Quotables

"The D[uke] will tell you of Burke and Sheridan's reconciliation, which was perfectly Irish, for they now are upon worse terms than ever."

-Lady Jersey to Georgiana

Masks of the Masquerade

Happy Mardi Gras! If you are in Venice right now you are finishing up Carnival which is hopefully as debaucherous as it was in the 18th century.  When I think of the Venetian Carnival the artist Pietro Longhi comes to mind.  Longhi was known for painting everyday scenes of Venetian life in the early 18th century, many of his paintings depict Venetians in their carnival masks.

 

Now the fact that many of Longhi's paintings portray people in masks does not mean the artist had an unhealthy obsession with Mardi Gras. Visitors to Venice found masks to be commonplace accessories for native Venetians, which distinguished them from the harangue of tourists.Venetians wore them for the same reason you might make yourself "invisible" on instant messaging.  It was hard to get to point A to point B without running in to people you know so in order to politely avoid conversation for the sake of punctuality Venetians would wear masks.  That was their way of setting their little availability dot to "invisible."  Sometimes citizens were legally obligated to don their masks during critical political decision-making times.  That way street gossip could be curtailed and consequently wouldn't effect the political decision.

The standard-issue mask, promoted by the Ventian government was the bauta which disguised the wearer but still allowed them to speak and eat freely.  It is the white bautas that you commonly see in Longhi's paintings.  Another breed of mask you can see in the Longhi paintings is the morretta, an oval black velvet mask popular with the ladies.  Not pictured by Longhi is the volto, a mask commonly associated with the Venetian Carnival.  Voltos are white masks that cover the entire face.

So which mask will you be wearing today?

Defining a Rake.

Late Friday night I was going through my Twitter feed to see what sort of gossip I may have missed out on.  A tweet caught my eye:

Lady D Eversley: I wonder how #rakes were given their appellation? Because they 'raked' through sexual Society?

Good question.

Although it was well past my hour to retire and gain some of my valued beauty rest, I went to my trusty source to answer such questions: The Oxford Dictionary.  The definition is as follows:

noun 
a fashionable or wealthy man of dissolute or promiscuous habits.

The word originated in the mid 17th century and is short for the work "rakehell" which doesn't seem to be an official word any more (or ever) since Oxford is void of it.

So it appears the answer to the lovely Lady Eversley's question is, "yes."  Rakes rake hell.

"rake³ "  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Ed. T. F. Hoad. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  College of Saint Rose.  5 March 2011  

Yay or Nay? Jean-Dominique Fabry Garat

Queen Charlotte wasn't a fan of Thomas Lawrence'sportrait and neither was our panel for the queen earned a Nay (and a whole lot of "mehs" as well) for her somber apparel.  I don't know about you but this judging of gowns is growing exhausting! I long for some menswear to pick apart. Ah, here is some!

Adèle Roman paints Jean-Dominique Fabry Garat (1804) in his high collared monotone khaki (or is it camel?) colored suit.  Yay or Nay?

[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]