History
Venetian Masks originated from the Carnival of Venice around the 11th Century. By 1436 the wearing of masks and costumes was well established, when maskmakers or mascareri were officially recognized with their own guild. The practice of wearing masks for disguise reached its peak in the 18th Century, when Venetians of different social classes used the Carnival as an excuse to mingle and in some cases, to trade sexual favours without fear of being recognised. (With a mask, a silk hood, a tabarro cape and a tricorn hat, a housewife in search of dangerous liasons was indistinguishable from a nobleman on the prowl.) Masks virtually disappeared--along with the Carnival when Napoleon's troops occupied the Venetian Republic in 1797. However, the masks staged a spectacular comeback since a group of former Academy of Fine Arts students opened Venice's first modern mask shop in 1978.
