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- Title
Glorious Spangs and Rich Embroidery: Costume in "The Masque of Blackness" and "Hymenaei."
- Authors
Mickel, Lesley
- Abstract
This essay describes how masque costumes in court entertainment "The Masque of Blackness" and "Hymenaei" were philosophically and materially constructed. Jacobean masque costumes were generally related to court fashion. Low-cut necklines, false sleeves, tight bodices and full skirts over farthingales, together with the use of richly decorated materials, made the female courtier a visual spectacle. Masque costumes made a double impact, because they exploited the fashion for luxurious and heavily embellished clothes, together with an erotic emphasis on the body, going beyond even the most extreme court fashion. This was achieved through the accepted Renaissance version of neo-classical dress that was usually the basis of masque guise. This costume included a long, diaphanous shift reaching to mid-calf, layered on top with a short skirt to the knee, or thereabouts, with the upper body often clad in an approximation of classical body armor. In "The Masque of Blackness," the designs for masque costumes by Inigo Jones typically involve a striking amount of décolletage and often suggest that the contours of the dancer's body can be perceived through the costume's fabric. The design for a masquer linked with "Love Freed From Ignorance and Folly" is an extreme example of Jones' use of sheer fabric. Lucy, Countess of Bedford's costume for "Hymenaei" is certainly the most radical of those designed by Jones. Rather, her version of it seems to be modestly longer in skirt compared with the costume represented in two other portraits of performers wearing the "Hymenaei" outfit. The hem of the skirt stops at the ankle, whereas the other two are well above the ankle. Similarly, her skirt is made up of one layer of material. The second lower layer of the skirt is apparently a much lighter fabric, in keeping with usual masque disguise. The bodice was made up of white cloth of silver wrought with Juno's birds and fruits.
- Subjects
COSTUME; MASQUE of Blackness, The (Theatrical production); MASQUES; THEATER; JACOBEAN embroidery; COURTS &; courtiers; BODICES; CRINOLINES; SKIRTS; SHEER textiles
- Publication
Studies in the Literary Imagination, 2003, Vol 36, Issue 2, p41
- ISSN
0039-3819
- Publication type
Essay