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Happy Carnival a tutti!

 

Today's Carnival celebrations in Venice, Italy, are a new 'tradition' begun in 1979, run by a Carnival Committee, based around a yearly theme, and last about 10 days in February.  This year it runs from February 6 to February 16.

 

Mask and Costume, Venice, Italy
Mask and Costume, Venice, Italy Photographic Print
AllPosters.com

 

 

The old tradition of Carnival in Venice is very old.  The earliest mention of the celebration found in writing was in the year 1094.  It stopped in 1797 when Venice lost it's independence and became a dependent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Private parties continued, but Venetians stopped any public celebrations in protest at their status.

 

 

Mask and Costume, Venice, Italy
Mask and Costume, Venice, Italy Photographic Print
AllPosters.com

 

 

Old Carnival was celebrated in the days leading up to Lent, the Catholic season of fasting, prayer and donations to the poor.  The customs used for the celebrations were adopted from various pagan festivals. 

 

When Carnival was revived in Venice, a more artistic character was conceived, while drawing selectively on the past traditions.  The current festivals include lots of theatrical presentations, concerts, parades, shows and colorful costumes.  It's as much for tourists as it is for locals, just as it always was in the past, too

 

 

 

Traditional Costumes

 

There's a traditional greeting when passing a person in costume.

Buongiorno Siora Maschera

 

 

Bauta - Bautta

This mask and disguise is a standard one used to hide sex and identity.  The big chinned mask hides the whole face but allows for conversation but with the voice masked too.  The cape covers the whole body, and the hat covers the head and hairstyle. 

 

Plague Doctor - Medico

Taken from Venice's plague afflicted past, this costume mimics the doctors who roamed Venice determining which patients were doomed and destined for the plagued body dumping ground on a nearby island. 

The big nose was filled with herbs thought to protect the doctor from contracting the disease.  As the disease was passed by the bite of fleas, the mask in reality served only to protect the doctor from the unpleasant odors of the city and the dead and dying. 

At the peak of the plague, which hit Venice, a sea-faring nation, first in Europe, 2/3 of the inhabitants of Venice died, decimating the city-state and dooming it to lose it's prominent place in the world of trade and finance.

The Doctor, or Dottore, is also a Commedia dell'Arte character.  He is a Bolognese University trained doctor who is learned and respected by others, but who in reality is foolish, ill-educated as seen by his mangling of the language, and prone to pointless, learned debates while his patients die.  He is known by many names, including Graziano and Balanzone, but the character is always the same.

 

For more Venice characters, visit my Carnival page.

 

Commedia dell'Arte Inspired Characters

This uniquely Italian theatre was known throughout Europe for hundreds of years as Commedia Italiana.  Stock characters peopled traveling theatrical troupes, which performed a repertoire  of comic and melodramatic plays for courts, private merchant families and for the public.  Sometimes the characters took on different names but the characteristics and costumes remained the same so they were easily recognizable to the audiences.

First Zanni - First Servant - Brighella

Traditionally in a theatrical troupes, and in most plays they performed, there was a First Servant (Primo Zanni) who was scheming, more clever than his master, semi-serious, poor, illiterate, from Bergamo, and a busy-body.  He went by many names, but most commonly by Brighella, Mazzetino, Giangurgolo, Gioppino, Tabarino, Pedrolino, Fritellino or Pierrot which is a later, more romantic version of the same character.

Here's an image of Mazzetino.

 

This is an image of Fritellino.

 

This is Tabbarino.

 

Second Zanni - Second Servant - Arlecchino

 There was also a Second Servant (Secondo Zanni) who was stupid, foolish, poor, easily distracted, easily provoked into a fight, from Bergamo, sometimes carrying a stick, and always hungry.  This character is generally called Arlecchino (Pulcinella is the Neapolitan version from which comes the English puppet character Punch), but is also known as Francatrippa, Polichinelle, Truffadino, Girandolaio, BeppeNappa (Sicilian version), Trivellino, Stentarello (Florentine version) or Burattino

This is an image of the Neapolitan Pulcinella.

 

Here's an image of the Sicilian BeppeNappa.

 

For more Commedia dell'arte characters, visit either my Carnival page or my Commedia dell'arte page.

 

Costumes for Carnival

Carnival is coming!   I've added more costumes to the Commedia dell'Arte page (many traditional Carnival costumes come from the Commedia dell'Arte stock characters) and the Renaissance and Roman Costumes page.

 

 

 

 

 

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 Candida Martinelli

Established July 2003

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