that will be projected on it. His gaze must be cut off from beings and things, to be exposed to the representation of beings and things. This representation will be perspective: it will subject the image to mathematization. The more the gaze has been accustomed to the image, the more it will tend to look at reality in the same way: with detachment, with passivity, until it no longer has control over reality; the more the gaze has been accustomed to the perspective image, the more it will tend to unconsciously see and experience the world as number, pure quantity. The eye of the hunter will give way to the eye of the hunted.to be exposed to the representation of beings and things. This representation will be perspective: it will subject the image to mathematization. The more the gaze has been accustomed to the image, the more it will tend to look at reality in the same way: with detachment, with passivity, until it no longer has control over reality; the more the gaze has been accustomed to the perspective image, the more it will tend to unconsciously see and experience the world as number, pure quantity. The eye of the hunter will give way to the eye of the hunted.to be exposed to the representation of beings and things. This representation will be perspective: it will subject the image to mathematization. The more the gaze has been accustomed to the image, the more it will tend to look at reality in the same way: with detachment, with passivity, until it no longer has control over reality; the more the gaze has been accustomed to the perspective image, the more it will tend to unconsciously see and experience the world as number, pure quantity. The eye of the hunter will give way to the eye of the hunted.the more the gaze has been accustomed to the perspective image, the more it will tend to unconsciously see and experience the world as number, pure quantity. The eye of the hunter will give way to the eye of the hunted.the more the gaze has been accustomed to the perspective image, the more it will tend to unconsciously see and experience the world as number, pure quantity. The eye of the hunter will give way to the eye of the hunted.
The image will first be pictorial, that is to say fixed, then animated, that is to say theatrical (is not the theater, as the theorists of the arts liked to conceive of it? the “Renaissance”, a painting in motion?), before becoming cinematographic and finally (?) digital. The disproportionate importance that these two visual arts ended up taking in the “Renaissance” can only be explained by the centrality of the concept of image in the Christian religion and it is with an overview of this concept that this study of theatricalization in the "Renaissance". It continues with an examination of the Old Testament concept of the artisan / artist divinity (*); taken up and followed ad infinitum by artists and art theorists of the time, it led to a conception of the world as painting and, at the same time, as theater. “From the Middle Ages,close links existed between these two arts, conceived as two means of preaching in images, where frescoes and sacred representations played the same role and resorted to the same processes of spatial figuration. The kinship is accentuated with the gradual advent of Italian theater (or “theater of pictorial illusion”) during the 16th century: the stage, framed and put at a distance, is thought of as a painting. The invention of pictorial perspective in the Quattrocento and its application to the theater, where the painter gradually took over from the architect, laid the foundations for a visual culture common to all theorists ”(**).where frescoes and sacred representations played the same role and used the same processes of spatial figuration. The kinship is accentuated with the gradual advent of Italian-style theater (or “theater of pictorial illusion”) during the 16th century: the stage, framed and placed at a distance, is thought of as a painting. The invention of pictorial perspective in the Quattrocento and its application to the theater, where the painter gradually took over from the architect, laid the foundations for a visual culture common to all theorists ”(**).where frescoes and sacred representations played the same role and used the same processes of spatial representation. The kinship is accentuated with the gradual advent of Italian theater (or “theater of pictorial illusion”) during the 16th century: the stage, framed and put at a distance, is thought of as a painting. The invention of pictorial perspective in the Quattrocento and its application to the theater, where the painter gradually took over from the architect, laid the foundations for a visual culture common to all theorists ”(**).The invention of pictorial perspective in the Quattrocento and its application to the theater, where the painter gradually took over from the architect, laid the foundations for a visual culture common to all theorists ”(**).The invention of pictorial perspective in the Quattrocento and its application to the theater, where the painter gradually took over from the architect, laid the foundations for a visual culture common to all theorists ”(**).
The pictorial representation of the world crystallized at the court of Versailles, where the Jesuit theater seemed to find its culmination. We will focus here on the Society of Jesus, which had a profound influence on the mentality and sensitivity of contemporaries, not only through its pedagogy, but also through the part it played in the dissemination of baroque art and therefore in the development from the subjective point of view. It was at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that “a change occurred in the way of conceiving the world as it is given to our senses. The sensible is henceforth autonomized in relation to the intelligible; it is no longer the imperfect reflection of Ideas and constitutes an autonomous phenomenal world that Kant will theorize in the Critique of pure reason. The aistheta, facts of sensitivity,become an independent object of reflection ”and, simultaneously, the sensible is subjectivized: it exists only for and through a subject. Sensible beauty is not a quality intrinsic to the object "and still less the echo in the object of the intelligible Idea of ​​beauty: it is a relational quality which arises from the meeting of an object and 'a subject, an idea that arises in us from contact with certain properties of things. More precisely, it is a particular complex of first and second qualities perceived by an internal sense. The beautiful must henceforth be thought in its relation to the subject and not in its connection with the world of Ideas. The sensitive beauty thus acquires its own consistency and becomes independent of any other form of beauty, intellectual or moral. To show the importance of this change,it will be essential to take a quick glance at what, from antiquity to the "Middle Ages", opposed or on the contrary prepared the birth of aesthetics. This study will end with some essential considerations on the device which served as a sort of research laboratory on the modern subject: the theater said in the Italian style and the perspective representation which characterizes it.
Given our premises, it is almost useless to say that art in general and the visual arts in particular are considered here as practices falling under what has been called since the end of the 19th century "social engineering" ( ***).

Imago

The concept of image, of Near-Eastern origin (232), is at the center of Judeo-Christian theology and anthropology.

From a theological point of view

"You shall not make an image for yourself" (Exodus, 20, 4-6); “No cropped image”. "You shall not make any image" (Deuteronomy, 5-8); “No sculpted image”. By making a golden calf, therefore, the Israelites violated the second commandment; the statue of Nebuchadnezzar (ibid., 3-4), the statue of Zeus that Antiochus IV Epiphanes had installed in the temple of Jerusalem (1 Maccabees 1, 41-64) in 167 BC, also constituted patent violations. On the other hand, Yahweh ordered to make two cherubim of gold and to place them on the ark of the covenant (Exodus, 25,18-22) and to embroider them on the ten linen rugs of the Tabernacle (Exodus, 26, 1); and Solomon was never criticized by later biblical writers for having ordered to place in the Temple “two cherubim of wild olive wood” (1 Kings, 6, 23-28). In the first cases,the images were regarded as signs of idolatry, that is to say of a worship given to the idol of a deity as if it were the deity itself; but not in the second cases.
The Fathers of the Church took up this distinction between idolatrous images and non-idolatrous images, some to condemn both (never, even in Tertullian, absolutely), others to approve, not without reservation and limitation. , the last. Neither the poet and ecclesiastical Paulin de Nole (v. 353 - 431), nor the monk and writer Nil d'Ancyre (end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century), nor Sixtus III (440), contravened the second commandment, the first, when he had the churches he had dedicated to Felix adorned with paintings (233); the second, when he approved the presence of images of saints in churches (234); Sixtus III, when he had the main episodes of the Nativity painted on the vault of Saint Andrew's church (235).All contemporary testimonies attest that all the churches were more or less richly decorated with mosaic paintings (236). Christians were not iconophobes any more than the Jews (237).
Constantine, the first Christian emperor, set the tone, building and lavishly decorating the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, while destroying the temples and "idols" (238). He had a profusion of paintings, statues, bas-reliefs executed, bearing the effigy of Jesus Christ, Mary, the prophets and the apostles, at a time when churches were growing, with all due respect for these cryptogamous plants, like mushrooms from Rome to Bethlehem, from Tire to Naples. When Constantine acceded to the throne, it had already been two or three centuries since Roman art had both grown heavier and softer, under the influence of the East. He had been contaminated with mosaic paint and the arabesque. The painting was overloaded with gold, armenium and cinnabar, fine stones and colored glass.You had to dazzle the eyes with the most bizarre colors and the rarest, most precious materials. Himself effeminate (he wore silk dresses embroidered with gold and was covered with pearls, precious stones, necklaces, bracelets, etc.) Constantine had eyes only for curves (239).
The reign of Arcadius and Honorius saw the rapid proliferation of religious images; it continued under that of Theodosius. It was customary to completely cover the interior of churches with paintings and mosaics. It would last until the 11th century. No matter where the devotee looked, they would come across an image, whether it was a picture of a New Testament or Old Testament story, of the death of a martyr, or a portrait of a apostle or bishop; it was not uncommon for her gaze to meet a marine, a landscape, an animal, hunters on the walls. Damasus (v. 305–384) had the catacombs restored. Vigil (end of the 5th century - 555) and John III († 574) followed his example. Gregory 1st (v. 540 - 604) encouraged the bishops to multiply the holy images. Pelagius II, pope from 579 to 590,had churches and catacombs decorated with new mosaics. All over Europe at the time, prelates embellished religious buildings. They didn't have to look very far to find artists. The first known painters were ecclesiastics; even after the execution of the paintings had been entrusted to lay painters, their composition remained for a long time reserved for bishops and abbots.
Two events of considerable importance in the history of painting occurred between the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century.
First, the Council of Constantinople (692) proscribed allegory in the representation of religious subjects, particularly in that of the crucifixion (240), in favor of realism. It was after this council that the images of Jesus on the cross began to spread.
Then, the proscription of the images of Jesus Christ, of Mary and of the saints pronounced by Leo the Isaurian in 730 and the persecution which followed from it of the Greek painters had the opposite effects to those which were expected. Iconoclasm only sparked new enthusiasm for images and energized industry. In fact, the papacy, in order to better break the bonds which united Rome to Constantinople, had vast monasteries built for artist monks who fled from Greece. Used, since the iconoclastic emperors had replaced religiously inspired paintings in churches by images of animals, trees or plants, to represent scenes of this kind, their installation in Western Europe gave a new impetus for realism.
In 787, the Second Council of Nicaea, attended by representatives of Pope Hadrian, condemned iconoclasm and decreed that the images of the crucifix, of Jesus Christ, of Mary and of the saints could be depicted on vases, on clothing and on the walls. The acts of the council, translated into Latin in Rome, were sent to the court of Charlemagne. The translation was terrible. The theologians of the Frankish king interpreted them as a sanction of idolatry and undertook to answer them point by point (241). Their response took on the dimension of a theological treatise in four books, called Libri Carolini (242), in which it was asserted that images were permitted as decoration in churches, as long as they were not signs. of idolatry.Charlemagne confirmed by a capitular the ancient practice of painting churches. Every year, his missi traveled the provinces to verify that he was respected. The oratories which he had erected in the middle of the camps were entirely adorned with colored images. A church was not considered finished if it had not been decorated with religious scenes and various ornaments. In the 9th century, in addition to paintings, it became common to use tapestries and hangings, called "Saracen carpets" (the origin of the tapestry is Eastern) (243) to decorate churches; their subjects were drawn from holy stories and bestiaries.The oratories which he had erected in the middle of the camps were entirely adorned with colored images. A church was not considered finished if it had not been decorated with religious scenes and various ornaments. In the 9th century, in addition to paintings, it became common to use tapestries and hangings, called “Saracen carpets” (the origin of the tapestry is Eastern) (243) to decorate churches; their subjects were drawn from holy stories and bestiaries.The oratories which he had erected in the middle of the camps were entirely adorned with colored images. A church was not considered finished if it had not been decorated with religious scenes and various ornaments. In the 9th century, in addition to paintings, it became common to use tapestries and hangings, called “Saracen carpets” (the origin of the tapestry is Eastern) (243) to decorate churches; their subjects were drawn from holy stories and bestiaries.called “Saracen carpet” (the origin of the tapestry is oriental) (243) for the decoration of churches; their subjects were drawn from holy stories and bestiaries.called “Saracen carpet” (the origin of the tapestry is oriental) (243) for the decoration of churches; their subjects were drawn from holy stories and bestiaries.
Crowned heads and ecclesiastics were quick to emulate Charlemagne. The walls of the dormitories and refectories of the monasteries were covered with paintings, manuscripts, illuminations, diptychs and triptychs experienced a resurgence in popularity (244). Monarchs and prelates sought manuscripts adorned with miniatures; all the monasteries wanted to have them. It is not even the common people who were not touched: the poorest pilgrim carried away paintings and sculptures in wooden diptychs and triptychs (245).
The paintings had a double objective: to educate the people (they were, according to the expression of the Council of Arras (1025), "the book of illiterates") and to police the warrior (246). The "Middle Ages" was also the time when the image began to enter the interior of individuals, first the noble residences, then the dwellings of the bourgeois of the cities. The use of painting furniture such as chests, seats and cupboards spread in Italian cities from the eleventh century, with wealth and luxury (247). In France, it was in the 14th century that character tapestries began to impose themselves as an “external” sign of wealth in bourgeois apartments (248), but also, along with paintings, in theatrical decor.
“In the Middle Ages, the image is everywhere” (249), mainly in urban space.

From an anthropological point of view

Yahweh created man "in his own image" (tsèlèm </ em ") (250)," according to his likeness "(Genesis, I, 26-27). As we have observed above, the motif of the "image of God" is of Near Eastern origin. However, in the ancient Near East as in ancient Egypt, only the king was regarded as the image of God. In the Bible, on the other hand, every man has the status of “image of God”.
The theme was taken up and amplified in the New Testament, particularly in the Epistles of Paul, where only Jesus Christ is conceived as imago dei, then by fathers of the Church as Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215), Tertullian (v . 155 - 220), Origen (185 - v. 253), Gregory of Nyssa (335 - 394), Ambrose (337 - 397), Augustine (354 - 430), Cyril of Alexandria (376 - 444) and especially Irenaeus (130 - 202) and, in the “Middle Ages”, by a multitude of theologians, including Thomas Aquinas. Having become a theological concept, it gave rise to various interpretations. For some, it meant the similarity, only physical or physical and extra-physical, between man and divinity; for others, it indicated their homology and their alliance as well as, more particularly, the relational life of men and the exercise of their personal freedom (251);for still others, it meant that the people are the representative of the divinity on earth; finally, it implied the domination of man on earth.
If these four interpretations are all inherited from the Old Testament, the fourth is undoubtedly even more so. Genesis (1-28) (252), echoed by Descartes' "surrendering us as masters and owners of nature", assigned man the mission of subduing the earth and subjugating animals (253). Now, as Heidegger pointed out, there is only one way to achieve this: science and technology; the art of mathematically subduing nature in order to control it and derive a material advantage from it. Augustine's theological views were decisive in the implementation of the biblical programmatic statement. For him, in fact, “understanding the letter of the Scriptures is not enough, we must also know the nature of all the beings of which it is spoken: minerals, plants and animals.The symbolism of the sacred text is unintelligible to those who do not know what are in themselves the things where we seek symbols; hence the need for a broad knowledge of the natural sciences, including geography, mineralogy, botany and zoology. Although they are of little interest from this point of view, the mechanical arts and astronomy should be added to them, for they cannot be considered to be totally useless. And, "if the principle of the subordination of science to wisdom is kept intact, the possibility of fixing a precise term for the use of science becomes more and more problematic as the question is examined more closely. No doubt, Augustine first tries to distinguish between science and human institutions, which are of secondary importance,and that of divine institutions, which are fundamental, but the first themselves cannot be entirely ignored, so that any precise formula ultimately becomes impossible. The Christian must reject pagan superstitions: avoid knowledge, even true ones, which are useless to the science of salvation, but, for the rest, he must not despise anything that is true and useful in secular sciences ”. The comparison used by the Numidian theologian to illustrate his dialectic deserves to be cited for his chutzpah: "Just as the Hebrews, coming out of Egypt, legitimately appropriated gold and silver vessels, clothing and other objects that they intended for a better use; Likewise Cyprian, Lactantius, Hilary, all the Greek Fathers and, before them, Moses himself, who was educated near the Egyptian sages,did not hesitate to seize the knowledge useful to the true religion ”(254). Concretely, Augustine expressed the wish that all human knowledge be compiled. It was underpinned by the belief that the unity of knowledge had been broken by original sin and had to be restored (255). The men of the Church answered it during the following centuries; Cassiodorus, with the Institutiones (c. 560) Isidore of Seville, with the Etymologiae rerum sive origins libri XX, Bède, with De natura rerum, Raban Maur, with De universo, then Honoré d'Autun (256), with an encyclopedic treatise including the title, taken up by Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly (1351 - 1420) for one of his treatises on cosmography (it will not be published until the end of the 16th century), then, in vernacular and in verse,by the clergyman Gossouin de Metz (13th century) (257), we should look at: De imagine mundi. Let us linger in the company of Heidegger.
The German philosopher indeed makes the capital remark that, basically, “imago mundi” does not mean “representation / vision of the world”, but “the world conceived as an image. "(258). According to him, man, until the end of the "Middle Ages", experienced the world directly and immediately, while from the "Renaissance", by setting himself up as a subjectum, he took awareness that he was separate from it and the world became an image for him. This is why we can agree that "Until the Renaissance, the eye was" in "the world, and it could moreover have a direct influence on things in the world (the" evil eye ", the gaze of the witch) ”, but that“ From the Renaissance, the image is installed between the eye and the world ”. And she settles there "by means of different devices (camera obscura, telescope,Perspectivist devices), and it is this that we look at, because it is not a product of our senses, which deceive us, but of our reason… ”(259).
Another term present in the title of a large number of didactic works of an encyclopedic nature, but also in that of collections of moral precepts (the "mirrors of the prince"), was that of "speculum", closely linked to that of '"Imago". Honoré d'Autun explains that the title Imago mundi is applied to his booklet, which "must be published for the instruction of all those who do not have an abundance of books ..., because we will see the disposition of the world. whole as in a mirror ”(260). According to Varro, quoted by Augustine (The City of God, VII, 35) the mirrors originated from Persia, where they were used as divinatory instruments. In the European area, those who questioned the future in this way were called specularii; they were still very numerous and very appreciated in the "middle ages" (261). In 1389,the faculty of theology of Paris formally condemned catoptromancy, but not the literary use of "speculum". The mirror, since Plato, was the metaphor of the soul and had gradually acquired its letters of nobility thanks to the interest which Socrates, Seneca and Plotinus successively had shown in it, whose speculations led him to ask that the mirror was both the instrument of self-knowledge and the means of knowing, although more or less indirectly, the divine, speculations which were reflected even in the New Testament (262): “God imprinted the image of his own nature in creation, but sin has confused it (263). "was the metaphor of the soul and had gradually acquired its letters of nobility thanks to the interest which Socrates, Seneca and Plotinus had shown in it successively, whose speculations led him to posit that the mirror was at the same time the instrument of self-knowledge and the means of knowing, although more or less indirectly, the divine, speculations which were reflected even in the New Testament (262): “God imprinted the image of his own nature in creation, but sin confused her (263). "was the metaphor of the soul and had gradually acquired its letters of nobility thanks to the interest which Socrates, Seneca and Plotinus had shown in it successively, whose speculations led him to posit that the mirror was at the same time the instrument of self-knowledge and the means of knowing, although more or less indirectly, the divine, speculations which were reflected even in the New Testament (262): “God imprinted the image of his own nature in creation, but sin confused her (263). "speculations which were reflected even in the New Testament (262): “God imprinted the image of his own nature in creation, but sin scrambled it (263). "speculations that were reflected even in the New Testament (262): “God imprinted the image of his own nature in creation, but sin scrambled it (263). "
Gregory of Nyssa diametrically Christianized the theme: “while the Neo-Platonic mirror is completely inert, that is to say the receptacle of a mechanical reflection, the soul… is a kind of active mirror, capable of to be turned in two opposite directions upward to receive the divine image, and downward to receive the image of matter. Each soul decides according to free will in which direction it directs the mirror and it has the faculty to transform itself into what it reflects. "(264). Augustine innovated, comparing the Bible to a speculum. Just as, he says, never short of imagination, the divinity had covered the first men with skins, so he extended the firmament of his holy books, above which reside angelic choirs which directly see his face, while, below them,sinners can see it "only in the enigma of the clouds and the mirror of the sky". (Confessions, XV, 16-18).
The "Middle Ages" inherited this concept of "mirror book" and the "speculum" even became a literary genre in its own right. It was, so to speak, a square mirror, because, according to Vincent de Beauvais (v 1190 - 1264), “the mirror of Revelation is put in relation with that of the soul: the role of vision in the outer mirror is that of making the image of God shine in the inner mirror ”. Guibert de Nogent (1053 - c. 1125), comparing the divinity to a painter, an illuminator, can thus say: "The Creator is ... the" Good Imagery "and all Creation is the" image "that he made and in which it is reflected. Creation is the “image of the world”, imago mundi. Entirely, it bears the mark of “Bon Imagier” and its omnipotence. The world, nature, human institutions,moral life itself are thought of in the mode of reflection, images reflected by a vast mirror (speculum)… ”(265)

