The Many Personas of *I*

I've always loved masks, but I've never really done any research on them or looked into their history. Today I decided to do some. Here's what I found.

There are different types of masks, apparently. I did not know this, but here are all the types of masquerade masks (which are really Venetian masks, because is there really any other kind of masquerade mask?). As far as I can tell from what I read, they're all made out of papier mache and then painted and decorated to look exotic and exciting:

Bauta: a whole face mask which was originally used for concealment. It has a sharp chin line, no mouth, and is typically very gilded. It's also usually white. Picture here.

Moretta: a black, usually velvet, oval-shaped face mask that used to come with a veil (I don't know if it still does). It was held onto the face by a button held in the teeth so that the wearer did not have to talk, but these days it come with a ribbon for tying it on. It was worn by women, and later by men, to hide their identity. Picture here.

Mattacino: a clown type mask which was worn by Italian jesters. Picture here.

Medico Della Peste (The Plague Doctor): masks with long noses that look like beaks. They were developed during the plague for doctors. The nose held a filter of herbs and salts, and there were crystal discs over the eyes. Now the herbs and discs are gone, and the masks are more decorative, sometimes resembling birds or beaked creatures. Picture here.

Columbina: a half mask that is held up by a baton or ribbon. Supposedly it was inspired by an actress who did not want to cover her entire face for a play. I think these are the most common and decorative types of masks. Picture here.

Volto (Larva): similar to the Bauta, this mask is a full-face mask which is typically white. Unlike the Bauta, however, this mask has a rounded chin line and a mouth so that the wearer could talk and eat while still concealing who they were. Larva means ghost. Picture here.

So there you have it: the various types of Venetian masquerade masks and their names. The reason this came up was because I was planning to post pictures of a mask I made and I didn't what to call it. I wasn't even sure it could be called a Venetian mask. Now I can call it a harlequin columbina mask (harlequin just means that it has a pattern of different colored diamonds). It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the white diamonds have piano music on them.

And here's a link to the history of Venetian masks, if you care to read it. 

Note: I do not own any of the pictures, except for the pictures of my mask (the green and white harlequin mask with the feathers).