History Of The Masked Ball

Masked balls came about in the 15^th century due to the celebrations of marriages and other political and dynastic events of the late medieval court life of France and the ducal court of Burgundy.

Two well known masked balls were the bal des sauvages(wild men’s ball) and the morisco(costumed ball)

One of the earliest known masquerade mask balls was in 1393 in France to celebrate the marriage of the queen’s lady in waiting. It came to be known as the bal des ardents (burning men’s ball) due to the king and four nobleman dressing up as wild men and being chained together. There costumes and masks were linen cloth soaked in pitch and wax with hemp attached to give off a shaggy unkempt look . In view of the obvious danger of fire from the torch bearers, the king ordered them to keep back. The only person who was not told this was the king’s brother who after arriving late wished to know the identity of the men and so approached with a lit torch but accidently set one of the men on fire. Only the king and one other knight survived and from then on the occasion was known as the ball of the burning men.

Another occasion where a masked ball backfired was in the court of King Gustav the 3^rd of Sweden in 1792 when he was assassinated during a masked ball by nobleman Jacob Anckarstrom and his henchman, who only words were “good day”, fine mask before shooting him in the spine.

It was in Italy during the renaissance that masked balls extended into public events for the upper classes, made famous by carnival .England joined in with the fashion of Venetian masked balls in the 18^th century after a Swiss count arrived in London and introduced the idea of a semi public masked ball in the Vauxhall gardens of London. A standard item of these masked balls was a dress called a Vandyke, which was influenced by van dykes Gainsborough blue boy portrait, this lead to many portraits being painted with the sitters in fancy dress and masquerade masks.

The object of most masks for a ball was to set up a game in which guests had to guess the identity of other guests which added a humorous affect to another wise typical ball.

It was during the 1950s that masks for a ball had a resurgence of popularity due to the multi millionaire interior decorator don Carlos de Beistegui de Yturbe  purchasing the palazzo  labia in Venice . He hosted one of the largest and lavish parties of the 20th century called le bal oriental. The guests included European royalty as well as Orson Welles, Christian Dior, Salvador Dali and Nina Ricci.

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