Masks

A mask is an artefact normally worn on the face, typically for protection, concealment, performance, or amusement. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes. more...

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They are usually, but not always, worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere in relation to the wearer's own head.

The word mask came via French masque and either Italian maschera or Spanish máscara. Possible ancestors are Latin (not classical) mascus, masca = "ghost", Hebrew masecha= "mask" and Arabic maskharah = "jester", "man in masquerade".

The 5000-year-old Sumerian mask of Warka is believed to be the oldest surviving mask. Looted from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, it was recovered in 2003.

Ritual and theatre

Throughout the world masks are used for their expressive power as a feature of masked performance. They are a familiar and vivid element in many folk and traditional pageants, ceremonies, rituals and festivals. Many of these are of an ancient origin. The mask is often a part of costume that adorns the whole body and embodies a tradition important to a particular society of people.

It is often assumed that masks are exotic artifacts limited to Third World cultures, whereas masks are used almost universally and maintain their power and mystery both for their wearers and their audience, retaining an important place in the religious and social life of the community. The continued popularity of wearing masks at carnival, and for children at parties and for festivals such as Halloween are reminders of the enduring power of pretence and play.

The mask is also used in theatrical performance. In many cultural traditions the masked performer is a central concept and is highly valued. In the western tradition it is sometimes considered a stylistic device which can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans. The masked characters of the Commedia dell'Arte included the ancestors of the modern clown. In contemporary western theatre the mask is often used alongside puppetry to create a theatre which is essentially visual rather than verbal, and many of its practicioners have been visual artists.

Masks in contemporary theatre

Masks, as well as puppets, were often incorporated into the theatre work of European avant-garde artists from the turn of the nineteenth century. Alfred Jarry, Pablo Picasso, Oskar Schlemmer and other artists of the Bauhaus School, as well as surrealists and Dadaists, experimented with theatre forms and masks in their work.

The modern effort to restore the mask to the stage derives from Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) who in A Note on Masks (1910) proposed the virtues of using masks over the naturalism of the actor. Craig was highly influential, and his ideas were taken up by Brecht, Cocteau, Genet - and later by Arden, Grotowski and Brook and others who "attempted to restore a ritualistic if not actually religious significance to theatre". .

Read more at Wikipedia.org