Revealing the Mask
Local Urbino mask makers keep Commedia dell’Arte alive with their new take on traditional leather mask making.
URBINO – Drip, drip, drip… The sound of water hitting a tin pail as a pair of rough, stained hands wrings out a light brown piece of tough hide. A sharp whiff of earthy, woodsy smell hits the nose. A smile peeks up over the pair of hands, shaping the wet leather on a wooden face.
Eyebrows, a sharp nose, and a mouth form on the once wet hide creating a face just like the ones hanging on every wall in the shop. The pair of painted hands lift the leather over his face revealing an expressive mask with the eyes of Federico Gargaliano, its maker, looking through.
Fa’Maschere, a Commedia dell’Arte mask-making team based in Urbino makes theatrical, artistic cuoio (leather) masks for private collectors and theatre performers. The pair, Federico Gargagliano and Alessandra Ceccarelli have used their studies, personal performances, and mask-making knowledge to change the way the traditional masks are made and presented to audiences.
Commedia dell’Arte (comedy of the profession) began in mid-sixteenth-century Italy as a theatrical performance using distinct stock characters that emphasized acting in an ensemble, a framework of improvisations, and masks covering the faces of the ensemble. The mask of each member of the ensemble varied based on the stock character. The major stock characters included members of the masters, lovers, and servant categories representing very specific social types in Italian society. The characters are exaggerated to make fun of certain social classes, which led to the need to wear masks, to protect the performer’s identities.
The goal of Commedia dell’Arte was to entertain the masses. The players traveled together in groups to small towns all over Italy performing on makeshift stages, alleyways, or just out in the middle of the street. Just as the name sounds, Commedia dell’Arte, was a drawn-out improvised, comedic form. The stock characters and general storyline laid out how the stock characters would stereotypically act towards each other, but the rest was up to the performers. This gave them the freedom to interact with each other, interact with nature around them, and interact with the audience in any way they wanted.
After studying Commedia dell’Arte for many years, Michele Pagliaroni, the current artistic director of CTU Cesare Questa (The Theatre Center of Urbino), explained that the Commedia shows were always captivating to audiences because “the theatre always reflects reality.” With the performer’s interaction and formulated improvisation, every performance was able to speak to the social scene of wherever the players toured, bringing comedy to sometimes very serious social settings.
Commedia’s loose improvised framework has allowed artistic creativity for centuries. With this, the mask and costumes audiences expected to see on specific stock characters remained relatively the same throughout player groups. Due to the stock characters needing to be easily recognizable by audiences, the mask framework had to be extremely similar. The strict stock characters created strict mask requirements for the mask makers, but with time, the framework loosened and allowed for the work Fa’Maschere creates to evolve as well.
The team, Federico Gargagliano and Alessandra Ceccarelli began their work with “i Commedianti di Urbino” where they started learning acrobatics, stilt walking, and other “Cirque di Soleil type movements,” said Gargagliano. After learning the basics, they began to design their products, which began their current career path as professional Commedia dell’Arte leather mask makers.
“I love the predictability of the unpredictable,” said Gargagliano about how Commedia is always susceptible to change but at its core, remains the same.
In 2003, Gargagliano and Ceccarelli met Giorgio De Marchi, an expert Mascherano (mask maker) from Vicenza at the University of Urbino, and started learning all the basics of mask making. While working with De Marchi, the pair became very serious about mask making and started to know leather and how to work the material to shape it into their original creations. In 2007, Gargagliano and Ceccarelli parted from De Marchi and opened Fa’Maschere together. The team was a match made in heaven because they named the shop after their names, “F” for Frederico and “A” for Alessandra, which makes fa (to make). Their shop name almost literally translates to “making masks,” giving a glimpse into their work with one word.
Clang, clang, clang… The sound of a hammer hitting nail, over and over, and over again rings. A sharp whiff of earthy, woodsy smell hits the nose. Painted faces hanging on the dark brick wall, staring. A shelf on the back wall stacked with solid wooden faces in no particular order, close to falling off the shelf due to the sheer amount of them. The friendly faces of Federico and Alessandra smile, contrasting with the mask surrounding them. This is Fa’Maschere.
Fa’Maschere masks are made from the typical wooden matrice (mask model), which are the wooden aces they store on the back wall shelf, and from the wooden model base, the pair makes artistic decisions in changing the shape and color, making the mask completely their own. After creating the mask to the shape of the matrice, the pair then build towards the dark brick ceiling creating detailed eyebrows, sharp cheekbones, or even long pointy noses. Unless it is specially ordered, the team likes to focus on creating fantasy-themed masks, allowing them to make their creative features and unique artistic expression.
Gargagliano’s favorite mask to create is based on the stock character the arlecchino (harlequin) due to the artistic liberties he can take with creating facial features because of the role the character plays in performances. He creates sharp detail cuts on the light leather with his bright yellow knife to form the original shape, and the extra leather that falls off the side of the matrice doesn’t go to waste.
Stained hands carefully cut and shape the scraps of leather into a cone shape, nailing the edges to the forehead of the mask. Gargagliano loves to use the extra leather to make horns on his arlecchino masks, adding that extra detail to create an even more expressive, new mask.
“They have an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm that goes into their work,” said a close friend of the shop, sometimes model for plaster masks, and fellow artist on Via Valero, Giovanna Giusto. “They have so many special materials and gadgets that make every mask absolutely unique, and beautiful because they are handcrafted objects every time even if the same mold is used.”
Their art is appreciated by theatre-makers and artists in Urbino due to the novelty of their work. Even though Pagliaroni has never worked with the Fa’Maschere team, he appreciates their work and their way of using the leather to create “different pictures of the same mask.”
“There is no typical day in the shop,” according to Ceccarelli. Every day is completely different based on what opportunities are presented to them. Somedays are dedicated solely to preparing the leather. Some are used to shape and mold the leather. Some days they teach classes to people of all ages, including children as young as five years old. No matter how much fun they have creating their masks and sharing their knowledge, the most exciting days for them are when they get to perform.
Bright colors of red, blue, and green float through the air, twirling in circles as Alessandra and her performance partner dance on stilts ten feet in the air while rhythmically playing tambourine. Federico and his performance partner keep to the rhythm while playing drums on stilts and walking through the streets of Schieti, performing for every resident of the town. Masks created by Fa’Maschere on every one of the performer’s faces, emphasizing the tradition, but bringing forth Alessandra’s and Frederico’s artistic liberties with the painted colors of green and red over the dark brown hide.
The Italian tradition of Commedia dell’Arte stays alive with every beat of the drum and shake of the tambourine. Each step of the performers on stilts creates joy and fear in the crowd knowing they’ll be okay but bringing that feeling of unpredictability in everyone. Every performance is different. Alessandra carefully places her tambourine over her head and mask and rests the instrument on her neck. She leans over getting to the same level as an older man in the crowd and takes his sunglasses off his face and puts them onto her mask. An improvised trick completely fitting the old tradition but making every performance new, just as the sixteenth-century Commedia dell’Arte form intended.
“The sensation to be free, to be creative, and make something for the older generation, while also making it ours, is why we do what we do and we love every second of it,” said Gargagliano.
Translation of interviews and other language assistance by University of Urbino student Martina De Fillipo.
Link to Published Story: http://2022.urbinoproject.com/mask-makers/
