Costumes+and+Masks

= = =In Commedia De'll Arte there are many traditions in costuming.=

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**__Costumes__**



 * In Commedia, the audience can tell right away which character is which just by a glance. The costumes and masks symbolize their character. For example, everyone would know it is Pantalone acting on stage because he has dark clothing on and a dark, long nosed,half mask (sometimes including hair) and Arrlecchino is easily recognized because he wears a patchwork shirt and pants and a black half mask.


 * Commedia uses bright colors and crazy patterns to help show the emotion of a character when the face cannot.


 * The costumes of the characters consider how much money they have. Arlecchino, being a servant, is poor compared to the others. It is implied that his costume was made out of many different pieces of clothing.




 * People wore a combination of tight and loose clothing to emphasize and to differentiate the characters and their body types.

=__**Masks**__=



__ **(Pantelone, Capitano, Il Dottore)** __ || have masks || __ **(Innamorati)** __ || These characters are not masked. ||
 * __ **Lead Men** __
 * __ **Lovers** __
 * __ **Supporting characters** __ || are masked AND not masked. ||



(crazy colors, white face, pink cheeks, etc.)
 * If a person is **not** wearing a mask they wear an excessive amount of makeup.

__ **What are masks made out?** __
 * 1) The old men character's masks are traditionally made out of bark. Some masks like Pantelone, have hair on them (on the eyebrows) to suggest drama and age.
 * 2) The masks are traditionally made out of leather lined with cloth but nowadays some people make it out of a hard latex material.

__**Other Facts**__
 * It is known that actors have a hard time "playing to the mask". The mask must become part of you, almost like another face.
 * These masks the characters wear do not show emotion.
 * The masks act as microphones in Commedia. It amplifies the voice.

=
Meagher, Jennifer. “Commedia dell’arte.” In //Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History //. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/comm/hd_comm.htm (July 2007) =====

TheatreHistory,com, __ A Short History of the Drama __ . Martha Fletcher Bellinger. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 153-7.
http://www.theatrehistory.com/italian/commedia_dell_arte_001.html

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Duchartre, Pierre Louis. //The Italian comedy: the improvisation, scenarios, lives, attributes, portraits and masks of the illustrious characters of the commedia dellarte //. 1966. =====