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Friday, September 4, 2009

I was looking for my old references of Venetian masks, some of which I put here sometime last year. And it seems they all vanished together with my other stuff when my harddisk ko-ed. So I decided to build a new collection of Venetian mask references. Looks like there's a lot of new pics up on the web. So I'll share some of my faves here.

BTW If you're interested to know the history behind Venetian masks and the Commedia dell'arte characters on which they are based, here's a page to read.

Side note: looks like posting online is one of the ways you can save your digital files,eh? I managed to get back some of my artworks from my dA account when my hd crashed too.

OK, anyway, here we go:

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One of the new things I found out is how Venetians wear their costumes during Carnevale in modern times. Most times their masks are simple but their costumes are flamboyant to the max.

They even do the couple set of costumes thing.

A rather different approach to the jester masks.

One kind of mask that starts to grow on me: the Dama mask.

Another jester mask, but i like the risen collar thing going on there.

Another type of mask that I just found out about; the Moretta mask which has sort of fallen out of fashion. Maybe because it's difficult to wear? It's worn by biting on to a mouthpiece.Kind of freaks me out actually, looks like something Dave McKean would make.

Another jester mask. In olden times, jesters were usually mentally disabled people who couldn't have any other kind of job, so they had to act like a fool to amuse other people. Interesting fact to note is that a jester's hat traditionally has 3 points, to represent a donkey's 2 ears and a tail. Seems that most characters associated with Venetian masks have bizarre and sinister stories behind them, eventhough the masks themselves are beautiful.