Venezia header: Piazza San Marco - Riva degli Schiavoni
Engraving by Francesco Bertelli: "Mussicha usata da mascare in Venettia il Carnevale"  - 1642
Francesco Bertelli: "Maschera" (Mask)
etching (1638-1650)

The RAPIST MASK

... is it a bad taste joke or worse?

We can imagine a wild situation as Carnival in the "right-after-the-dark-ages" times would present a little bit of every behaviour.

We see here represented a specimen of a masked guy threatening the lady with a huge knife to receive sex from her.

The guy with the knife is called, in another printing, "Burattin" (Puppet), but maybe in those times it could have had a different meaning.

Is it a bad taste joke or a real threat?
I have no idea, I am just passing the testimony around.


"Di quel ch'io chiedo non mi far mentita
Che se salvi l'onor ti va la vita"

"Of what I am asking don't give me a denial
Because if you save your honor you lose your life "


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