"Hymen" and "Mask of Queens" by Inigo Jones. Early spectacles at the court of James I and the Baroque theatrical aesthetics

Lampasova Anna Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0003-0529-1524 Postgraduate student of the Department of History of Foreign Theater of the Russian Institute of Theatrical Art – GITIS 125009, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Malyi Kislovskii Per., 6 lampasova_a@mail.ru

In two early court spectacles of the reign of James I – "Hymen" in 1606 and "Mask of Queens" in 1609 – the artist, architect Inigo Jones used a new stage device for the English theater, which contrasted with the design of the previous Stuart masks. "The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses" by Samuel Daniel and "The Mask of Blackness" by Ben Johnson were the first celebrations of entertainment at the court of James and largely determined the shape of the English mask. But it was in "Hymenaeus" and "Mask of Queens" that the audience was fully demonstrated a complete change of decoration and a variety of numerous Baroque transformations, which repeatedly caused the audience surprise and delight during the performances.

Both masks involved both the vertical and horizontal of the theater space, and the theater machine responsible for the complete change of the picture was a turning circle – machina versatilis. The discovery of the depth of the scene by Inigo Jones was still ahead – while the artist's goal was to cover and show the audience the whole universe in its diversity of contrasts and elements, in all the richness of movement, color and light transformations. Sketches of the stage design of the Hymen mask have not been preserved, with the exception of the Iris costume, while the drawing of the House of Glory from the Mask of Queens is considered to be the first extant sketch of the stage machine used in the English mask, and one of the most elegant and memorable works by Inigo Jones ^{[1, p. 11]}.

Court masks were amateur costumed spectacles and embodied a synthesis of the arts. They were either put on the days of key religious holidays, or timed to important dates in the lives of those close to the king. We can judge the design of the Hymen mask primarily by the descriptions preserved in the author's text, as well as the testimonies of contemporaries. The spectacle was staged on January 5 in honor of the celebration of the wedding of the Earl of Essex, the son of Robert Devereux, and Frances Howard, the daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and at that time was the most expensive ^{[2, p. 158]}. The director of the dance was Thomas Giles, the author of the music was Alfonso Ferrabosco. The marriage was supposed to reconcile the warring families, and James Shapiro rightly calls it a "Jacobite rewriting of Romeo and Juliet" ^{[2, p. 157]}. The bride's father was a member of the judicial commission that condemned the second Earl of Essex, the father of her fiance, to death – he was accused of treason and executed. Yakov himself hoped to eliminate the enmity between the factions with this wedding, but a witness of the events Molino noted that this was "too weak a cure for such a serious illness" ^{[2, p. 157]}. Another political context of the mask is also important, namely, the anxious, gloomy mood of Yakov and the whole country against the background of his relations with parliament and the events related to the Gunpowder plot. More recently, on November 5, an attempt on the king was planned, but revealed earlier – an explosion was supposed to take place during his throne speech, but in the end only the executed conspirators suffered. The festive event and the luxury of the performance were supposed to drown out anxiety and give the audience a mood of hope and faith in the king, as well as focus on marriage. However, the main theme of the mask was the Union, poetically embodied in the image of the wedding of young Essex and Frances Howard, but also carrying additional meanings that are even more important for Jacob ^{[3, p. 120-123]}. In particular, one of the main ideas of the spectacle was the strength and beauty of the Union of the two Kingdoms – England and Scotland, for discussion of which parliament was to meet less than a month after the mask. Also on the agenda was a discussion of the extravagance of the ruler, especially relevant after such celebrations, while Jacob spared no means to create the illusion of his absolute and divine power. The mask was supposed to focus all attention also on the glorification of his union with the queen – and demonstrate the beauty and power of this union in contrast with the virgin Queen Elizabeth, who left no heirs.

