Costume design by P Croce for a Mushroom in the ballet in Amor, late 19th century

Costume in the form of a mushroom facing left, with pale brown stem with facial features painted at top and feet and lower legs protruding from lower edge; the top of the mushroom is in shades of red brown. From the feet stretches a 'shadow' in brown green watercolour. Pen and ink and watercolour over pencil. Signed and annotated.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

This costume was designed for the ballet Amor, and may relate to the ballet with choreography by Luigi Manzotti premiered at La Scala, Milan, in 1886. The design came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest and was probably acquired by him as illustrations for his various publications on design for the ballet. Four of the designs (S.234-2000; S.232-2000; S.235-2000; S.354) from the group of ten in the collection were reproduced in Beaumont's Five Centuries of Ballet Design, published by The Studio Ltd, London, nd.

Historical significance: An example of a costume in the shape of a vegetable from one of the large spectacular realistic productions which characterised Italian ballet in the late 19th century.

S.228-2000