14 Masks Of Puppet Theatre

1) Harlequin:
The docker, porter, pimp, and good servant, simple in manner and mind, someone who causes trouble and is always hungry. This is Harlequin. He is derived from the figure of Zanni, the jester of comic stories of whom we have documentation going back as far as the 14th century. Of Zanni, Harlequin conserves the forthright character and natural propensity for trouble. Harlequin’s costume, known by all as the most colourful of the masked types, was initially white and torn: for this reason, first one patch was added, then another, until it became multi-coloured. This is how we see it in the 17th century theatre.

Harlequin’s appearance is clumsy and stocky, the black half-mask on his face is animalistic and on his head he wears a white felt hat surmounted by a feather (symbol of fertility) or a rabbit’s foot (cunning). On his belt he carries a batòcio, the stick for mixing polenta, which serves as a sword for him. Then he has a lump on his forehead which for some people is a residue of a devilish horn. In fact, his Italian name Arlecchino, recalls that of a devil (Hellequin) while Alichino is the devil mentioned by Dante in his Divine Comedy. However, Harlequin is always a good, masked type, and he remains so in the collective imagination.

3) Brighella:
He is the antagonist of Harlequin and before him, Zanni (the joker of comic stories prior to the 16th century) who acquires along with him a shrewd, cunning character. Nomen est omen: a brawler, cheater, chatterbox, insolent with subordinates and intolerably obsequious to bosses. Brighella is a cook, a waiter, and a chief servant.

The costume he takes pride in wearing is a “livery”, a symbol of belonging to a master: baggy trousers and a white jacket edged with green, a puffed cap and a half mask on his bearded face. It is with this uniform that he exercises his power over simple servants.

6) Fagliono:
The only masked type who comes from the underclass and the suburbs, only found in puppet booths and never on the marionette stage. Fagiolino Fanfani, a masked type already active in Bologna at the end of the 1700s, would gain even greater popularity thanks to Filippo Cuccoli and his son Angelo.

In 1877, Fagiolino met Sganapino, created by Augusto Galli, who immediately became his “right-hand man”. Fagiolino is a poor man, but rich in appetite, generous with the weak and severe with the bad. He metes out justice by using his inseparable stick. Many times he is characterized by a mole on his cheek and a white cap, a typical “mischievous guy” of Bologna, his native city.

7) Gianduja:
Gianduja comes from the farmer Gerolamo (full name: Gironi ‘d la crina which means “Gerolamo of the sow”) who, after arriving in Turin with a new name, went on to become its symbol. Is he a commoner or a bourgeois? In the early productions, Gianduja was still a servant, but during the 19th century he became a Turin hero who personified all the civic virtues of the dominant bourgeois ideology.

Gianduja wears a tricorn and a wig with a pigtail. His bourgeois suit is of brown cloth, edged in red, with a yellow waistcoat and red stockings. Around his neck he wears an olive green bow and has an umbrella of the same colour. He has black shoes and red socks. He is a gentleman who likes wine, cheerfulness and vivacity: traits clearly deriving from the country.

9) Meneghino:
A Lombard masked type born in the 17th century out of the imagination of the playwright Carlo Maria Maggi. A rough-mannered but savvy servant, Meneghino, eager to keep his freedom, does not flee when he has to take sides with his people. The name probably derives from “Domenighin”, the nickname of the servants who accompanied the Milanese noblewomen to mass or for a walk on Sundays. During the insurrection of the Five Days of Milan in 1848, he was chosen by the Milanese for his virtues as a symbol of heroism.

Meneghino is generous, rash, and never sits idly by, that is, he possesses the typical character of the Milanese, who are often dubbed – not by chance – “Meneghini”. He loves good food, and a slice of panettone can even bring tears to his eyes, not just because he is a glutton, but because it reminds him of his Milan and its cathedral which he never stops bragging about. Dressed in a long brown jacket, short trousers, and red and white striped stockings, a hat in the shape of a tricorn over a wig with a ponytail tied with a ribbon, along with his wife Checca, he still holds sway in Milanese carnivals.

10) Pantalone:
One of the first masks of the Commedia dell’Arte. A Venetian, Pantalone represents the merchant class of the once Great Republic of Venice. According to some scholars, his name derives from an ancient patron saint of Venice, Pantaleone, according to others from Plant-Lion, an ancient merchant who, in the land he had bought along the Mediterranean coast, planted the flag with the Lion, the symbol of Saint Mark and banner of the Serenissima Republic.

Pantalone is old, rich, stingy, but despite his age “his desires are still ready”. For this reason, his figure is represented in the Senile Madness of Adriano Banchieri, a musician, composer, and writer of the 16th century. The colours of his outfit and the characteristics of his face are identifying of his personality: in fact, he wears a tunic with red trousers, a symbol of fertility, and a black coat, a symbol of a lack of virility, just like the nose he looks down.

11) Pulcinella:
Brought to the theatre for the first time in 1609 by Silvio Fiorillo, he would portray him permanently from 1632. Who is Pulcinella? Pulcinella is good and bad, poor, rough, and occasionally affected. The complexity of his character allowed each actor to choose the traits he felt most his own and determined the fortune of this mask in Italy and in Europe. The same freedom exists for the character’s physical appearance: he often has a hump on his back or belly, and a nose that can be small and flattened, or very prominent. The character, physical appearance and role played on the scene underwent variations in the 18th century, when Pulcinella was adopted by various European countries.

Pulcinella wears a baggy white smock nipped in at the waist, white trousers with a belt, a cupolone – a white cone-shaped hat of felt – and a half mask with a large, slightly hooked nose. Hi outfit is similar to that worn by peasants from the Middle Ages onwards: hemp fabric, the cheapest fibre woven at home, and an absence of colour to avoid the cost of dyeing.