Lord Byron’s Carnival Mask

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.

Anonymous

1820

1 mask

realia

wax

masks (costume)

Byron, George Gordon Byron Baron, 1788-1824

Gift of Virginia Surtees, 1957. 

KSH

REL-016