Cosmetics and Makeup

Makeup is an important aspect of any stage performance. While the commedia dell'arte might best be known for its masked characters, roles like the inamorata and inamorato are almost never masked, and even some of the zanni are known to have their faces painted up in place of a mask.

As a kid who went to several summers of Drama Camp, I can recall every year our director informing all of us that "Everyone on stage needs to wear makeup, even the boys. If you don't wear it, you're going to look like you're dead." The 'dead' effect to which she was referring is the manner in which stage lighting and the far-off distance of the audience tends to cause a person's color to wash out. Fairly severe makeup is usually required to counteract this. 

While one could be inclined to imagine that, in the old days, stage performers didn't use a lot of makeup, evidence suggests quite the opposite was true. Even in Renaissance Italy, actors seem to have made extensive use of cosmetics. One Leone di Sommi, writing in the second half of the 16th century, stated he didn't take much care as to the actual appearances of his actors, "for there art can supply nature, either by dyeing a beard or painting a scar, making a face pallid or yellow, or healthier and ruddy, or whiter or browner, etc., as may be necessary. But I never in any circumstances use masks or false beards, because they too much impede utterance; if I were forced to give an old man's part to a beardless actor, I would paint his chin so that it looks shaved and add to the white wig under his cap a few locks hanging over his cheeks and forehead..." In fact, he later indicates he actually preferred his actors to be unrecognizable from their regular selves, so that the illusion of the show wouldn't be spoiled. 

Although the wearing of makeup was frowned upon as far as the general population, it was still done by people, particularly for special occasions. William Salmon's 17th century book Polygraphice, intended to be an instruction manual on art and painting, contains a large section about manufacturing cosmetics. "Some may wonder that we should meddle with such a Subject as this, in this place;" he writes, "but let such know; the painting of a deformed Face, and the licking over of an old, witherd, wrinkled and weather-beaten Skin, are as proper appendices to a Painter, as the rectification of his Errors in a piece of Canvase." And while there's a reputation that in olden times makeup wasn't really inclined to look very natural, apparently a skilled person could do quite well with it. I once read an account in an 18th century magazine -- presented as a warning to ladies -- of a man who had married a woman he believed to be beautiful but whom he was horrified to discover, after marriage, had actually achieved her looks entirely through makeup. So appalled was he at the ghastly creature who came to bed with him at night that he had a mind to leave her. 

While commedia dell'arte is often presented as "masked comedy" even in historical accounts it's indicated that the characters were not always masked. An English play of 1606 has a character state that he, "like a Harlkene in an Italian comedy, stand[s] making faces" -- which is unlikely to occur if Harlequin always inherently wore a mask over his face. In any event, history offers a variety of makeup looks one can consider for a commedia show. A few suggestions and ideas are here, either on-site or as video links.

A Note on Lead White

For a long time, lead white was a popular makeup pigment, which we know now is poisonous. People doing costume makeup often say to substitute white Halloween/theatrical makeup; but, know, cosmetics nowdays are a lot more heavily pigmented than historical recipes. The sort of "clown white" we envision is rarely shown in images before the 19th century. Modern untinted 50 SPF mineral sunscreen is probably closer to an accurate look for 15th-18th century makeup than theatrical white greasepaint.

Makeup for Male Roles

Makeup for Female Roles

Makeup for Zanni