The painter god

The Hebrew verb bara ', in the first chapter of Genesis, has the meaning of "to generate", "to lay down the principle of an organization". It means especially an artistic work, the making of an ordered object, a work of art (266). The Bible often compares divinity to craftsman / artist, divine work to crafts / works of art (267). Poiein, the Greek verb by which it was translated in the Septuagint, has the same meaning, since it “applies to all kinds of operations, from those which model clay to the highest achievements of the artist or poet ”. It retains this meaning in three of the 49 occurrences of "creavit" in the Vulgate. For the Stoics, God is "the craftsman of the universe and like the father of all things" (DL, VII, 147.) Irénée de Lyon uses the metaphorical expression “Artisan of the universe” (Against the heresies, 3, 11, 8) to qualify the Word, but it is above all in Augustine that divine art and human art are put in parallel (268), if only, as in Anselme, to indicate what separates them rather than what brings them together. The "great difference" that Anselm sees between "supreme nature" and the craftsman is that the former "has taken absolutely nothing out of it ... whereas an artisan can neither absolutely nor conceive by the imagination. a bodily object, unless he has learned to know it in some way in whole or in part through other things, or to perform the work he has designed, if he lacks a material or a something else without which the work already thought out could not be achieved ”(269). Likewise, Augustine emphasizes that, unlike God,artists "can do nothing with nothing" (270). The reference is obviously to "Creare est aliquid exnihilo facere". However, contrary to what the Fourth Lateran Council taught, the idea of ​​a universe created ex nihilo by the divinity is unknown in the Old Testament (271). Wulfila (v. 311 - 383), less concerned with finding a theological justification for the comparison of the Judeo-Christian divinity with a craftsman / artist, confesses: “Me ..; bishop and confessor,… I believe in one God the Father, only ungendered and invisible, and in his Only Begotten, our Lord and our God, maker and author of every creature… ”the idea of ​​a universe created ex nihilo by the divinity is unknown in the Old Testament (271). Wulfila (v. 311 - 383), less concerned with finding a theological justification for the comparison of the Judeo-Christian divinity with a craftsman / artist, confesses: “Me ..; bishop and confessor,… I believe in one God the Father, only ungendered and invisible, and in his Only Begotten, our Lord and our God, maker and author of every creature… ”the idea of ​​a universe created ex nihilo by the divinity is unknown in the Old Testament (271). Wulfila (v. 311 - 383), less concerned with finding a theological justification for the comparison of the Judeo-Christian divinity with a craftsman / artist, confesses: “Me ..; bishop and confessor,… I believe in one God the Father, alone ungendered and invisible, and in his Only Begotten, our Lord and our God, maker and author of all creatures… ”craftsman and author of all creatures… ”craftsman and author of all creatures… ”
From the “middle ages” the analogy between divine creation and artistic creation was very widespread in theology, from which it spread to artistic theory. The monk and theologian Honorius d'Autun (1080 - 1151) compares the Judeo-Christian divinity to a zither player (“The supreme creator built the universe as if it were a great zither, on which he arranged various strings in order to produce a variety of sounds ”.). Alain de Lille (c. 1128 - 1202) (Planctu Naturale, II, 468) enumerates the most fashionable analogies in this regard at his time: “God, like an elegant architect of the world, like a blacksmith in his forge, like a master of incredible talent who would have done a remarkable job, built the world like a royal palace of marvelous beauty.The generic term "craftsman / artist" has given way to more precise designations. The most popular in the "Middle Ages" was that of "painter".
Appeared in Empédocles (272) and Pindare, the theme of the deus pictor had resurfaced in Clement of Alexandria, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas; he became one of the favorite topoi of Spanish theorists and mannerists of the early 16th century. Father René Le Breton, in his treatise on the life of Saint Eustache (1659), glorifies the Judeo-Christian god as “the first and most excellent of painters”. P. Monier (1639 - 1703), in his Histoire des arts, compares creation to the “drawing” of the Judeo-Christian god. In some of Michelangelo's paintings, the attitudes and gestures of this divinity have all of those of a painter. Of the parallel established by Augustine between the divinity and the artist, between the Creator and the creator, (Augustine says: "to God alone the power to create" (De la Trinité, III, 9), but,as the context clearly indicates, "creare" here has the meaning of "giving existence to someone" and not "making an object of art"), it will come back to others, the humanists of the 15th century, to draw the conclusions, substituting the concept of divine artist for that of god artist. In the 17th century, it became difficult “to consider divine creation independently of one's own creative experience. Human art is a tool for thinking about divine art and, conversely, divine creation is a model for thinking about human art ”(273).it becomes difficult “to contemplate divine creation independently of one's own creative experience. Human art is a tool for thinking about divine art and, conversely, divine creation is a model for thinking about human art ”(273).it becomes difficult “to contemplate divine creation independently of one's own creative experience. Human art is a tool for thinking about divine art and, conversely, divine creation is a model for thinking about human art ”(273).
If the divine artist had revealed himself through the paintings of his creation, no human artist could praise his greatness better than a painter. As the Creator was glorified for the beauty of creation, so little by little the Creator was to be admired for the beauty of his painting (274). The process of deifying the artist was launched.

The world as painting

In Byzantine art, an image was seen as a fragment of the divine being and judged by its resemblance to the transcendent prototype. All natural elements were not excluded, however, insofar as nature was conceived as an emanation of the transcendent prototype.
This theory gradually gained Western Europe and, in the 12th century, the sensitive world made its entry into painting, while the Church made its entry into the world. Institutionalized in 1216 and 1223 respectively, the Dominicans and the Third Order Regular of Francis of Assisi, breaking with the monasticism of the first religious orders, decided to accomplish the apostolic mission to which Mark 16:15 exhorts ("Go into the world Proclaim the good news to all creation ”) and opted for the worldly life that the apostolate implies. They exercised a real patronage, by having frescoes, panels and altarpieces executed all over the place which are characterized by the desire to represent nature as it is perceived and to choose subjects in everyday life (275).
In 1339, the public palace of Siena was adorned with a fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti which would have been inconceivable a century earlier: the fresco of the Good Government shows not only a living city whose inhabitants have fun in the streets, but also vineyards, wheat fields and peasants at work. Equally unthinkable in the 12th century would have been both the fresco by Giotto entitled “Stories of Saint Francis”, with its characters with “faces stripped of the abstract beauty of classical types and which are those of the men and women who then populated the streets of Assisi ”(276) and, on other frescoes, scenes of crucifixion or flagellation of a humanized Jesus Christ and of the same size as the other figures. The humanization of figures, sacred or profane, famous or unknown,the realistic representation of the environment met two needs: first, it was a question of persuading the observer that the Church was closer to the little people, that Jesus Christ himself was closer to them, that he was even always present among them, in contemporary social reality. Then, it was a question of making nature a proof of the existence of the divinity and of the truth of the Scriptures and, following the path opened by Augustine and, before him, Paul, (Epistle to the Romans, 1, 19-20), to encourage the faithful to study nature as a testimony of Creation and to contemplate it in order to be able to rise to divinity. For Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), “the beauty of the world is the splendor of the face of God”. Francis himself is ecstatic in front of nature in the Canticle of the creatures: "Praised are you,my Lord, with all your creatures, especially, Lord Brother Sun, who is the day, and by whom you illuminate us; and it is beautiful and radiant with great splendor, from you, Most High, it carries meaning. The physicists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from Newton to Fontanelle, JB Nollet and Pieter von Musschenbroek, will also insist, although in a less pathetic tone and in a vein less contemplative than intellectual, on the theophanic character of nature (277 ). As for the artists, they contemplated Creation from the point of view of aesthetics.from Newton to Fontanelle, JB Nollet and Pieter von Musschenbroek, will also insist, although in a less pathetic tone and in a less contemplative than intellectual vein, on the theophanic character of nature (277). As for the artists, they contemplated Creation from the point of view of aesthetics.from Newton to Fontanelle, JB Nollet and Pieter von Musschenbroek, will also insist, although in a less pathetic tone and in a less contemplative than intellectual vein, on the theophanic character of nature (277). As for the artists, they contemplated Creation from the point of view of aesthetics.
The question arose in the "Renaissance" as to how to represent it and what is the best way to represent it. The innumerable poetics, that is to say treatises on the arts, published from the fifteenth century sought to answer it, by basing themselves, not without forcing or even distorting the meaning, on the few rare reflections of the philosophers of the antiquity on art, notably of Aristotle (278). Their starting point was two passages from the Poetics, the one where it is stated that "Sophocles himself said that he represented men as they should be, and Euripides as they are" and the one where it is stated that the art, at least tragedy, imitates "not men but action, life, happiness ..." (despite the clarity of this formulation,many playwrights of the "Renaissance" made tragedy rest on the imitation of character and manners, even, like Dubos, on passions). Their speculations also started from the following statement of "Physics": Holôs te hè technè ta men epitelei ha hè phusis adunatei apergasasthai "(" Or art imitates nature or it accomplishes what nature is powerless to do "( 279).
These ideas were interpreted differently, even in opposite ways, by thinkers and artists who tried to formulate the principles of so-called “classical” art. Some set themselves the goal of imitating tangible reality; they imagined that imitation consisted in reproducing through art the appearances, the forms of real objects taken as models.
At the other extreme were the "idealists". Like others, they felt that the exact imitation of nature was a slavish imitation: artists should not imitate simple nature, but "beautiful nature", that is, make a choice of what 'it has more beautiful, more perfect and to imitate it most perfectly ("The difficulty does not consist in representing the objects well, declared Perrault, but in representing beautiful objects"). But they felt that it was necessary to go even further: to extract the characteristic features of the model and to achieve universal types through stylization. “… It is not enough to choose the right models, or even to combine them judiciously; it is also necessary, by an approach of abstraction, to consider "nature in itself" and ", for example,"Not to represent the irascible man or the courageous man, but the very form of anger and courage". The model became the type, the idea. Here, “Imitation involves both selection and recomposition, both activities guided by the idea of ​​perfection, itself to be deduced from nature. This process is based on observation conducted not with the eyes but with the mind (the mind. In fact, the "inner eye" [Ed]), and applies not to material and sensible reality, but to a possible, conceivable, ideal nature ”(280). This idealistic conception was an attempt to reconcile Poetics, XV, 10 and, in a simplified form, the Platonic dialectic of forms (281).“Imitation involves both selection and recomposition, both activities guided by the idea of ​​perfection, itself to be deduced from nature. This process is based on observation conducted not with the eyes but with the mind (the mind. In fact, the "inner eye" [Ed]), and applies not to material and sensible reality, but to a possible, conceivable, ideal nature ”(280). This idealistic conception was an attempt to reconcile Poetics, XV, 10 and, in a simplified form, the Platonic dialectic of forms (281).“Imitation involves both selection and recomposition, both activities guided by the idea of ​​perfection, itself to be deduced from nature. This process is based on observation conducted not with the eyes but with the mind (the mind. In fact, the "inner eye" [Ed]), and applies not to material and sensible reality, but to a possible, conceivable, ideal nature ”(280). This idealistic conception was an attempt to reconcile Poetics, XV, 10 and, in a simplified form, the Platonic dialectic of forms (281).the "inner eye". [NDE]), and applies not to material and tangible reality, but to a possible, conceivable, ideal nature ”(280). This idealistic conception was an attempt to reconcile Poetics, XV, 10 and, in a simplified form, the Platonic dialectic of forms (281).the "inner eye". [NDE]), and applies not to material and tangible reality, but to a possible, conceivable, ideal nature ”(280). This idealistic conception was an attempt to reconcile Poetics, XV, 10 and, in a simplified form, the Platonic dialectic of forms (281).
In their quest for the perfect imitation, whether ideal or realistic, it was inevitable that the theorists of the "Renaissance" would come to systematize the comparison between the arts, which had remained in a sketchy state in the art. 'antiquity.
The first to draw a parallel between certain arts was Simonides de Ceos. “Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting which speaks”, he wrote (282). Cicero (Rhetoric, IV) and Quintilian cited him to illustrate a point of rhetoric. However, the relevant passages of the Rhetoric were among those whose style the first humanists applied to imitate and it was through this that the paragon entered Italian literature at the beginning of the 15th century. He soon imposed himself there thanks to the rediscovery of Poetics, of neo-Platonism (a parallel between poetry and painting is established in the fifth book of the Republic and in the fifteenth chapter of the Poetics) and of the Poetic Art of 'Horace, a formula of which became the principle of “Renaissance” poetics:“Ut pictura poesis erit”. Translated, no longer, as it should be, by "poetry is like painting", but by "painting is like poetry", it imposed itself as the pillar of the theory of the arts from the time when the visual arts, long somewhat despised despite the frequent use of paint in Church propaganda, were reassessed positively.
The idea that painting was synonymous with illusion and lies was, however, much less common from the 12th century; thus, the theologian and poet Alain de Lille exclaimed, admiringly: “O surprising prodigies of painting, here is the access to being that which cannot be! And painting mimicking truth, playing with a new art transforms simulacra of things into things, and changes everything that is false into truth ”(283). But, in this regard, things only began to really change with the publication of De pictura (1435) by the humanist, writer, philosopher, painter and mathematician Leon Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472), whose objective was precisely to bring painting into the liberal arts.
Alberti's skill first consisted in borrowing the composition of his three-part work from Quintillien's Institution oratory, one of the three treatises on rhetoric on which teaching was based in the "Middle Ages" and to fix in painting the three goals that Cicero had assigned to rhetoric: to please, to move, to convince; then, to (284) transpose to painting the principles of mathematics (not pure mathematics, "but mathematics applied to things perceived by sight, therefore to physical objects") (285); finally, to try to extract painting from craftsmanship, by requiring the painter to be a scholar, a lover of bonae litterae (286), even a philosopher of nature and a scientist, better still: an innovator, in both the technical and the arts.The methods and processes of painting had to be scientific and technical (287), if the imperative to represent, to imitate as faithfully as possible, nature, was to be respected.
Translated into French, De pictura was certainly no stranger to the positive reassessment of the visual arts in France during the 16th century and the subsequent establishment of a debate on the respective mimetic merits of painting and poetry.
Art was hierarchical: there were higher arts (the "fine arts") and lower arts (crafts) and, among the former, one art superior to all the others. For Alberti as for Da Vinci, the writer and literary critic Giovanni Pietro Capriano (1520-1580), the theologian and scholar Gregorio Comanini (c. 1550–1608) and many others, painting was undoubtedly art. the noblest, the best able to imitate, to represent nature and therefore also the most likely, like science, to make it possible to reach knowledge. The diplomat, cryptographer, translator and alchemist Blaise de Vigenère (1523 - 1596) was of the same opinion, who published the French translation of the "Tables" of the sophist Philostrate,with the intention "to offer a young audience an art of interpreting images which unfolds in several stages: recognizing the subject, translating the visible into words and attempting to produce by this means effects comparable to those of painting , to finally go beyond this by accessing dimensions that cannot be represented pictorially such as smells, noises, words, all culminating in judgment ”(288) From the philostratian ekphrasis the Jesuits drew a“ rhetoric of paintings ”and 'integrated into the curriculum of their colleges (289), largely contributing to making painting the model of representation in the 16th century.to finally go beyond this by accessing dimensions that cannot be represented pictorially such as smells, noises, words, all culminating in judgment ”(288) From the philostratian ekphrasis the Jesuits drew a“ rhetoric of paintings ”and the integrated into the curriculum of their colleges (289), largely contributing to making painting the model of representation in the 16th century.to finally go beyond this by accessing dimensions that cannot be represented pictorially such as smells, noises, words, all culminating in judgment ”(288) From the philostratian ekphrasis the Jesuits drew a“ rhetoric of paintings ”and the integrated into the curriculum of their colleges (289), largely contributing to making painting the model of representation in the 16th century.
From the Cinquecentto, the primacy of aesthetic appreciation had been affirmed by Italian authors. Cardinal Paleotti seems to be the first to have maintained that sacred art could be the object of an aesthetic judgment (290).
A century later, two works in particular illustrated the importance of the pictorial representation of the world: Charles-Alphonse du Fresnoy's poem De arte graphica (1668) (translated into English by the poet John Dryden in 1695) and the allegorical dialogue of the architect and historiographer André Félibien (1619-1695) Le Songe de Philomathe (1683).
Let us dwell on his text, because it condenses suggestions that were "in the air" at the end of the 17th century.
One summer day in Versailles, Philomathe dozes off in the park and two sisters, one blonde, the other brunette, appear to her in a dream. The first is Painting, the second, Poetry. They will compete for the glory of celebrating the great deeds of Louis XIV.
Six important points in relation to our presentation can be drawn from this text.
First, the form corresponds exactly to the substance: The Dream abounds in visual metaphors. As the subject lends itself particularly well to it, the remark is only worthy of interest because the numerous treatises on poetry of the time all stressed the importance of pictorial representation.
Secondly, the dream appears there as the prolongation of the waking state and, conversely, the waking state as the prolongation of the dream. "So many excellent images, with which my eyes had filled, remarks Philomathe at the beginning of her dream, kept my mind in such pleasant reveries, that I thought I was still in one of the rich Pavilions of Fame…"; when, drawn from his dream by a noise, he opens his eyes "half" and sees the king approaching him with all his court, his first reaction is to see if Love, one of the allegories which appeared to him in a dream, "did not approach the King to do (him) some good office, and (he closed) his eyes so as not to disabuse himself so soon ...". On the other hand, the dream itself takes place in the park where he was, when he fell asleep. " The speech,declares Bernard Lamy in The Art of Speaking, is only an image of our thoughts ”Descartes goes so far as to assert that certain ideas are“ like images of things ”,“ images ”and not“ paintings ”, but, as the philosopher elsewhere expresses his conviction that "the things which are represented to us in sleep are like paintings and paintings", it is not forcing the text to make the hypothesis that the term "images "Is here synonymous with" tables "; "In sleep", one will object; however, does he not maintain a few lines above "that there are no definite clues by which we can clearly distinguish waking from sleep"? From there, the question is then brought to the gnoseological level, on which it is not our intention to go into it further.From these speculations it suffices to remember that the imagination is considered as one of the faculties of knowledge; that the image, the painting, are it like means of knowledge. Like the images in painting, thoughts in sleep, but also, Descartes invites us to consider it by giving the impression that the two terms are interchangeable for him, in the waking state. In any case, painting is considered to be the art most likely to faithfully represent reality. “We have finally understood, considers Fenelon, that we must write like Raphaël, the Caraches, and the Poussins painted. ". This judgment reflects, if not the general feeling, at least an important current of thought at the time.are like means of knowledge. Like the images in painting, thoughts in sleep, but also, Descartes invites us to consider it by giving the impression that the two terms are interchangeable for him, in the waking state. In any case, painting is considered the art most likely to faithfully represent reality. “We have finally understood, considers Fénelon, that we must write like Raphaël, the Caraches, and the Poussins painted. ". This judgment reflects, if not the general feeling, at least an important current of thought at the time.are like means of knowledge. Like the images in painting, thoughts in sleep, but also, Descartes invites us to consider it by giving the impression that the two terms are interchangeable for him, in the waking state. In any case, painting is considered the art most likely to faithfully represent reality. “We have finally understood, considers Fénelon, that we must write like Raphaël, the Caraches, and the Poussins painted. ". This judgment reflects, if not the general feeling, at least an important current of thought at the time.painting is considered to be the art most likely to faithfully represent reality. “We have finally understood, considers Fénelon, that we must write like Raphaël, the Caraches, and the Poussins painted. ". This judgment reflects, if not the general feeling, at least an important current of thought at the time.painting is considered to be the art most likely to faithfully represent reality. “We have finally understood, considers Fenelon, that we must write like Raphaël, the Caraches, and the Poussins painted. ". This judgment reflects, if not the general feeling, at least an important current of thought at the time.
Thirdly, Painting is so certain of its victory (which says dream means series of images. Poetry itself will have to present its arguments by means of images and even of "paintings": Peinture has won in advance) that does not refrain in the slightest from taunting her rival, by presenting herself openly as an illusionist: "I exhibit things which seem so real that they deceive the senses ... I perform with a pleasant and innocent magic that the eyes more subtle people believe they see in my works what is not there. I show living bodies in subjects where there is neither body nor life. I represent a thousand different actions and everywhere it looks like there is commotion and movement. I discover countryside, meadows,animals and a thousand other kinds of objects which exist only through shadows and lights and through the secret of a completely divine science with which I know how to deceive the eyes. »In the 17th century, illusionism, so to speak, is given for what it is, in painting and, as we will see below, in the theater.
Fourth, the Dream echoes the myth of the invention of painting reported by Pliny: in Corinth, a young girl traced on a wall the outline of the shadow, projected by the light of a lantern, of her lover's face. , who was leaving for war; the young girl's father, having watched him do it, applied clay to it and, after having detached the relief from the wall, had it hardened in the fire. Here below, painting allows a lover to compensate for the absence or loss of the loved one. Where Poetry can only make the loved one present through words, Painting shows it, re-presents it and, as such, painting holds magic, Alberti affirmed that painting "has in it an almost (" admodum ”can also mean“ quite ”) divine,so that the painting not only makes the absent present… but also shows the deceased to the living after long centuries ”(291).
Fifth, Le Songe takes up the topos of the deus pictor: Painting, daughter of Jupiter, tells Poetry that Love came to find her father on Mount Olympus, after she had painted the heavens and the earth, to convince him to leave her descend to earth, in order to teach men to know and worship the gods. Only Painting was able to represent them faithfully. Jupiter gave his agreement to Amour, with whom Painting came down to earth. Love was the first of the gods of whom she made images and she remained at his service forever.
Sixth, The Dream reappropriates the Middle Eastern theme of the sovereign as the image of the divinity on earth: the first person who enters Philomathe's field of vision, when he “half-opens” his eyes, is the king, who, given the intermediate state in which he finds himself at that moment between sleep and waking, does not yet distinguish himself in his eyes from the images, the paintings which appeared to him in a dream. On the one hand, Louis XIV is the most beautiful painting of creation and, on the other, as a representative of the divine artist on earth, he is the painter of a kingdom that he painted in his image. . The privileged language of Love, of divinity and of authority is painting, which must be placed at the service of the king, in order to reflect his glory and to make people love his authority (291) In the 17th century,the pictorial image is omnipresent in all fields, theoretical and practical. Painting provides both the metaphor, the model and the example of representation, first, as we have just seen, in the arts, then in politics The generalization of the pictorial paradigm is accompanied by the diffusion of 'an increasingly scenographic royal decorum.

