mimicofmodes:“Casino (Il ridotto)”, by a follower of Pietro Longhi, ca. 1745; Rijksmuseum SK-A-3405A

mimicofmodes:“Casino (Il ridotto)”, by a follower of Pietro Longhi, ca. 1745; Rijksmuseum SK-A-3405According to James Johnson in Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic, the practice of wearing masks outside Carnival (the month before Lent) and in plays and masquerades began among the male and female Venetian nobility in the late seventeenth century and soon spread to all ranks of society, lasting until the Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797. Foreign visitors to Venice expected the city to be full of masked revelers and assassins, but found a whole lot of ordinary shoppers and bystanders that happened to be wearing a covering on their faces. While carnival masks gave the wearers a freedom to act outside of social norms - women could associate with anyone, since they were unrecognizable, and male crossdressers (gnaghe) could walk around freely - everyday masks had a very different context.As the wealthy returned from their estates outside the city in October and the theatrical and social season began, masks reappeared in the piazzas of Venice, most people wearing the combination of the tabàro, a long black cloak; baùta, a black hood; and larva, a white mask that flared out at the bottom to allow for talking and eating. The larva was usually held on by being tucked under a cocked hat that sat low on the head, but while men always wore such headgear, women did not; when the latter were bareheaded or in another sort of hat or a plain cloak, they tended to wear a black morèta mask, which was instead held to the face with a tab or button they kept between their lips. After Lent, the theaters closed again and masks were less prevalent, but when they opened again in the late spring for Ascension, the masks reappeared (though worn with the baùta pulled down to mitigate the heat and humidity). The church tried to regulate on what days and at what times masks could be worn, but by 1720 they were normalized as a part of everyday dress during the proper season.Some did, of course, use the natural advantage of the larva: hired thugs, prostitutes at the theater, and booksellers with obscene material wore masks on a regular basis to protect their identities while doing illegal things. Others wore masks out of less pressing necessity, but still to remain incognito, like men running private messages and the city’s surveillance agents. However, there was another end of the spectrum, where the mask was worn as an indication of formality and respect. Members of the nobility would dress in larve when attending the introductions of new ambassadors or greeting foreign royalty traveling incognito in their own masks, when a new doge was elected or the doge’s children were married, for particular religious or historical commemorative ceremonies.The habit of masking was believed to have led to rising crime rates early in the eighteenth century, and could lead to all kinds of comedies of errors - but it was entrenched in Venetian custom and normally was seen as completely unremarkable. -- source link
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