A Moment, Not a Movement: A Present Past in Baroque Catafalques

Mia E. Johnson

Advisor: Dr. Ann Johns

Abstract

The Baroque period saw the rise of ephemeral apparatuses, used in forms like triumphal arches, fireworks, banners, and theatrical backdrops. While useful for celebratory purposes, ephemeral apparatuses were also used for mourning, taking the form of structures like catafalques. Generally made out of wood, stucco, and cloth, Baroque catafalques were large and opulent platforms made to hold the casket during funerary and commemorative ceremonies. By looking at various sketched, etched, and printed representations of catafalques from this period, I argue that catafalques existed in the Baroque period as a moment rather than a specific movement during the period. As temporary structures, they served a large role as scene setters and guides for cathartic reactions during funerary events. The presence of an audience made way for these to be spectacle pieces, showing how a moment of performance contributes to the legacy of representations of the structures. With the addition of supernatural skeletal figures interacting with the catafalques in representations such as Catafalque for Funeral in Pisa and Domenico Piola and Stefano Camogli’s The Catafalque of Philip IV of Spain, the catafalque is featured as an object existing in an intermediary state, both in the present (past) world and the supernatural realm.