The action of the Hymen mask is built around a series of symbols and emblems. Together with the instantaneous transformations and innovations of Inigo Jones, which will be discussed later, they occupy a central place in the spectacle. The horizontal plan of the mask, on which its first part takes place, consists of an altar with the golden inscription "Ioni. Mimae. Unioni. Sacri", a globe held on an axis invisible to the viewer, and a dance floor located in front of the altar. The first scene, completely silent before Hymen's singing and speech, was entirely connected with the symbolism of the altar and marriage as a sacred union – only actors took part in it without the presence of courtiers on the stage. All their exits were united by the white color, symbolizing the purity and sanctity of what was happening – five pages walking in front of the groom were dressed in white suits, they carried candles in their hands; the groom himself was dressed in purple and white flowers. On the opposite side, a bride with long gray hair came out to the altar, her shade signifying that she was entering a new stage of life for her. She was also in white, with a belt of snow-white wool tied tightly and symbolizing a strong union, her head was decorated with a garland of roses. A young man in white also walked in front of the bride, and on either side of her were two more holding a spinning wheel and a spindle, which meant that she was ready for homework. Hymenaeus, the Roman god of marriage, whose speeches in honor of the goddess Juno will interrupt the silence and music, was dressed in saffron, yellow colors, accentuated by the glow of his torch. He walked in front of the young men walking with the bride, and combined the wordless scene, the beauty of the altar and the harmony of symbols demonstrating the tranquility and sacredness of marriage, and the subsequent ones, full of glow and transformations. Thus, according to the author's idea, the whole action was enclosed in the framework of the Roman wedding ritual ^{[3, p. 108]}.

Even before the appearance of the anti-mask in The Mask of Queens, Ben Johnson in Hymenaeus created a scene that introduces elements of chaos into the spectacle and anticipates the harmony of the celestial spheres, and Inigo Jones used the turning circle for the first time. The action in the production passed from the altar to the globe, on which the earth was depicted in golden colors, and the seas in silver, and the poet himself turned it. After the ball turned the other side, eight men, whose roles were played by courtiers, became visible to the audience inside it. They were illuminated from inside the ball so that the light sources could not be seen, and the illusion was created that the light came from the Mind located at the top. Since on both sides of the sphere there were golden statues of Atlas and Hercules, as if supporting the sphere, and the effect of the radiance was amplified several times. The costumes of all eight courtiers were identical, modeled after antique sculptures with modern elements and also contained shining details – gold-embroidered belts with a buckle decorated with precious stones, crowns with gold elements, fabrics and distinctive signs with silver trim. The clothes combined details of different eras – in addition to referring to Roman togas, the courtiers wore Persian turbans. Later, Ben Johnson will devote more than a hundred lines to describing the splendor of the stage and costumes, paying special attention to the globe, but so far, in the text of the mask, he only mentions it in one line ^{[4, p. 7-8]}. The masked ones embodied the moods and affections of a person – they left the globe to the sounds of noisy music in order to destroy the harmony of the union. At the very top of the sphere was the Mind played by the actor – with long gray hair, with a glowing crown, as if illuminating the ball from the inside, in a sky-blue suit decorated with stars. He stopped moods and attachments at the moment when they were about to interfere with the ceremony with swords. Thus, Ben Johnson and Inigo Jones created a picture of a microcosm and at the same time a generalized place of action on the stage, connecting the action with the macrocosm and the celestial spheres through the figure of the Mind, and through moods and attachments – not only with the earthly element embodied through the sphere, but also the elements of air, water and fire.

The series of theatrical emblems continues in the second part of the mask, which captures the vertical of the stage space, revealing infinity and the radiance of the celestial spheres. The symbolism and all the subsequent action are now connected with the image of Juno, and the appearance of the goddess becomes the most dramatic moment in the mask. The second part of the spectacle, full of glow and light effects, is preceded, as it will often happen in the following works of Inigo Jones, by a contrasting dark painting – a canvas with clouds painted on it. He descended from the very top of the hall to two convex clouds that symmetrically held the figures of Atlas and Hercules on both sides of the globe. After the speech of the Mind, the canvas rose – and the audience could see a polysyllabic picture, in which the main place was occupied by the goddess and the masked, surrounded by dazzling brilliance. It was a celebration of light paintings and transformations. In the very center, on a golden throne, surrounded on both sides by two beautiful peacocks, sat Juno. On both sides of her, comets and meteors shone, which were associated with a sphere of fire moving around its axis above the goddess's head. The radiance of the tiara, the golden details of her clothes and the golden throne enhanced the glow of the whole picture, and the sphere of fire caused the same surprise to the audience as a rotating globe. The sky itself was personified by the statue of Jupiter, located above the sphere of fire. At the feet of Juno, on the lower vertical plane, there was a rainbow, inside which musicians in clothes of different colors were placed, as well as her servant, Iris, the personification and goddess of the rainbow. And finally, below the rainbow, on both sides of the stage, among the storm clouds, on the concave clouds, descending and rising again, there were eight masked ladies embodying the powers of Juno as the goddess of marriage and air. Their clothes made of light, flying fabrics were of heavenly, white and silver colors, with a golden belt and an image of fruits and birds. The model for their creation were statues of the goddess Juno.

