Teatralità e illusione nel Santuario di Apollo a Cirene: il Propileo di Praxiadas e il Donario degli Strateghi

The paper focuses on the scenographic character of ancient architecture and the theatricality as an essential feature of the social rituals in the Greek city. This approach is discussed through the analysis of the Sanctuary of Apollo at Cyrene. In fact, during the late-Classical and Hellenistic period, it became a composite stage for the celebration of festive events and the manipulation of perceptive and emotional experience of the worshippers. In particular, the paper focuses on the Propylaeum of Praxiadas and the Donarium of the Strategoi (late-Classical period), which represent different ways to inflect the theme of theatricality in architecture. The Propyleum of Praxiadas and the monuments built around it during the 3rd and 2nd century BC are examples of architectures strongly influenced by a theatrical conception of the ritual experience. In details, they were connected to the purification and solemn entrance to the sacred space, aiming at a synesthetic intensification of the ritual performance. The Donarium of the Strategoi, a sophisticated case of illusionistic architecture, is discussed as a concrete application of the most innovative ideas about vision, perception and illusion, i.e. about the cognitive potential of view, whose results were reflected in the contemporary artistic productions linked to the painted skenographiai.