Viennese masquerades

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Many different branches of the arts were involved in the creation of the Gesamtkunstwerk that was the Baroque festivity. They included ballet, which had been a courtly art even as far back as the reigns of Leopold I and Charles VI. The love of dancing rose to a height at Shrovetide or carnival time: ‘dance, Redoute, pasterella, dance in masquera, Italian comedy’ provided entertainment; rest days even had to be instituted between these diversions so that the courtiers could recover.
Dancing occupied an important place in social life: Maria Theresa danced the minuet and adored the Viennese masquerades. So-called ‘Pauernhochzeiten’ (peasant weddings) offered the opportunity of creating an ‘upside-down world’: the imperial couple received their guests as the ‘innkeeper and his wife from the Black Eagle’; in 1730 Maria Theresa dressed up as a Lower Austrian peasant. The guests appeared in costume as figures from the lower social orders, such as cooks or servants, or in the costumes of various nationalities, while some even donned more exotic garb as Romans, Persians, Turks or ‘slaves’.
The higher nobility gave numerous balls and dances in their palaces or at the Mehlgrube, a public dance hall on Neuer Markt, which was reserved exclusively for the nobility. A highlight of these festivities was the harlequin masked ball held on 17 February 1744: thirty-three couples costumed as harlequins assembled in a darkened room at Schönbrunn and sought out partners for the evening before being driven in a fleet of court carriages to the Ballhaus in the Hofburg and afterwards celebrating at the Mehlgrube into the early hours of the morning.

During the carnival season in 1743 Maria Theresa had allowed masks to be worn at court festivities – for the first time at the Habsburg court. Nonetheless, this was only permitted for the ‘high noblesse’, as Prince Khevenhüller-Metsch related. Costumes were not allowed to be worn at dances in the Mehlgrube. According to Khevenhüller-Metsch, masks encouraged amorous intrigues and advances.
Carnival events had been known to result in excesses and disorder – murders had even been committed under the cover of a mask. The wearing of masks on the street was therefore forbidden upon pain of severe punishment to all classes including the nobility. This regulation was aimed in particular at guaranteeing security and preventing political conspiracy amongst the lower social orders.

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zeremoniell-bei-maskierten-hofbaellen-und-anderen-baellen-des-hofes-originalvortrag-des-obersthofmeisteramtes-22.-november-1750-wien

‘Ceremonial at masked balls and other court balls’, original document issued by the office of the head of the court household, 22 November 1750, Vienna

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‘Ceremonial at masked balls and other court balls’, original document issued by the office of the head of the court household, 22 November 1750, Vienna

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in-einem-tagebucheintrag-vom-7.-jaenner-1743-beschreibt-fuerst-khevenhueller-metsch-die-teilnahme-des-kaiserpaares-an-einer-201emaschere201c-maskerade-maria-theresia-und-franz-stephan-selbst-kamen

Tagebucheintrag vom 7. Jänner 1743 von Fürst Khevenhüller-Metsch:

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Dietrich, Margret: Theater am Hofe – zwischen Tradition und Wandel, in: Koschatzky, Walter (Hrsg.): Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit. Eine Darstellung der Epoche von 1740–1780 aus Anlass der 200. Wiederkehr des Todestages der Kaiserin, 2. Aufl. Salzburg/Wien 1980, 393–403; Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit. Katalog zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung, Wien, Schloss Schönbrunn, 13.5.–26.10.1980, 350–353; Mattl-Wurm, Sylvia: Wien vom Barock bis zur Aufklärung, Wien 1999 (Geschichte Wiens 4), 143–153; Öhlinger, Walter: Wien im Aufbruch zur Moderne, Wien 1999 (Geschichte Wiens 5), 132–136; Vocelka, Karl: Glanz und Untergang der höfischen Welt. Repräsentation, Reform und Reaktion im habsburgischen Vielvölkerstaat, Wien 2004 (Österreichische Geschichte 1699–1815), 185–194; Witzmann, Reingard: Wiener Walzer und Wiener Ballkultur. Von der Tanzekstase zum Walzertraum, in: Bürgersinn und Aufbegehren. Biedermeier und Vormärz in Wien 1815–1848, Katalog zur gleichnamigen Sonderausstellung des Wien Museums, 17.12.1987–12.6.1988 im Künstlerhaus Wien, Wien 1987, 130–137;

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