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The Role of Ancient Egypt in Masquerades at the Court of François Ier*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Yassana Croizat-Glazer
Yassana Croizat-Glazer*
Affiliation:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Abstract

This essay examines the role of ancient Egypt in courtly masquerades under François Ier (r. 1515–47). It opens with an analysis of the iconography of a sphinx costume that was designed by Francesco Primaticcio (1504/05–1570) and worn by the king and one of his favorite courtiers, Cardinal Jean de Lorraine (1498–1550), at a wedding celebration held in 1546. Two other costume drawings by the same artist are discussed next, and the first printed French translation of Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica, which was published in Paris in 1543, is identified as their source. In examining their strange aesthetic and multiple layers of meaning, this study considers how these costumes were symptomatic of a broader French Renaissance fascination with concealed truth and how, as conveyors of veiled messages, they were meant to spark lofty discussions and demonstrate the French court’s sophistication.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , Winter 2013 , pp. 1206 - 1249
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2013

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Footnotes

*

The bulk of the research for this article was conducted during my time as a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I wish to thank my host at the time, Ian Wardropper, for his encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to Luke Syson and the entire department, as well as to the Art History Fellowship Program and the staff of the Watson Library for their kind assistance. I am also deeply indebted to the reviewers of this essay for their invaluable comments and suggestions. Special thanks must be given to Dominique Cordellier, Carina Fryklund, and Birgitta Zachrisson. I am also grateful to Anders Bettum, Nicholas Reeves, Christopher S. Lightfoot, Sarah Lepinski, Maya Muratov, Lizzie Cleland, Femke Speelberg, Liz Zanis, Eva Karlsson, Susanna Pelle, and Valeria Cafà, who was kind enough to review my Italian translations. Finally, I would like to thank Joshua Glazer for his suggestions and unwavering support. All translations are the author’s except where otherwise noted.

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