Masquerade balls were a feature of the
Carnival season in the 15th century, and involved increasingly elaborate allegorical
Royal Entries, pageants, and triumphal processions celebrating marriages and other dynastic events of late medieval court life. The "
Bal des Ardents" (''"Burning Men's Ball"
) was held by Charles VI of France, and intended as a Bal des sauvages
("Wild Men's Ball"
), a form of costumed ball (morisco''). It took place in celebration of the marriage of a
lady-in-waiting of
Charles VI of France's queen in Paris on January 28, 1393. The King and five courtiers dressed as wildmen of the woods (
woodwoses), with costumes of
flax and
pitch. If they came too close to a torch, the dancers would catch fire. (This episode may have influenced
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "
Hop-Frog".) Such costumed dances were a special luxury of the
Ducal Court of Burgundy. Masquerade balls were extended into costumed public festivities in Italy during the 16th century Renaissance (Italian ). They were generally elaborate dances held for members of the upper classes, and were particularly popular in
Venice. They have been associated with the tradition of the
Venetian Carnival. With the
fall of the Venetian Republic at the end of the 18th century, the use and tradition of masks gradually began to decline, until they disappeared altogether. ,
France. They became popular throughout mainland Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, sometimes with fatal results. In 1792
Gustav III of Sweden was assassinated at a masquerade ball by the disgruntled nobleman
Jacob Johan Anckarström, an event which
Eugène Scribe and
Daniel Auber turned into the opera
Gustave III. The same event was the basis of
Giuseppe Verdi's opera
A Masked Ball, although the censors in the original production forced him to portray it as a fictional story set in Boston. Also, the
Masquerade Ball on Mardi Gras in 1778 at the
Royal Opera of Versailles almost led to a serious
duel within the
Royal Family of France. Most masks came from countries like Switzerland and Italy. A Swiss count who arrived in Italy in 1708, is credited with introducing to London the Venetian fashion of a semi-public masquerade ball, to which one might subscribe, with the first being held at
Haymarket Opera House. London's public gardens, like
Vauxhall Gardens, refurbished in 1732, and
Ranelagh Gardens, provided optimal outdoor settings, where characters masked and in fancy dress mingled with the crowds. The reputation for unseemly behavior, unescorted women and assignations motivated a change of name, to the Venetian , but as "The Man of Taste" observed in 1733: A standard item of masquerade dress was a "Vandyke", improvised on the costumes worn in the portraits of
Van Dyck:
Gainsborough's Blue Boy is the most familiar example, and a reminder of the later 18th-century popularity in England for portraits in fancy dress. Throughout the century, it is thought that masquerade dances became popular in
Colonial America, however, portraits featured the subjects dressed as if they were attendees, but evidence is scant, according to Jennifer Van Horn, that colonials in North Americans actually had the events. Its prominence in England did not go unchallenged; a significant anti-masquerade movement grew alongside the balls themselves. The anti-masquerade writers (among them such notables as
Samuel Richardson) held that the events encouraged immorality and "foreign influence". While they were sometimes able to persuade authorities to their views, particularly after the
Lisbon earthquake of 1755, enforcement of measures designed to end masquerades was at best desultory, and the masquerades went on as semi-private "subscriptions". In the 1770s, fashionable Londoners went to the masquerades organized by
Teresa Cornelys at
Carlisle House in
Soho Square, and later to the
Pantheon. Masquerade balls were sometimes set as a game among the guests. The masked guests were supposedly dressed so as to be unidentifiable. This would create a type of game to see if a guest could determine each other's identities. This added a humorous effect to many masquerades and enabled a more enjoyable version of typical balls. One of the most noted masquerade balls of the 20th century was that held at
Palazzo Labia in
Venice on 3 September 1951, hosted by
Carlos de Beistegui. It was dubbed "the party of the century". Another famous ball was The
Black and White Ball. It held on November 28, 1966, at the Plaza Hotel in
New York City. Hosted by author
Truman Capote, the ball was in honor of the
Washington Post publisher
Katharine Graham. File:Sebastiaen Vrancx - A view of Antwerp by night with elegant figures on their way to a masquerade.jpg|Circa 1600-1646. A view of Antwerp by night with elegant figures on their way to a masquerade File:Willem Augustin van Minderhout - Masquerade II.jpg|1740. Maquerade File:Charles Hermans - At the masquerade.jpeg|1880. Charles Hermans -
At the masquerade == Masks ==