A form of slapstick comedy with darker tones, the Commedia dell’Arte was born in the Mannerist period in Italy and traces its roots to Renaissance Venetian theatre and the Commedia Pastorale of the Medieval period. The great success of the Commedia dell’Arte is not just thanks to its themes and storylines, which are familiar, funny but with elements of that very human condition of suffering, the caricature of well known characters which represent types as well as regions of Italy.

Lucio Palmieri gives these masks a new look for this year’s Carnevale dressing them in Dolce&Gabbana.