The Logic of Representation in the Public Spectacles of Early Modern Florence

Abstract

Florentine public spectacles offer a unique entry-point into early modern culture. However, dealing with their bewildering array of symbols requires a careful methodological approach. Rather than attempting to 'decode' these signs in an effort to unravel meanings, I argue that historians should attempt to better understand the logic of representation which underlay their creation. An examination of the intellectual and cultural contexts surrounding allegory, and an awareness of its spiritual associations, gives us an idea of the ethical dimensions faced by spectacle designers and writers, and allows us to make some conclusions about the moral function of festival texts. Such an investigation also gives us an insight into the importance of enigma and opacity to spectacle representations, and the role played by aesthetic pleasure in moral guidance. Contemporary attitudes to rhetoric and love, particularly through the influence of Renaissance Neoplatonism, placed a series of fundamental antagonisms at the heart of representational culture. Spectacle writers and organisers adopted creative strategies in response to these conflicts. We can trace their decisions through a range of primary texts - including printed festival books, diaries, the state ceremonial handbook and Vasari's biographies and letters. Ultimately, making use of the spatial, physical and metaphorical transformations within festive events, Florentines were able to orient the symbolic power of the spectacle towards the care and salvation of the soul.