The first records of the Carnival in Venice date to the mid- 13th century when celebrants would don masks and costumes and generally free themselves from proscriptions of dress and appearance during the weeks preceding the Catholic Lent and its restrictions on their behavior.

In Venice the festive periods before Lent would be marked by the tradition of masks to the extent that a guild, the Mascherari, even existed to protect and promote the work of mask makers in the city. The masks would have been made of paper, plaster, or leather construction and would serve to both disguise the wearer and assist him/her in inhabiting another persona. The use of costumes and masks invariably led to excessive and libertine behavior among the masqueraders so that limitations on Carnival and the use of costume would be imposed periodically.

By the 14th century several laws had been enacted to curb the use of masks and costume during Carnival and by the 18th century, when Venice became part of the Austrian-ruled Lombardy-Venetia kingdom, the masquerade tradition had fallen somewhat out of favor. In Mussolini’s era of the mid-1900’s Carnival and the wearing of masks fell further in decline and was banned by his government only to be restored towards the end of the century.

image: Pietro Longhi, painting c. 1760s, ‘Il Ridotto’
image: photograph, masks for Venice Carnival

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