In the nineteenth century, Delft students organised masquerades every five years as part of lustrum celebrations. These colourful parades attracted thousands of visitors and were an important part of the celebrations of the Royal Academy, the Delft Student Corps and its relationship with the city of Delft.
The 1903 masquerade was based on the Imperial Ascent of Nikephoros II Phocas in 963. This spectacle was more than a theatrical performance, it was a large-scale re-enactment of Byzantine opulence with impressive costumes, sets and musical accompaniment. The masquerade was a stage, a symbol that demonstrated the students' grandeur and cultural superiority, as well as its abilities and value to the city of Delft.
The masquerade consisted of two parades through Delft, with the city being illuminated at night with torches and braziers. Between the parades, visitors could enter the festival grounds to admire costumed characters and music for a fee. The collaboration with artists contributed to an unprecedented focus on authenticity and historical accuracy. Costumes were made of luxurious materials, such as silk from Smyrna and precious stones from Bohemia and Paris. Everything from the decorations of banquet halls to the music was carefully designed to enhance the historical illusion.
Although the masquerades were initially intended to show students in a more positive light, the event increasingly became an exclusive elite celebration, leading to growing criticism. Changing social attitudes towards this lavish spectacle combined with the outbreak of World War I marked the definitive end of traditional student masquerades.
Below is a selection of translated quotes from various articles about the 1903 Delft student masquerade.
Eenige bijzonderheden over de Delfsche lustrumfeesten
Source: Eenige bijzonderheden over de Delfsche lustrumfeesten, Leeuwarder Courant, Wednesday 22 July 1903
Emperor Nikephoros Phocas had insured his jewels and valuables for thirty thousand guilders against burglary and theft
That the celebrations cost the Emperor a pretty penny can be assured. H.R.H. had three expensive costumes; numerous persons, connected to him during the past week, lived at his expense; he was generous in giving tips and gifts and in other ways than this, showed that he did not mind spending more or less. The boat trip he offered cost f 5 per person only for lunch, which for 700 people required an expenditure of f 3500. The Emperor donated f 400 to the mayor of Delft for the benefit of the poor.
Delftsche Lustrumfeesten
Source: Delftsche Lustrumfeesten IV, Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant, Tuesday 14 July 1903
The H. IJ. S. M. transported 14,734 people to the anniversary celebrations in Delft yesterday
A few hours before the procession will cross the city, the streets are already crowded; a foretaste of what it will become when all means of transport from outside will have unloaded their cargo. At the Hague station it was a hustle and bustle the likes of which we rarely saw; people were packed into dense rows from the edge of the platform to the waiting rooms. Trains from the direction of Leiden stopped, but full, packed. Additional trains from The Hague took thousands with them, but this was not noticeable by the crowds on the platform. There was hardly any order at all; there was running and shouting from all sides. The platform for direction Amsterdam was deserted and silent. The commotion lasted until late into the night because before the last train returned to Delft it was already half past two. Transport by steam tram to Delft was also extremely numerous.
Historisch overzicht van de maskerade
A tip of the dense veil, shrouding the past, will be lifted and a faint gleam of the magical splendour of ancient Byzantium will shine upon us
On the 14th of July 1903, the Delftsch Studenten Corps will show how 940 years ago NIKEPHOROS PHOCAS, in solemn circumambulation of incomparable wealth and unforgettable splendour, amidst loud jubilation from all the people, traversed the streets of the ‘city preserved by God’. Five days of festivities will last in his honour. A tip of the dense veil that shrouds the past will be lifted and a faint glimmer of the magical splendour of ancient Byzantium will shine upon us. This fact is not without significance!
By enlisting the help of distinguished men of art and science, by sparing neither effort nor money, the organisers of this festival hope to make this week unforgettable. It has taken a great effort to gather the extensive historical data and to find the way to carry out the plans with dignity: however, the way in which the Commission has been assisted by almost all authorities in the Greek-Byzantine field, throughout Europe, ensured a great result.
