ARE YOU MASKED?
When this exhibition opened at the Louvre, it was a steamingly hot day and the tourists were there in their hoards. Summer is not the best month to go to the Louvre as Marielle and I have discovered many times. However, once you get by the crowds who are en route to see the Mona Lisa and a few other blockbuster pictures, it is reasonably quiet.
Yesterday we set off to see
« Masques, Mascarades et Mascarons." It felt like the middle of winter. The final word (mascarons) did not ring a bell so I was glad, as you will see, to discover its true meaning.
Sure there were a lot of people and as Marielle rightly said when we met up in front of the Information desk, the din must be horrific if you have to put up with it all day. So we set off. There was this huge poster with an arrow on it.
Difficult to believe though, we had to ask at least three people before we were directed to the right gallery. Huge poster and virtually no directions on how to get there on the second floor.
The exhibition is small and I have seen many in the two galleries. So why didn’t I think it would be there? The exhibition is divided into five themes : theatre, death, the Gorgon mask, the mascaron and illusion .
Wiki gives the following
Now are theu masks or macaron - that is the question!
As we started back to front (that’s the way we found the exhibition - at its end) - this is no means in order.
However, we do now that in the Occident and since antiquity, there have always been masked men. The mask covers something and yet it can also reveal. This ambiguous point is fascinating. How many masked parties, balls or carnivals have you been to and wondered what was behind « that mask »? The mask is though qualified as being « black » « witchcraft » « the devil ». It can of course be very religious but in actual fact, I would think it reveals fiction and reality.
In the Greek antiquity, the mask was used in the theatre so it had a very definite function. It defined the actor’s role and was quite often made in papier-mâché and leather.
I read recently that during this period, a theatrical piece was only performed once.I always was completely mixed up about the Greek Gods but now I learn the Dionysos, Zeus’s son, is the god of theatre and also, transformation. He is, for some reason that was not explained, the only god along with Gorgon ( Meduse’s sister who ale had snakes for hair) whose face was shown. Dionysos is also Bachus, the god of wine - I had certainly not remembered that. Wine of course is supposed to bring the worst out in you but also it does have another function which of course we are all after, that of the conquest of immortality. (NO thank you)!
In the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, those who participated at a carnival always wore masks - as they do today. (The last Carnival I went to in Venice was a real let down for costumes and masks). Here are a couple of good ones, but how would you dance with these on?
Then of course there is the death mask which is moulded onto the face of the dead. Here too, it’s a transformation as it gives way to the passage between our world and the next. It was the Romans who mirrored the face of the dead - but not to conserve the exact face, but to indicate the standing of the person or family. It was in the middle ages that the mask was a real representation of the dead person’s face and this endured. Not only wax is used to create these masks, but other materials as well.
Well you know a little about the Gorgon. A mixed creature - neither human nor a monster. A woman with wings and her hair is made up of snakes. So many of the masks we saw looked remarkably masculine and yet as time goes by there was a mask of a rather beautiful young lady! Don’t look into her eyes until Perse comes along again to cut off her head!
What is fascinating about this exhibition is that it doesn’t show any one period or African masks and those we are used to seeing. From my point of view the explanations below each mask meant a series of bending gymnastics to read them and I frankly can’t be bothered these days. There is still a fascination for masks today. We collect them, we photograph fountains and we even make them. But it’s not too often that we wear them outside those fancy dress balls. Let’s face it too, (to coin a phrase) we are very suspicious of faces which are covered, be it a mask or a scarf. Or at least, I am.
(All photos taken from Internet)
« Masques, Mascarades et Mascarons." It felt like the middle of winter. The final word (mascarons) did not ring a bell so I was glad, as you will see, to discover its true meaning.
 |
| Primatice, masked figure looking to the right |
Sure there were a lot of people and as Marielle rightly said when we met up in front of the Information desk, the din must be horrific if you have to put up with it all day. So we set off. There was this huge poster with an arrow on it.
Difficult to believe though, we had to ask at least three people before we were directed to the right gallery. Huge poster and virtually no directions on how to get there on the second floor.
The exhibition is small and I have seen many in the two galleries. So why didn’t I think it would be there? The exhibition is divided into five themes : theatre, death, the Gorgon mask, the mascaron and illusion .
Wiki gives the following
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element.So all those so called masks which I have seen on fountains, doors, building etc. are macarons. There are, as you probably know, many in Paris - or all over Europe for that matter.
 |
| a young man or a soldier????? |
Now are theu masks or macaron - that is the question!
As we started back to front (that’s the way we found the exhibition - at its end) - this is no means in order.
However, we do now that in the Occident and since antiquity, there have always been masked men. The mask covers something and yet it can also reveal. This ambiguous point is fascinating. How many masked parties, balls or carnivals have you been to and wondered what was behind « that mask »? The mask is though qualified as being « black » « witchcraft » « the devil ». It can of course be very religious but in actual fact, I would think it reveals fiction and reality.
In the Greek antiquity, the mask was used in the theatre so it had a very definite function. It defined the actor’s role and was quite often made in papier-mâché and leather.
 |
 |
I read recently that during this period, a theatrical piece was only performed once.I always was completely mixed up about the Greek Gods but now I learn the Dionysos, Zeus’s son, is the god of theatre and also, transformation. He is, for some reason that was not explained, the only god along with Gorgon ( Meduse’s sister who ale had snakes for hair) whose face was shown. Dionysos is also Bachus, the god of wine - I had certainly not remembered that. Wine of course is supposed to bring the worst out in you but also it does have another function which of course we are all after, that of the conquest of immortality. (NO thank you)!
In the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, those who participated at a carnival always wore masks - as they do today. (The last Carnival I went to in Venice was a real let down for costumes and masks). Here are a couple of good ones, but how would you dance with these on?
 |
| Entourage de Francesco Primaticcio, dit Primatice. Personnage costumé en bosquet ou en forêt (c) Paris, Musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques, collection Edmond de Rothschild, 1633 |
Then of course there is the death mask which is moulded onto the face of the dead. Here too, it’s a transformation as it gives way to the passage between our world and the next. It was the Romans who mirrored the face of the dead - but not to conserve the exact face, but to indicate the standing of the person or family. It was in the middle ages that the mask was a real representation of the dead person’s face and this endured. Not only wax is used to create these masks, but other materials as well.
 |
 |
Well you know a little about the Gorgon. A mixed creature - neither human nor a monster. A woman with wings and her hair is made up of snakes. So many of the masks we saw looked remarkably masculine and yet as time goes by there was a mask of a rather beautiful young lady! Don’t look into her eyes until Perse comes along again to cut off her head!
What is fascinating about this exhibition is that it doesn’t show any one period or African masks and those we are used to seeing. From my point of view the explanations below each mask meant a series of bending gymnastics to read them and I frankly can’t be bothered these days. There is still a fascination for masks today. We collect them, we photograph fountains and we even make them. But it’s not too often that we wear them outside those fancy dress balls. Let’s face it too, (to coin a phrase) we are very suspicious of faces which are covered, be it a mask or a scarf. Or at least, I am.
(All photos taken from Internet)
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