Venetian Mask
The main purpose of Venetian masks was to hide the identity of the person behind it during wild and exciting, socially unacceptable activities.
These masks were made for many centuries in city of Venice, in the heart of Italy. These unique masks were formed from special paper-mâché and decorated with anything lush and extravagant including jewels, fur, ribbon and material. These masks have been a long-standing representation of the Carnevale, a pageant and fair held in the town to celebrate a system known as hedonism.
Venetian masks gained popularity during times of both cultural and religious depression in specifically the medieval era. Men and woman wore masks to judgment free from individuals who knew them in this small and crapped city where everyone knew everything. Both royalty and commoners enjoyed the magnificent anonymity provided by these beautiful pieces to cover pure human indiscretions such as gambling and prostitution.
After the 12th century, any shape or form of masquerading was banned by the Catholic Church, specifically on holy days such as Christmas. This ultimately led to a declaration of Venetian mask-free period during Christian fasting and praying celebration months between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday which is the day preceding Ash Wednesday. This period later on became known as the Carnevale commonly referred to as the pre-Lent celebration which means, to remove meat. The Carnevale celebrations’ popularity lost immense momentum and only increased after reintroduction during the late 1970’s.
The re-intro of Carnevale led to an evolution in the art of making Venetian mask making. Paper-mâché was substituted with clay to make base sculpting and formation easier and a lot quicker. There are however still masks manufactured from convention mâché, which is a paste made from a combination of paper and glue. The clay is then just used as a mold for mâché, which is removed once the paste is dry to form the mask basis. This is where the fun starts! Designs are painted on the blank canvas in gold, silver, pink, yellow, and red. Other décor and detail is added include feathers, ribbons, charms, gems, fur and glitter. One thing’s for sure décor options are absolutely endless when it comes to Venetian masks’ design.
Bauta masks cover the entire face, with a prominent outline on specifically the chin with plenty gilding. The mask also only has the shape of lips without an actual mouth slot. Half-masks known as Columbino, have stripes in chromed colors and jeweled eyes. These masks are held up with a stick.
Venetian masks today, more than ever dazzle art-loving men and woman from all over the world, who attend the Carnevale or just Venice.