DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22262#0016
Joanna Marschner
Asiatic... Greek or Turkish more than French or German». For the middle classes
the kerchiefs worn on the head could be so lavishly decorated that Richard Lassels
in 1796 describing one lady said 'one might have mistaken her for our Lady of
Loretto'. William Coxe is more forthcoming about the dress of the lower classes,
which in summer might be little more than a shirt and drawers of coarse linen
worn with a round cap or hat, but without shoes or stockings. The women's heads
were covered with what he called a 'wrapper of white linen', their hair braided
beneath. Wraxall, who encountered a wedding party, noted that the bride had
exchanged her white headdress for one of gold thread, and a garland of flowers.
Rose-coloured ribbons had been braided into her hair.
The semi-oriental splendour of Polish dress led to it becoming ąuickly adopted
into the repertoire of styles popular for masąuerade disguises. Court masąuerades
had always been magnificent, but reached their apogee in the eighteenth century
as the more democratic tradition of costumed street carnival was drawn.
In Italy, and particularly in Venice, this developed into an art form. Masked balls
were introduced into France in 1715 when the first was held at the Opera. Boucher,
who helped decorate the theatre, also helped with the design of the costumes. From
this one can tracę the links with thefetes galantes, the rural masąuerades immortal-
ised by Watteau, Pater and Lancret. In England, masąuerade had arrived from Italy
in the early years of the century but was set on a firm footing by Count Heidegger,
a Swiss, later Master of the Revels to King George II, with his staging of spectacu-
lar masąuerades at the opera house in the Haymarket. Vauxhall Gardens, a tradi-
tional pleasure ground, reopened in 1732 as a venue for summer masąuerades. At
Ranelagh Garden the new Rotunda opened in 1742. In the winter the company
could retreat to Teresa Cornelys's extravaganzas held at Carlisle House in Soho
Sąuare. In 1772 the Pantheon opened in Oxford Street.
Oriental themes were hugely popular for masąuerades from the early eighteenth
century, and the spotlight moved specifically to the related styles of dress worn in
Central Europę, after the Hungarians rose against Frederick the Great in support of
the Empress Maria Theresa in 1740. Polish dress is described in the lists of costumes
available for hire from theatrical costumiers in Covent Garden in London. Lady Mary
Coke in the 1770s remarked that at the Austrian Court, Polish dress was seen as the
first alternative to the anonymous domino. For ladies she describes this 'made tight
at the waist, commonly of satin trimmed with fur and silver or gold'.
In some images of masąuerades it is easy to spot the distinctive fur-trimmed kontusz
and fur hats, which characterise Polish dress in this context. On many more occa-
sions the elements have fused into an oriental central European exoticism.
What one can conclude is that by 1800 in artistic circles as well as in politics Po-
land had made its mark. Its traditions, including a knowledge of its traditional
dress, were known within fashionable circles in the wider Europę.
14
Asiatic... Greek or Turkish more than French or German». For the middle classes
the kerchiefs worn on the head could be so lavishly decorated that Richard Lassels
in 1796 describing one lady said 'one might have mistaken her for our Lady of
Loretto'. William Coxe is more forthcoming about the dress of the lower classes,
which in summer might be little more than a shirt and drawers of coarse linen
worn with a round cap or hat, but without shoes or stockings. The women's heads
were covered with what he called a 'wrapper of white linen', their hair braided
beneath. Wraxall, who encountered a wedding party, noted that the bride had
exchanged her white headdress for one of gold thread, and a garland of flowers.
Rose-coloured ribbons had been braided into her hair.
The semi-oriental splendour of Polish dress led to it becoming ąuickly adopted
into the repertoire of styles popular for masąuerade disguises. Court masąuerades
had always been magnificent, but reached their apogee in the eighteenth century
as the more democratic tradition of costumed street carnival was drawn.
In Italy, and particularly in Venice, this developed into an art form. Masked balls
were introduced into France in 1715 when the first was held at the Opera. Boucher,
who helped decorate the theatre, also helped with the design of the costumes. From
this one can tracę the links with thefetes galantes, the rural masąuerades immortal-
ised by Watteau, Pater and Lancret. In England, masąuerade had arrived from Italy
in the early years of the century but was set on a firm footing by Count Heidegger,
a Swiss, later Master of the Revels to King George II, with his staging of spectacu-
lar masąuerades at the opera house in the Haymarket. Vauxhall Gardens, a tradi-
tional pleasure ground, reopened in 1732 as a venue for summer masąuerades. At
Ranelagh Garden the new Rotunda opened in 1742. In the winter the company
could retreat to Teresa Cornelys's extravaganzas held at Carlisle House in Soho
Sąuare. In 1772 the Pantheon opened in Oxford Street.
Oriental themes were hugely popular for masąuerades from the early eighteenth
century, and the spotlight moved specifically to the related styles of dress worn in
Central Europę, after the Hungarians rose against Frederick the Great in support of
the Empress Maria Theresa in 1740. Polish dress is described in the lists of costumes
available for hire from theatrical costumiers in Covent Garden in London. Lady Mary
Coke in the 1770s remarked that at the Austrian Court, Polish dress was seen as the
first alternative to the anonymous domino. For ladies she describes this 'made tight
at the waist, commonly of satin trimmed with fur and silver or gold'.
In some images of masąuerades it is easy to spot the distinctive fur-trimmed kontusz
and fur hats, which characterise Polish dress in this context. On many more occa-
sions the elements have fused into an oriental central European exoticism.
What one can conclude is that by 1800 in artistic circles as well as in politics Po-
land had made its mark. Its traditions, including a knowledge of its traditional
dress, were known within fashionable circles in the wider Europę.
14