Prof. SCHLUMBERGER (the famous author of ‘Un Empereur byzantin’) rendered great service in assembling the procession through his able advice; Prof. GABRIEL MILLET, Maître de conférence pour l'Art Byzantin at the ‘Ecole des Hautes Etudes’ of the Sorbonne in Paris, supplemented the scientific set-up with numerous hints, as did Dr HESSELING, (author of the fine book ‘Byzantium’) who helped to overcome the many difficulties from the start.
For the costumes in the parade, the original drawings by TH. THOMAS, Sarah Bernardt's illustrator, the same artist who dressed Theodora for her at the time. As we had chosen such a difficult subject that we wanted to have it executed as faithfully as possible to history, it seemed advisable to seek the help of a well-known Dutch artist who was mainly involved in the study and execution of historical costumes. In Mr ANTOON MOLKENBOER in Amsterdam, who for some years now has designed the costumes for the performances of the Amsterdam Wagnervereeniging (Wagner society), we found an excellent artist as well as a tireless historian. The costumes, based on Thomas' drawings, are executed entirely under his skilful and artistic supervision.
For the performance of the dress, Mr OMONT, Director of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris gave us the opportunity to consult the finest existing manuscripts of this period, viz. the famous ‘Psantier 510’, the books of St GREGOIRE DE NAZIANZE, JEAN CHRISTOPHORE and ‘Les Homelies du moine Jacques.’ Prof MILLET declared to us the manuscript of SKYLITZÈS (now at Madrid) to supplement the more easily accessible books like SALZENBERG, KONDAKOF, Dr Bock etc. Madame SARAH BERNARDT, who did many Byzantine costume researches for her Theodora, has done us great service, especially by addresses of suppliers, certainly her bijoutier by his help has great share in the wealth of the procession. Madame Sarah's right bracelet, a Byzantine gem of beautiful filigree gold with turquoises, passed into our possession to adorn the Emperor's wrist.
The character of the procession is twofold: the first is the real Byzantine cachet, which clearly shows Roman influence (the equipment of the emperor's closest retinue, field commanders, etc.), the second is the oriental type, which characterises the foreign envoys and auxiliary troops of the many eastern peoples subjected to Greek rule. For the first element, we have succeeded in finding genuine Byzantine silk and brocade fabrics, which increase the richness of the costumes to the extreme; however precious, and however difficult to obtain, the patterns of the pomegranate, the two-bird motif, the radiating cross, the flaunting peacock, as well as the Basileus and Evangelist motifs, all the rarest and most beautiful fabrics, have been incorporated in the garments. No less neat are the Orientals where Arab silk with Persian raw materials, interspersed with Bulgarian rope-knots and stripe patterns give an aspect as picturesque as it is typical; and where this richness sometimes gives way to plain silk fabrics, the atelier of the ladies VAN VOOREN processed these fragments into true works of art, with motifs of acarthus leaves, birds, deer and lions artfully interwoven, while the garments are heavy with the weight of pearls and precious stones, with which all costumes are artfully decorated.
For the manufacture of shoes, we repeatedly consulted the collection of the ‘Musée Clungy’; for decorative embroideries, the excavations of the treasure of ANTINOË (Musée Guimet); for the smallbodies, the Louvre Museum, where we also found coins with depictions of weapons, a.o. of the romphaia’ the typical Byzantine axe-knife, cited in all manuscripts as the coat of arms of the Imperial Guard. The richness of the procession is not little enhanced by some fifteen large silk banners, embroidered entirely by hand, the most beautiful of which are: the imperial standard, (depicting the emperor on horseback amidst the four Evangelists), the banner of St George with the dragon, the banner of the radiating cross, etc. etc.
