We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. Travel Guides. Videos Beyond Hollywood Hungerlust Pioneers of love. A Guide to the Masks of Venice. Ione Wang. Carnival Masks. Two Bauta masks WikiCommons. Medico della Peste WikiCommons. Those who wear the 'plague doctor' mask often wear the associated clothing of the beak doctor costume.
The popularity of the Medico della Peste among carnivale celebrants can be seen as a memento mori. Popular in Venice as it brought out the beauty of feminine features such as the female head, body and mind. The mask was held in place by the wearer biting on a button or bit and was finished off with a veil. Servetta Muta translates as 'mute maid servant'.
This mask has not been widely worn since The larva, also called the volto mask, is mainly white, and typically Venetian. It is worn with a tricorn and cloak.
It is thought the word "larva" comes from the Latin meaning "mask" or "ghost". Like the bauta, the shape of the mask allowed the wearer to breathe, drink, and speak easily without having to remove the mask. These masks were made of fine wax cloth and so were light and comfortable to wear, making them ideal for a night of socializing and dancing.
Arlecchino French: Arlequin, English: Harlequin typically depicted in multicoloured costume comprised of diamond shaped patterns. Brighella French: Brighelle , a cunning and mischievous servant.
According to tradition, the beak was intended to protect the wearer from being infected by the plague. We quite often get asked the question "How did they make Venetian masks"? So we thought we would help by answering it here Well, Masquerade masks have been made in Venice, Italy for over years and there are many mediums that are currently being used to create the masks.
Traditionally paper mache is used because it is light, comfortable and does not become humid on the person who wears it. Whilst some of our range is still paper mache the work intensive methodology used means paper mache can be expensive but we feel it is still worth it. These days many artisans are using alternatives to paper mache which are far less expensive like paper mache paste with plaster Tempur.
The masks in our "designer mask" section are made from handlaid paper strips and of course are beautiful and quite rare. Updated Monday 1st November Powered by Create Ecommerce. More laws, decrees, and edicts followed over the centuries. No going out masked at night. No men dressing as women because men including clergy were disguising themselves and sneaking into the convents to debauch the holy sisters. Prostitutes there were some 11, of them were forbidden to wear masks.
A loophole was later conceded, allowing masked gambling between and in the morning. In essence, the government passed laws to control an event whose only reason for being was that there are no laws. A mask is not strictly required in order to enter the realm of Carnival. There are many varieties of Zanni — Harlequin, Brighella, Pulcinella, and Zanni himself, the name being a Venetian nickname for Giovanni. Anyone is fair game, but matrons in fur coats are a prize target because they get so angry, which is so funny.
One morning I wedged myself next to a woman who was dressed as some sort of monstrous butterfly with enormous, multi-colored wings that opened on either side of her. Should she have bought an extra ticket — or actually two, one per wing? None of this surprises Venetians anymore. Some just stay home, like people do when blizzards strike.
Or they leave the city entirely, which many Venetians have found to be the perfect solution to everything. Carnival is a spirit, not a garment. You prefer feathers, velvet, and beads? Men also staged battles, sometimes in the form of dances or pretend naval skirmishes, and for those who had gone eleven months without a good rampage there was also real combat on bridges, where teams pounded each other with fists and clubs, breaking bones, smashing skulls, falling in the water, sometimes even dying.
Floating theatres were set up along the main canals, and festive dinners were given for kings and ambassadors on the bridges. People have painted their faces since they knew the difference between red and blue — for camouflage, to mimic an animal, or for religious ceremonies. In the Carnival of the old days, during the last week of festivities the streets and squares of the entire city were full of people in every sort of costume, milling around amid puppets, jugglers, acrobats, tumblers, fortune tellers, musicians, and all manner of animals, from dogs and monkeys to horses and bears — one time even a rhinoceros — while roaming vendors sold fruit, spices, and exotic food.
No wonder tourists came. But suddenly Carnival was no more. On February 28, , Venetians celebrated what turned out to be their last Mardi Gras. Two months later Napoleon conquered the city, and Carnival was banned. Then, on February 27, — years to the day after Carnival was banned — music was heard in the Piazza San Marco.
Many Venetians remember the moment well. Radio Vanessa, the local station, had joined forces with the Scuola Grande di San Marco to revive the grand old party. Word spread, people came, people danced. The only things missing were masks, but not for long. A few artisans, not thinking about whether Carnival would ever return, had already begun making masks in a small way.
Well-made or not, the masks began to sell, and the game was on. Before long, flamboyant hybrids like this one — part Pierrot, part Lillian Russell, part Las Vegas — imposed themselves on the popular image of the Venetian Carnival. Masks were and in some cultures still are devised as instruments of magic, made of matter that contained spiritual power, not always benign.
But masks are not all dark and scary. The Inuit, and the Igbo of Nigeria, make comic or satiric masks specifically for merrymaking on a grand scale.
Venetian masks, though, are hardly connected with hunting or healing; their mission in life is mirth and frivolity, with the occasional touch of seduction and glamour. Beginning in 25 years before Carnival was declared a holiday , documents mention a school that taught mask-making, and the techniques, tools, and materials used in making them.
For several centuries mask-makers were considered a sub-category of the decorative crafts, on the same level with, for example, stucco artists. By there were 12 shops making masks in Venice.
Thus a positive object the sculpture is used to create a negative object the plaster mold that is used to make a positive object the mask. Many artisans are talented mask decorators, but only a few are also gifted in making the mold. Born in Modena, he came to Venice for a week as many do and he stayed as many do. But when he came to Venice and started making masks, he finally found a way to use his talents in a way that could also earn him a living.
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