Life is a theater! This is especially true during Carnivale in Venice, when “a Carnevale ogni scherzo vale” (anything goes at Carnevale). During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Italian cities had a long tradition of mask-wearing among the nobility. This allowed them to engage in, shall I say, questionable behavior, such as gambling and drinking as well as activities of a romantic nature. Some of these activities were so outrageous that laws were passed to restrict the wearing of masks to the Carnevale season. Carnevale is a time when seemingly anything is possible, including the illusion where the most humble of classes can now become the most powerful … simply by the wearing of a mask. A hidden identity was a great equalizer in a social setting. Many of the masks we see today are replicas of the typical more famous one’s that actually lived through centuries of fantasies. I can just imagine walking through the foggy narrow Venetian streets of the 15th century wearing one myself … one with feathers.
