Masks and Mask-Making
The technology for making animated cartoons didn't exist until the 19th century, and sound didn't come in till the 1920s; the exaggerated movements, costumes and features of the masked commedia dell'arte characters filled the niche that animated cartoons now fill to a modern audience. Divorcing the characters from reality in order to create a new world can make jokes funnier (for instance, by making taboo subjects seem safer) and allows ludicrous events to seem more plausible. Commedia dell'arte was a very visual medium, and the costumes and masks created iconic imagery that survived even when the theatrical style went out of fashion. Comprehending all this helps one to understand what the masks are there to do, and why it especially survived for this type of theatre but not others.
Masks are considered very important to the commedia dell'arte, with some people even suggesting they are the principal trait of a show (and consequently forcing them upon characters who traditionally did not wear them.) Many of the characters, especially the zanni and vecchi, had traditional styles of masks associated with the role, with the mask sometimes defining and designating the character even more than the performance or script. The term "Mask" is sometimes even used to describe a character rather than a literal mask (though here we use it to mean the object, not the role.) A 16th century account of a commedia show said Pantalone's mask provoked laughter from the moment he walked onto the stage -- and that is really the ideal.
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, 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 (some quotes on the makeup page seem to support this.) 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.
Commedia is associated with being a low or peasant's type of performance. Makeup was known and used in Renaissance theater, but 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.) There are some indications that commedia, and its masked roles, is a Renaissance revival of Greco-Roman theater traditions, where actors wore terra cotta or lead masks to enhance stylizations of the show: for example, the Greek "chorus" (actors who came en masse to provide narration) all wore a uniform style of mask since they were supposed to all represent the same character. Ancient Greek theater also did not allow females to perform, and masks enabled men to more convincingly play women's parts by making everything more artificial.
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.
Many commedia dell'arte websites will recommend using only leather masks, which is indeed a traditional material. However, surviving examples also suggest cloth stiffened with gesso was a popular material. An account of the face masks worn by Venetian ladies in the 17th century says they were made from silk lined with leather. There are also many surviving metal masks from the period, though they were seemingly more likely to be for ceremonial purposes, perhaps due to the expense of metalwork. Nowadays paper-maché and plastic are also common materials for masks.
HOW TO MAKE MASKS
Ultimate Paper-Mache Masks has a lot of great information about how to make masks from traditional materials like gesso and paper mache.
How to Make a Simple Hardened Leather Mask gives instructions for making old fashioned leather masks
How to Make a Sculpted Leather Mask gives some instructions suited for more elaborate mask styles
How to Make Paper Masks for those with very low budgets
How to Make Felt Masks gives instructions intended for animal masks, but the rules are the same for other types
Customizing "sad white masks" that can be bought readymade and adjusted to match costumes
Painted face masks are another budget friendly option. Here is one demonstration.
It is also possible to buy readymade masks from sellers on Etsy as well as specialty websites.
