From Royal Society lecture by Leonard Applebee,1946
Sebastiano Serlio in 1551 obtained coloured light by the use of bottles filled with red and blue liquid placed in front of the wicks.
From Fifty Key Theatre Designers by Arnold Aronson
Sebastiano Serlio was an Italian architect. In his “Second Book of Architecture,” published in 1545, he included a section on theatre. It was the first European writing about scenography since ancient Roman times. He explained how to create scenic illusions through the use of perspective and how to adapt perspective painting techniques for the stage. He also provided a template for the construction of theatres, loosely based on Roman models, but now with the addition of a scenic stage to accommodate perspective scenery. This would have profound effects on the development of stage design and theatre architecture throughout Europe for the next few centuries.