Venice is famous for its carnival, the Carnival of Venice when the city gets full of extravagant masqueraded people who go around with clothes that seem to come out of another era. The symbol par excellence of this season and of Venice, in general, are the masks.
The Venetian masks can be found everywhere in the city, every shop sells them, and you must buy at least one to take it home with you when visiting Venice. They are generally made of papier-mâché, refined tissues, stones, gold leaf and feathers, but the Venetian glass artisans made them of glass. The glass masks are the perfect combination of two world-known symbols of Venice, the Murano glass, and the Carnival masks. But they are not as famous as the plaster ones, that are sold at every corner of Venice, the Murano glass masks are a peculiarity of the city’s craftsmanship and the original ones can be found in Murano glass shops and e-stores, like Yourmurano.com.
The Carnival of Venice has its roots around 1000 when it was used as a way to keep under control the poorest people and their discontent. At its beginning, the carnival started in October and ended the day before Lent, and it allowed the poor to escape their social status and become something completely different, a “maschera”. At the end of 1200, this event became a city festival and at the end of the Middle Ages a new figure for Venetian craftsmanship was born, the “mascarero”, who is the artisan that makes and skillfully creates the masks since then.
There are some specific shapes of Venetian masks that are more famous than others, among them we remember the “bauta”, a rectangular-shaped mask with its lip part deformed to modify also the voice, the “moreta”, an oval, black, and smooth mask that is the symbol of femininity and only women wear it. Other well-known masks of the Carnival of Venice are the “mattaccino”, which represents a clown who in the past was known for his prank, mainly on women, and finally, the plague doctor mask, which is known for its long beak and black cloak.
The glass masks are made by the skilful hands of the Murano artisans who use a mold to create the shape of a face. The master melts together numerous pieces of glass, obtained by cutting sticks of glass and then this piece of glass is placed on a prefabricated mask that is the exact negative of the final result. The heat makes the glass take the desired shape and then the master gives its final touch to make the mask perfect. Their shapes are simple, mainly rectangular, or oval, and they play with colors, as a recollection of the Venetian carnival. This technique is radically different from the techniques used to create other items in Murano glass since the manufacturing of these glass masks is not based on the furnace, but it is equally interesting, and the result is magnificent.
They are eccentric decorative objects that bring the essence of Venice into the house thanks to the combination of two different traditions which are not normally linked to each other, materially speaking, but that share their symbolic role in representing the lagoon city.
The Venetian Glass masks are a particular piece of art that combines the tradition of glass manufacturing with the Carnival of Venice. They add a modern and, at the same time, classical touch to your house since they are a symbol of the city revisited in a modern way through its colors and patterns.