Masque
Videos
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. A masque inv
Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the "heroic cuirass" in armour and other conventions were still employed for opera seria in the 18th century.
Visard
Videos
A visard, also known as a vizard, is an oval mask of black velvet which was worn by travelling women in the early modern period to protect their skin from sunburn, as a tan suggested that the bearer w
Masque
…the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. In 1377, 130 men came "disguisedly apparelled", their faces covered with vizards to entertain Richard II of England. In England, Tudor court masques developed from earlier guisings, where a masked allegorical figure would appear and…
A 16th-century woman wears a visard while riding with her husband.
A woman wearing a visard, as engraved by Abraham de Bruyn in 1581.
A woman wearing a moretta muta appears in this 1751 painting by Pietro Longhi.
Dancers with visards, The Dowager of Bilbao's Grand Ball, 1626, by Daniel Rabel