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4 unusual facts about Baldassarre Lanci


Baldassarre Lanci

Long before the Restoration spectaculars of the 17th century Lanci was designing elaborate and complicated theatre sets, using pivoted scenery, with up to three different scenes painted on boards, thus allowing the mood of the production to be altered in an instant.

Lanci also designed the church of Santa Maria della Rosa in the spa town of Chianciano Terme, in today's Province of Siena; Santa Maria della Rosa was built on a central plan; even though it was not finished, the church is notable for the sobriety, and clean lines of its design which culminates in an elegant dome.

His urban works included the design of Terra del Sole a fortified new city for Cosimo I de' Medici, in what is now the Province of Forlì-Cesena.

One of Lanci's most extravagant productions was for a performance of Giovan Battista Cini's La Vedova (The Widow), staged in Florence in 1569, with amazingly extravagant costumes by Bernardo Buontalenti, the event was recorded by the mathematician Ignazio Danti who was so impressed by Lanci's theatrical engineering he included a drawing of his periactoi stage.



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