Certain church implements such as the tabernaculum and the retablo served at that time as illustrative aids for religious storytelling. The evolution of liturgical drama (10th century) and, later, of the mystery plays opened the way to Christian religious performances. No evidence of chivalric themes played by glove puppets has been evidenced before the 14th century. Another type was known as bavastel, akin to the jigging puppet or marionnette à la planchette in French, enacting knightly combat (the first illustrated document to represent these was the Hortus deliciarum of the prioress Herrad von Landsberg, in about 1170). Puppets also took part in mime ( mimus) shows, which seem to have survived up to the 17th century (for example, the Slavonic skomorokhi).įrom late Antiquity to the high Middle Ages puppets could be found in the hands of wandering players, acrobats and animal trainers, notably when the animated figure with its natural spirit of mockery was compared with a trained monkey. For lack of concrete evidence it is impossible to come to a more definite conclusion. ![]() ![]() Their name, neurospaston, suggests a comparison with the existing mechanical theatre, using figures with hidden strings and wires, rather like nerves within limbs. Greek antiquity was familiar with various types of puppets, manipulated either from below or from above. Thus European practice is distinguished from puppetry on other continents, in that its practice constantly runs parallel to the rest of theatre, with which it shares an equal sensibility to social and cultural change. In fact not only was their existence bound up with the arts of theatre from Antiquity to the present day, puppets made a not insignificant contribution to theatre. In the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, puppets were ever-present in the fairgrounds, used as attractions by charlatans and vendors of all kinds, which may be considered as a deviation from their theatrical vocation. ![]() Antiquity and the Middle AgesĪntiquity and the Middle Ages knew both ritualistic animated figures and puppets intended for entertainment. The first puppets functioned as idols, “fetishes” and finally ritual sculptures: participants, up to the 20th century, in ancient customs connected with fertility and ancestor worship (see Rites and Rituals). Although, at the beginning of the 20th century, the philologist Richard Pischel insisted on its imported aspects (mainly from India: see Origins of Puppets), there are many reasons to believe that, as in other continents, European puppetry arose alongside local practices of magic, ritual and religion. Europe developed its own specific culture in the field of puppetry in spite of folk migrations from Asia and influences (mainly Egyptian) from Africa.
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