For over 700 years, Venetian masks have played a major part in the intrigues and mystique of Venice.
In modern times this intrigue has been enhanced by two movies: Fellini's controversial Casanova in 1976 and the more recent Eyes Wide Shut, directed in 1999 by Stanley Kubrick and starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
A number of the masks in Eyes Wide Shut were supplied by the Venetian Collection.
Worn in many scenes by naked women and men in black cloaks, our masks were carefully designed to create a strange and mysterious atmosphere of surreal, dream-like decadence.
On its release, the movie generated a storm of media attention and a huge upsurge in the use of Venetian masks at parties, product launches and corporate events around the world.
Masquerading
'Masquerading' started in the thirteenth century, when Venice was as lively and crowded as it is today.
As a result many people, particularly the rich and famous but also courtesans, gigolos, and others who needed to conduct themselves with the utmost discretion and privacy and who required anonymity, started to wear masks to achieve this.
Consequently a new breed of professionals emerged who were able to make stunning masks for these clients and a whole new industry was born.
But the secrecy that the masks provided also led to an inevitable increase in crime and a general decline in morals.
In the fourteenth century it became necessary to introduce decrees forbidding the everyday wearing of masks, and masquerading was restricted to special carnivals and festivals.
These spectacular happenings draw visitors from all over the world with the main Venetian event, The Carnavale, taking place in February each year.
