Masked Fun at the Venice Carnival
Enjoy the Extravagant Pageantry of the Famous Carnival of Venice
Dec 1, 2008
For ten days prior to Shrove Tuesday (13-24 February 2009) the streets and canals of Venice will be filled with color and energetic merrymaking characterised by swarms of highly-decorative and imaginative carnival masks. However, preparation is vital to make the best of the sizzling carnival atmosphere.
What to Expect at the Venice Carnival
The Venice Carnival is one of the most exotic and colorful carnivals in Europe. Foreigners flock to Venice to partake in the carnival. Dazzling amounts of money are spent on costumes and masks, and preparations start months before the carnival. One carnival-goer may have as many as three costumes, while others may come in pairs or groups with matching costumes.
The carnival goes on day and night, transforming Venice into a stage-set for pageants, parades, plays and private parties in palazzo (palaces). Revellers fill Venice’s squares and take to the waterways during the carnival, gliding in gondolas and creating a riot of color along Venice’s dark canals. The Venice Carnival culminates on Shrove Tuesday with a masked ball, and often a procession of boats gliding down the candlelit Grand Canal.
To reap the benefits of the hordes that descend on the carnival, most of the hotels in Venice now stay open for the winter and put up their prices for the carnival. Visit http://www.hoteltravel.com/italy/venice/guides/festivals.htm to book your hotel for the Venice carnival. Book well in advance.
Venetian Carnival Masks
No experience of the Venice Carnival is complete without a carnival mask. Since the carnival was reinstated in the late 1970s, mask shops have proliferated throughout the streets and squares of Venice.
The choice of carnival masks sold in Venice ranges from cheap factory imitations from Taiwan to beautifully crafted creations as worn in the carnival’s heyday. The majority are made of papier-mâché (often ‘cracked’ for an antique effect), though there are also masks made from leather and porcelain.
The word mask, or ‘maschera’, comes from the Lombard ‘maska’, meaning a dead person or the soul of the dead. While most of the masks seen at the Venice Carnival represent characters from plays, others are linked with the underworld, often symbolising rites which cleansed all evil and ensured the fertility of the soul. At the other end of the scale are carnival masks of beaming sunshines, long-nosed Pinocchios, jugglers, cats, and figures of Hansel and Gretel.
The following are some of the most intriguing carnival mask shops in Venice, either for browsing, buying or watching the mask-maker at his trade.
Laboratorio Artigiano Maschere. Giorgio Clanetti, who comes from a family of puppet-makers, was the first to revive traditional mask-making techniques. He produces beautifully-created carnival masks and other papier-mâché items in his workshop at Barbaria delle Tole, Castello, Venice 6657.
Schola San Zaccharia Missiaja stock modern papier-mâché interpretations of Commedia dell Arte figures by artist Gianfranco Missiaja, with tissue and gold leaf. Visit their store at Campo San Zaccaria, Castello, Venice 4683b.
Tragicomica creates some of the most eye-catching masks at the Venice carnival, both tragic and comic. Watch them being made at Calle dei Nomboli, San Polo, Venice 2800.
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