Note 427 — Chapter III · THE THEATRE (continued 2)

[Vitruvius, vii. 5. 5, says that Apaturius of Alabanda, about the middle of the first century B.C., treated the architectural back-scene in a fantastic manner, and it is therefore probable, though the inference is not certain, that the style in a simpler form had been in vogue for some time previously. A terra-cotta from the S. Angelo collection, belonging to the first or second century B.C., presents a back-scene of two stories (Röm. Mitth. xii. p. 140; Bethe, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1900, p. 61). There is also a vase-painting from Magna Graecia in Madrid by Assteas, representing the Mad Heracles murdering his child (Baumeister, Denkm. 732; Bethe, l.c., p. 60), with an architectural background of two stories enclosed on both sides, and with a roof. As Assteas painted in the fourth century B.C. (Robert, art. Assteas, in Pauly-Wiss. Encycl.), Bethe, l.c., argues that the architectural back-scene was known in Magna Graecia, and probably therefore in Greece proper, at that date. But it is uncertain whether the scene represents an actual stage performance. The murder, so far as we know, was never presented on the stage: it took place in a room. The scene depicted may therefore represent the scene as narrated by a messenger, and the buildings cannot be assumed to be a stage background. The inferences from the terra-cotta are equally disputed. (Dörpfeld, Jahrb. Arch. Inst. 1901, pp. 27 ff.; Graef., Hermes 1901, pp. 81 ff.) Cp. note on p. 172.]