In the history of fashion there have been designers like Vionnet who would construct a garment on a doll before actually making the real thing in a life-size version, or contemporary designers who used puppets and marionettes to showcase their collections. But, if you want to make a miniature dress or if you're looking for fashion inspirations from marionette costumes, you should check out a special exhibition launching in Venice.
"Antiche marionette" (Antique Marionettes) opens today at Carlo Goldoni's house, at Palazzo Centani, in the San Polo area.
The exhibition, curated by Chiara Squarcina (Director of the Venice-based Museum and Study Center of the History of Fabrics and Costumes at Palazzo Mocenigo, of the Lace Museum in Burano and the Glass Museum in Murano) and Massimo Medica (Director of the Musei Civici di Arte Antica in Bologna), features rare pieces from the theatre at the Goldoni house and around 74 unique marionettes from the collection at Bologna's Museo Civico d'Arte Industriale – Palazzo Davia Bargellini.
Carlo Goldoni's house allows to explore 18th century culture and society, but one of the best rooms in the Gothic palazzo is located on the first floor. Here visitors can admire a marionette theatre from the collection of the Grimani ai Servi family (this is one of the very last complete marionette theatres from the 1700s, preserved in this museum since 2001).
While public puppet shows took place in the local squares, marionettes were considered as a private and domestic form of entertainment for rich families (also Giulio Goldoni had a marionette theatre installed in his house for his son Carlo) and revolved around a vast theatrical repertoire, from dramas and tragedies to pantomimes and comedies.
Marionettes were particularly intriguing for two main reasons: the way they were built and the way they were dressed. From the engineering perspective, the string driven marionettes were multi-limbed and this guaranteed them dynamic and realistic movements.
Fashion-wise these marionettes perfectly imitated real life and reinterpreted the cosmopolitican life of Venice in the 18th century: they were dressed in elegant and refined clothes often made with luxury fabrics and their clothes reflected the most popular trends of the times they were created.
The marionettes featured in the theatre in Carlo Goldoni's house are frozen in a representation of Act Three, Scenes 13 and 14 of Goldoni's 1745 play "The Servant of Two Masters", a very successful play, and includes main characters Pantalone, Truffaldino, Clarice, Brighella, Smeraldina and Silvio.
The pieces included in the exhibition are unique examples of 1700s marionettes: 74 of them come from the Bologna collections that feature marionettes of noble men and women, servants, knights, soldiers, Commedia dell'Arte characters and animals such as horses and monkeys.
The "dame" or noblewomen are particularly beautiful as they are dressed in rich velvet or satin gowns with fashionable elements such as double sleeve ruffles, lace collars and wide side hoops. Elaborate trimmings zig-zag along the dresses, while gold or silvery metal threads were used to create decorative motifs, and the marionettes are enriched by details like tiny buttons and accessorised with jewels.
If you like theatre, you may want to extend your visit at the museum as the library in Carlo Goldoni's house mainly focuses on theatrical texts and preserves over 30,000 volumes.
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