lighting designed specifically for stage productions, as opposed to general-purpose lighting. Since the Italians were the innovators of scenic illusion, it is expected that they would have also have been the first to manipulate light (Hewitt, 18). One Italian theatre architect, Sebastiano Serlio wrote about the use of “bozze”. Bozze were small glass containers that would be filled with colored water and placed in front of candles to produce colored light. Leone di Somi, another stage architect of the same era was the first to darken the audience area. His intent was to increase the fear and drama of a particular tragedy by making the audience feel isolated in the dark (Nicoll, 231).At the beginning of the Restoration, candle chandeliers continued to be the main source of stage light throughout Europe. A new innovation however was footlights. Footlight began to appear first as candles and later as oil lamps. A painting of the Comdie Franais from around 1670 shows the stage being lighted by six chandeliers and a bank of thirty four footlights. It was not until about 1720 that molded candles were developed (Encyclopedia Britannica, 23.,226). Molded candles allowed for bigger wicks and thus, more light. They also needed more maintenance and the candle snuffer’s office became an integral part of theatre management (Penzel 20).One of the most significant lighting developments of the eighteenth century was practiced at the Drury Lane Theatre, under the management of David Garrick. Garrick’s innovation was the removal of the chandeliers. The chandeliers had, for a long time, obstructed the view fro the upper galleries and were also inefficient. The emphasis on lighting was now shifted to sources located behind the proscenium and across the apron. Garrick also introduced the “float”, a long metal trough filled with oil, in which a number of metal saucers, each containing two wicks, could float (...
