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Visard
A visard, also known as a vizard, is an oval mask of black velvet which was worn by travelling women in the early modern period to protect their skin from sunburn, as a tan suggested that the bearer worked outside and was hence poor. Performers in court masques also disguised themselves with masks called visards, recorded in England as early as 1377. Visards were either held in place by a fastening or ribbon tie, or the wearer clasped a bead attached to the interior of the mask between their teeth.
The practice did not meet universal approval, as evidenced in this excerpt from a contemporary polemic:
When they use to ride abroad, they have visors made of velvet ... wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look so that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chance to meet one of them he would think he met a monster or a devil: for face he can see none, but two broad holes against her eyes, with glasses in them.
— Phillip Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (1583)
A visard recovered from inside the wall of a 16th-century building in Daventry, England.
In Venice, the visard developed into a design without a mouth hole, the moretta, and was gripped with a button between the teeth rather than a bead. The mask's prevention of speech was deliberate, intended to heighten the mystery of a masked woman.
A Spanish observer at the wedding of Mary I of England and Philip of Spain in 1554 mentioned that women in London wore masks, antifaces, or veils when walking outside. Masks became more common in England in the 1570s, leading Emanuel van Meteren to write that "ladies of distinction have lately learned to cover their faces with silken masks and vizards and feathers".
Elizabeth I had masks lined with perfumed leather and made with satin supplied by Baptist Hicks. In September 1602, she was observed wearing a mask while walking in the garden at Oatlands Palace. In 1620 the lawyer and courtier John Coke sent clothes and costume to his wife, including a satin mask and two green masks for their children.
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Visard
A visard, also known as a vizard, is an oval mask of black velvet which was worn by travelling women in the early modern period to protect their skin from sunburn, as a tan suggested that the bearer worked outside and was hence poor. Performers in court masques also disguised themselves with masks called visards, recorded in England as early as 1377. Visards were either held in place by a fastening or ribbon tie, or the wearer clasped a bead attached to the interior of the mask between their teeth.
The practice did not meet universal approval, as evidenced in this excerpt from a contemporary polemic:
When they use to ride abroad, they have visors made of velvet ... wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look so that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chance to meet one of them he would think he met a monster or a devil: for face he can see none, but two broad holes against her eyes, with glasses in them.
— Phillip Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (1583)
A visard recovered from inside the wall of a 16th-century building in Daventry, England.
In Venice, the visard developed into a design without a mouth hole, the moretta, and was gripped with a button between the teeth rather than a bead. The mask's prevention of speech was deliberate, intended to heighten the mystery of a masked woman.
A Spanish observer at the wedding of Mary I of England and Philip of Spain in 1554 mentioned that women in London wore masks, antifaces, or veils when walking outside. Masks became more common in England in the 1570s, leading Emanuel van Meteren to write that "ladies of distinction have lately learned to cover their faces with silken masks and vizards and feathers".
Elizabeth I had masks lined with perfumed leather and made with satin supplied by Baptist Hicks. In September 1602, she was observed wearing a mask while walking in the garden at Oatlands Palace. In 1620 the lawyer and courtier John Coke sent clothes and costume to his wife, including a satin mask and two green masks for their children.