Versailles

Under Henri IV and Louis XIII, the Jesuits instilled in young nobles everything they or their offspring would need to look good at Versailles: good manners, elegance in gesture, moderation and subtlety in speech.
Louis XIV was crazy about shows and, unlike his predecessors, had many festivals and theatrical performances given, each more sumptuous and luxurious than the last, to the great satisfaction of Richelieu and the courtiers and, later, of Mazarin and courtiers. Letters were now regarded as a noble occupation and their practice increasingly paid. The king, godfather of Poquelin's son, prided himself on it. The theater was one of the court's most popular entertainments. Most famous actors played there. The courtiers (292) did not disdain to go on stage themselves. The king was used to it. On July 23, 1661, he played the role of Apollo in the Ballet of the Seasons; on December 2, 1666, he performed two different roles in Le ballet des Muses, where,accompanied by other nobles, he danced among professional dancers. In Magnificent Lovers, the subject of which is the competition between two princes for the favors of a princess, the courtiers embodied characters from Greek mythology, dressed in the antique style. “… The play gives rise to a stage party that includes ballet, pantomimes and pastorals. Thus in this mise en abyme of the play, the court watches itself celebrating ”(293). In the feasts given at Versailles, the “spectator” could effectively become an “actor” at any time. Apostolidès will say of the courtiers that “they believe themselves free to enjoy the place and are only the extras of the monarchical spectacle. "(294).It was no longer enough for them to be in permanent representation in a palace where the pieces followed one another at a spectacular pace (295).
The Palace of Versailles did not have a fixed theater before 1682. The plays were performed there, either in the "little gallery" or in the Salle des Manèges, or in the gardens. “The first Versailles is indeed an open-air Versailles, a Versailles dominated by decor, a baroque Versailles” (296). “The decoration varies from one day to another and the surprise of the participants is always spared since they do not realize these changes until after the party” (297). Temporary buildings with baroque architecture were set up in the gardens to house entertainment. Scene changes were frequent during the same play. The effects of machines, although rudimentary compared to the technical means available to modern theater,were sufficiently developed to strike the imagination of the spectators, to satisfy their taste for the new, the unforeseen and the change.
A major change in court entertainment took place in the years following the king's marriage: “fiction alone was no longer sufficient; it required a mixture of reality and fiction in which the great ones of the Court could preserve a part of their personality, while adding to it a burst of convention; and as the court could not spend its life on the boards of a theater, everyday life became theatrical; simplicity was the exception ”(298). The theatrical instinct came to guide "in everything the noble orderers and the noble extras of these entertainments" (299), which followed one another without slackening; “… Getting up, having dinner, going to bed, all acts… take on the appearance of a spectacle. The pomp becomes a means of government, the splendor a way of being,and the art of representing a distinctive social sign (300). Everyone at court played their part around him. The frivolity was so general that, "Between two wars, Louis XIV ... mounted a large military parade in Compiègne with a false siege war" (301), to amuse the ladies.
The woman, naturally predisposed to the theater in the broad sense, played a central role in its continual entertainment: “The courtyard was a stage where every girl of the big house aspired to perform. What was called his education was the rehearsal of his role. Everything in women, down to the culture of their minds so varied, was arranged for the spectacle, everything was turned to external brilliance, to success, to conquest (302). "
The theatricalization that Louis XIV imposed on Versailles shows that it is no exaggeration to take literally the confidence he once made to his daughter-in-law, the Dauphine: "We are not like individuals, we owe ourselves entirely to the public (303). "" The peoples, he also slipped in the same vein, like the shows. By this we hold their minds and their hearts ”(304) - the first proposition could not be more correct; but the fact of stroking the instincts of the populace in the direction of the hair is, on the part of a noble, despicable. In fact, shows of all kinds were more and more numerous in Paris during his reign.

The theater of the world

The idea that the world is a theater and man an actor was on everyone's minds at the start of the "Renaissance". Calderón composed El gran teatro del mundo around 1635. “What is this life? moaned Jacques Grévin in his Gélodacrye (1561), a public scaffold, / where those who know how to play their character better, / According to their passions exchanging faces, / Is always welcome and nothing is wrong ”. The motto of the Globe, a London theater opened in 1599, was “Totus mundus acts histrionem”. In the same year, life was compared to a theatrical spectacle in Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, in which the famous line: "All the world's a stage" is found. "This perishable world and its frivolous glory / Is a comedy in which I was unaware of my role", pontificated Genest in the play by Rotrou (IV, 7, v. 1303-1304).The expression may quickly become cliché, it was nonetheless the expression of a sensitivity. Proof of this is, for example, that, as Carl Schmitt recalls, James I exhorted his son to never forget that, once on the throne, he would be on stage and that all eyes would be on him. Nothing, he declares, thus showing that the men of the theater were not the only ones to realize it, more resembles the theater than the life of the court. "In Shakespeare's Elizabethan England the baroque theatricalization of life was still superficial and rudimentary - not yet integrated into the strict framework of the sovereign state and its proposed establishment of public peace. , security and order,as was the case for the theater of Corneille and Racine in the France of Louis XIV ”(305). However, Shakespearean theater was an integral part of the reality of its time, of a society that saw itself as a real theater - a theater which, therefore, did not contrast the situation of theatrical performance with the concrete political situation. Society too was seated on the platform and the performance could quite naturally appear as a theater in the theater "of the world (306) and, consequently, society as a theatrum mundi". “The men of action at that time saw themselves on a platform in front of spectators, envisaged their person and their activities according to the theatricality of their roles. This comedy had existed in other times, but in the Baroque period,it was particularly intense and widespread. The action in the public sphere was a scenic action and therefore a role play ”(307).
The view that the world is a theater was first formulated in "the West" by Heraclitus in the following maxim from a manuscript first published in the 17th century and attributed to Democritus: "The world is a theater, life a comedy: you come in, you see, you go out (308). "
Christian thinks, however, to find its embryo in the Heraclitean conception of logos: “the logos as Necessity implies that man is an actor. He must play the role assigned to him on the stage of life. But, if he desires gnosis, he must also interpret the role of spectator ”(309). It is precisely this last role that the Epicurean proposes to interpret: a spectator, but an imperturbable spectator, of the world. Cynics will stress the other role, that of actor: "Just as a good actor must play his role well, whatever the one attributed to him by the poet, so too a good man, whoever Fortune has attributed to him. "(Fragments) Télès, a contemporary cynical philosopher, adds:" Just as it is necessary, for the good actor,to play his role well whatever the one attributed to him by the poet, the same for the good man, whatever that attributed to him by Fortune. It is indeed she who, like a poet, sometimes attributes a leading role, sometimes a supporting role; sometimes a role of king, sometimes a role of beggar. So don't you dare, if you are the supporting role, to want the leading role: if you risk yourself there, your performance will be inappropriate (anarmoston) ”(According to Télès, 2, 5).your performance will be inappropriate (anarmoston) ”(According to Teles, 2, 5).your performance will be inappropriate (anarmoston) ”(According to Teles, 2, 5).
It would be wrong to see in these precepts a sanction of the principle according to which, to use the definition given by R. Guénon of a regularly established traditional society, everyone must be in the place they should normally occupy so that the social order translates exactly the hierarchical relationships which result from the very nature of beings. In fact, in these reflections, no mention is made of the specific nature of each man, by virtue of which he is able to fulfill such determined functions to the exclusion of such others. What each individual must respect, what he must submit to, is not his nature, but the whim of Fortune. For the Stoics, who regarded man as both an actor and a spectator, the "director" was not Fortune, but Providence.Life has an illusory character and as such it has no meaning: in this respect, man is a spectator; what gives it one is the fact that it is governed by a superior, divine force and, in this respect, man is an actor, in that he constitutes a part of the logos which is at the work in him and that he can achieve happiness by rationally discovering how the logos work. Seneca put man at the center of a spectacle performed before God: "Here," he said of "the man of heart grappling with bad fortune, especially if he provoked the struggle", is a worthy spectacle. to call the eyes of God who watches over the work of his hands; here is a duel worthy of God. ; »(Seneca, De Providentia) Epictetus, to the idea that man must play the role attributed to him by Destiny,adds that which he must play all the roles which he makes him play; that he must play him (s) as best as possible and, above all, that he must never forget that he is an actor. For Epictetus, man is above all an actor; one could almost say: an actor before being a man. We want as proof this existential paradox: "Do we not surely remain a good actor, by ceasing to act when necessary, than by playing again when more is needed?" "than playing again when more is needed? "than playing again when more is needed? "
For Stoicism, the human actor is resigned to playing his role, which is "bitter", but hopes that his life is part of a larger, more important storyline, which was written by Logos, the "director. scene ”. The Stoics considered that there was no life after death and that it was therefore necessary to succeed in his last exit from life. For the Fathers of the Church, Stoic indifference to life was the prelude to the hope of entering the kingdom of heaven. Life was a shadow; reality belonged to God alone. Death, therefore, threw off the masks and was, so to speak, a harbinger of eternal life. For them, the topos of the theater of the world was doubled by an entirely spiritualist opposition between, on the one hand,the reason for the factitious character of existence and the illusory role that each one plays in it ("... when death has come and the spectators are dispersed, all, stripped of the mask of wealth and poverty, are gone in the hereafter ”, Chrysostom), or the motive for contempt of the world (Tertullian) and, on the other hand, the theme of the authenticity of the post-mortem experience, at the beginning of which each will be judged“ according to one's actions ”(Tertullian), or the theme of the second life (“… it is no small thing, when one has proposed the second life, to participate in virtue; to have more esteem for God and his own salvation than shine from below; to consider this shine as a theater or a mask of vulgar and ephemeral things in order to play the comedy of this world, while oneself one lives for God,with the image that we know we have received from him and owe it to the one who gave it… ”Grégoire de Naziance, Discours funèbres, 4). Tertullian compares the Last Judgment to a spectacle: “But, above all, what an admirable and forthcoming spectacle is the advent of the Lord, then finally recognized for what he is, then superb and triumphant! What will be in that day the joy of the angels, the glory of the risen saints, and the magnificence of this new Jerusalem, where the righteous will reign forever! Other spectacles remain to you, it is the day of judgment, eternal day, day which the nations do not await, day which they insult, day finally when the earth, with its ancient monuments and its new creations, will disappear in one and the same fire. O immense extent of this spectacle! (De Spectaculis, 27) For Augustin,the world is a 'stage' and every man is an actor: 'As soon as they are born, (t) he children seem to say to their parents: Consider retiring, it is now up to us to play our part. Because this human life, full of temptations, is only a role, since “every man living on earth is only vanity” ”, Commentary on the Psalms). Man plays his role on the stage of the world under the gaze of the Judeo-Christian divinity (308). The motif of the divinity attending the spectacle of human life seems to have appeared in the satirist of Syrian origin Lucien de Samosate. This makes fun of the gods, makes them ridiculous. On the contrary, the god of Augustine witnesses this spectacle with a vengeful eye. Christianity establishes man in a role of spectator in the theater of the world and the theater of the world,under the eye of the Judeo-Christian divinity, with the faith creator, screenwriter and producer.
The metaphor of the theater of the world is found among the neo-Platonists. Philo of Alexander, Jewish philosopher of the 1st century AD "The guide the universe, he writes, like an organizer of games and feasts", made sure that man immediately found "the banquet and the holiest theater ”(sumposion kaï theotron ierôtaton) (310). Plotinus conceives of the earth as "the theater" of an "immense drama" and he too belittles earthly life as such, in relation to the supraterrestrial concerns of the "immortal soul". “… The metaphor refers to the world as the stage for the play that God made. Contemplation of the spectacle of the world is then the way to know the work of God ”. (311). For neo-Platonists, the theatrical metaphor was a way of representing the nature of the created universe,that man, as a spectator, by means of contemplation, could come to know, in order to be able to unite with the divinity through gnosis. Finally, the mystery cults and certain treatises of Corpus Hermeticum introduced the idea that man was a magus and a second demiurge: the “director of the spectacle of life” (312).
The metaphor of the theater of the world would have disappeared from literature at the end of antiquity, only to reappear there during the “Renaissance”, in its Stoic-Christian shade, under the influence of a work published four centuries ago. earlier by the humanist John of Salisbury: the Politicraticus, in which we can read that "the life of man on earth is a comedy", that "totus mundus acts histrionem, etc., under the watchful eye of the Christian divinity. Now, the Politicratus is a treatise on political philosophy - the first of the "middle ages" and was therefore intended for the edification of sovereigns. In this spiritualistic form, the topos of theatrum mundi was very popular among Jesuit writers (Antoine Vieira, Giovanni Botero, etc.). The satirical vein also began to be cultivated again:the whole world was a vast comedy in which everyone hypocritically played such and such a role, according to the circumstances.

