“Your edifices without you are a dead body”: Mascarade and the Enlivenment of Courtly Space in the Early Modern French Court

The mascarade, already popular in France by the beginning of the sixteenth century, became a staple of French court festivities during the reign of François Ier (1515-1547) and rose to the status of obsession under his son, Henri II (1547-1559). These mascarades did not take place with the city as backdrop, as was the case with most early modern ceremonies such as royal entries, nor on the stage in the modern theatrical sense, but were instead immersed in the setting of the court, specifically the château and its immediate surroundings. Indeed, most of the artists and architects responsible for the creation and decoration of monumental courtly spaces were equally responsible for the design of ephemeral court festivals. In this paper, I trace connections between costumes worn by the king and his companions during mascarades and the decorative program that surrounded the performers. Rather than simple overlaps in themes, however, I argue that the animating potential of performance was harnessed to enliven surrounding courtly spaces. Mascarades roused not only the gods, historical figures, and mythological personages lining the walls and ceilings and reclining in the niches of the châteaux, but seemingly breathed life into the edifices themselves, in the form of architectural costumes such as moving perfumed fountains and dancing caryatids. In advancing this argument, I consider some of the conditions of possibility necessary for the creation of an atmosphere of mutually suspended disbelief within which there could be a shifting relationship between things and people and between representation and presentation.