Casanova And The Masquerade Mask
Casanova has become equivalent with love and wooing. If somebody were to be called a Casanova then he would be considered infamous for seducing girls and a great lover. Giacomo Casanova became infamous through his memoirs where he details his adventures and seduction of the female sex in Venice during the 18th century.
His seducement of women and the adventures he became concerned in, in this enterprise, would not have been possible without his usage of the Venetian masquerade mask. Venetians would wear their masks in public, up to six months of the year for both social and business purposes. The custom of wearing masks started in the thirteenth centaury and by the 17 th centaury it had become so popular that folk were wearing the masks up to half a year of the year for pleasure and business till the decline of the Republic in 1797 to Napoleon. The practice of wearing masks continues today with the Venetian Carnival held around lent each year.
Wearing of a mask permitted folk of all business circumstances to do business and socialize together, hidden behind the safety of anonymity, it permitted one to hold ones distance and shield ones standing or to hid ones shame. The typical man was ready to mix with those of wealth and office at casinos, theaters, and cafs. This cloaking of ones identity is what Casanova employed in his seduction of women, from all social standings including nuns.
Casanova used the mask and a capability to dress the part, which he learned to some level from his mummy who was a small time actress in Venice, to become many various identities including a decorated soldier, a surgeon, a priest which led him to meeting Pope Clement, and teller of numerology and wizardry.
Casanova met with Kings and Princes in disguise including Catherine the Great of Russia. He danced and gambled with the wealthy of Europe in casinos and at masked balls. He pursued pleasure with each role he played, and sort the company of ladies at every opportunity. He was thought of as a great love and the girls he loved, he told each of them that they were the best love of his life, and they were until the next girls.
Melanie Robson is a freelance writer, researcher and director of Writers Cramp Productions, masquerade masks and masquerade ball masks are only some of the many subjects Melanie has analyzed and written about.
February 3, 2012
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Posted by Jam Man
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