No less care has been taken with the Throne Room, where many ceremonies will take place. The grand ballroom of the Stads Doelen (the skeleton of our on all front hall) lends itself particularly well to our purpose because of its simple construction and distribution. All flat walls are covered with colourful mosaics, all columns disappear into our much thicker columns, which we build around them, all arches are concealed in our vaults the stage, above the emperor's seat rises an entirely free-standing interior construction of twelve columns supporting a domed vault with balustrades and stairs, panes and modern windows will be transformed into onyx panels with their peculiar green translucency, from the ceiling, a silk velum will rise, around the gas crowns giant showy lights will be made so that nothing of the actual hall will be visible anymore. Although it was not possible to make a faithful copy here of an existing hall (the data left too much unclear), we believe that in our imitation we have come closest to the Purple Hall in the Imperial Palace in Byzantium, following data from various buildings; the Aya Sofia, as well as the San Vitale, the Apollinares church, Theodoric's palace, etc. provided examples for mosaics, capitals, columns, etc., which have been followed as faithfully as possible, which have been followed as faithfully as possible.
Numerous life-sized figures are depicted in the mosaics, very colourful on dull gold fond, as the Byzantines used to do. In the domed vault above the imperial throne, a larger-than-life figure of Christ with outspread arms in a radiant circle, in a long frieze below that the Virgin on her throne surrounded in the middle by four angels and ten martyrs; below that the porphyry columns, carrying the purple vault of the circumambulation, half-circled around the throne chair. The stage is separated from the rest of the hall by one large and two small arches, supported by six half-metre-thick columns, which carry the front wall of the hall on which Basileus is depicted on his throne surrounded by the four Evangelists and six saints of the family PHOCAS. The side walls of the room are regularly divided into compartments, so that above each of the fourteen columns there is a figure of a Saint, and in the intermediate compartments there is a walking frieze of sheep, moving in the direction of the Christ figure in the dome. In addition to four life-sized Saints, the rear wall has two Archangels with outspread wings at the corners, between which there are twelve medallions with busts of Fathers of the Church. It should be noted here, that the Byzantine school has an exclusively religious character the emperor bears, since all these ecclesiastical figures consider themselves to be one of the twelve apostles: in all paintings and images, this ecclesiastical cachet remains strictly enforced.
The main entrance is also entirely in the style of the hall. The firm of DOOIJEWAARD in Amsterdam was commissioned to carry out the plans for the hall, panelling, painting and upholstery according to the detailed drawings provided by Mr ANT. MOLKENBOER.
Great care was also taken with the furniture. Under the domed vault on a three-step elevation stands the imperial throne - a faithful imitation of the famous Chiesa metropolitane in Ravenna, made of gold and ivory, surrounded by six smaller seats in the same spirit for the six highest dignitaries. ELKINGTON in London, modellers at the South Kensington Museum, are responsible for making the casts for the ivory bas relief in the panels. The company v. ERVEN DORENS in Amsterdam took care of the further finishing touches. Roman-style resting benches were placed all around the room, under the heavy colonnades, with tables in the same style: the tablecloths and cushions were hand-embroidered according to the mosaic examples from San Vitale, as were the purple curtains (portieres) draped from column to column; the emperor's monogram plays an important role in these embroideries.
Delftsche Lustrumfeesten
Source: Delftsche Lustrumfeesten IV, Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant, Tuesday 14 July 1903
Over the din of people sounds the shouting of programme-sellers, most obviously with fake programmes, worthless things
Delft looks festive. The city blazes in the sun. By half past twelve, the city is very busy. Strangers riding into the city gates in the strangest of carriages, senate carriages with many spectators, especially the Delft one, with four horses ridden by jockeys not off the buckboard, mask parade participants being escorted to the venue. Measures of order have not been taken by the Delft police as far as riding is concerned, or perhaps they have, but in any case they are then not followed. On the narrow canals, queues of carriages from both directions cut openings in the crowds. The city is one big hubbub of all kinds of sounds. The wind, which brings some freshness to the oppressive atmosphere, cannot be appreciated enough, especially for the participants in the parade.
