Sophie Plender

Title of dissertation: Flat-pack Festivals: Constructing Italian Festivities through Material Culture between c. 1550 and 1650


The purpose of this thesis is to re-evaluate festivals in northern and central Italy between c. 1550 and 1650 through an analysis of their material culture. My approach focuses on the ways festivals were constructed: firstly through their design, which may be conceptual or through drawings or models; and secondly through objects that would have been found in a festival format. Given the variety of forms of festival and the vast combination of objects found there, the objects analysed are those found within a banqueting arena. I posit the notion that festivals were constructed through objects’ creating an architectural ‘frame’ for individual events. I analyse two areas in particular, which have been previously under-evaluated in scholarly research of festivals, that of their design and the materialities of the objects involved. The newly created roles of festival organisers are analysed, alongside their methods of production such as modelli (models). Secondly, the materials of objects are highlighted as important in establishing objects’ agency.


Acknowledging an object’s performative agency re-centres focus on an object’s power to alter surroundings and create — I argue — the fabric of festival. These events were by nature temporary so the created architecture — understood in a broad sense of the term — was similarly ephemeral.