Stage Costume for Indian (?) Man

Hand-colored etching with a design for a stage costume for an Indian man (?), 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 justaucorps with knee-length skirt, decorated with yellow grotesques flanked by scrolling motifs, bordered by yellow strapwork with red stones, and with tassels on the hem of the skirt, a red cape with two silver collars with red stones, white fringed border, and scrolling arabesques executed with white, pink hose and white boots, embellished with red stones. The puff sleeves are white, with horizontal, blue stripes, and have cuffs above the elbow and around the wrist. A turban, made up of a striped, blue-and-white fabric that matches the sleeves, jeweled with red stones, and topped by a bundle of large, pink feathers, covers the hair.