Maskerade van de Leidse studenten, 1850 (plaat 6) 1850

Carel Christiaan Antony Last created this lithograph titled "Masquerade of the Leiden Students, Plate 6" around 1850. The dominant image here is the procession, a parade of figures embodying collective identity and ritual. We see students in costume, evoking historical or symbolic roles, reminiscent of ancient Roman triumphs or Renaissance festival pageantry. The act of dressing up, of assuming a different persona, has long served as a method for the release of inhibitions. The recurring procession motif, from antiquity to modern times, reveals our deep-seated need for communal expression. Think of the Dionysian processions of ancient Greece, where ecstatic revelry blurred the lines between self and community, or even the modern-day carnival. These moments allow a temporary inversion of social norms and offer a glimpse into the collective psyche. Through the act of masquerade, deep-seated desires and anxieties find expression, revealing the cyclical nature of human experience, and the enduring power of symbols to communicate across generations.