The first depiction of a masquerader? In the Villa Farnese in Caprarola

Carnival time and time for masks....

But where is the first image of"mascheraio," the one who makes masks, kept?

It was Guerino Lovato, one of Venice’s best-known maskmakers, who discovered it: the first depiction is said to be kept in Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola (Viterbo), a famous and splendid 15th-century pentagonal villa now managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio. More precisely, it would be painted in the pictorial cycle of the Stanza dell’Aurora completed by Taddeo Zuccari in 1553.

Here is what Lovato says: “In an oval of the four in the corners of the central fresco, he paints the ”House of Sleep“ by placing Morpheus in the foreground, as a naked and curly-haired winged Genius, as young as an adolescent Eros, seated on colored cloths and intent on shaping, on a yellow desco, a new mask that stares him in the eye. Near him is a heap of shapeless clay and on top of it four finished masks, two female and one male rich with beard and mustache.”

Source: Ansa

Ph.Credit

The first depiction of a masquerader? In the Villa Farnese in Caprarola

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.