Research Investigation: commedia dell’arte masks Essay

According to italian theatre historians, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Roberto Tessari, Ferdinando Taviani, and Luciano Pinto, Commedia dellarte, which liter bothy translated as improvised drollery, developed as a receipt to the political and economic crisis of the 16th century in Italy and, as a consequence, became the first entirely professional form of theatre 1.It is believed that the use of masquerade costume in commedia dellatre originated in 1570 with Andrea Calmo, the factor and author who was inspired by the venetian pleasure grounds of the time. She getd Pantaloon who is the iodine of the most famous calibres of commedia dellarte today. She went on to create the spanish captain Il Capitano. Although her lawsuits were initially un masquerade partyed, Andrea wished that the spirit of the Italian carnival ( which celebrates the epiphany 2 ) would be represented in her plays and indeed she introduced the masks and thus created the commedia dellarte that we agnize today. 3The carnival of venice. 1Records of commedia dellarte performances date back as early as 1551, where they were acted by professionals divulgeside on temporary stages with costumes and masks. But as it was so popular with the nobles, many performances were also done indoors at hook for the amusement of nobles. 4After it became famous with the nobles the troupes began to move to france where many play writes such as Moliere were inspired to move their written works towards comedy.5Commedia dellarte started to pay back popular outside Italy in the beginning of the seventeenth century. As the tipo fisso (fixed stereotypes) briefly became satiric references to the Italian parliament and to the typical Italian person it became one of the most popular comic theatre genres in the 17th and eighteenth century. 6There are several(prenominal) reasons for the use of masks in commedia dellatre. Primarily, as this type of theatre has fixed characters but is essentially improvised, the masks are utilise so that the audience was able to identify the characters. As commedia dellarte was performed by distinguishable travelling companies, this meant that they would have different costumes, yet the masks would retain all the information needed to recognise a specific character. 7 besides as these performances were mainly on the streets or by the road, there would not in reality be a stage nor seating for the audience this made it sticky for everyone to see everything from the same angle or height. With the masks, all the audience could break the emotions or actions that were cosmos portrayed.8Commedia dellarte masks were traditionally made of leather and entirely c everywhereed half of the actors face. They were like this so that the actor was able to project his voice and made indisputable noises that he could not do with a full mask. The masks were made to fit the face of a given actor because he or she would generally act out the same character for his/her e ntire career. Commedia dellarte masks tend to have large, unsubtle feature which are distinct to each character. For lawsuit on the character Zanni, the nose is very large. It is said that the larger the nose is, the stupider the Zanni represented tends to be.Zanni 2 Zanni 3As I have said before, commedia dellarte characters were based on tipo fisso (a certain stereotype). Some of them have changed there name or personality over time for example Zanni, who is characterised as short of wit and al way of supports without money. Zanni has several masks that represent him which have changed over time with the fashion.Which all mean different things for example the Brighella mask which represents that poor and starving and hopeless side of Zanni and the Pucinella mask which represents the side which is also poor but although he is stupid he is able to outwit many. Many of the characters had a stereotypical opposite for example the stereotypical opposite of Zanni is represented with the well known character Pantalone (Pantaloon) who is typically arrogant and rich and who is always dealing with people who are assay to take his money away from him.Pantalone 4Although most of the commedia dellarte characters wore masks, there were a few(prenominal) that were never masked. For example Isabella. Who was most famously acted by the famous actress Isabella Andreini. Also the lovers who were mostly the daughters and sons of the old and rich such as Pantalone or The master copy did not wear masks. This is because they were just there to bring the satiric comedy of romance and love to the performance. They were there to make the performance more light. And therefore did not have a specific characteristic apart from being completely in love with their character. 10Commedia dellarte masks were useful in the finger that although the the costumes and stage changed in fashion over time, The masks stayed basically the same. In this way the audience could appreciate and recogni se the character and still enjoy new(a) ways of the typical story being presented.In many schools such as Jaques Lecoqs international school of theatre in paris, commedia dellarte masks are used as a learning instrument for aspiring actors. Jaques Lecoq, was born in 1921 started off as a sports teacher and thus moved on to acting with his partner, Gabreielle Cousin. He moved to Italy for eight days in 1948 where he feeled Commedia dellarte. Together with the sculptor, Amleto Sartori, they developed the unbiassed mask. When Lecoq moved back to Paris he devoted the remainder of his life to teaching at his school.Jaques Lecoq 5His school offers several courses that work on sympathy and working with the body through the use of masks. His philosophy was that in rules of order to become a good actor, you needed to use the Neutral masks to discover your body, movement, balance and space. He also believed that the typical half masks of commedia dellarte, compete an important role in improvisation and to work on character types therefore he integrated both into his courses 11.Words 1000 (not including bibliography, notes chthonic images nor titles )Bibliography1 http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dellarte2 http//www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/mardi_gras.htm3 http//italian.about.com/library/hebdomadary/aa110800a.htm4 -http//www.tutu-inc.com/thesis/THESIS.htm5 -http//www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk/talkarchive.htm6 -http//www.tutu-inc.com/thesis/THESIS.htm7 http//www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/schoolresources/androclesandthelion/commediaMask8 http//wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_masks_used_for9 http//italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa110800a.htm10 -http//www.delpiano.com/carnival/html11 http//www.ecole-jacqueslecoq.comBibliography of Images1 http//travel.smart-guide.net/venice-carnival2 http//tombanwell.blogspot.com/2010/09/zanni-leather-mask.html3 http//www.theater-masks.com/commedia-masks/commedia-mask-zanni-14 http//www.clg-mignet.ac-aix-m arseille.fr/mignet/spip.php?article4405 http//www.maghress.com/fr/marochebdo/31832