Baroque packaging

The Council of Trent promulgated in December 1543 a decree directing the bishops to teach "with care that, by means of the history of the mysteries of our redemption represented by paintings or by other similar means", because " great fruit is also derived from all the holy images, not only because the people are taught the blessings and gifts conferred on them by Christ, but also because the miracles of God performed are placed before the eyes of the faithful. by the saints and the salutary examples given by them ”. As we have seen, the Church had always done this in practice to instruct and strengthen the common people in the articles of faith; So there was nothing new, there was only a difference of degree and means.In reaction to the sobriety of Protestant architectural art, the Church, which always had a taste for pomp and theatricalization of ceremonies, outbid, by enlisting the services of artists inclined to treat religious subjects in a fairly grandiose and spectacular to unleash violent and instant emotions. From it emerged an art which, under the impetus of the Jesuits, spread throughout Europe and in all artistic fields during the following decades, both as an aesthetic principle and as an ideology: the art which would receive more later the appellation of baroque.by enlisting the services of artists inclined to treat religious subjects in a grandiose and spectacular way to unleash violent and instantaneous emotions. From it emerged an art which, under the impetus of the Jesuits, spread throughout Europe and in all artistic fields during the following decades, both as an aesthetic principle and as an ideology: the art which would receive more later the appellation of baroque.by enlisting the services of artists inclined to treat religious subjects in a grandiose and spectacular way to unleash violent and instantaneous emotions. From it emerged an art which, under the impetus of the Jesuits, spread throughout Europe and in all artistic fields during the following decades, both as an aesthetic principle and as an ideology: the art which would receive more later the appellation of baroque.

Baroque ideology

As an ideology, philosophically, it affirms that man, whatever his condition, whatever his dignity, is an essentially inconstant being and that he is the toy of fate, "a compound of opposites" ( 313); religiously, he embroiders the vanitas vanitatum ad infinitum: all is vain, except God; politically, he maintains that “the best governments… are those which combine opposites: they are mixed or mixed governments (314); economically, clearly identifiable in Baltasar Gracian and other contemporary Spanish baroque authors are the characteristics of a human being that later economists would qualify as homo oeconomicus (315); socially, men are seen as monads, whose relations it is necessary to organize (316),in a behaviorist perspective before the letter and "variety - one might say today" diversity "- is advocated (317).

Baroque aesthetics

As an aesthetic principle, the baroque is characterized by the bizarre, the unexpected, the contradiction, the movement, the spectacular. The methods he likes to express them are the ellipse, the deformation of surfaces, the depth of space and trompe l'oeil. Among the plastic arts the use of which was recommended by the Council of Trent, we have here only to deal with painting and architecture. The goal of baroque painting is to move the viewer and give him the illusion of the presence of the divinity, to "convince the faithful of (s) a grandeur" and she does this "with impressive effects, dazzling, overwhelming ... The expressions and attitudes of the characters show the inner feelings, the passions of the soul, the heightened religious ecstasy ... Triumphant,the image springs from its frame and merges with the sculpture and the architecture on the ceilings of religious buildings. The trompe-l'œil technique developed and reached a startling precision ”(318). The movement is created by whirling vertigo, flows, whirling spaces, meanders, volutes, spirals, intersections; the contradiction, through contrasts, of unstructured or fragmented objects; the unexpected, even the bizarre, by masses of warm and vivid colors, dissymmetries and asymmetries (319).spirals, intertwining; the contradiction, through contrasts, of unstructured or fragmented objects; the unexpected, even the bizarre, by masses of warm and vivid colors, dissymmetries and asymmetries (319).spirals, intertwining; the contradiction, through contrasts, of unstructured or fragmented objects; the unexpected, even the bizarre, by masses of warm and vivid colors, dissymmetries and asymmetries (319).
The earliest example of Baroque architecture is the facade of the Jesuit Church of Gesù in Rome. By observing it, we see that it is made up of the same elements as the facade of other “Renaissance” churches: pediment, architrave, columns, pilasters. But the architects presented them in a dramatic form, by doubling the columns, by curving the pediments, by hollowing out the walls of niches decorated with statues, by making the walls concave or convex, etc. The oval replaces the circle on the tympanum of the baroque ellipses; is that Kepler has just discovered that the orbit of the planets is elliptical and not circular. “The circle,” declares the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölffin, “is an absolutely quiet and stable form, the oval”, which the Baroque uses for the plans of churches, courtyards, rooms,"Is worried and seems to want to vary every moment"; restless and inconstant like the character of the baroque novel; changing, like the forms of the Roman Baroque. The facades of the palaces and the Baroque churches are animated, like the existence of the character of baroque novel, unstable and impulsive, "toy of the fortune". The pediment of the Baroque buildings is spectacular, abundant, overloaded, like the multiple extremely complicated intrigues of the Baroque novel and the endless convolutions and digressions in which the author gets lost. An abundance of trompe l'oeil paintings covers its walls and ceilings.The facades of the palaces and the Baroque churches are animated, like the existence of the character of baroque novel, unstable and impulsive, "toy of the fortune". The pediment of the Baroque buildings is spectacular, abundant, overloaded, like the multiple extremely complicated intrigues of the Baroque novel and the endless convolutions and digressions in which the author gets lost. An abundance of trompe l'oeil paintings covers its walls and ceilings.The facades of the palaces and the Baroque churches are animated, like the existence of the character of baroque novel, unstable and impulsive, "toy of fortune". The pediment of the Baroque buildings is spectacular, abundant, overloaded, like the multiple extremely complicated intrigues of the Baroque novel and the endless convolutions and digressions in which the author gets lost. An abundance of trompe l'oeil paintings covers its walls and ceilings.An abundance of trompe l'oeil paintings covers its walls and ceilings.An abundance of trompe l'oeil paintings covers its walls and ceilings.
The optical illusion is a fundamental characteristic of Baroque aesthetics. At the Church of Saint-Charles-des-Quatre-Fontaines, at the Church of Saint-Yves, in the courtyard of the Spada palace, all designed by the architect Francesco Borromini (1599–1667), the alternation of concave and convex give the impression that the space, considerably amplified by the trompe l'oeil perspective, expands and contracts simultaneously; spiral-shaped lanterns and elliptical domes complete the optical illusion. The slowed-down or accelerated perspective, thanks to which a space appears shallower or deeper than it really is, invades not only architecture, but also painting and gardens (320). La quadratura, the art of simulating on the walls, using perspective,scenic decorations artificially extending the space, is revived and perfected by the painter and architect Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669), the painter Gian Battista Gaulli (1639 - 1709) and the Jesuit brother and painter Andrea Pozzo (1642– 1709); their works combine pictorial, architectural and sculptural elements to such an extent that it is often difficult to recognize and distinguish them: is such a column made of stone or painted? Is such an angel made of stucco or painted? Even more: is such a building a theater or a church? In the Viennese church of Saint-Charles-Borromée, the altar and the glazed galleries above the altar evoke a theatrical setting.The concave facades of the buildings bordering Piazza Vigliena in Palermo were decorated with statues and fountains representing the four seasons, in the style of a theater set. “Italian cities are often, everyone has said, rethought in terms of decor, and foreign travelers, French in particular, have long been sensitive to this particularity, such as this Orbessan, cited by Focillon (Piranesi, ed. 1963) , p. 153), which is struck by the “Porte du Peuple” barely crossed by the “theatrical” character of the Square where three fan-shaped streets lead ”(321). The chapel of the Church of St. Mary of Victory was organized by Bernini as a theater: seated in the side boxes, the spectators attend the performance of the ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila. We can, it is true,to wonder "if the first influences were not exerted in the opposite direction, at least for the installation of the spectators: the boxes of proscenium seem to proceed from the oratories that the Jesuits arranged above the doors of the sacristies, on the right and to the left of the choir. The side balconies evoke the galleries of the Gesù ”. What is certain is that, "as the theater architecture develops, and as we enrich religious architecture, the influences undoubtedly play in the other direction", that is to say that the theater influences the layout of religious buildings (322).The side balconies evoke the galleries of the Gesù ”. What is certain is that, "as theatrical architecture develops, and as we enrich religious architecture, the influences undoubtedly play in the other direction", that is to say that the theater influences the layout of religious buildings (322).The side balconies evoke the galleries of the Gesù ”. What is certain is that, "as theatrical architecture develops, and as we enrich religious architecture, the influences undoubtedly play in the other direction", that is to say that the theater influences the layout of religious buildings (322).
Accustoming the gaze to no longer distinguish the true from the false, the real from the virtual, to blurring the boundaries, that is, basically, what the baroque is aimed at.

The Society of Jesus

The Company of Jesus, founded in 1539 by a descendant of Maranes by his mother (the Company of Jesus was the only order to accept - officially - lay brothers in its ranks) and recognized by Pope Paul III in 1540, quickly established itself as the most important Catholic order, both in size and in influence. She had known how to make herself indispensable to the papacy, by the struggle which she led against Protestantism, by the mass evangelization to which she was engaged in Asia, by her central role in the opening of numerous charitable establishments. The aim of the Company, according to its Constituciones, is the good of souls with a view to their salvation ... The means are teaching: that of languages, theology, philosophy, the Bible and rhetoric ( 323).At the base of theological teaching it places the Sum of Thomas Aquinas, not without adapting it to the new needs created by the Reformation, provided that nothing is affirmed which goes against the ideas of the theologians. In morality, metaphysics and philosophy, the doctrine of Aristotle is advocated. The teaching must be practical in order to form an elite in all fields and, in the end, "to evangelize the universe and to reconstitute the Christian world in its unity: offensive and restoration will go through pedagogy". At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges across the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.not without adapting it to the new needs created by the Reformation, provided that nothing is affirmed which goes against the ideas of theologians. In morality, in metaphysics and in philosophy, the doctrine of Aristotle is recommended. The teaching must be practical in order to form an elite in all fields and, in the end, "to evangelize the universe and to reconstitute the Christian world in its unity: offensive and restoration will go through pedagogy". At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges across the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.not without adapting it to the new needs created by the Reformation, provided that nothing is affirmed which goes against the ideas of theologians. In morality, in metaphysics and in philosophy, the doctrine of Aristotle is recommended. The teaching must be practical in order to form an elite in all fields and, in the end, "to evangelize the universe and to reconstitute the Christian world in its unity: offensive and restoration will go through pedagogy". At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges across the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.Aristotle's doctrine is advocated. The teaching must be practical in order to form an elite in all fields and, ultimately, "to evangelize the universe and to reconstitute the Christian world in its unity: the offensive and the restoration will pass by the pedagogy". At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges across the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.Aristotle's doctrine is advocated. The teaching must be practical in order to form an elite in all fields and, in the end, "to evangelize the universe and to reconstitute the Christian world in its unity: offensive and restoration will go through pedagogy". At the end of the 17th century, the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges across the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges throughout the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.the Jesuits had more than five hundred colleges throughout the world. “The education of children is the renovation of the world! », Launched the Jesuit Jean Bonifacio (324), apparently persuaded to have made a discovery there.
Now, "among the means freed up by the spirituality of the Jesuits, the theater was retained as a privileged and almost immediate vector of expression and of relationship with the world" (325). It was an integral part of Jesuit education. The company of Jesus imitated in this the Protestants, who had introduced the theater in their own teaching as early as the 1530s. In 1586, Ignatius of Loyola sent the following instructions to the community of Ingolstadt: "To encourage and entertain the pupils and their children. parents and attach them more to our Society, that we make them recite verses and dialogues on the theater, according to Roman usage. The Jesuit theater was spotlessly decent. The plays had to have saints or pious men as heroes. The Society of Jesus did not therefore contravene the Edict of Blois (1579),which had prohibited to give in the colleges of the representations "containing lasciviousness, insults, invectives, convices or any scandal against any state or public or private person". In addition, Jesuit students were forbidden to go “to public shows, to comedies, to games” (Ratio studiorum, p. 202), on the grounds that they were given in places of bad company and that the associating with professional actors and actresses, frowned upon because they accepted money to play immoral characters, risked corrupting them. The Fathers protested vigorously to the local authorities when they authorized representations of professional actors (326). “Shows… comedies… games” were only allowed to students as part of their college education.
Permanent theaters were built there and costume shops established. Jesuit school tragedies and comedies, which the Ratio studiorum foresaw to be "very rare" (in theory, their number was limited to two during the year) (327), quickly multiplied and were performed. more and more regularly during the 17th century. The audience grew - some performances could attract several thousand people. At first each show had two, one for men, one for women, before the audience became mixed (328). The places were paying. The success of the Jesuit school theater was such that other teaching congregations (329) opened their own theaters.Long before Franciscus Lang made a list of the effects ("theft of deities and spirits, flames and storms, visions of hell, lightning striking the unholy hero to death ... naval battles", etc.) (330) they had to produce to transform spectators into viri perculsi, stage machines were widely used in the Jesuit theater; dance and music also played their part. The Jesuits rehabilitated passions. To Bossuet's chagrin, they considered that the theater was not made to purge passions, but to develop them and even to justify them; they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).lightning striking to death the unholy hero… naval battles ”, etc.) (330) which they had to produce to transform the spectators into viri perculsi, the stage machines were widely used in the Jesuit theater; dance and music also played their part. The Jesuits rehabilitated passions. To Bossuet's chagrin, they considered that the theater was not made to purge passions, but to develop them and even to justify them; they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).lightning striking to death the unholy hero… naval battles ”, etc.) (330) which they had to produce to transform the spectators into viri perculsi, the stage machines were widely used in the Jesuit theater; dance and music also played their part. The Jesuits rehabilitated passions. To Bossuet's chagrin, they considered that the theater was not made to purge passions, but to develop them and even to justify them; they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).dance and music also played their part. The Jesuits rehabilitated passions. To Bossuet's chagrin, they considered that the theater was not made to purge passions, but to develop them and even to justify them; they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).dance and music also played their part. The Jesuits rehabilitated passions. To Bossuet's chagrin, they considered that the theater was not made to purge passions, but to develop them and even to justify them; they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).they insisted on the need for the actor to use all emotional means to induce the spectator's identification with the character he was playing (331).
Precisely, with regard to the actors, the Ratio studiorum stipulated that one should introduce in the plays "no female character, nor ever the dress of this sex" (332). The author reported only one exception; however, there were others: certain pieces “contained a few roles of women, even young women or girls who were the object of a loving passion. In the ballets, the roles of women seemed to me very rare, but, by a singular inconsistency one saw a quantity of divinities and feminine allegories there… We are informed about the disguises of the college students who were in charge of the feminine roles. They were not satisfied, like a Breton peasant of the nineteenth century, to whom was devolved, in a popular representation, the role of the Virgin Mary,exceed a woman's shirt over their ordinary clothes! They were dressed as women, and, in 1653, Loret reports that at Clermont college, Suzanne, virgin and martyr, had her face adorned with black flies, some round, others long; we will have the idea of ​​this makeup by looking at the portrait of Jélyotte disguised as a woman, which one of our museums has. In 1741, the Nouvelles ecclésiastiques reported that at the college of Montpellier three actors of the tragedy were dressed as women and hair like actresses of the Opera; their faces were plastered and covered with flies. In Limoges, in 1759, the actors were painted and carried flies. In 1760, Father Bertrand de la Tour confirmed these testimonies. Obviously, the schoolboys who, in the ballets, played the roles of goddesses or female allegories,were dressed in a similar fashion ”(333). Who said that the Jesuits practice double talk?
Since stage costumes were expensive, the main roles were usually given to children from wealthy families. The learning of roles and how to interpret them was subject to directives, each more complicated than the last, in particular as regards the gesture and the attitude of the actor (334). The Jew Franciscus Lang (1654 - 1725), in his Dissertatio de actione scenica (1727), indicates that “there is no dignity when one speaks to advance the index while closing the other fingers, that it is very suitable, on the contrary, to join together the ring finger and the middle finger, separating the others a little "(335); and Father Jouvancy hastened to apply the recommendations of this Jesuit authority to the actor's acting. It is quite true, as Boysse recognizes,that "it is not with these prescriptions that one can train good actors", if one has in view the actor of the theater; but the Jesuits formed the actors of the "theater of the world", even if some of their former pupils (Molière, Dancourt) indeed embraced the theatrical career. What is certain is that, contrary to what Lang argued, it is not with such antics that you can train a man.
Doubtless the codification that the Jesuits had undertaken of the smallest gestures and expressions constituted in a certain way the culmination of the teaching which was dispensed in the maintenance courses to boys as to girls of noble families from the beginning. of the "Renaissance" and which predisposed them to gamble their lives. Maintenance courses had borne fruit from the middle of the 16th century in France. At the end of the reign of Henri III, the great of the kingdom had adopted a gongoric gesture. “The behavior at the table of a prince like the Duke of Guise or the Cardinal de Bourbon already requires a restrained gesture, because he must distinguish himself in his way of eating from ordinary people. Added to this is the requirement of political circumstances where each faithful servant, each curious observer,will engage in an interpretation of the signs suggested by the gestures that the hosts will show to their main guest and vice versa, and that he will be responsible for reporting to whoever wants to hear it ”. The assignment is such in the banquets that the servants in charge of the table service are convinced that they are part of a staging (336).
Certain actors were foreign to the colleges, of which they could however have been former students. "To the great indignation of their religious opponents ... the Parisian Jesuits have recourse to the greatest contemporary artists who mingle with college students and whose aura serves their business" (337) and, in return, it was not uncommon for Professional actors take up themes from the Jesuit repertoire. The Jesuit theater was the object of many criticisms. The long months of preparation that the performances required for the students and their teacher, responsible for composing the piece and conducting the rehearsals, could not have been used for more formative exercises? Didn't the teacher, who depended on his students for the performances, risk losing his authority? Young histrions,covered with applause by a very indulgent audience, to derive a vain satisfaction? Only the Sulpician Bertrand de la Tour (1701 - 1780) knew how to see in all their extent the inevitably disastrous consequences of the theatrical education of the Jesuits: "A whole college, that is to say several hundred young people are delighted with" a play, everything flatters the inclinations of their age. Then spread around the world, they will bring their ideas and tastes there, and will seek to satisfy themselves. All the families, charmed by the success of their children, and delighted with the spectacle, will have the same feelings. We will learn the scenes, we will read the comedies, we will know the authors, we will learn all the mysteries, we will exercise the children, we will make them repeat their roles, their brothers and sisters will imitate them,they will be magnificently dressed, we will do it without remorse, on the guarantee of the pious regents. Thus, without noticing it, a whole town will gradually become an actress out of taste, soon it will call up troupes of actors, and build theaters. The public spectacle will not be enough; troops of actors will be formed, and theaters will be set up in private houses. The germ of this theatrical fury was sown at the college; the first tests were made there by the hand of a regent (professor. [Ed]): what fruits will bloom under these holy auspices? we do not forget that a serious religious distributed, made people learn, exercised the comic roles, set the tone, directed the gesture, animated the glance, taught to represent on the stage, to make with grace a declaration to his mistress,to make the character of maid, harlequin. These lessons will not be fruitless, they will not be slow to implement them. "(338) Incisively, Bertrand de la Tour remarks that" Something would have been lacking in the education of young people if they had not made her an actress "(339). It is little wonder that minds steeped in performances in childhood come to see society in general as a vast theater and that, if it does not quite correspond to their playful expectations, they tend to transform it into this meaning, once they have reached positions of responsibility. The theatrical training that the Jesuit students received left an indelible mark on them, as the theatrical character of the style and language of most of the literary works of the Jesuits shows; for example, at Houdar de La Motte,“The furnace of Babylon is a theater; the mountain of Thabor a spectacle; the recognition of Joseph a scene… David Solomon, great actors ”, the apostles a“ troop ”(340).
During the Baroque period, the Jesuits were the only ones to draw the practical consequences from the thesis that the world is a theater: “if the world is a theater, the teaching of theatrical techniques is the best possible school of everyday life. Whoever has mastery of the body, voice and gesture will know how to accomplish without fail what is expected of him, to be a great clerk of the State (341). The pupils of the Jesuits learned at the theater school "to flee or to seek the feelings which they see, on the stage, greeted by mockery or applause". In short, the stage was for them a training ground for life in society.

