curtain
Panel of decorative fabric hung to regulate the admission of light at a window and to prevent drafts. Curtains made of a heavy material, arranged to fall in ornamental folds to the floor, are called draperies. Mosaics from the 2nd–6th century show curtains suspended from rods spanning arches. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, curtains ranged in style from simple to ornamented; beds were often curtained on all sides. In the 20th century, synthetic fabrics and mechanical devices for opening and closing curtains simplified their installation and use.
curtain
curtain [′kərt·ən]
Curtain
(theater), part of the equipment of a stage or of a theatrical production. The curtain that closes off the stage from the auditorium between scenes, before the beginning and after the end of a performance, and during intervals between acts is called the entr’acte curtain. The curtain that closes off part of the stage during the performance of an interlude on the proscenium is called the interlude curtain. Theater curtains may be parted, raised and lowered, or lit (the light being provided by lighting units). A fireproof curtain is designed to hermetically seal off the stage from the auditorium.
A curtain that dropped into a recess in front of the stage was first used in classical times in Greek and Roman theaters. During the Renaissance, when stages were equipped with gridirons, a raised curtain began to be used. It was usually painted, often by famous artists, with mythological or allegorical themes and harmonized with the decorative scheme of the auditorium. Many theaters built in the 19th and 20th centuries have curtains of this type. In 20th-century theaters a curtain is frequently part of the staging of a play and is made for a specific production. Thus, for example, in 1917 the artist A. la. Golovin painted ten curtains (one for each scene) for M. lu. Lermontov’s The Masquerade performed at the Aleksandrinskii Theater. In the contemporary theater curtains are sometimes dispensed with, according to the director’s intent.
G. V. SHEVELEV
Curtain
a section of a fortress wall, usually rectilinear, that connects the facing parts of two neighboring bastions and, with them, forms the bastioned front.
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