The body of the terpsichorean and the material that covers it blend while they move. The garments are a fundamental variable in the definition of the dance schemata (formae/figurae in the late medieval lexicon). This connection is evident in the textual and figurative representations of the "Ball of the Burning Men'', a Parisian episode dating back to the end of the fourteenth century.  It is documented in, the fifth book of Jean Froissart's Chroniques (1390-1404); Michel Pintoin's Historia Karoli Sexti Francorum Regis (started in 1390-92); the Chronique des Quatre Premiers Valois (last two decades of the 14th century). 

The chronicles mentioned above narrate the wedding of the queen's favourite dame, which took place in Paris on January 29, 1393. Charles VI attends the celebrations with five companions, each of whom is disguised as a wild man, at the time, a very popular character in France. The dancers' costume is a linen garment, onto which hair-like filaments were glued with pitch. When the young people launched into a frenzied dance, the costumes, struck by the sparks of a torch, caught fire, causing the death of four of the six dancers. An assassination attempt is suspected. However, the king, who took refuge under the garments of his aunt Giovanna, the Duchess of Berry, is safe. 

The testimonies relating to the story differ in numerous details, but a common element is that the term mask does not appear in relation to the ball of the burning men. The Chronique des Quatre Premiers Valois uses the verb desguiser (to disguise) and links the costume to the dance figure, specifying that the dancers had their faces ``deffigurés” (disfigured), the same term is used for the charred face of the victims of the fire. The semantic field defined by Pintoin is that of the turpis, connected to the larva and, therefore, to the deformis: the coreutic mask is associated with the transmutatio.

. Miniatures are included in nine copies of the codices in the fourth book of Froissart's Chroniques, while the dancing scene is represented in six codices.  This is a particularly homogeneous corpus of documentary material, consisting of all the manuscripts made in Bruges, in Burgundian or politically related environments, in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. 

Numerous details allow us to define a common pattern in Harley 4380, Français 2646 and the two miniatures of Arsenal 5190: the dancers (usually four) are represented while burning, in a central position, and are very visible to the viewer. The audience is positioned around the scene or on the left side of the image:for example, in Arsenal 5190, bystanders are busy putting out the fire, whereas in Harley 430, they simply observe. Another recurrent element is the presence of the king's companion, Ogier de Nantouillet, who escapes the fire by throwing himself into a tub full of water. The acrobatic contortions of the dancers make their suffering evident, in contrast to the elegance and stillness of the other characters. Another group of similar images is provided by the miniatures of Breslau 1 and the two miniatures dedicated to the story of Arsenal 5190. The other images in the corpus (except Français 2648), instead, show Charles’ escape dressed in the garments of the dame (Harley 4380, Français 2646 and in Royal 18 E, Arsenal 5190). 

The king's representation in the iconography of the codices is not particularly celebratory: he is small, frightened, with his head hidden beneath a skirt or welcomed in a reassuring embrace. Thanks to the reversal of roles between him, king-male-presumed protector, and his female rescuer, the image of the sovereign depicted by the miniatures is more humiliating than the one presented in the text. The savageries of the sovereign-wild man is certainly not represented as bestial ferocity since the king of France is immortalized as a tiny, insignificant, and hairy homunculus. 

The hair mask operates the transfiguratio of the king, substantially modifying his "figure\ scheme\τύπος" and activating a principle of sympathetic metamorphosis, and consequently exposing the sovereign’s latent savagery.

Bibliography

L. Harf-Lancner, La masque de l'homme sauvage : le bal des ardents dans les chroniques médiévales, in R. Brusegan, M. Lecco, A. Zironi ed., Masca, maschera, masque, mask. Testi e iconografia nelle culture medievali, in «L'immagine riflessa. Testi, società, culture» 1992, a. IX, n. 1-2, pp. 377-392

F. Pouvreau, Du poil et de la bête, Iconographie du corps sauvage en Occident à la fin du Moyen Âge (XIIIe-XVIe siècle), Aubervilliers, Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2015

A.A. Montanari, Una questione di peli: maschera e figura nel Ballo degli Ardenti, «Mantichora» 2021