DIONYSOS
Theatre Iconography Archive
by Cesare Molinari and Renzo Guardenti

Dionysos is the largest digital archive on theatre iconography existing in Europe, with more than 21.000 images and cataloging records concerning theatre and performing arts starting from the classical antiquity to the middle of twentieth century. Primarily conceived as a research and reference tool, Dionysos is also extremely useful for educational purposes. Moreover, the archive can be a precious resource for performing arts practitioners.

Every image is described in a cataloging record that examines its historic and artistic features, the aspects that qualify the monument as a document of the history of theatre and performing arts, also providing, when related to a piece or to an actual performance, information about plays and staging practices. In this way the figurative document is contextualized in its historical and cultural background.

The archive allows a substantially free access: the user may start searching the name of an individual (e.g. an actor, a painter, a playwright), a geographic area, an historical period, a play, etc. A guided search is also possible, beginning the search in fields associated to a list of selected terms. Both free and guided search results may combine again and again, in order to achieve more satisfactory results. Th is and others functions show the extreme flexibility of the program, which allows the user to create and save lists of images according to his needs and personal preferences.