Thus, the two main stage transformations that surprised the audience were a rotating globe with eight masked men inside and a falling curtain, opening to the audience a scene full of rich symbolism and diverse glow. The third no less spectacular moment in the mask was the general dance of masked men and masked ladies who descended to the ground – for the first time in the court spectacle, men and women danced together.

The theme of the union in the second part of "Hymen" was embodied not only through the image of the goddess Juno and her attributes, but also, as Semyon Boyanus writes, through the connection of all plans between themselves thought out by the authors ^{[5, p. 123]}. The fiery sphere rotating above Juno's head was connected by its radiance with comets and meteors on both sides of the goddess; the earthly sphere was connected with the heavenly one through the figures of Atlas and Hercules supporting convex clouds; dark storm clouds above them turned into a shining rainbow under Juno's feet. But the theme of the union was also continued through dance, the main component of any court spectacle. The masked ladies were the first to dance in the second part of the mask – they descended from their clouds and moved in pairs to the melody of lutes and the leadership of the Order, a new actor who was dressed in a blue suit with a cloak dotted with arithmetic and geometric signs. Then the masked ladies joined the gentlemen, and their common dance was especially remembered by the audience. Thomas Giles staged figure dances that put together the names of the bride and groom, then formed a divine chain, the hands in which were its links, and then a circle. But for all those present – both the audience and the participants of the mask – its most important, culminating moment was the appearance of all the masked to the fore and their joint performance of dances with Prince Henry, Queen Anne of Denmark, the bride and groom, ambassadors and other high-ranking public. This is how the mask and the harmony of the earthly and heavenly spheres represented in it merged with the world of the courtyard.

On February 2, 1609, the most impressive and complex mask with the participation of Queen Anne of Denmark – the "Mask of Queens" was put up at the royal court. As Barbara Kiefer Levalski writes, it was not the first time that the queen herself acted as the organizer of the spectacle, and on December 1 King James instructed the Treasury to pay all the necessary amount for its implementation: "The Queen, Our dear wife, in Our honor and for Our satisfaction decided to arrange a masquerade for this Christmas, at which the greatest ladies of the kingdom are expected" ^{[6, p. 346]}. Initially, the production of the mask was planned for New Year's Eve, but was postponed due to lengthy preparations and a protracted dispute between the ambassadors. The long wait is evidenced in particular by a letter from the Venetian ambassador Marc Antonio Correra, who wrote to the Italian Doge on January 9, 1609: "Since last Sunday, when Christmas was celebrated, and until now the royal court is completely occupied with balls and comedies. The Queen is completely immersed in the preparation of a Masquerade with the participation of court ladies, which is coming to an end. The spectacle will be given this week. She spares no expense to do everything as best as possible" ^{[7, p. 160-161]}.

The action of the mask, just as it was in the case of "Hymen", is built around the central symbols, but thanks to the stage discoveries of Inigo Jones, they are even more expressively connected with the very plot of the spectacle and the main transformations. The key theme, as defined by author Ben Johnson, – the struggle between good and evil – was embodied by the designer through successive images of hell and the Palace of Glory ^{[4, p. 8]}. By order of Anna of Denmark herself, the poet for the first time created a second mask that precedes the main action – an anti–mask, a "fake mask", as the queen called it ^{[8, p. 49]} - in contrast to which it would look even more noble and cause the public admiration. Eleven witches took part in it under the leadership of the Lady, the main witch, who inspires the most disgust – their roles were played by male actors, while in the main action of the mask, eleven court ladies in the images of queens of ancient times and Anna of Denmark in the image of the queen of the ocean, Belle Anne, appeared before the audience. In the anti–mask, the authors created those images, sound effects and choreography that were unacceptable in the world of court harmony and formed a sharp contrast to it - the exquisite spectacle of masked ladies was preceded by a picture almost caricatured, "crudely naturalistic" ^{[9, p. 81]}.

