Las mascaradas en Andalucía y América y el fin de la fiesta barroca

Abstract

In this work we study the masquerade, a kind of urban ceremony characteristic of the Hispanic monarchy during the Modern Age, as well as the crisis that this celebration experienced during the final years of the eighteenth century (after the Proclamation of Charles IV in 1789) and the first two decades of the following century. We will focus on the changes that occurred in these festivals during the Enlightenment, Liberalism, and years of the independence of Latin American countries. It is possible to find some common characteristics among these changes during this period of time; for example, the concentration and clarity of their allegorical content, the archaeological recovery of the idea of classic triumph, the disappearance of comedic elements, and a new predominance of the theatre in the framework of the celebration. This paper aims to demonstrate that this type of public celebration was characterized by sensorial and rhetorical variety, and by its mission to show an abbreviated theatre of the world, features that made this spectacle a purely Baroque phenomenon. We also attempt to show that the tendency to “rationalize” the celebration during the Enlightenment period would cause the disappearance of this type of ceremony as they were designed during the Modern Age.