Aesthetics (342)

Aesthetics, understood as the study of artistic sensitivity and the definition of the notion of beauty, already existed in antiquity, even if the notion of beauty was not necessarily related to art.
Socrates, in the Memorables and in the Banquet of Xenophon, teaches not only that the gods are invisible and that the human soul is invisible, but that the soul is more beautiful than the body and that the gods love beautiful souls. Plato collected the lessons of Socrates and laid the foundations of the science of the beautiful. In Platonic doctrine, the idea of ​​beauty is produced by dialectics. Reason rises from individuals to general ideas of the characteristics they have in common, then from these general ideas to still more general ideas and finally to absolute ideas, or rather to ideas of the characteristics of the absolute, conceived as a to be alive and not as an abstraction. In a previous life, the soul, which lived in this supersensible world of essences, contemplated Ideas and,if the feeling of true beauty awakens in man at the sight of earthly beauty, it is by reminiscence. The beautiful ideal is God himself, or rather the character of one of the powers of the divine soul, which is his power to act. There is nothing beautiful anywhere, except in the soul. According to Plato, unity and harmony are two of the essential characteristics of beauty. Perfect beauty is the same as good. The science of beauty does not reside in the knowledge of sensory data, but in the application of reason to this knowledge. Reason, first, admires a beautiful body, then rises to the ideal model of physical beauty, that is, the beauty of the soul, and finally sees beauty invisible and unchanging, incorporeal and eternal, source, cause and model of all other beauties.The contemplation of beauty has effects on the sensitivity of man: it provokes that love which, precisely, has been called platonic. Sight is, from all the senses, the one that best allows one to contemplate the beautiful, through a slow ascent from physical beauty to the beauty of the soul, from the beauty of the soul to moral beauty, from the moral beauty to the beauty of science, from the beauty of science to eternal beauty. The feeling of beauty is an emotion both affectionate (since it is an ardent love) and delicious (since it is a happiness).from the beauty of the soul to moral beauty, from moral beauty to the beauty of the sciences, from the beauty of the sciences to eternal beauty. The feeling of beauty is both affectionate (since it is ardent love) and delicious (since it is happiness).from the beauty of the soul to moral beauty, from moral beauty to the beauty of the sciences, from the beauty of the sciences to eternal beauty. The feeling of beauty is both affectionate (since it is ardent love) and delicious (since it is happiness).
Plato's theory of art, like his theory of beauty and his theory of good, derives from his conception of God. God is the complete type and the artist who created all that is; in him resides the ideal of being and the ideal of art; in God lives and acts the ideal artist, who is one with God. Man must offer himself God as a model. The true artist is the one who most resembles the divine artist and the ideal art the one who proceeds like the divine art. The ideal art is the production, after an ideal type, of a being who imitates the beauty of that type. There are two arts, one divine, the other human. The things which are produced by nature are the work of divine art; those which man produces from these things are the work of human art. Divine art makes its works in the image of ideal models, which alone are real.Human art does not produce anything real; he only makes images, simulacra of life and reality. Thus it is only an imitation and again an incomplete imitation; it cannot be complete because the being it creates does not have the same degree of life and reality as the being copied. Divine art is identified with knowledge, human art purely and simply with non-knowledge. In the human order, Plato hierarchizes the arts, distinguishing the art of copying (eikastiké téchné) - that of faithfully representing the proportions of the model - and the art of simulacrum (phantastiké téchné) - that of distorting the proportions of the model and making the senses believe that they are faithful to the proportions of the model. Poetry and painting are thus ranked among the most deceptive arts.There is, however, a nice imitation. that of things which are held to be beautiful and just.
Thus, Plato had laid the foundations, if not of aesthetics, even if he had studied the psychological conditions of receptivity to the beautiful, at least of the science of the beautiful. The Aristotelian theory of the beautiful derives from that of the Athenian philosopher. This one had not categorically defined the beautiful. Aristotle gives a precise definition: “the beautiful consists in the order and the size. Greatness means for him, in certain cases, the extent within which tragedy must be confined; in others, moral greatness. In this sense, “Homer represents men greater than they are, while Cleophon paints them in their ordinary nature and Hegemon of Thasos… disfigure and degrades them”.The way to represent men taller than they are is to give them the type greatness of their character. Plato had not said anything else. Order is harmony and unity: "The parts of the drama must be arranged in such a way that one cannot move or cut off a single one without the whole whole being changed and upset" . Beauty, defined by grandeur and order, is, as for Plato, the type of character, the universal. What separates the two philosophers in this respect is that the first, from the universal, rises to the absolute, while the second stops at the universal. Aristotle professes that the ideal is above reality and that it is a conception of the reason of man, but does not place in the reason of God the ideal types.Order is harmony and unity: "The parts of the drama must be arranged in such a way that one cannot move or cut off a single one without the whole whole being changed and upset" . Beauty, defined by grandeur and order, is, as for Plato, the type of character, the universal. What separates the two philosophers in this respect is that the first, from the universal, rises to the absolute, while the second stops at the universal. Aristotle professes that the ideal is above reality and that it is a conception of the reason of man, but does not place in the reason of God the ideal types.Order is harmony and unity: "The parts of the drama must be arranged in such a way that one cannot move or cut off a single one without the whole whole being changed and upset" . Beauty, defined by grandeur and order, is, as for Plato, the type of character, the universal. What separates the two philosophers in this respect is that the first, from the universal, rises to the absolute, while the second stops at the universal. Aristotle professes that the ideal is above reality and that it is a conception of the reason of man, but does not place in the reason of God the ideal types.Beauty, defined by grandeur and order, is, as for Plato, the type of character, the universal. What separates the two philosophers in this respect is that the first, from the universal, rises to the absolute, while the second stops at the universal. Aristotle professes that the ideal is above reality and that it is a conception of the reason of man, but does not place in the reason of God the ideal types.Beauty, defined by grandeur and order, is, as for Plato, the type of character, the universal. What separates the two philosophers in this respect is that the first, from the universal, rises to the absolute, while the second stops at the universal. Aristotle professes that the ideal is above reality and that it is a conception of the reason of man, but does not place in the reason of God the ideal types.aux. of each genre. Since, in his eyes, art can reach the universal, it follows that it can provide a certain form of knowledge.
"Art imitates nature" ("é tekhné mimetai tèn physis", Physique, 194a), not in the sense of imitating nature as closely as possible, of pure and simple reproduction of the physical form of a pre-existing model, but in the direction of production. The artist's faculties are a purely intellectual power, active and free to produce external objects. The goal that Aristotle sets for the artist is to seek an ideal model and embellished in his own thought; this ideal is the ideal soul; true art uses forms to express the invisible. The only and true object that he assigns to art is the pleasure that beauty brings. This pleasure is cathartic. It is in vain that one would seek in the Stagirite a description of aesthetic emotions. Man has an innate penchant for imitation,a natural taste for imitated things and this taste lies in the pleasure he experiences in learning. Pleasure is linked to the discovery of the true or the good and not to any aesthetic delight. Aesthetics "seeks beauty above all in perception, while Aristotle seeks it in the discovery of causes, in reasoning" (343).
For Plotinus as for Plato, the supreme goal of philosophy is the knowledge of the good and what makes it possible to achieve it is the beautiful, that is to say God himself. Dialectically, all who are sensitive to beauty rise from the sensitive beautiful to the intelligible beautiful, from physical beauty to ideal and absolute beauty, from multiple and changing matter to one and unchanging form, from evil to good, for achieve Unity, which has no attributes, not even beauty and form. For Plotinus, matter is the basis of everything. By coming to join the matter, the form imposes on it all that it possesses itself: quantity, quality, determination, that is to say order. It coordinates and combines its various parts and produces something that is one. Beauty, in the eyes of Plotinus,it is the unity of form which imposes harmony on the various elements of being: it is order. Better: the form is a fertile energy which shapes the object intended to reflect its own beauty. Sensitive objects are therefore beautiful because they participate in a form and they can participate in it because the individual soul which is in each of them reflects the ideal form of the universal soul even in their body. Divine intelligence contains the ideal forms of all that is created. The terrestrial world is the image of an ideal world whose beauty it reflects, because it reproduces its lively life, active power and rational order. Physical beauty is the manifestation, the expression of the capacity of the soul to reproduce the ideal order of the type. The soul obtains this beauty by moving away from the body and turning to God.Purified by this elevation, it becomes a form, a reason, an incorporeal, intellectual essence. She can go even higher and reach the top, which is good. For that, it must suppress in itself all that is multiple and all that prevents it from being one like absolute unity.
Like Plato, his teacher, Plotinus observes the aesthetic phenomenon. Like him, he says that the object of art is to achieve the beautiful and teaches that art does not reside in the imitation of physical nature, but in the representation of ideal nature. Like him, finally, he affirms that the beauty of the supreme principle can only be grasped by contemplation (theoria) and in particular by the implementation of the visual sense, of the inner gaze. But, unlike him, he distinguishes in the beautiful an objective aspect and a subjective aspect. If he posits, like his predecessors, that "beauty is a metaphysical property of objects", he nevertheless asserts that "we recognize this beauty in them, because we consider them beautiful ..."; and, the variability of aesthetic judgment according to individuals, races, backgrounds and eras,he concludes that this does not depend on the beauty of the object, but on the knowing subject (344).
The first representatives of Christian thought inherited the judgments of the philosophers of antiquity on the beautiful. But the scriptures themselves gave them food for thought. The attitude of the Old Testament towards beauty is twofold. On the one hand, material beauty is associated with vanity and danger (a cynical influence). On the other hand, Genesis evokes the beauty of creation in a verse which finds an echo in Ecclesiastes (XLIII, 9; XXXIX, 16), in the Book of Wisdom (XIII, 7; XIII, 5) and in d 'other passages still. The Book of Wisdom defines beauty, so to speak mathematically (some detect a Pythagorean influence in it), as that which is arranged "with measure, number and weight". (Job, 38: 4-7) The New Testament allusions to beauty are devoid of any aesthetic dimension;beauty is there exclusively moral; the word "kalos" ("beautiful") itself receives the meaning of "good".
Three approaches to the beautiful are found among the first Fathers of the Church. The first, influenced by Greek and Roman culture, emphasizes the immediate and objective character of beauty, conceived as proportion and harmony; the second, from the Jewish tradition, insists on the importance of its subjective dimension; the third tries to reconcile them.
The first representative of this latter tendency is Basil of Caesarea (329–379). Her theory of beauty remains within the framework of orthodoxy, as long as it sticks to the idea that it "results from the symmetry of the parts between them", but leaves it, when it adds: "and the beautiful color of the exterior ”; and comes out even more, when it defines the beautiful also by the light and that it claims that the beauty of the light, attributable to God, is not due to the harmonious relation which exists between its parts, but to the harmonious relation that it has with the organs of sight. Basil of Caesarea inherits this theology of light from Plotinus and Proclus who themselves had received it from the Stoics, who had probably borrowed it from the Alexandrians, who probably in turn held it from the Gnostics and the Chaldean oracles.
Plato and Aristotle saw in the notions of beautiful and good one and the same element and, what is more, an objective, ontological element. Basil of Caesarea was the first Christian thinker to take up Plotinus' view of the both objective and subjective character of beauty and, in this context, to emphasize the subjective sensation, with a sentimentalism that announces the tremolos of young Werther ("And the evening star is the most beautiful of stars, not because we find in it harmonious proportions, but because it lets fall into our eyes I do not know what soft glow which calms and consoles sorrows of the soul ”). Beauty is in the outside world, in light, shapes and colors, but to perceive the beauty of light, shapes and colors, sight is necessary.In other words, beauty must be grasped by the senses: by a knowing subject. To theological reflection is added a theological argument: beauty consists in a harmonious relationship between object and subject, but also in the correspondence between object and its finality. The world is beautiful because there is harmony between its parts, because man can appreciate his disposition and find in his contemplation a means of reaching the Creator, but also because it corresponds perfectly to the goal that is God was fixed by creating him. And since the world is beautiful because it was created for a specific purpose, in this respect it looks like a work of art. This concept, already formulated more or less precisely by Cicero and Plutarch, was generalized in patristic literature, in which also appeared the idea that this work of art, nature,revealed the spirit of the Creator. From the thought of Basil of Caesarea on the beautiful we must also retain the idea that Creation is a real "spectacle". He uses the term three times. John Chrysostom (v. 347 - 407) (345) is not to be outdone. Since Socrates, as we have seen, inner beauty, in other words the beauty of the soul, was considered superior to outer beauty. . This one practically disappeared from the scene in the writings of neo-Platonic influence of the pseudo-Dionysius. The spectacle of Creation became "the mysterious spectacle of superhuman things" (346).Since Socrates, as we have seen, inner beauty, in other words the beauty of the soul, was considered superior to outer beauty. This one practically disappeared from the scene in the writings of neo-Platonic influence of the pseudo-Dionysius. The spectacle of Creation became "the mysterious spectacle of superhuman things" (346).Since Socrates, as we have seen, inner beauty, in other words the beauty of the soul, was considered superior to outer beauty. This one practically disappeared from the scene in the writings of neo-Platonic influence of the pseudo-Dionysius. The spectacle of Creation became "the mysterious spectacle of superhuman things" (346).
Following Plotinus, he presented beauty as a suprasubstantial and absolute reality and, not being for nothing a mystical theologian, he associated it with the Christian divinity, conceived as absolutely transcendent. The Church Fathers understood God's relationship to the world in a dualistic way. The divinity was perfect, and compared to it the world was insignificant; everything here below was imperfect, but could reflect divinity more or less perfectly, could be endowed with intrinsic beauty. The pseudo-Dionysius, in this monistic, denied that things and beings could have a beauty of their own. Sensitive beauty existed, of course, but it was only a very imperfect, very illusory emanation of divine beauty. He was only a real, perfect beauty: divine beauty.This emanation was compared to the radiance of light. In fact, the luminosity, the "brilliance", was, along with the proportion, or rather the "measure", of the parts, the criterion of the beauty of a work of art, that is to say of an artistic theophany. To create a work of art, the artist had to fix his gaze on "archetypal" beauty, contemplate it.
With the pseudo-Dionysius, beauty became synonymous with perfection; it ceased to be an object of observation and experience, to become an object of speculation. The work of art should not have any sentimental character, should not arouse any emotion, none of those emotions which, in radical contradiction to his principles, the theologian openly expresses in the pages of his work which deals with sensitive beauty. All the "Middle Ages" were inspired by the pseudo-Dionysian conception of the beautiful. Thomas Aquinas spoke of it with the greatest respect.
The Augustinian definition of beauty, largely inspired by the Pythagorean mathematical conception of proportion and harmony and by the passage quoted above from the Book of Wisdom, naturally also had a great influence on artistic theory and practice in the "Middle Ages". ". “Everything,” he said, “pleases only in beauty; in beauty, by forms; in the forms, by the proportions; and in the proportions, by the numbers ”(De Ordine II, 15, 42)“ There is no orderly thing, he adds, that is not beautiful ”(De vera religione, XLI, 77)“ Beautiful things, he insists, please us by their number ”(De musica, VI, 12, 38). Beauty therefore comprises three characters: modus ("number"), species ("form", ordo ("order"). Leon Alberti, one of the main theorists of the Italian "Renaissance",reformulated them in his architectural treatise De re aedificatoria (1450): "Beauty is an agreement, or a certain conspiracy (if we must speak thus) of the parts in the whole, having its number, its finish, and its place. , as required by the above correspondence, absolute certainly & the main foundation of nature ”(IX, 5). Beauty, for Augustine, is an objective property of beings and things, insofar as their constitution results from a harmony between their parts. No more than the pseudo-Dionysius, however, he was not able to stem and hide the feelings aroused in him by beauty, assuming he wanted to, he who was the first to make his self. the material for a book: "Very late, I loved you, O beauty so old and so new." Very late, I loved you.And now you were inside and I was outside. That's where I was looking for you, and on the grace of these things you did, poor disgraced, I rushed! You were with me and I was not with you; they kept me away from you, those things which, however, if they did not exist in you, would not exist! You called, you screamed and you broke my deafness; you shone, you shone and you dispelled my blindness; you embalmed, I breathed and panting, I yearn for you; I have tasted, and I am hungry and I am thirsty; you touched me and I ignited for your peace. ”(Confessions X, 27-38.) Here, the term“ beauty ”could also be replaced by that of“ God ”. God is absolute beauty. He is even the principle and the source of all earthly beauties. Dialectically,the contemplation of the spectacle of sensitive objects - through the inner eye - leads Augustine to that of his soul, then of numbers, abstractions, ideas and finally of Him: the ideal.
Augustine adopted the view of Plotinus, already taken up by Basil of Caesarea and the pseudo-Dionysius, that beauty consists in light. This view imposed itself in the “Middle Ages” in the work of the theologian, Bishop of Paris, adviser and confessor of Louis IX Guillaume d'Auvergne (1190 - 1249), in the Summa fratris Alexandri attributed to the theologian and philosopher Alexandre de Hales (1185 - 1225) and at the bishop of Lincoln and secular close to the Franciscan Order Robert Grosseteste (1175 - 1253), good connoisseur of the works of the Egyptian scholar Ibn al-Haytam (965 - 1039). The latter's contribution to this theological theme was significant, not for asserting that the world could be called beautiful because it was the work of the Creator, that it had a perfect shape and that it was harmonious, but because,unlike his predecessors, he considered the beautiful as the proportion of parts from a purely quantitative point of view and thus reduced it to a relation of mathematical and geometric order. “Creation is made in the image of the creator. God is therefore the spiritual Light of the universe and the bodily light is his reflection in the visible world. The created beauty radiates in the likeness of infinite beauty. Since in God, Pure Act, the copies of all things live, in physical light, the simplest possible body, the forms of all bodies are contained. "Dum calculat Deus, fit mundus": from divine unity, the numbers of things flow, so while the light shines, the various materializations of the fundamental proportions emerge.The mathematical laws that the scientist discovers in the structure of things are therefore the expression of the luminous wisdom of the Architect-Geometer who is God ”(347). Beautiful forms are therefore based on "measures" and beauty thus understood gives pleasure ("Et ut in hac congregatione et unificationeomnia delectabiliter maneant"). The aesthetic sensualism that took shape in Basil of Caesarea ("No thing can generate a perception charged with more pleasure than light does") was thus found in Grosseteste.The aesthetic sensualism that took shape in Basil of Caesarea ("No thing can generate a perception charged with more pleasure than light does") was thus found in Grosseteste.The aesthetic sensualism that took shape in Basil of Caesarea ("No thing can generate a perception charged with more pleasure than light does") was thus found in Grosseteste.
Developed clearly in the Archbishop, Cardinal, Doctor of the Church, Minister General of the Franciscans and pillar of theology in the "Middle Ages" Bonaventure de Bagnoregio (1221 - 1274), always against a background of the philosophy of light, an interest for the empirical and psychological dimension of beauty, for the subject's capacity to be in harmony with the object that he grasps by the senses or the intelligence, that is to say, ultimately, for his sensitivity. By emphasizing the subject, Bagnoregio was able to grant an important role to two complementary faculties the use of which had hitherto been prohibited in artistic creation: imagination and creativity. The work of art was thus conceived, no longer as the representation of something external to its creator, but as a projection of the interior states of the artist.Bagnoregio's reflections on the beautiful, even if they were part of an attempt to explain the dependence of the created world on its Creator, referred to a tendency of Franciscan thought which consisted in attributing a value to the intrinsic beauty possessed by the creature and the individual's ability to express it.
The first traces of aesthetic relativism appeared in the original speculations on the light of the theologian, philosopher, naturalist, chemist and Dominican friar Albert the Great (c. 1200 - 1280). Their novelty was due to the following proposition: an object which receives light is more or less beautiful according to the quantity of essence which can be seen through its sensitive form.
The aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas were largely inspired by notions that we have already encountered in Aristotle, Augustine and especially the pseudo-Dionysius. Its contribution to the birth of the modern subject was no less important. It lies in the fact that, unlike Aristotle, moreover, he clearly distinguished between the beautiful and the good and isolated in each one a subjective, psychological element, which he judged to be just as important as the other element. He defined the beautiful as "what pleases the sight" ("id quod visum placet") and gave three objective conditions for an object to be beautiful: integrity, the harmonious ratio of proportions and clarity, radiance . The cause of the pleasure produced by beauty could not be attributed to an absolute ideal; it had its origin in the dialectic between subject and object,that is, in the subjective recognition of the objectively good and beautiful qualities of the object. By his sense organs, mainly by sight, the subject seized the object, examined minutely its inherent qualities, formed a precise image of it and passed judgment on it.
At the end of the thirteenth century, attention turned resolutely to the role of the subject in the perception, recognition and definition of beauty. Significant of this trend was the publication of Perspectivorum libri decem seu optica (1273) by the physicist, mathematician and philosopher Witelo, a treatise on optics and perspective in which, for the first time on this scale as regards the theory of knowledge, the experimental concerns prevailed over theological or philosophical statements.

