Skip to content
EntityQ2641292· pop 29· linked from 433 articles

masquerade ball

Sign in to save

Also known as masked ball

social event

Wikidata facts

Image
Maskenball.jpg
Show 3 more facts
Commons category
Masquerade balls
topic's main category
Category:Masquerade balls
different from
masque
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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. A masquerade ball (or bal masqué) is a special kind of formal ball which many participants attend in costume wearing masks. (Compare the word "masque"—a formal written and sung court pageant.) Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tradition. A masquerade ball usually encompasses music and dancing. These nighttime events are used for entertainment and celebrations.

History

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “masquerade ball” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.