| Description |
In 1665, the city of Amsterdam unveiled a brand new public theater. Designed by the architect Philips Vingboons, this new structure replaced the city's existing public theater, which had been built approximately thirty years earlier and could not accommodate the kinds of spectacular stage effects fashionable throughout Europe by the mid-seventeenth century. The interior of the Amsterdam Schouwburg of 1665 was widely represented in printed images, likely because it was the first theater in the city with a proscenium arch and wings to accommodate perspectival stage sets and other theatrical illusions, thereby offering a new theatrical experience to the public (Figure 1).1 This theater stood for over one hundred years, showing plays and operas for public consumption. |