Perspective

According to Vitruvius, the painter Agatarchos of Samos was the first to compose painted panels for a representation - that of Orestia - which would have inspired the research of Democritus and Anaxagoras on perspective. Perspective, as we know, was known from Greco-Roman antiquity, but "in all the preserved ancient works where the representation of depth is at stake, whether in reliefs, mosaics or painting , nothing allows us to detect the application of a geometrically coherent perspective system, which would be the analogue, in angular perspective or not, of what rectilinear perspective was during the Renaissance ”. (348)
Originally, perspective (from the Latin perspicere: “to see clearly”) was the science of seeing well, that is, the ability to disentangle the error of truth in the phenomenon of seeing. In Greece, in Euclid, Heron of Alexandria and Ptolemy, this science had received the name of optike. The Arabs called it al-Manāẓir, “appearances” - which is not the same (349). While the optiké applied to classify the various errors of interpretation of visual data (350), the Kitab al-Manāẓir was at the origin of a science which, especially in the practical and commercial applications to which it lent itself (351), strove to deepen, promote and perfect all the means of producing the illusion.
The main basis of optiké was that the visual rays left the eye in the direction of what is seen (352). Ibn al-Haytham posited on the contrary that the light rays go from what is seen to the eye (353); for Euclid and Ptolemy, the physical agent of perception was the visual ray; al-Haytham “proved”, following numerous experiments in a darkroom, that it is in fact the light which, emanating from a light source, bounces on the surface of what is seen, to penetrate into the pupil; the light rays thus form a cone, the apex of which is located in the eye and the base of which is the visible surface of the objects (354); light is considered as the stimulus of sight and it is so from a strictly quantitative point of view: "the eye has the sensation of illumination,and this sensation is controlled by the amount of light that enters the eye; the eye sees the object when the amount of light coming from that object is neither too strong nor too weak. "(355); third point: “In a theory of the visual ray, the image is strictly speaking a mirage, having, in the absence of the beholder, no objective existence, no raison d'être. In al-Haytham, on the contrary, a distinction becomes necessary: ​​light and its broken propagation have to be dealt with by themselves, for these are intramundane phenomena, which occur independently of sight; and therefore, if not the image, at least the reflection and refraction of the light ray acquire an objective status ”; fourth point: "Neither reflection, nor especially refraction (since it intervenes in direct vision,as shown in Book VII) can no longer be held exclusively as causes of error ”(356): in contrast, the catroptic, a treatise attributed to Euclid, showed“ the deceptive appearance of mirrors ”. Especially, where his predecessors had contented themselves with making an account of the nature of light, Ibn al-Haytham made a study of its properties, in particular in relation to the problem of vision; and this study was experimental and mathematical (357), unlike, for example, the physical optics of Aristotle, which was based on an empirical approach.where his predecessors had contented themselves with making an account of the nature of light, Ibn al-Haytham made a study of its properties, particularly in relation to the problem of vision; and this study was experimental and mathematical (357), unlike, for example, the physical optics of Aristotle, which was based on an empirical approach.where his predecessors had contented themselves with making an account of the nature of light, Ibn al-Haytham made a study of its properties, in particular in relation to the problem of vision; and this study was experimental and mathematical (357), unlike, for example, the physical optics of Aristotle, which was based on an empirical approach.
The Arab scientist's method “substitutes for thought experience a meticulously described experimental method (necessary equipment, protocol, observations…) Each theoretical advance is presented as induced by the observations presented. Al-Haytham introduces each of his conclusions with an expression such as: "From what we have discovered by experience and by induction, it is evident that ...". Likewise, most of the proposals made before him are thus sifted through experience ”(more exactly,“ most of the proposals made before him have thus been sifted through ”experimentation, which is not to be expected. all the same. (358) In Ptolemy, visual perception had become “the result of a very complex judgment (see in particular book 11).to appreciate this or that magnitude, or again this or that displacement, it is necessary at the same time to combine different metric elements and to bring into play several faculties. "(359). It becomes even more complex with al-Haytham, for whom "the comprehension of visual perception completely ceases to rest on the intuitive evidence of seeing, and the specialist is obliged to rethink each of its components" (360).
The first, Alexander of Aphrodise (361) had sought to explain visual perception, by integrating geometry into its physical, physiological and psychological dimensions. Ibn al-Haytham substituted mathematics for geometry and the visual rays of his predecessors became "strictly mathematical, that is to say, they are no more than abstract lines which light follows in the direction of the eye" . He “has an experimental and mechanical conception of light, of which he takes into consideration the sensitive and observable reality without appealing to intelligible forms or species which would be the substantial forms of reality. The visual forms are mathematical figures, radial pyramids, formed of rays propagating light according to the laws of geometry ”.(362) Can we speak of a passage from a metaphysics of light, that of Plato, to a physics of light? No doubt, on condition of adding that it was facilitated by the nature of the research undertaken by certain Christian theologians from the 12th century on colors, on the propagation of light and on optics (363), within the framework of the “Specific mathematical project of late scholasticism. This project was “characterized by the predominance of a problematic of measurement and measurement understood as a logical problem of denomination; by researching the possibilities of translating the rules of “measurement” from one… analytical language to another; by the multiplication of tests imposed on each measurement rule with respect to all conceivable variations of an entity measured secundum imaginationem.These tests do not involve any confrontation with experience or active experimentation, their goal is not the knowledge of reality as such nor the verification of a hypothesis or a conjecture, but the production of new rules. or the generation of new "logical puzzles", the sophismata. Progress is made here in the field of logical analysis, not in that of scientific induction. The "measurement" carried out by the natural philosopher has value only inside the imaginary play space of the logical possible ". (364) Can we not compare the tendency which gave rise to this monstrous project to the taste of the Semites for mathematics in what they have most disembodied, a taste which, as far as the Jews are concerned, can be explained, according to J. Evola, by the "abstract and mechanical relations" that,by virtue of their racial constitution, they maintain with the divine (365) and which, in the modern world, has been translated, in the scientific field, by the theory of relativity, the fruit of an "over-mathematization of physics" , "Borderline case of the dissolution of physics in mathematics, of the pure abstraction of a knowledge which, although certain, takes refuge in a world of algebraic entities absolutely indifferent to the data of sensible experience" (366) , in which only numbers, equations, integrals, differentials remain? To say nothing of the bureaucratic monstrosities which this veritable mental trisomy has given birth to in the Administration and in the economy.by the theory of relativity, fruit of an "over-mathematization of physics", "borderline case of the dissolution of physics in mathematics, of the pure abstraction of a knowledge which, although certain, takes refuge in a world of algebraic entities absolutely indifferent to the data of sensible experience ”(366), in which only numbers, equations, integrals, differentials remain? To say nothing of the bureaucratic monstrosities which this veritable mental trisomy has given birth to in the Administration and in the economy.by the theory of relativity, fruit of an "over-mathematization of physics", "borderline case of the dissolution of physics in mathematics, of the pure abstraction of a knowledge which, although certain, takes refuge in a world of algebraic entities absolutely indifferent to the data of sensible experience ”(366), in which only numbers, equations, integrals, differentials remain? To say nothing of the bureaucratic monstrosities which this veritable mental trisomy has given birth to in the Administration and in the economy.takes refuge in a world of algebraic entities absolutely indifferent to the data of sensible experience ”(366), in which only numbers, equations, integrals, differentials remain? To say nothing of the bureaucratic monstrosities which this veritable mental trisomy has given birth to in the Administration and in the economy.takes refuge in a world of algebraic entities absolutely indifferent to the data of sensible experience ”(366), in which only numbers, equations, integrals, differentials remain? To say nothing of the bureaucratic monstrosities which this veritable mental trisomy has given birth to in the Administration and in the economy.
The Kitab al-Manāẓir, translated into Latin at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th and into Italian in the middle of the 14th, taught at the University of Florence from the second half of the 14th century, had a considerable influence on optical theorists such as Roger Bacon (1214-1294), Witelo, the Franciscan John Peckham (1230 - 1292) and finally Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), whose Astronomia pars Optica (1664) exposed the fundamental principles of 'Modern' optics. Determining, the influence of Kitab al-Manā futir was however on art before it was on science. The inventor of linear perspective, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446), as well as the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, Leon Battista Alberti, the designer of the "perspectiva artificialis", drew from it.
Here, a focus deserves to be made on "perspettiva naturalis" and "perspettiva artificialis" and at the same time on the consequences of Alberti's "discovery", "The perspective is not natural, it is not. not a law of the objective world. It is a bias, a reconstruction of the world. And if today we no longer notice it, if this given image of the world goes without saying, if it is "natural", it is because perspective has become a historical and cultural given "(367). Naturalis or artificialis, the perspective remains an illusion. The perspectiva artificialis, which developed from the 12th to the 15th centuries, only prolongs the perspectiva naturalis by mathematizing the domain of the sensible, and particularly the way we see the world - until it erects this vision into a paradigm of intelligible clarity,in a pure reflection of intelligence ”; "By bringing vision into a mathematized science, Alberti suddenly takes it out of any attachment or adherence to what one might call visibility, to this given, this" lived ", usually from the start, which is the fact of seeing with his eyes, with this obvious common sense that to see… is to see. We can then say that with a sharp triangle blow, Alberti will have torn the visible vision. He thus invents a sort of "pure" vision, purely geometric, that is to say made up of points and lines, where, if we put the eye at the top of the system, this eye has not. no other content or other consistency than being the vertex of a triangle, no other acute property than that of a point at the angle of two straight lines, no other quality, virtue or thickness than that of a single point,by definition without thickness, without virtue, without quality… Vision reduced to a strict combination of lines and points, this is what, in the 17th century, Desargues and projective geometry will lead the invention of perspective… ”(368) The perspective artificialis does not only have the effect of quantifying the vision, it aims to cut the viewer from reality: Brunelleschi's “voluntary, intentional, deliberately constructed perspective” works “the viewer's gaze by interposing between the latter and the viewer. object looked at a surface, the plane of which the drawing was going to reflect. This shot artificially interrupted the infinite depth of the visual lines suggested by the perspectiva naturalis.Thus the one who looked at the drawing was literally put in his place by the plan he then had before his eyes and which had been envisaged to reflect this perspective. If he was invited to project his point of view onto the surface being looked at, he in return suffered the effect of the convergence of the vanishing lines which corresponded to this intention. The point of convergence referred him to the depth that this point suggested ”(369) and Leonardo da Vinci, the inventor of atmospheric perspective.the inventor of atmospheric perspective.the inventor of atmospheric perspective.
Both, directly or indirectly influenced by al-Haytham's empirical-mathematical conception, were at the origin of a process of rationalization of vision, image and space. Alberti thus judged “that the images are not the ontological forms of the old metaphysical visual tradition, but that the species or images are geometrically formalized as being radiosæ or radial pyramids, according to a geometric technique for which the species or images are not. only figures constructed using optical rays delimiting the sides of the pyramid and its base surface, which depends on the perception of the distance from the eye… The pictorial and plastic figure has no reality in it - even independently of the viewer, as regards his spatial constitution,which is its essential element: the observer and the artist identify themselves in the vision ”. (370) And perspective was at the heart of thisproject.For the science of appearances, vision is made by light rays which, emanating from all points of the illuminated surface of bodies, reach the eye of the observer. If we interpose a surface between the eye and the objects and determine the intersection of each light ray and this surface, the set of all these points will produce on the eye the same sensation as the objects themselves, since they will give rise to an identical perspective cone. The geometric determination of this figure constitutes the science of modern perspective, linear perspective.
Linear perspective can thus be defined as "the art of presenting objects as they are seen from the point of view or visual point of view" (371), or as "the set of lines which outline the image" (372 ); or as "the process which makes it possible to represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface, so that the representation coincides with that provided by direct vision (373)".
But the perspective is much less neutral than what these definitions suggest.
First, “By a regular grid of intersecting lines, it will be possible to architect the space of the representation around three fundamental points: the point of view of the observer, which gives the angle; the vanishing point towards which all the lines of the visual pyramid converge on the horizon; the source of the light which directs the shadows… Perspective begins, however, with an invisibility which gives birth to a decoy: the artist will give to a two-dimensional surface the illusion of depth and relief. The structuring element of the painting becomes the void, the space, and no longer the object. Things only fit together in a relationship of successive planes, of visual compartments linked to each other by lines of flight… ”(374) Perspective allows, for the first time,to represent infinity within the framework of the finite, the umpteenth sign of the orientalization of white culture (375). And, infinity being by definition limitless, the central vanishing point will soon be flanked by the points of distance, which we will then realize that they are also vanishing points, and therefore representations of the infinite; it is again the horizon itself which will appear as the place of a multitude - of an infinity - of vanishing points, then, around 1600, it is finally the emergence of the idea that any point of the tableau is, in the last instance, a vanishing point.therefore representations of the infinite; it is again the horizon itself which will appear as the place of a multitude - of an infinity - of vanishing points, then, around 1600, it is finally the emergence of the idea that any point of the tableau is, in the last instance, a vanishing point.therefore representations of the infinite; it is again the horizon itself which will appear as the place of a multitude - of an infinity - of vanishing points, then, around 1600, it is finally the emergence of the idea that any point of the tableau is, in the last instance, a vanishing point.
Regarding the point of view, it is "unique". In Brunelleschi's famous experiment in Piazza San Giovanni in Florence in 1415, it is by looking through a single hole drilled in a panel that each of the participants can see that, placed on a small board, the drawing that he realized in perspective of the baptistery of the cathedral is superimposed exactly on the real building. "The 'point that the perspective assigns' (to speak like Pascal) defines a place, not a person, and it is a strange subject, deprived of scope and perfectly anonymous, that representation supposes” (376).
Then, “The image… obtained by geometrization of space is presented as a rupture in the flow between the individual and the world” (377); “… From the eye to the visible a line is interrupted. Something got lost. By allowing the world to be read as a rationally organized and knowable structure, perspective substitutes its representation for reality. And at the same time reorganizes the vision that we had of the world ”(378). “Perspective is presented as the particular story of a gaze in the process of being constituted. A story, no longer referring to a world but to a subject. What we see matters less than the place from which the thing is seen: the point of view. This perspective view of the world establishes the individual looking as a modern subject ”(379), an“ autonomous subject ”.“The men of the Middle Ages did not see the world through a window. One could even say, at a pinch, that they did not see the world at all, at least not in the sense in which we understand it today, that is to say from our "personal" vision. They were immersed in a world from which they could not escape to see it from a distance. They were never the impassive spectators of a world presenting itself before them, from them, for them ... with perspective, not only the status of what appears to consciousness (the object or the phenomenon). finds radically modified, but also that of the knowing subject and his body, since conception of things and capture of the phenomena taking place respectively by them First, by reducing the gaze to a conceptual grasp of space,strictly "geometric" look (the cadaverized Cartesian bull's eye), the perspective moves away the body in its material density and its carnal reality (body which will become nowadays, according to the author Robert D. Romanyshyn, the one, slumped before the television, for whom the world is reduced to its spectacular dimension, to which it unites only the fact of light). Perspective doubles what the eye sees, but by reducing this eye to an eye that we could say "angelic": static and frozen eye, which captures things in their stability, their continuity and their homogeneity, as opposed to a vision that could be qualified as temporal, dynamic, alive, even productive (“desiring” vision which twists and transforms the observed phenomenon). For this "android" eye detached from the external world,the world becomes spatialization frozen in time, and therefore, always-already image. Modern subjectivity… results from this process by which the “thinking thing”, in a manner analogous to God, is differentiated and excluded from the “in-itself” (the material density of the world) to posit the world as an object, which becomes "for-itself", and therefore representation for the subject "(380).
However, let us qualify this very relevant analysis by recalling that, if the man of the "middle ages" was not subjected to the linear perspective, neither in art, nor in everyday life, he was nevertheless to a certain extent. To the picture. In the iconography of the "Middle Ages", the images "seem to emerge outside the manuscript, the altarpiece or the painted wall to project themselves towards the viewer ..." (381), in contrast to the "perspective" images of the Renaissance , which conversely call the spectator to enter the illusionist space of figuration as through a window ”(382). If the two processes are opposed, it is not said that they are not complementary diachronically. To bring the viewer into the image, to suck it in, to grab it there,shouldn't we first capture his attention? “What we call today a picture - this object marked by the classical perspective - supposes a capture of the gaze” (383). "For the subject to be trapped in the device, he must himself be looked at from a point which is in the painting" (384) and his gaze must be fixed, motionless: hence the "Assignment" of a point by the perspective; and also that the painter's eye be fixed, motionless, when the latter draws or paints. The principle of Dürer's perspectograph, which "makes it possible to obtain the perspective of a given drawing or, more precisely, to obtain a figure similar to the perspective image, on a vertical plane, of a given drawing in a horizontal plane ”(385), in short a machine to reconstruct space, consists of immobilizing the eye of the designer and,so to speak, by extension, that of the spectator.
Finally, “By introducing a third dimension, in accordance with Euclidean geometry, the truth of the represented is not obtained without violence. It is only at the cost of a growing virtualization of reality that we can represent it with the greatest precision. Descartes, in his Dioptrique: "Following the rules of perspective they often represent better circles by ovals… and squares… by diamonds". We approach the faithful representation of reality only as we move away from it, according to the rules of geometry. At the same time as it simulates the truth in its three perceptible dimensions, perspective appears above all as a construct, an artifice dependent on human rationality. There is a fundamental ambiguity here: in order to restore reality as faithfully as possible,it is necessary to deconstruct it, then to rebuild it according to the geometric rules of human vision. First step of a phenomenological constructivism. The representation "renders" the true only because it is false. It only seems natural in proportion to its artifices ”.
Autism, monomania, mythomania, dissociative disorder, to each of the effects, or rather to each of the purposes, of the linear perspective on the observer potentially corresponds to a pathological symptom (386). The modern individual, who is the subject of nothing and even less of himself, is a pathological case and there is no doubt that he has had a part in his final alienation, because by "(transforming) psychological space into an artificial mathematical space ”, it“ turns the retinal (anatomical) image into a psychologically conditioned visual image ”(387).