Over Feesten
Source: Henriette Roland Holst-van der Schalk, Over Feesten, De Kroniek, Saturday 25 July 1903
The Delft proletarians gaze childishly-reverently at all this glitter and flare
Weeks in advance we read about the splendour and opulence and sense of art that would become visible at the Delft student parties. Scholars gave their science, artists their talent, actresses gave their jewels; treasures were spent, and many days of diligent labour. To what end? So that a few dozen young people could appear for a few hours or days, decked out in oriental garb. Through the streets and along the canals of a quiet little town, a procession of horsemen and pedestrians in beautiful foreign garments, faithful to all the details of the dress, faithfully imitating the ceremonial of a distant, twilight world, a middle thing between ancient and feudal, eastern and western life. The result: a brief caress of the eyes, a flicker of sensuous beauty. Some of those watching the procession pass by consciously enjoy the harmonious opulence of the costumes, the combinations of never-before-seen colours. These are the civilised, educated spectators. For these, too, what is presented is without deeper meaning and more general significance; their imagination may be touched for a moment, mind and intellect remain dumb and cold. Those unpronounceable names mean nothing to them, that solemn way of doing things seems like a strange comedy to them. The performance, without any connection to their morals, their religion, their history, in short to the meaning of their lives, hangs in the air for them like a flower without a stem; remains a fancy-dress party, a ‘masquerade’.
And the large crowd of Delft proletarians gaze childishly and respectfully at all this glittering and flaunting, perhaps in dark awe of the one power that provided everything needed for this: art, learning, labour: the power of money. Age-old slavish feelings of submissive admiration for the pomp and stature of those in power awaken in their blood and make them rejoice. And this is the association that the passing procession evokes most clearly in their dull minds: of groping for the pass currency, which will soon be thrown to them by the merry ‘benefactors’ who will be their masters tomorrow.
No - we are not flat utilitarians. Were it us, a different line of thought I would follow, asking different questions. Questions like: how many families of starving victims could live for months on what one figure in the procession spent on the clothes he may never wear again after these few days? Or: how many of the Amsterdam slums, described by Hermans; or the Rotterdam ones, described by Spiekman, could be replaced by better dwellings; or how many sickly, or rachitic proletarian children could be sent to sea for the cost of the procession?
Nay: this would be mixing of spheres. Beauty and art hold their rights, even in the vicious, miserable world of capitalism, and what could be more natural than to make them subservient to this manifestation of communal joy in life: the Feast? But that - possessing so much knowledge, so much zeal, so much devotion, so much treasure - a corporation of young men could not present this communal joy of life visibly; that, despite unlimited mental and material means, they could not achieve any other goal than this: to create a short phrase and visual pleasure, that is the questionable thing. More and more, the young people of our universities strive for the utmost accuracy of imitation, refinement and perfection of form in their five-year celebrations, one might say in the case of a work of art. And they have to do this because in this type of display, more and more all connection with the content of life, both of performers and spectators, is lost. In the past, some fact was chosen from national history; the show was still rooted in a national tradition, assumed to be known to all, dear to many.
Utrecht, I think, broke with this tradition first, when it settled on a subject from the French Middle Ages. And now Delft, these aspiring engineers and technologists, drew to itself from distant centuries a darkly glowing time of form service and rigidity. Was it the seduction of contrasts? Or... the mysterious attraction of a form of civilisation that was very different from modern capitalism, but related to it in this one: rich in phenomena of decadence?
Not at all times was the Festive Display rootless in the people, incoherent with the content of life. There were times when the joy and zest for life of the community manifested itself in it. So it was, when the self-confident guild brothers entered a Flemish or Dutch town by the thousands to celebrate a Landjuweel, where their chambers of rhetoric competed for days for the palm of art. The allegorical representations of their glittering parades may not have been profound or sophisticated, but for showmen and spectators, what was shown was a piece of life; it related to what moved and occupied them, it depicted feelings understood by all, it spoke a language understood by all. It related to the empty costume of a modern masquerade, just as an Indian martial dance, part of a sacred rite, relates to a minuet performed in 18th-century attire to grace a wedding. In our days, it is only the strident proletariat that achieves something real and sacred in its celebrations. Our May processions and meetings are not only expressions of the common will of the working class, but also of its common joy. But here only the internal inspiration is clean and uplifting; external the like the beauty of dress, long gone in western countries.
