The Venetian Mask

Do you know the Venetian masks? The mask culture of Venice is unique in European Civilization. The Venetian used the masks into daily lift. They are a centuries-old tradition of Venice, Italy. Before the 18th century, the Venetian can’t live without masks, when they go out, they will wear masks and cloaks.

The masks are typically worn during the Carnival. But have been used on many other occasions in the past, usually as a device for hiding the wearer's identity and social status. The mask would permit the wearer to act more freely in cases where he or she wanted to interact with other members of the society outside the bounds of identity and everyday convention. It was thus useful for a variety of purposes, some of them illicit or criminal, others just personal, such as romantic encounters.

There are many kinds of masks. Bauta is a mask which covers the whole face, this was a traditional piece of art, with a stubborn chin line, no mouth, and lots of gilding. The mask has a square jaw line often pointed and tilted upwards to enable the wearer to talk, eat and drink easily without having to remove the mask thereby preserving their anonymity. The Bauta was often accompanied by a red cape and a tricorn. In 18th century, the Bauta had become a standardized society mask and disguise regulated by the Venetian government. It was obligatory to wear it at certain political decision-making events when all citizens were required to act anonymously as peers. Only citizens had the right to use the Bauta. Its role was similar to the anonymizing processes invented to guarantee general, direct, free, equal and secret ballots in modern democracies. It was not allowed to wear weapons along with the mask, and police had the right to enforce.

The Columbina (also known as Columbine and Columbino) is a half mask often highly decorated with gold, silver, crystals and feathers. It is held up to the face by a baton or tied with ribbon as with most other Venetian masks. The columbine was popularised by an early actress in the Commedia dell'arte of the same name. It is said it was designed for her because she did not wish to have her beautiful face covered completely.

The Medico Della Peste with its long beak is one of the most bizarre and recognisable of the Venetian masks. The striking design has a macabre history originating from 17th century French physician Charles de Lorme who adopted the mask together with other sanitary precautions while treating plague victims the mask is white consisting of a hollow beak and round eye holes covered with crystal discs creating a bespectacled effect.

Still have many other types of Venetian masks, masks have always been an important feature of the Venetian carnival, as a culture, the mask culture is very popular, if you want to make order of festival items you can log in http://www.sellersuniononline.com/ to choose masks, and you can also find festival patch, card, party hat and so on. In this platform you can select and make orders, we can make sure that you will find what you want.