A barriera in the form of a moresca

Brussels 1565. Dance and Power in Early Modern European Festivals

Abstract

In the context of festive forms, dance plays a decisive role within the celebration: on the one hand, it takes on specific forms, such as social dances, theatrical and paratheatrical dances, which contribute to the consolidation of conversational relations also on the level of political diplomacy; on the other hand, the choreography as a technology pervades the entire structure of the celebration and determines the design of its forms, to offer a representation of reality as a spectacle, consolidate a common culture among members of the aristocracy and produce the sense of a shared experience. Dance associates its manifestations with the memory of the event and the ideological constructs that determined it. A particularly interesting and paradigmatic case is a barriera in the form of a moresca performed during the feasts for the marriage of Alessandro Farnese and Maria of Portugal in Brussels in November 1565. This essay seeks to demonstrate how the political watermark that watermark that shines through the symbols produced by the performance, in the context of the complex festive choreography, are generated precisely within the languages of representation and offer the key to understanding not only the celebrations as a whole, but also the entire wedding enterprise desired and planned by Philip II and conceived by the sovereign with foresight in view of the subjugation of Flanders, the most troublesome and rebellious province of his entire empire.