Lord Byron’s Carnival Mask

In collection

Details
TITLE

Lord Byron’s Carnival Mask

SUMMARY

This mask was worn by Byron in Ravenna during the carnival of February 1820 and represents, in the words of its maker, Giovanni Ghinaglia, ‘a very serious and thoughtful man between 45 and 50 years of age’. It has since suffered some damage, and lacks its original luxuriant hair and beard. Byron had greatly enjoyed the annual masked carnival in Venice, with its limitless opportunities for intrigue, and participated in the ‘buffoonery and cavalcade’ of the Ravenna carnival with equal enthusiasm.

NAME

Anonymous

DATE

1820

ITEM

1 mask

MEDIUM

realia

MATERIALS

wax

GENRE

masks (costume)

PERSONAL NAME SUBJECT

Byron, George Gordon Byron Baron, 1788-1824

ACQUISITION NOTE

Gift of Virginia Surtees, 1957. 

LOCATION

KSH

REL-016


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