Ivan Minio

Venezia, Venice

costume, negozio, store, shop, paper, paint, artist, artista, artisanal, artigiano, artigianale, artisan, maschera, mask, cartapesta, papermache, commedia dell'arte, art comedy, Venezia, Venice, gift, carnevale, carnival, regalo, souvenir, prodotti artigianali, present

Using the traditional technicals of ancient Venetian 'maschereri', Ivan Minio, in his atelier in Cannaregio (Venice), produces masks in papier-maché finished off with plasters, gold and silver leaf and sometimes embellished with Venetian papers and damask cloths. The atelier is in Cannaregio, Campiello dei fiori, one of the characteristic sestiere (district) of Venice.

All the mask of Ivan Minio's store are made with paper and glue, i.e. papier-maché. To make a papier-maché mask we need a mould (negative) obtained from a clay prototype of the mask. Inside the mould we insert the paper soaked with a lot of glue that will give the shape of the mask. When the paper will be dry, we take off the mask from the mould, we cut the paper in excess and finish off the mask with sand paper. Now the mask is ready to be decorate.
The same mask can appear different depending from the decoration: with pailettes and achrilic colors; with water colors, plaster,gold and silver leaf; with the drawing of a musical instrument; with paper and bells like a 'joker'.

Ca' d'Oro, an evocative esemple of gothic architecture in Venice.

Fondamente Nuove, the main way to lagoon islands: Murano, Burano, Torcello, S.Michele (cemetery) and S. Erasmo.

Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, the oldest part of the Ghetto, where in 1516 all jews in Venice where confined.

The most traditional masks

The Bauta
The 'noble' or 'national' mask of the Serene Republic, the Bauta is Venetian costume par excellence. The Bauta was an ample,all-enveloping black silk lace, hung from a black tricorn hat and falling down over the shoulders to cover half the person. There was also a face-shaped mask, either in black or in shining white.The Bauta was a dress for all seasons, the elegant protagonist of every Venetian adventure.

The Plague Doctor
The medico della peste (plague doctor) was one which, although used in Carnival time, was unfortunately frequently seen during the periodic raging of the plague which for centuries was one of the Republic's worst enemies.The doctor's dress was characterized by a series of tight measures to avoid his being infected while visiting his patients: a linen tunic or waxed cloth, a wide-brimmed hat which covered ears and hair, a stick which he used to observe from a comfortable distance the shores of the sick, the glasses and an hooked "beak" stuffed with disinfectant sustances.

The Commedia dell'Arte
Over the years between the 16th and 18th century, the commedia dell'arte was socalled because the actors did not belong to confraternities which were usually commissioned to set up and produce the entertainments, but were professional actors. They did not use set scripts but 'canovacci' that is to say brief plots (always very similar to each other). Then, using the latter as a base, the actors improvised the scene, stage tricks and jokes as they went along, each one being specialized in his own particular role. When this form of entertainment all'italiana spread to the rest of Europe, especially to France, our companies of players took with them the typical masks of our tradition.

Arlecchino (Harlequin)
This is the most popular chararcter in the whole Commedia dell'Arte. He is a foolish servant, always playing comic and clownish roles. He is stupid gullible and constantly on the lookout for food. Harlequin's movements are always animated by an uncontrollable vitality: he is always jumping, running, tying himself into knots. His costume is made up of a jacket with irregular, multicoloured patches, a white felt cap decorated with a piece of rabbit's or fox's tail and a belt from which a wooden polenta spoon, or batocio hangs. His black half-mask has demoniac eyebrows and a snub nose. He has also a large bump on his forehead.

Pantalone
This is the typical Venetian mask because of its characteristic speech, filled with the lagoon city's most beautiful dialect expressions, and above all because it represents the figure of the Venetian merchant with his positive traits (cautious management of money,commercial and contractual ability) but also with his negative ones (thrift becoming greed and miserliness and thus changing a person into a misanthropist. His costume is made up of a wool cap in the Greek style, a red jacket, tights or short sailor's trousers with a belt from which hung either a sword, a scarf or a pouch. He wore a black cape, often lined in red, and on his feet, black pumps often in the Turkish style with upward curling toes. His mask has an accentuatedly hooked nose and beetling eyebrows.

Colombina
Colombina is the mischievous and charming serving wench of the Commedia dell'Arte, a comic character who is not always a mirror of virtue. She springs from the same kind of popular world as her faithful companion in adventure and, on occasion her disconsolate lover, Harlequin. On stage she is recognisable for her nimbleness, flirting and her tipycally feminine sharp-wittedness. Her costume is simple. Sometimes it has multicoloured patches like apron and cap and on other occasions it is exactly that of an eighteenth century maid.