Early Book Collections | Art and Architecture

A Carnival Fête-Book at the Mouth of Hell

This exceptional plate-book features twenty engravings of the processional floats staged at Dresden’s Carnival celebration on February 7, 1695 by Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. The intense quality of the images and presence of manuscript annotations identifying each of the mythological characters suggest the Hopkins copy be a first-issue proof of an exuberant, and surely unforgettable, occasion.

Carnival celebrations in Europe were a theatrical and musical affair, designed for the enjoyment of all a city’s inhabitants, regardless of socioeconomic standing. They were, at once, political statements that literally elevated the status of the monarch above the urban streetscape, while also instilling wonder and civic pride from among the populace. These large floats paraded down city streets, preceded by troupes of costumed musicians and dancers. For the rich, this processional was also accompanied by balls, masquerades, banquets, ballets, and hunts—monumental indulgences to be enjoyed at the cusp of the austere Lenten season of fasting and religious devotion.

Augustus II of Saxony played a major role in the 1695 Carnival festivities, appointing the court architect, Martin Klötzer, to design the floats for the parade. His kapellmeister Nicolas Strungk was commissioned to compose and conduct the musical entertainment, utilizing the entire ensemble of the court’s musicians who donned colorful costumes as they played in front of the parade wagons that processed through the city. Among the most arresting engravings in the plate-book is a depiction of no less than thirty-two musicians dressed in Harlequin and Pulcinella costumes leading the float dedicated to Pluto, the god of the afterlife.

The stars of this paper parade are Roman and Greek mythological figures, including Hercules, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Jupiter, Bacchus, and Diana. Some represent earthy impulses generally only showcased at world-turned-upside-down events like Carnival: Perma and Pertunda, goddesses of sex, and Laverna, goddess of thieves and the underworld. Others embody loftier pursuits, such as the Nine Muses atop Mount Parnassus, inspiring the arts and music on display in the procession itself.

The grand finale is a spectacular dance of demons across the final three plates, including a scene of a skeleton that struggles to pull the wagon of Morta, goddess of death, and Libitina, goddess of funerals and burials. These follow the infamous three Fates standing upon a float dragged by a hooded figure resembling a ghost. In front of them, demons dance as they attempt to ensnare the young men Vejovis and Endymion who ride on horseback. Here the Fates join Pluto, king of the underworld, and his abducted wife Prosperpine on perhaps the most spectacular display of them all. They sit in the jaws of hell itself while a devil and a hydra run down its unfurled tongue toward Charon, the ferryman who carries the souls of the dead in his boat to the underworld. They are led by a somber and intimidating group of ghosts and skeletons wielding scythes.

The last engraving is of the underworld itself, adorned with the figures of Tityus, Sisyphus, the Danaides, and Tantalus, all condemned to an eternity of suffering, together on a craggy rock driven forth by devils who dance, sing, and even cartwheel in their triumphant celebration. Their victory heralds the period of fasting and solemnity that is Lent, but they have only won the battle, and not yet the war. Lent of course culminates in Easter, and thus the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, the earthly dominion of Christianity, and salvation from sin and carnal desire—all themes so decorously illustrated throughout this magnificent illustrated plate-book.

—Earle Havens