Costume design for Ballet de Psyché, known as Le Ballet de la Reine… (The Queen’s Dance)

Prominent 17th-century painter and engraver Daniel Rabel was King Louis XIII’s preferred designer for ballets de cours (court dances), as well as a prolific illustrator of botany who published the celebrated Theatrum Florae in 1622. The trend of ballet de cour began in the 1500s and reached its apotheosis with the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715). Le Ballet de la Reine, Tiré de la Fable de Psyché was written by Antoine Boësset and Scipion de Gramont and originally performed in the Louvre. As one of the most popular works of its time, it spawned several reinterpretations, most famously the 1671 production by playwright Molière and composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. In this design, Rabel incorporates references to commedia dell’arte, or masked theatrics, an entertainment popular in Europe at that time.