The Venetian Government's Order vs. An Artist's Mind

This is a late entry, but one I wished to post due to my involvement with the Theater Department’s Mainstage show Scenes from an Execution. The plot in the show is a perfect example of how we discussed the sides critical thinking and critical pedagogy. The Venetian government sets up to commission a painting of the Battle of Lepanto with the best and most famous artist of the time Anna Galactia. The will of the Doge and his council represent the embodiment of critical pedagogy, for they wish to have the painting rendered in a particular way to glorify the event. Galactia however, being the creative and critical artist she is, depicts the battle in a way she sees fit being that of a slaughter. 

The collision of the two sides soon ensues as the show progresses. The original motivation for Doge Urgentino is to “teach” Galactia what a good painting should be with undertones of sexual desire (as this is the theater of seduction). Urgentino can never flat out say what he wants though. That is how Howard Barker’s plays work, there is always a secret that is driving the action of a particular scene, the secret of the Doge being that he wants the painting to have a positive emphasis on the strengths and dignity of the Venetian people. Galactia disregards the wishes of the Doge and continues to paint the battle as a horrible depiction of death. Galactica is thereby taking the matter into her own hands, by trusting her own decisions on what is the truth, and putting her life and reputation on the line for her message. 

Eventually the Inquisition, led by Cardinal Ostensible, arranges a case against her and she is imprisoned. By the end of the show she is released and the painting is a success instead of a blasphemous work. The Doge has had a complete reversal in terms of his aesthetic ignorance, although the Cardinal is unable to reach such a perspective due to, “the credit of his Jesuit professors.” It shows the stubbornness that results from sometimes sticking with a particular order or way of thinking. He is not able to, like the Doge, to approach the idea of a, “great nation . . that shows its victories not as parades of virility, but as terrible cost.”