The perspective leads to the Italian theater

The source of infection for the prospect was Florence, and it is indeed probably no coincidence that "such a precise method of evaluating the illusion of space was first employed in a city which was so absorbed by the calculation and accounting - a city of merchants, traders and bankers where the ability to count was not an exception, as in the rest of Europe, but a rule ”(388).
The first Perspectivists were the Florentine painters and architects and it was they who were the initiators of the so-called Italian theater. Alberti, in addition to his decisive contribution to the development of perspective, stands out, along with Brunelleschi, as a director and set builder. Sebastiano Serlio (1475 - 1554), chief architect at the court of François I and creator of the term “scenography”, refined the perspective by imagining the “central vanishing point”, which consists in making the right of a decoration compete on a shot further away than the backdrop, in order to give depth to the decor; the Italian architect and scenographer Nicola Sabbatini (1574 - 1654), author of a Pratica di fabricar scene e macchine ne 'teatri (Ravenna, 1638),was one of the first to design theater machines capable of creating realistic visual and sound effects and described and developed new stage lighting techniques, as a process, which we will have occasion to discuss again, to obscure the scene in an instant. English architect Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652), designer of Whitehall and Covent Garden Square, architectural model of the West End, designer of the sets and costumes for a series of court masks commissioned by Ben Johnson by the Crown , is considered to be the one who introduced movable sets and the stage setting in English theater. Hence, it is not surprising that the first Italian-style theaters were set up in noble palaces (389), the nobility being, with the Vatican, the main client of the architects.
The Italian-style theater presents a certain number of precise characteristics, as regards the installations intended for the spectacle as well as with regard to the installations reserved for the public: 1. The building, of more modest dimensions than those of the ancient theaters, is, unlike these, covered (the ceiling is dome) and closed (which makes it possible to pay entry); 2. A stage frame separates the stage, of cubic shape, from the room, of oval shape (The separation between the stage and the room was materialized more and more clearly from the 16th to the 19th century by the "dilation of the stage frame. , by the systematization of the use of the stage curtain ", which, very late as it was in the" Middle Ages ", thickens considerably," by the possible addition of additional frames at the back of the frame. scene,by the differentiation of lights between the hall and the stage, by the appearance, then the development of the orchestra pit ”and finally of the wings (390); the room is raised above the stage, to facilitate the illusion; 3. A stage frame vertically delimits the opening of a stage cage, where machinery is placed: a large part of the stage is thus invisible to the public; 4. the stage setting can be compared to the hole in Brunelleschi's experiment which was described above and to the famous "window" (for Alberti, the painting was "a window [which translates in English as" window " ] open through which we [can] look at history ”); 5. Everything is done so that members of the audience are and remain motionless throughout the performance, while being able to see each other:the hall has a parterre, surrounded on three sides by balconies, divided into tiered boxes, where the "spectators" are seated; 6. The decor, in perspective, “is designed and structured according to two precise locations: that of the gaze and that of the convergence of all the vanishing points in place” (391).
Although the Italian-style hall is designed to optimize the performance, that is to say so that the perspective representation of the scenery on the stage produces the illusion necessary for the entertainment of the public, at least two conditions are not gathered. The first is still impossible, because, in the room, "We drink, we eat, Apples fly towards the stage." One day, the spectators of the pit overturn the scene. In the room is erected a post to which one attaches the pickpocket caught in the act ”. This is a description of Shakespeare's audience, but in France it was no different at the time. For example, a chronicler relates that, “While games and pranks are performed before Queen Yolande and her people, thieves approach a spectator Yvonnet Coyrant,cut off the sleeve of her dress and steal 10 sols and a seal ”(392). We will come back to the particular atmosphere which reigned during performances at the beginning of the "Renaissance" and even until the middle of the 18th century and which made it difficult to speak of "spectator" in the sense in which we are speaking. let's hear. Then, even though those attending a performance would be nailed and tied up, the quality of the illusion varies considerably depending on how much space each occupies in the room.even though those attending a performance would be nailed and tied up, the quality of the illusion varies considerably depending on how much space each occupies in the room.even though those attending a performance would be nailed and tied up, the quality of the illusion varies considerably depending on how much space each occupies in the room.
This is determined by his social rank. The higher it is, the closer its place in the room is to that where "all things marked on the stage will show themselves better than in any other place" (393), that is to say the point of view. ideal, the point of view, determined mathematically, from which it is possible to visualize the perspective offered by the decoration without distortion (394), in other words the place where the perspective is most successful and therefore from where one can see the representation best. “The history of centered perspective - a history common to both arts (painting and theater) - merges with the search for this point which provides the perfect illusion, visual condition of the viewer's credence and of his adherence to history represented ”(395);the corresponding seat was reserved for the most eminent person in the public. Reflection of a highly hierarchical society? Undoubtedly, but also a society whose elite were deluded, since, if the ideal point of view was the one where one could see the sets best and it was therefore the one where the illusion was the more perfect, that made the nobility the most illusioned state of the "corpus mysticum".

The expression "corpus mysticum", when it appeared in the Carolingian world of the 9th century, designated the Eucharistic body of Jesus Christ as opposed to the "corpus proprium et verum Christi", or "corpus naturale". In the middle of the 12th century, for reasons which are well explained in "The two bodies of the king" and on which we do not have to dwell here, it came to be applied to the Church, that is to say - say the community of Christians, which, while forming a hierarchically organized social body, was endowed with a mystical nature; the head of this social body was Jesus Christ. In the 13th century, the concept of "corpus mysticum" was transferred to the political domain, where it took more or less the meaning of "political community". It became clearer at the beginning of the 15th century,to be superimposed on that of “corpus mysticum regni”, “political mystical body”, within the framework of the emergence of the idea of ​​nation. This idea had a mystical character, because “We did not believe… that the nation was created by its history. It preexisted to him, gift of the divine will, and went back to a unique and glorious ancestor to whom it owed its primordial qualities ”(396). Just as Jesus Christ was the head of the “corpus mysticum”, whose members were the community of Christians, so the king was the head of the “corpus mysticum regni”, whose members were his subjects: the three states. “Even though the corpus mysticum was intangible, it was in a way more concrete; more understandable than the chaos of the visible world. And,just as the inhabitants of pre-modern France were often encouraged to see themselves as members of the Christian community and not as independent individuals, so as political individuals they were meant to see themselves as part of the body. mystical and not as individual citizens of a nation ”(397). But, continues P. Friedland, “the mystical body was not always purely mystical. Under extraordinary circumstances, the mystical body of the French nation became visible, was literally re-presented in a visible, tangible form. By order of the king, ordinary people from the most remote corners of the kingdom gathered on such and such a day in such a place to participate in a political spectacle: the re-presentation of the mystical body. The king (literally) at their head,these individuals then constituted, with him, the incarnation of the mystical body of France. This political spectacle, in which the spirit was embodied and the political actors re-presented with their own bodies an insubstantial mystical body, was called… the states-general ”(398).
The reason why the author speaks of "political spectacle" and "political actors" happens to be much deeper than that which is directly linked to the fact that, as we have seen, Versailles had become a real theater. To understand it, you have to ask yourself what an actor was at the time. Until the middle of the 17th century, all the works of theatrical theory show that an actor was expected to really experience the emotions of the character he was playing, in other words that, on the stage, he was identifies so much with his character that he literally becomes his character. The actor had to transform himself into his character, to embody his character, in order to move the audience by the veracity of his emotions (this conception of theatrical acting dates back to Horace ("Si vis me flere,dolendum est primum ipsi tibi; tum tu me infortunia laedent ”, a line paraphrased laconically by Boileau as follows:“ To get me to cry, you must cry ”). Several contemporaries compared the Incarnation of the divine verb in the human body Jesus Christ to the incarnation of the verb of the playwright in the body of the actor.
Here, the theatrical representation joined the political representation, even the religious representation, because, just as the political body of the States-General made visible and tangible the invisible mystical body of France (as the Eucharist represented in a material and visible form the invisible mystical body of Jesus Christ), thus the body of the actor materially represented the immaterial body of the character. Everything in this regard began to change around 1750, following the publication of The Art of Theater by François-Antoine-Valentin Riccoboni, translated into German the same year by Lessing (Die Schauspielkunst). Riccoboni, famous Parisian actor, called into question the cardinal rule of the French theatrical tradition. For him, the actor should not have the real experience of the emotions of the character he was playing,but pretend he's actually experiencing it; the performance was not to be true, but - the concept had actually been part of theatrical thinking since the 17th century - plausible. The new way of acting advocated by Riccoboni was not long in forming the heart of a larger project, intended to transform theatrical theory and practice as a whole. Le Paradoxe du comédien (1773 - 1777) gave a definition of theatrical performance almost identical to that of Riccoboni: “All (the) talent (of the actor) consists not in feeling, as you suppose, but in rendering the outward signs of feeling, that you were wrong. Diderot, however, goes further than Riccoboni, by making insensitivity and duplicity the essential qualities of the actor:he must give back passions "in cold blood"; “He weeps like an unbelieving priest who preaches the Passion; like a seducer on the knees of a woman he doesn't love, but wants to cheat; like a beggar in the street or at the door of the church, who insults you when he despairs of touching you; or like a courtesan who feels nothing, but who swoons in your arms ”. In theatrical lore, the actor's metamorphosis into his character relied entirely on his ability to convince himself that he really was his character. The revolutionary theater that Riccoboni had sketched out and that Diderot had defined depended, not on the actor's ability to believe that he was being metamorphosed into his character (he even had to do everything not to believe that he was metamorphosed into his character. character),but of the spectator's capacity to believe that the actor was metamorphosed into his character, to, as Colleridge would say a few decades later, "to suspend his disbelief", that is to say to accept being duped by a fiction momentarily: for the space of time that a performance lasts. As the spectator as we understand him did not yet exist, to speak here of role reversal would make no sense. It would be more correct to say that, after having redefined the role of the actor, the new theater undertook to invent the spectator, on whom it placed all the responsibility for the effectiveness of the performance.for the space of time that a performance lasts. As the spectator as we understand him did not yet exist, to speak here of role reversal would make no sense. It would be more correct to say that, after having redefined the role of the actor, the new theater undertook to invent the spectator, on whom it placed all the responsibility for the effectiveness of the performance.for the space of time that a performance lasts. As the spectator as we understand him did not yet exist, to speak here of role reversal would make no sense. It would be more correct to say that, after having redefined the role of the actor, the new theater undertook to invent the spectator, on whom it placed all the responsibility for the effectiveness of the performance.
By 1789, the theater which had existed in France until 1750, with its “metamorphoses”, its “incarnations” and its carnival interaction between actors and audience, had almost completely disappeared. It had made way for two radically different worlds. One was the world of artificial reality, where the actors were bathed in stage lighting, seemingly indifferent to anyone and everything outside of the stage space, The other was made up of seated individuals. in the dark, whose sole function was to drink from the eyes of actors who ignored them. Whereas in the past he actively participated in the performance, the individual was no longer a passive observer. The same process took place on the contemporary political scene.

