It is useful to define a masque. A masque was composed of music,
costumed dancing, singing, acting. Elaborate, often allegorical
costumes were employed, along with an elaborate staging (with
stage scenery in linear perspective or "scaenographia").
1
Masques were primarily attended by royalty, and leading nobles
(courtiers) and aristocrats on a raised stage. Lesser nobility,
or important personages such as ambassadors might be in the
audience (sitting sideways, not facing the stage).
2
Each masque was a unique event (rarely performed a second time), thus
costumes and descriptions that remain as rare records, are all
that remains to appreciate them.
3
Masques were performed on specific occasions, such as seasons and holidays
(Christmas), or royal events (coming of age, wedding, etc.) Masques
differed from plays as masques represented realities that transcended
the ordinary world. 4
Inigo Jones was tasked with creating ("mimiesis") a version
of the Italian Humanist Renaissance enlightenment in England ("rinascita"),
thus creating an architecture influenced by Palladio, masques, masque
costumes, palace gardens, poetry 5,
etc. There was thus a "hidden" agenda: a Catholic vs Lutheran Renaissance
ideology in England. 6
To Inigo Jones, masques were "pictures" ("pittura").
7, 8
A masque was composed of several components, though there were variations:
9
Anti-masque: often a grotesque or comic dance. There can be several anti-masques.
Grand masque: courtly ensemble dance (entrée) on the raised
stage, at the end of a masque. Masks are part of the courtier costumes.
If courtiers enter the stage in a movable scenic machine, this
is called a pageant. 10
Revels: Disguised (masked) courtiers dance (socially, as opposed to
theatrically) with lesser personages in the audience (off the stage).
11
Dance included "dancing high, or gagliarda. This meant
intricate jumps, hops (fioretto or trabuchetto in
mutanze or passegi: variations) or capriola (feet moved
while still in the air). The upper body was kept straight, but sometimes
the body turned independently of the lower body to obtain "swaggering"
shoulder motions. Dancers occassionally moved to tiptoe, or bent their
knees. Sometimes dancers kissed their own hands (meaning 'Tuscan is me').
The vertical ambitus (range) was from medium low to very high.
12
Masque costumes elevated the body by illusion. Dancing shoes such as
chopines could be as high as fifteen inches, the center of gravity
moved above the belly, towards the breast. Thin costumes were preferred
to give the illusion of an elongated body. Wearing long feathers (ie:
ostrich) gave further illusion of upward projection. Add to this, dance
steps (dancing high) with caprioles, fioretto, and trabuchetto!
13
Masquers also danced in "perspective mode", in which the stretched-out
legs may be compared to long streets stretching into the perspective
(vertical) distance. The masquers turned their bodies to present such a
perspective illusion to all spectators.
14
1
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 53
In analogy (story, history) to the human body: eyes, nose, mouth, ears,
so in stage architecture: loges, entrances, halls, chambers, stairs,
doors, windows, columns, cornices, sfondati, and statues.
.
2
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 51
Thus the spectators were at a disadvantage at interpreting
the linear perspective "scaenographia".
.
3
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 3, 4
.
4
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 4
.
5
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 40
For Ben Johnson (collaborated with Inigo Jones), poetry was
muette poesy.
.
6
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 7-10
"Mimesis" meaning a public representation, "...in the
'maniera' of...". Ibid., p. 13
.
7
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 51, 52
.
8
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 48
Inigo Jones was influenced by Lodovico Dolce's "Dialogo della Pittura"
in which a painting had three parts: invenzione (rhetoric), disigno (visual
representation), and colorito.
.
9
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 1, 2
.
10
Peacock, John; "The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones:
The European Context", Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 1
.
11
Ravelhofer, Barbara; "The Early Stuart Masque: Dance,
Costume, and Music", Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, p. 28
.
12
Ravelhofer, Barbara; "The Early Stuart Masque: Dance,
Costume, and Music", Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, pp. 31, 32
.
13
Ravelhofer, Barbara; "The Early Stuart Masque: Dance,
Costume, and Music", Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, p. 78
.
14
Ravelhofer, Barbara; "The Early Stuart Masque: Dance,
Costume, and Music", Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, p. 78
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