Masks and Mask-Making

The Characters page describes the traditional mask of each character, if he or she has one. I'm inclining to stress here -- because I notice so many people seem unaware -- that not every character wore a mask in traditional shows. Innamorati usually wore no mask, soubrettes/servettas usually wore no mask unless they were played by men, and some zanni like Mezzetin, Scaramouch and Pedrolino have a longer documented tradition for going unmasked than they do for covering their faces. The fact that some characters did switch from being traditionally masked to being unmasked suggests that the "rule" of masking characters may not have been consistently observed by players even in historical times. An Englishman, Ferrand Spence, writing in the 17th century praises the Italian comedians for "their disposition to change their Faces as they please" -- which cannot readily occur if the faces were always covered up by masks. There are also some quotations on the Makeup Page that support makeup being prefered even from an early date, because it wasn't prone to muffle the speech of performers as a mask might.

However, because commedia is commonly associated with being a low or peasant's type of performance, it's likely that traveling troupes found it easier for their actors to take a mask on and off than to paint and afterwards wash the face for each show. (It's also of note that makeup often needed to be hand-crafted by the user, an artist, or a good apothecary -- there was no mass-production of it, and depending on the knowledge of the maker it might contain poisonous ingredients like white lead, blue vitriol or cinnabar.) 

Masks are known to have been used for the kind of theatre that existed in the middle ages. The only surviving example of a medieval theatrical mask I've been able to find is an English specimen, made from pigskin, currently very dark in hue though this may be only the result of age. It now lays flat and limp, but might have been stiffened in olden times. It appears fairly simple in its manufacture, with scored eyebrows being the most significant detail. This was not a mask for commedia shows but for religious plays, which indicates mask wearing wasn't at all unique to the genre of Italian comedy in its early days. There are also some designs for masks by Leonardo da Vinci that were intended for dramatic shows, that further remind us that masked theatre was used for other genres than comedy. The decline in masked theatre is echoed in the commedia's history, where in the 17th century many of the zanni and vecchi characters lost their original masks and instead took to wearing makeup.

A lot of the traditional commedia masks, judged by modern aesthetics, would be deemed ugly or even frightening rather than comical. There is some merit in the suggestion that they be modified to suit current tastes rather than followed strictly from historical examples, unless a totally period-correct show is intended. Compare the old style Harlequin mask above to the simplified  modern one below. Both have the traditional wart on the forehead, but the older mask style looks withered and mournful compared to the smooth and expressionless newer style ("newer" being subjective -- Harlequins have been wearing the simplified mask since at least the 18th century if not from the start if the Fossard illustrations are to be believed.) In the 19th century, many performers just wore domino type masks for all the stock characters, not giving them any different features or characteristics between roles -- the wearing of a mask was enough of a symbol. 

It is also possible to buy readymade masks from sellers on Etsy as well as specialty websites.