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They can be pretty-looking or ugly, big or small, scary or funny, sober or bursting with colour. Their purpose can be related to art, religion and rituals, death and darkness or life and light. So many are the reasons why they have been crafted by the human imagination and necessity, so long has been their travel throughout time and cultures that these objects deserve a place in the virtual gallery you visit every time you read Lo's Corner. Drop the un particle from unmask and you will discover today's guest. The topic of masking and masquerade is so broad that only an encyclopedia could properly cover all the types of cultures involved in this religious and cultural tide. Therefore, I had to make a quick and tough choice and pick only a handful of cultures out of the great bag of masks, three of them to be more specific: Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the American tribes.
Ancient Greece is the place where theatre masks originated, amongst which we can find the famous symbol of today’s theatre, the tragedy and comedy masks. It is considered that the practice of wearing this kind of objects during stage performances was derived from the rituals dedicated to the Greek god Dionysos. The fabrics and elements used for crafting and decorating them ranged from wood to animal products such as leather or hair (Greeks used even human hair for that) and they had to express various emotions according to the roles. Actors used masks for some reasons. First, women were not allowed to play onstage and therefore men had to disguise into female characters. Another reason was that by wearing a mask an actor could easily switch from one role to another, as the number of actors allowed onstage was limited. Finally, masks were a means of transmitting the message of the plays to all the people in the crowds, even to the ones located very far from the stage. Even though no genuine Greek masks have survived the fight with time, we have proofs of their existence due to the scenes depicted by the ancient artists on decorative objects, vases or in drawings.
We have seen that Ancient Greece used masks for more enjoyable or art related purposes. Ancient Egypt, on the contrary, is very much known for its death masks, which were applied on the faces of the mummies. The purpose of these objects was not simply a decorative one, but it played and extensively religious role and acted as a preserver of the spirit (Ka) and spiritual features the dead had possessed. For the Egyptians, death was a mere step towards afterlife. After the awakening, masks were useful because with their help the spirit could recognize the body it has previously inhabited during the earthly life. However, these masks did not always respect the real level of beauty on the mummies’ faces, and they were usually more flattering than nature had been to the possessor. Any mummy was provided with a mask usually made of a plaster cast, painted in colourful tones. It is obvious that the degree of artistic touch and the value of the materials employed in crafting a mask were accordingly to the importance of the future wearer, the rich and the noblemen carrying with them in the afterlife precious metals and jewels.
We keep travelling on the trail of masks and we arrive in the land of the Native American tribes. Rituals and ceremonies played an important role in the life of the Amerindian people and the masks they used for this reason depicted either humans or animals. Every clan was considered to have descended from a particular animal which guarded the clan all the way through history. It was also thought that the spirit of a certain animal represented on the mask would enter the body of the wearer and endow him with all its features and qualities. Storytelling rituals, rituals of initiation, healing or death were all instances where masks metamorphosed the wearers so that they can trespass the border to a different self, hidden and revealed only by help of a new face. The sacrificial masks used by the Aztecs or the Mayas were, on the other hand, used for religious purpose and they often represented the face of the gods in the name of which sacrifices were performed. This custom meant to add power and solemnity to the rituals.
We have reached the finish in our today's short travel and I will put an end to it with the regret that it did not allow me to write about each and every wonderful culture around the world involved in the great movement of masking. Perhaps, one day...
Ancient Greece is the place where theatre masks originated, amongst which we can find the famous symbol of today’s theatre, the tragedy and comedy masks. It is considered that the practice of wearing this kind of objects during stage performances was derived from the rituals dedicated to the Greek god Dionysos. The fabrics and elements used for crafting and decorating them ranged from wood to animal products such as leather or hair (Greeks used even human hair for that) and they had to express various emotions according to the roles. Actors used masks for some reasons. First, women were not allowed to play onstage and therefore men had to disguise into female characters. Another reason was that by wearing a mask an actor could easily switch from one role to another, as the number of actors allowed onstage was limited. Finally, masks were a means of transmitting the message of the plays to all the people in the crowds, even to the ones located very far from the stage. Even though no genuine Greek masks have survived the fight with time, we have proofs of their existence due to the scenes depicted by the ancient artists on decorative objects, vases or in drawings.
We have seen that Ancient Greece used masks for more enjoyable or art related purposes. Ancient Egypt, on the contrary, is very much known for its death masks, which were applied on the faces of the mummies. The purpose of these objects was not simply a decorative one, but it played and extensively religious role and acted as a preserver of the spirit (Ka) and spiritual features the dead had possessed. For the Egyptians, death was a mere step towards afterlife. After the awakening, masks were useful because with their help the spirit could recognize the body it has previously inhabited during the earthly life. However, these masks did not always respect the real level of beauty on the mummies’ faces, and they were usually more flattering than nature had been to the possessor. Any mummy was provided with a mask usually made of a plaster cast, painted in colourful tones. It is obvious that the degree of artistic touch and the value of the materials employed in crafting a mask were accordingly to the importance of the future wearer, the rich and the noblemen carrying with them in the afterlife precious metals and jewels.
We keep travelling on the trail of masks and we arrive in the land of the Native American tribes. Rituals and ceremonies played an important role in the life of the Amerindian people and the masks they used for this reason depicted either humans or animals. Every clan was considered to have descended from a particular animal which guarded the clan all the way through history. It was also thought that the spirit of a certain animal represented on the mask would enter the body of the wearer and endow him with all its features and qualities. Storytelling rituals, rituals of initiation, healing or death were all instances where masks metamorphosed the wearers so that they can trespass the border to a different self, hidden and revealed only by help of a new face. The sacrificial masks used by the Aztecs or the Mayas were, on the other hand, used for religious purpose and they often represented the face of the gods in the name of which sacrifices were performed. This custom meant to add power and solemnity to the rituals.
We have reached the finish in our today's short travel and I will put an end to it with the regret that it did not allow me to write about each and every wonderful culture around the world involved in the great movement of masking. Perhaps, one day...
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