BK, 2015

(*) These two terms are used here as synonyms, since, as we know, “the distinction between arts and crafts, or between“ artist ”and“ artisan ”, is… something specifically modern” - although, as we will see below, certain terms in the Old Testament have the meaning of “act by which an artist produces a work”
(**) Emmanuelle Hénin, Ut pictura theatrum , Droz, 2003, p. 17.
(***) The file containing the text of the notes being corrupted and consequently illegible, it will have to be rewritten before being integrated little by little and as far as possible in this study; finding the exact references of the citations will not pose any problem; the task might prove to be more difficult in other cases.
(232) R. Larry Shelton, Cross & Covenant: Interpreting the Atonement for 21st Century Mission, Biblica Books, 2006, p. 24 and sqq.
(233) Denys Gorce, Paulin De Nole , Les éditions Ouvrières, Paris, 1959, p. 35.
(234) Olivier Boulnois, Beyond the image: an archeology of the visual in the Middle Ages, 5th-16th century , Le Seuil, 2008, p. 85.
(235) The Artist, Paris, 1837, p. 60.
(236) Joseph Alexandre Martigny (abbot), Dictionary of Christian antiquities, “Christian mosaics”, Pris, 1877.
(237) The superficial theory of the hostility of the first Christians to images was built in the 19th century on the related chapters Early Christianity History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireby Edward Gibbon. See the revisionist study by Stéphane Bigham, Les Christians et les images , Éditions Paulines & Médiaspaul, 1992, available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_adX2MA8r_MJ:srbigham.com/ books / chretiens-et-images / les-chretiens-et-les-images.docx + & cd = 2 & hl = fr & ct = clnk & gl = fr , consulted on September 4, 2015.
(238) Louis Moréri, Le Grand Dictionnaire historique , t. 6, Taken, 1759, p. 243; Bonaventure Racine, Abridged of ecclesiastical history , t. 1, Paris, 1762, p. 431-34.
(239) The Artist, Paris, 1864, p. 202.
(240) Charles de Leutre, Precis of the history of art , Jamar, Brussels, 1854, p. 113.
(241) André Grabar, Archaeological notebooks: end of antiquity and the Middle Ages , vol. 28, Vanoest, Art and History Editions, 1979, p. 163.
(242) Ibid.
(243) See Jubinal, Research on the use and origin of tapestries with so-called historiated characters , Paris, 1840.
(244) Auguste Pugin, Antiquités architecturales de la Normandie , Noblet et Baudry, Paris - Liège, 1863, p. 72.
(245) Toussaint Bernard Émeric-David, History of painting in the middle ages , Gosselin, Paris, 1862, p. 72.
(246)
(247) Toussaint Bernard Émeric-David, op. cit. , p. 124.
(248) Thomas Lüttenberg, “The fabric as aura. The functions of the hangings at the court of Aragon and in Barcelona (14th-15th centuries) ”, Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Middle Ages, 1999, vol. 111, n ° 1 [p. 373-392], p. 374.
(249) Philippe Walter, “From the image to the medieval imagination”, Medievalista [Online], nº13, (January - June 2013). Available at
http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/iem/medievalista/MEDIEVALISTA13/walter1303.html , accessed September 30, 2015.
(250) “The word image tsèlèm is used 15 times in the Israelite bible:
twice in the creation story…,
once for the first human…,
once as an allusion to the first story,
twice in the Psalms to designate a shadow and a nightmare,
twice as human objects of prostitution, in Ezekiel 16,17 and 23,14,
twice, in 1 Samuel 6,5 and 6,11, in a murky story of hemorrhoids to force the Philistines to return the Ark of covenant that they had stolen,
finally five times as idols of the pagan gods in Numbers 33,52, 2 Kings 11,18, 2 Chronicles 23,17, Ezekiel 7,20 and Amos 5:26: Take away Sikkouth, your king, and Kiyoun, your tsèlèm images, the star of your god, all these things that you have done! "
This is" indeed "not very cheerful" ("God made man and woman in his image and according to his likeness", available at the following address: http://jean.luc.dupaigne.free.fr/ index.html , accessed September 30, 2015).
(251) S. Gannon Murphy, “On the Doctrine of the Imago Dei (Man in God's Image),” [Online], available at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f- religion / 698208 / posts , accessed September 30, 2015.
(252) “What does the Text say? “God blessed them and said to them, 'Increase and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it ( vekhivechouah )! Command ( uredu ) וּדרוּהשׁבכו to the fish of the sea, to the birds of the air, to all the animals that move on the earth! ' Two terms are immediately distinguished by their strange vigor, translated here as "submit", kavash , and "command", radah . They are much more virulent in their original meanings: kavashmeans "to overcome", "to force", "to enslave", "to violate", "to trample", while radah means "to dominate", "to triumph", "to scrape", "to devour", "to trample", "to subjugate" … From Creation, well before the original sin and curse, these two words make it clear how the ascendancy exercised by humans over the earth, the sea, the sky and their fauns is the result of brutal aggression and a supreme enslavement ”(Stéphane Zagdanski,“ Domination and dispossession in Heidegger and in Jewish thought ”, available at the following address: http://parolesdesjours.free.fr/domination.pdf , consulted September 30, 2015).
(253) René Descartes, Discourse on the Method, Foucher, 1968, p. 59.
(254) Etienne Gilson,Introduction to the Study of Saint Augustine , 2nd ed., Vol. 11, Vrin, 2003, p. 162.
(255) Benoît Beyer de Ryke, “The mirror of the world: a journey through medieval encyclopedism”. In Belgian review of philology and history, t. 81, fasc. 4, 2003. Medieval, modern and contemporary history - Middeleeuwse. modern in hedendaagse geschiedenis [p. 1243-1275], p. 1248.
(256) Ibid.
(257) Chantal Connochie-Bourgne, “Nature and clergy in the popular science work of Gossuin de Metz {Image du monde, 1245)”, in Understanding and and mastering nature in the Middle Ages {History of science mixes offered to Guy Beaujouan), Geneva, Droz, 1994, p 9-271.
(258) "Weltbild wesentlich verstanden meint daher nicht ein Bild von der Welt, Sondern die Welt als Bild begriffen". Martin Heidegger, “Die Zeit des Weltbildes”, in Holzwege, Gesamtausgabe Band 5, Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main, 1977, p. 87-8.
(259) Emmanuel Plasseraud, Cinema and Baroque Imaginary , Septentrion, 2007, p. 36.
(260) Gilbert Dahan, Reading the Bible in the Middle Ages: Essays in Medieval Hermeneutics , Droz, 2009, p. 117.
(261) L.-F.- Alfred Maury, Magic and astrology in antiquity and in the Middle Ages , Didier, Paris, 1860, p. 428.
(262) AP Bos, The Soul and Its Instrumental Body , Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2003, p. 347.
(263) Monique Paulmier-Foucart, Serge Lusignan and Alain Nadeau (eds.), Vincent de Beauvais, Bellarmin and Vrin, 1990, p. 18.
(264) Ibid.
(265) Jean-Claude Schmitt, Le corps des images , Gallimard, Paris, 2002, p. 23-24.
(266) Jules Fabre d'Envieu (abbot), The origins of the earth and of man from the Bible and from Science, 1873, p. 97.
(267) Lucile Roche, “God created the artist in his image: The theme of the God-artist in modern artistic theory (15th-18th century)”, Paris IV Sorbonne, Master II thesis under the direction of Jacqueline Lichtenstein, 2013, available at the following address:https://www.academia.edu/6710025/Dieu_cr%C3%A9a_l_artiste_%C3%A0_son_image_Le_th%C3%A8me_du_Dieu-artiste_dans_la_th%C3%A9orie_artistique_moderne_XVe-XVIIIe_si%C3%A8cle_ , accessed 21 October 2015.
(268) Ibid.
(269) Anselme (archbishop of Cantorbury), Christian rationalism at the end of the 11th century , Amyot, Paris, 1842, p. 48.
(270) M. Raulx (ed.), Complete Works of Saint Augustine, Commentaries on Scripture , L. Guérins & Cie éditeurs, Bar-Le-Duc, 1867, p. 482.
(271) See the eminently pointed exegesis of Jules Fabre d'Envieu (abbot), op. cit, p. 87 and sqq.
(272) Guy du Faur Pibrac (lord of), The quatrains, Texts edited, introduced and commented on by Loris Petris, Droz, Geneva, 2004, p. 149, note 12.
(273) See Lucile Roche, op. cit.
(274) See ibid.
(275) See “Les 'Primitifs' Italiens”, http://www.encyclopedie.bseditions.fr/article.php?pArticleId=167&pChapitreId=32047&pArticleLib=G%E9n%E9ralit%E9s+%5BLes+%AB%A0Primitifs%A0% BB + Italians + (History + of + l% 27art)% 5D .
(276) Ibid.
(277) Ibid.
(278)
(279) Aristotle, Physics, II.
(280) Christof Schöch, “Fine arts as imitation of nature in the 17th and 18th centuries”, Acta fabula, vol. 9, n ° 11, 2008, available at the following address: http://www.fabula.org/revue/document4758.php , consulted on August 24, 2016.
(281)
(282) He is said to have been the first to be paid for composing poems and for having invented the alphabet (to sell a poem, it had to be written down). Like Gorgias, he flattered himself that he was deceiving his contemporaries. See Marcel Détienne, “Simonide de Céos or the secularization of poetry”, Revue des Études Grecques, 1964, vol. 77, n ° 366 [p. 405-419].
(283) Alain de Lille, Anticlaudien (1182-1183), c. 122-125. Cited in Umberto Eco, Writings on Thought in the Middle Ages, Grasset, 2016.
(284) Anne Dupuis-Raffarin, “LB Alberti or the double discourse of a humanist on art”, Camenae, n ° 6, June 2009 , p. 3.
(285) Francesco Furlan, Pierre Laurens, Sylvain Matton, Martine Furno, Leon Battista Alberti et al., Leon Battista Alberti: proceedings of the international congress in Paris, Sorbonne, Institut de France, Italian cultural institute, Collège de France, 10-15 April 1995, N. Aragno and J. Vrin, Turin and Paris, 2000, p. 682.
(286) Lucie Houille, “The image of the humanists in the 16th century through the study of their portraits”. In History, 2012, 〈dumas-00738562, p. 2.
(287) C. Gornet and S. le Diraison, “The perspective: conceptual analysis”, available at the following address: http://www.klubprepa.fr/Site/Document/ChargementDocument.aspx?IdDocument=3034 , accessed August 24, 2016.
(288) Ralph Dekoninck, Ad imaginem, Droz, Geneva, 2005, p. 66.
(289) Ibid.
(290) Gail Feigenbaum and S. Ebert-Schifferer, Sacred Possessions: Collecting Italian Religious Art, 1500-1900 , p. 12.
(291) From the Cinquecentto , the primacy of aesthetic appreciation had been affirmed by Italian authors. Cardinal Paleotti seems to have been the first to have argued that sacred art could be the object of aesthetic judgment.
(292)
(293)
(294)
(295)
(296)
(297)
(298)
(299)
(300)
(301)
(302)
(303)
(304)
(305)
(306)
(307)
(308 ) Quoted in Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Descartes: the fable of the world, Vrin, 1991, p. 34.
(309)
(310)
(311)
(312)
(313) Laurent Bove, Le philosopher, le sage et le politique , Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne, 2002, p. 99.
(314) Laurent Versini, Baroque Montesquieu , Droz, Geneva, 2004, p. 144.
(315) Victoriano Martín Martín and Nieves San Emeterio Martín, “Baltasar Gracián: El concepto de interés propio como guía de la acción humana / Baltasar Gracián”, Estudios de economía aplicada, vol. 32, n ° 1, 2014.
(316) See Gilles Deleuze, Le Pli: Leibniz et le baroque , Minuit, Paris, 1988.
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(318)
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(320)
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(324)
(325)
(326)
(327)
(328)
(329)
(330)
(331) Anthony Levi, French Moralists: The Theory of the Passions 1585 to 1649 , Clarendon Press, 1964, Oxford, p. 165–201.
(332) Napoléon Maurice Bernardin, Selected pieces from the French classics of the 17th century , Ch. Delagrave, Paris, 1809, p. 58.
(333) Fortunat Strowski (ed.), Revue des Cours et Conférence, 1894, Boivin, Paris, p. 136-37.
(334) Ernest Boysse, Le theater des Jésuites , H. Vaton, Paris, 1880, p. 72.
(335) Charles Fourrier, French teaching from Antiquity to the Revolution , National Pedagogical Institute, 1964, p. 127.
(336) Xavier Le Person, “Practiques” et “practiqueurs”: political life at the end of the reign of Henri III (1584 - 1589), Droz, Geneva, p. 68.
(337) Edith Flamarion (ed.), The flesh and the verb: the Jesuits of France in the eighteenth century and the image , PUSN, Paris, 2008, p. 42.
(338) Bertrand de La Tour, Reflections on the theater , in JP Migne (ed.), Complete works of de la Tour , t. 4, JP Migne, 1855, p. 451.
(339) Ibid., P. 450.
(340) Ibid., P. 449.
(341) Jean Verdeil, Dionysos on a daily basis: essay on theatrical anthropology, PUL, 1998, p. 35.
(342) This chapter is a paraphrase of Charles Lévêque, The Science of Beauty: Its Principles, Its Applications and Its History, 2nd ed., T. 1, Paris, 1872.
(343)
(344) J. Check, “L'esthétique de Plotin (continuation)”. In Revue néo-scholastique de Philosophie, 1914, vol. 21, no.82 [p. 165-192].
(345) See M. Jeannin (ed.), Saint Jean Chrysostome, t. 4, Louis Guérin & Cie, editors, Bar-le-Duc, 1864.
(346)
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(348) Catherine Kintzler (ed.), Painting and music: thinking vision, thinking hearing, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion , 2002, p. 25
(349)
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(355) Cécile de Hosson, “The historical controversy: a didactic tool”, vol. 98 - July / August / September 2004 [p. 1057-1068], Union of teachers of physics and chemistry, p. 1063, available at the following address: http://www.udppc.asso.fr/bupdoc/consultation/article-bup.php?ID_fiche=15676 , consulted on October 13, 2015.
(356) See Michel Blay, “La sight and light: On some aspects of the history of light ”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, 1/2007, t. 60 [p. 119-132], available at the following address: http://www.cairn.info/revue-d-histoire-des-sciences-2007-1-page-119.htm , accessed October 13, 2015.
(357) Mohaini Mohamed, Great Muslim Mathematicians, Penerbit UTM, 2000, p. 55 and sqq. ; see also Rached Roshdi, “The 'Discourse of the Light' of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen). Critical French translation ”. In Review of the history of science and their applications, t. 21, n ° 3, 1968 [pp. 197-224]
(358) Experimentation is in a way the shadow of experience. On this subject, see Michel Villey, Questions de Saint Thomas sur le droit et la politique, PUF, coll. "Questions", 1987 et id., Le Droit et les Droits de l'Homme, PUF, coll. "Questions", 1983, reed. 1998.
(359) See Michel Blay, op. cit.
(360) Gérard Simon, “Optics and perspective: Ptolemy, Alhazen, Alberti”. In Revue d'histoire des sciences, t. 54, n ° 3, 2001 [p. 325-350], p. 338.
(361) Rushdī Rāshid, History of Arab Sciences: Mathematics and Physics, Vol. 2, Ed. du Seuil, 1997, p. 332.
(362) Graziella Federici Vescovini, From the metaphysics of light to the physics of light in the perspective of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Revue d'histoire des sciences, t. 60, 2007 [p. 101 to 118].
(363) Marie Colette Morenas, Propagation of light through the centuries, Institute for research on the teaching of physical sciences and technology, University of Clermont II, 1984.
(364) In Julius Evola, “Specchio dello spirito ebraico ". In I testi by La Vita Italiana , t. 1: 1931-1938, Ar, 2006.
(365) Julius Evola, Tre aspetti del problema ebraico , Ar, 1978, p. 33.
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(367)
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(386) See M. Guillot, “Depth of space and painting”. In Pierre Janet and Georges Dumas, Journal of normal and pathological psychology, April-June 1975, n ° 2 [p. 161-172].
F. Alcan, 1975
(387) See https://www.idixa.net/Pixa/pagixa-0602171630.html .
(388) Andrew Graham-Dixon, Renaissance, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1999, p. 90.
(389) George Ripley and Charles A. Dana (eds.), The American Cyclopedia, vol. 15, D. Appleton and Colpany, London, 1876, p. 686.
(390) See Anne Surgers, Scénographies du théâtre occidental, 3rd ed. Armand Colin, 2017.
(391) Luc Fritsch, Le grand livre du théâtre, Eyrolles, Paris, 2014, p. 176-77.
(392) Colette Beaune, “The notion of nation in France in the Middle Ages”, Communications, 1987, vol. 45, n ° 1 [p. 101-116], p. 102.
(393) N. Sabbattini, Practice for making stages and theater machines, book 2, chap. p. 65-66, cited in Thomas Dommange, Instruments of resurrection: philosophical study of the Passion according to Saint Matthew by JS Bach, Vrin, 2010, note 2, p. 38.
(394) See Philippe Jordan, in collaboration with Emmanuelle Josse, The 100 words of the opera, PUF, coll. "What do I know? »N ° 3978, 2013.
(395) Emmanuelle Hénin, Ut pictura theatrum: theater and painting from the Italian Renaissance to French classicism, Droz, 2003, p. 220.
(396) Communications, Elements for a theory of the nation, n ° 45, Seuil, 1987, p. 102.
(397) Paul Friedland, Political Actors: Representative Bodies and Theatricality in the Age of the French Revolution, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and LLondres, 2002, p. 32.
(398) Ibid.
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