It opened after High Ma s
and Benediction, and the Mother of God ascended singing to Paradise,
where she was crowned by her Son, and led into the presence of the
Eternal Father.
Among these representations in the public street, that given by the
Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Roderigo Borgia, afterwards Pope Alexander VI,
was remarkable for its splendor and obscure symbolism. It offers an
early instance of the fondness for salvos of artillery which was
characteristic of the house of Borgia.
The account is briefer which Pius II gives us of the procession held
the same year in Rome on the arrival of the skull of St. Andrew from
Greece. There, too, Roderigo Borgia distinguished himself by his
magnificence; but this festival has a more secular character than the
other, as, besides the customary choirs of angels, other masks were
exhibited, as well as 'strong men,' who seem to have performed various
feats of muscular prowess.
Such representations as were wholly or chiefly secular in their
character were arranged, especially at the more important princely
courts, mainly with a view to splendid and striking scenic effects. The
subjects were mythological or allegorical, and the interpretation
commonly lay on the surface. Extravagances, indeed, were not wanting--
gigantic animals from which a crowd of masked figures suddenly emerged,
as at Siena in the year 1465, when at a public reception a ballet of
twelve persons came out of a golden wolf; living table ornaments, not
always, however, showing the tasteless exaggeration of the Burgundian
Court and the like.
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