Capitalist civilisation has brought it to its knees. The external life of the proletariat is barren and poor; so are its celebrations, it is too poor to place art and beauty in its service, and the pleasures for its eyes and ears it knows almost only from pernicious surrogates, which are worse than utter lack. In this area too, only after the victory of the working class and the great change in society it will bring, can what is currently separated be reunited. Outward glow and inner warmth, formal beauty and meaningfulness will coincide in the festivities of that society, on whose fulfilment we, in the words of Anatole France, work like the weaver with high warp on his fabric: without seeing it. And the eternal events of nature, the changing of the seasons and their influence on human work and life, will again be understood and celebrated by the Liberated, who consciously carry the kinship of all things in their heads and hearts. And certainly also the dates of our struggles in the world, the memory of events whose greatness we hardly realise as we walk in twilight and seized by many thorny bushes in front of our feet.
De Delftsche Lustrumfeesten
Source: De Delftsche Lustrumfeesten I, Algemeen Handelsblad, Saturday 11 July 1903
Student is he who exaggerates, who elevates sky-high an idea he likes, who swears at everything that seems ugly to him
I would give something sweet if I could make him, who once studied and has not known the wealth of a student brotherhood, feel all that he lacks. When my words were so passionate, when the soul of my thoughts shone so clearly in these rules, that every student would also wish to be a member of a fraternity. A student is he who enjoys the young, free life, who tries to find the beauty in everything around him, who gets carried away and dares to express his enthusiasm, who, wherever he sees something that bothers him, comes out for it. Student is he who exaggerates, who exalts sky-high an idea he finds beautiful, who swears at everything that seems ugly to him, who exaggerates because he is young and is ashamed of his youth.
A student is he who tries to learn from everything around him, who draws wisdom from life, who must have been cheated by at least some people he thought were his friends before he knows what friendship is. A student is he who, with his great freedom and independence, feels the obligation to work, to learn in his profession what there is to learn. A student is the one who, enjoying the young glorious life, without harming his morality, realises the responsibility he bears. A corps is the mutual bond that makes being a corps easy. And now I hear many say, perhaps not even the most inveterate opponents of a corps:, - ‘Yes, that's how it should be, but that's not how it is!’ I know that there are lost students who don't feel the burden of being a student, who try to make up for their lack of intellect by snooping, bragging and drinking. But here the fault lies with them, not with the Corps. There are enough young Dutch men among the students, thank God, who can give impetus to their society, who can lead it in a good spirit, who can ground it on sound soil, so that it works for the good.
I had to get this off my chest before I can give a description of the Delft festivities this week. A warning to those who feel nothing for students or corps, to feel free to ignore these letters. After all, these parties are more than a display for the public. The aim is not only to show off sparkling costumes or to give beautiful concerts. An anniversary celebration wants to bring together all those who studied and made friends during their student days, from all parts of the country, so that they can convince themselves that their corps is flourishing, that the spirit that once animated them still lives on. A lustrum will once more make all friends sing lustily at the top of their lungs the young and lovely ‘Iö Vivat’, that it thunders and rattles and gurgles in one great echo from wall to wall in the Society! Such will be this eleventh anniversary of the Delft Student Corps, I am convinced. Its past justifies this conviction. And should it, unexpectedly, not be so, my letters will honestly report it. I consider it necessary to state this explicitly for those who find my introduction too old-fashioned.
And now some history, for the public the great day will be next Tuesday, when will take place the Ascension of Nikephoros II Phocas within Byzantium after his coronation as Emperor in 963. In 395 Theodosius, the last autocrat of the great Roman Empire, died. From this moment on, it was split into two, the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. This last empire increasingly took on the character of the East, the Greek language was elevated to the status of official language. Byzantium flourished. The Catholic Church found zealous followers in most of the powerful empires. The capital was the staple and market of trade between West and East. At the same time, arts and sciences flourished. In 959 Emperor Constantmos Porphyrotgermetos died, having somewhat neglected the reign for his studies. He left the empire to his young wife Theophano and the first minister Bringas. Theophano was a beautiful, gentlewoman who played a major role in the course of history. She married Romanos, who, dying in 963, left two infant sons, Basilios and Contstantinos. In reality, Bringas ruled, who is depicted as a schemer. Theophano tried to find an ally against her too independent first servant Bringas, which she thought she had found in Nikephoros Phocas.
