Masquerade ball
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A masquerade ball is a special kind of formal ball which many participants attend in costume wearing masks. Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tradition. A masquerade ball usual
Masquerade ball at the Carnival of Venice.
A Veneziana mask from Verona, Italy.
German 16th century, a masquerade from Freydal, the tournament book of Maximilian I, c. 1515, pen and brown ink with watercolor on laid paper. One in a series at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection.
Masquerade ball at Château de Hattonchâtel, France.
Carnival of Venice
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The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy, famous for its elaborate costumes and masks. The Carnival ends on Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before the start of Lent on Ash W
Masquerade ball
…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…
The Venetian Carnival tradition is most famous for its distinctive masks.
Carnival in Venice, by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1750
Juliet and her Nurse by J. M. W. Turner, 1863
Typical masks worn at the Venice Carnival, which portray the satirical and exaggerated appearances often used