The first image that the audience saw in the "Mask of Queens" was a terrifying hell, from which smoke emanated up to the ceiling. Then, to the sounds of dull and disorderly music, witches came on stage one after another, and each of them held instruments, rattles, tambourines and spindles in their hands, which amplified the noise many times. Gene Knowlton and David Lindley wrote that drums, pipes and violins were often used in grotesque or comic scenes, while lute music accompanied the main action of the mask ^{[10, p. 190]}. Attributes such as potion pots and rats on the shoulder, along with a disorderly sound, demonstrated to the public their belonging to the world of evil and magic – their appearance, thought out to detail, was emphasized by spectacular sounds accompanying any of their movements. The images of witches were completed by dancing and nine spells addressed to the Lady. She appeared on stage with bare arms and barefoot, which was impossible to imagine in the case of masked ladies in the main action of the mask, and held in her hand a torch made from the hand of a dead man; snakes were entangled in her hair. Here Ben Johnson and Inigo Jones drew a seemingly unobvious parallel with the costume of Anna of Denmark in The Mask of Blackness, where she shocked the audience with her costume exposing her legs. Now everything that did not comply with court norms was taken out into the space of the anti-mask. The first joint combination of movements of the sorceress was performed without the main witch, who stood in the middle of the others to direct their dance with her incantatory speech. The lady ordered the witches to dance in a circle, which in the popular perception of that time was associated with witches' sabbaths, and in the Italian court choreography of the XVI century personified perfection ^{[10, p. 192]}. The round dance of witches dancing "back to back", "hip to hip", was accompanied by periodic shouts and various strange gestures, such as striking snakes on the ground, untying hair and exposing legs. The poet's very emphasis on the "dance on the contrary" was supposed to serve as an image of chaos, the opposite of everything that represents a picture of universal harmony in court masks. The movements of the eleven masked ladies and the queen corresponded to the vertical – they never descended to the ground, while the witches crawled on the floor and jumped in a frenzy.

The whole device of the anti–mask was addressed to the main viewer - King James I, the author of "Demonology" in 1591, dedicated to the classification of witches and wizards, as well as types of witchcraft. The court audience saw before them the embodiment of that world, the existence of which they did not doubt and which they had repeatedly read about both in the king's essay and in numerous other treatises on magic. This world presented itself to them in all its naturalism and grotesque, which should have caused as much horror as the admiration for the beauty of the masked ladies and the scenic design created by Inigo Jones was strong in the main part.

To the sounds of loud music, the whole stage was instantly transformed – it was with the help of a stage machine, a turning circle, as Stephen Ordzhel writes, that a sudden and complete victory of harmony over chaos, beauty over ugliness was achieved ^{[4, p. 8]}. Witches left through the hatches – just as they appeared, hell disappeared, and the Palace of Glory appeared before the audience in all its splendor. But the first contrast that caught the eye was the contrast of the smoke that captured the entire space in the scene with the witches – and the picture full of the glow of multicolored lights in the main part of the mask. Again, as was the case in Hymen, the appearance of the masked ladies was surrounded by an extraordinary radiance, especially impressive in its brilliance after the image of the dark hell. The friezes of the Palace of Glory in both the lower and upper parts were filled with stones – emeralds, rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, which, reflecting due to the general lighting of the hall, shimmered with different colors and delighted the audience. As Simpson and Bell write, Inigo Jones probably, in addition to colored stones, "used some kind of screen or coating of oiled paper to get soft lighting effects" ^{[1, p. 13]}.

The Palace of Glory was decorated with figures of great poets and heroes made of gold, which also enhanced the picture of dazzling brilliance. Sculptures depicting Homer, Virgil, Lucan and others were placed on the lower tier, while Achilles, Aeneas, Caesar and some other heroes, who were praised by the authors of antiquity, were placed on the upper tier. As Stephen Ordzhel writes, Ben Johnson glorifies here not so much the heroism of those whom he portrays on the facade, as the enduring power of poetry ^{[11, p. 61]}. It is no coincidence that it is the creation of man, an architectural building, that replaces the picture of hell and the dance of witches with its harmony – art is depicted by the authors of the mask as a victory over chaos.

The architecture itself was a mixture of styles – it combined Palladian elements, such as the central arch, the windows of the lower floor, pilasters, and medieval ones – in the form of a Gothic trefoil as the main motif of the upper tier. So, through the details of the building, the poet and the designer connected the images of the present and the past, connecting them into one architectural whole. The general appearance of the building was copied from the Palazzo della Fama by architect Giulio Parigi ^{[12, p. 197]}. Inigo Jones also used the strict outlines of the hexagonal tower of the Italian architect. But in the details of the building, the artist replaced the Florentine Parigi style with Palladian. As Graham Perry writes, Inigo Jones increasingly tried to represent the ideals of James' rule through architectural structures on the court stage, as well as his power to transform chaos into harmony ^{[8, p. 51]}. The masked revival of an architectural style based on ancient sources was his first attempt to express the values of the king – before Jones built classical buildings. So the designer began to introduce the court audience to the images of Palladian structures, giving them the opportunity to get used to the new architectural style.