Popular since 960 for his brilliant campaign against Crete, this general was the army's idol. Upon his return, ovations were brought to him, while he was honoured in the Arena. Then he fought the greatly feared barbarians; with a huge army he fell into Cicily, which he conquered entirely, and victoriously took Alep, where the emir had fled and found refuge. On his return to Byzantium, Nikephoros Phocas learned of the death of Emperor Romanos. The latter left the reigns to two infant sons, under the regency of their mother. The latter was looking for a counterpart to the omnipotence of minister Bringas. And immediately she thought of the great general. She called him to Byzantium where he was received with great enthusiasm by the people in the first half of April 863. Bringas always tried to destroy Nikephoros' power, but he did not succeed, also because the patriarch Folyeuctos helped him. After several attempts to overthrow Nikephoros had failed, Bringas took the last resort. He promised two field commanders, Johannes Tzimiscus and Komanos Gourgen, the command of East and West on the condition that they rendered Nikephoros harmless.
Bringas, however, set a snare for himself. The field superiors nevertheless went directly to Nikephoros, informing him of the evil plan. This was most probably not out of loyalty, because three years later Tzimiscus himself killed the emperor. They now thought the time had come for Nikephoros himself to press the imperial diadem on his temples. He gave in, also because he passionately loved Theophano. On 3 July he was proclaimed Basil (emperor) at the head of his troops and carried around in triumph on a huge shield with the red boots on his feet. Bringas, however, did not rest, and with his supporters started the war against the new emperor, He was defeated and on the 16th of August 963, Nikephoros Phocas was officially proclaimed emperor and given titles such as Cesar Augustus, autocrat of all Romans. Shortly afterwards, he married Theophano. This entry of 16 August 963 now will be presented on the 14 July at the masquerade to be held. I had to give this dry history in great detail in order to give the names of some of the main characters. Further details about the parade itself and the costumes will of course come after the procession. To tell anything about it now would be immodest, only this: those who had high expectations cannot be disappointed by the splendour.
This small historical summary is enough to make you realise that the masquerade committee had a lot of work to do before it was able to put together something from this Byzantine era, distinguished by splendour and opulence, and yet so unknown. As far as the historical part was concerned, the commission had a lot of support from Professor Schlumberger in Paris and Dr Hesseling in Leiden. Both testified, after the outline was designed, that the commission had given a faithful historical picture. I appreciate explaining this because it had been published in a section of the daily press that great sins had been committed against the history of the ancient Byzantine Empire, that the costumes had been inexpertly chosen, and more such trifles. However, the tone of these articles suggests, to those only slightly versed in the art of reading between the lines, that the intention was to create a forward mood against this masquerade, for reasons beyond the masquerade, the students and the corps. This is why I thought it desirable to contrast the authority of Byzantium connoisseurs like Mr Schlumberger and Mr Hesseling with that of the vote-catching critic.
Maskerade te Delft
Source: Maskerade te Delft, De Telegraaf, Tuesday 23 June 1903
The Emperor has nothing in common with the swaddled brat shown here
We received the advertising plate for the upcoming Delft Student Corps parties. From an artistic point of view it is entirely to be rejected, from a historical one largely. The drawing of the figure is poor and lacks the character of images from the era in which Nikephoros Phocas lived; the ornaments are tasteless and, apart from the two rosettes with crosses, not typically Byzantine and the combination of colours rough and screeching. Then the aforementioned emperor, whom people must surely have wanted to depict, has a beard and nothing in common with the dressed-up brat shown here, and the head ornament worn by the puppet is not good at all. The Byzantine emperors of this period wore a diadem. The only thing not to dislike about this work of art is the cut of the robe, that of the cloak and the figures on it. They have followed the cloak worn by Nicephorus III Botaneiates on the title page of the (written) selection of the works of Saint John Chrynostemus, which is in the Bibliotheque national in Paris. To our regret, we cannot congratulate the Delft festival committee on this work, the subject of which is so eminently suitable to make a brilliant composition, and which offers ample opportunity for the historical knowledge, taste and skill of an artist to excel in a rare way.