Masks

"The actor who plays in a mask receives the reality of his character from a cardboard object... He is commanded by it and must obey it willy-nilly... even the tone of his voice will be dictated by his mask." Jacques Copeau, 'Réflexion d'un comédien sur le Paradoxe de Diderot', reprinted in Registres I, Paris, Gallimard NRF, 1974, pp 205-13.

In the commedia dell'arte, the mask is the character. It expresses the essence of that character by capturing and exaggerating telling facial features, the same way that caricatures and political cartoons do today.

To spectators of the Renaissance, these stock characters were part of a rich comic tradition, known and immediately recognizable to all. Harlequin's mask, for example, sports a short flat nose, indicating to the audience the sharpness of his wit. Pantalone's mask, meanwhile, has a long hooked nose, indicating someone dull, greedy and stupid. Only the commedia's "lovers" tended to remain unmasked. Link to Characters

Traditional commedia masks were made of thin leather lined with linen. The leather was moistened with water and shaped over a mold, resulting in a mask whose distinctive features could be slightly altered by the facial contortions of the wearer. Most commedia characters were masked, initially with full-face masks and later in the 16th century with half masks covering only the upper half of the face.

Costumes and gestures further defined character. Harlequin's tight-fitting multi-colored diamond patchwork is instantly familiar even today. So is Pierrot's wide, loose-fitting garment - the uniform of the modern circus clown.