Stage Costume for a Prince (?)

Etching with a design for a stage costume for a prince (?), possibly created by Jean I Berain. Entrusted with drawings for costumes, stage sets, and royal ceremonies at the 'Academie Royale de la Musique' since 1680, Berain's ingenious creations took acanthus and laurel leaves, palmettes and grotesques, mixing them with dancers, acrobats, monkeys and satyrs, to create his own, imaginative, theatrical world. His designs were multiplied and disseminated by means of engravings, his design motifs and manner objects becoming highly influential in the closing years of the seventeenth century. This costume was, like many of his designs, possibly designed for his costumes for the performances of the Royal Academy of Music.

The costume in this plate is made up of a short-sleeved justaucorps with knee-length skirt, richly decorated with arabesques, a large grotesque on the stomach, and embellished with gemstones set on scallop-edged frames. Long, puffy sleeves emerge from the short sleeves of the coat, covering the arm up to the wrist. A cape, attached by two brooches to the shoulders, and forming small fabric pads above them, hangs long behind the body. A headband with a large bundle of feathers is placed on the head, and the feet are covered with high-heeled, square-toed boots, decorated with scrolling motifs and embellished with stones.