Collezione
Maria Signorelli
Masks
The
Puppets of Maria Signorelli
The fairy tales, nursery rhymes and films
Shows with classical and modern texts, films
The ballets of Maria Signorelli
19th-20th century Italian rod and glove puppets
19th-20th century Italian marionettes
20th century foreign rod and string puppets
Sicilian, Pugliese and Neapolitan puppets
Masks
Toy
rod, glove and string puppets
Paper
and card theatres, sets and characters
Scripts
of puppet and marionette plays
The Collection includes around sixty items dating from the beginning of the twentieth century, from various countries: thirty masks are Asian, while the others were collected primarily from Africa, Europe and Mexico.
They are made of varied materials, including porcelain, ebony, papier mâché, cloth, cork and coconut.
Some have lifesize faces and were perhaps used for ritual functions or as part of theatre performances.
Others measure only a few centimetres, and were made as toys, perhaps too for theatre.
Two large Indonesian masks of painted wood are of particular interest, with beards made of coconut fibre, a
Mexican mask constructed of painted and shaped paper, and a Japanese porcelain mask of the
first years of the twentieth century.