At the top of the Palace of Glory, on a pyramid–shaped throne, sat masked ladies in the images of eleven queens ruling in ancient times, and on its top - Anna of Denmark. The whole elaborate lighting system was aimed at showing their splendor and beauty. Anna of Denmark in the image of Bel-Anna, Queen of the ocean, as the author emphasized, has all the virtues of other queens, personifying their best qualities ^{[13, p. 182]}. Unfortunately, the sketch of her costume has not been preserved, only the drawing of the headdress has survived to this day – it depicted a celestial sphere symbolizing the infinite power of the royal mind. The actor in the role of Heroic Valor, who, according to the poet, was represented in the image of Perseus, described the Palace of Glory in his majestic speech, and then named each of the queens. The costumes of the masked ladies in the "Mask of Queens" were a mixture of different iconographic sources – elements of antique clothing were combined in them with modernity. Some of them wore tight-fitting armor, and in their hands held the weapons of Greek or Roman soldiers.

The first in a row of queens was Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons, in the role of which Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford, acted. Her costume was the most belligerent of all and the most revealing in the context of the aesthetics of court masks – the skirt and bodice resembled Roman armor modified for a woman, and the helmet served as a headdress. However, both the whole costume and the helmet were richly and magnificently decorated. The rigor of the military costume forms was combined with an abundance of shining stones and light fabrics, as well as soft materials that did not interfere with the movements in the dance. This combination will be characteristic of all the costumes of queens, sketches of which have been preserved and are given in the two-volume work of Stephen Ordzhel and Roy Strong ^[14], and along with stage transformations and numerous contrasts indicates the transition to theatrical Baroque. Penthesilea's costume was decorated with transparent fabrics that fluttered freely during the dance, one of which was gathered on the right shoulder, and the helmet was decorated with large feathers and decorative elements. Unlike the dark-colored clothes worn by the witches in the anti-mask, the costumes of the eleven court ladies and the queen were full of bright colors and spectacular color combinations. So Inigo Jones chose a combination of dark pink, dark blue and sky for the Pentesilea. By contrast, the next Queen Camilla was dressed in a carnation-colored suit combined with yellow and white, and her clothes were among the most ornate. Of the numerous details, there is also embroidery with an abundance of pearls on the bodice, and a large bow on the right hand, and numerous light fabrics attached to both shoulders, as well as hanging freely in the center. Pearls are also found in the costumes of the queens of Tomira and Kandaki in the form of a pearl necklace, and lush, richly decorated sleeves, embroidery, bows and the general layering of clothes will also be repeated.

The second stage transformation in the "Mask of Queens" was the rotation of the upper part of the Palace of Glory, which also represented a turning circle. Instead of twelve queens, the audience was presented with Good Fame itself, which amazed everyone with its white suit with the same white wings and a golden collar around its neck, which effectively contrasted with the radiance of multicolored lights on the friezes of the building. At this time, the queens descended from the upper part of the Palace and entered the stage through the central doors on three triumphal chariots. As Stephen Ordzhel writes, the whole mask as a whole "represents the Jacobin court in its best image. Heroism is a royal consort; but the highest virtue is the virtue of a quiet king, not a warrior, but a classical scholar and poet" ^{[11, p. 65]}.

The epitome of ultimate harmony was the dancing of the queen and the ladies of the court. After descending from the top of the Palace, they performed three dances in the final – unlike the witches who danced without their mistress, all the masked ladies participated in joint dances, including the queen. The very number of dancers – twelve – demonstrated order and harmony, emphasizing the evenness of the performance itself. The author was Thomas Gil, and in the third dance he created the culmination of the beauty and order of the movements – they formed into letters glorifying Prince Charles, Duke of York. The performance ended with a song and music by Alfonso Ferrabosco and, as was customary in masks, a general dance of masked ladies and the court audience.

Thus, as Stephen Ordzhel writes, the poet Ben Johnson and the artist Inigo Jones in both masks – in "Hymenaeus" and in "The Mask of Queens" – turn the stage machine, the turning circle, into an integral part of the dramatic structure of the mask ^{[4, p. 8]}. The change in action occurs not through the plot, but through through a change of theatrical design. Repeated stage transformations, universal scope, the desire to give an image of the entire universe in its movement and variability, depicting both absolute harmony and chaos, as well as sharp contrasts, testify to the evolution of theatrical language and the gradual transition in the court theater to the English Baroque. The whole universe appears in the creation of the authors as a magnificent spectacle. Inigo Jones uses both the horizontal and vertical of the theater space in both masks, focusing on their opposition and not transferring the action to the depth of the stage. Its discovery – as well as the creation of a series of successive backdrops – remains to be seen and will happen in masks set for Prince Henry Stuart.