J1GI  "GIANDUJA"

 

Towards the end of the XVIII century, the marionette and puppet theatre acquired many regional masks mirroring a specific geographical and political situation.  Among the most popular masks, we find Gianduja, the typical Piemontese mask.     Gianduja was born at the beginning of the XIX century as a puppet made by Giovan Battista Sales, a puppeteer with a strong national feeling that often put him into trouble with the French authorities ruling over the Italian region at the time.  Gianduja’s   name    probably   comes   from “Gian d’la douja” (“John of the Mug”).  He is a merry farmer full of common sense, who loves wine, jokes and young women, but who also speaks out in  defence   and   for   the    freedom   of    his homeland.  He wears a brown tweed jacket with frog braiding, colourful doublet, green trousers, red socks and a tricorn hat from which the pigtail     of his wig peeps out.  The plays whose protagonist was Gianduja enjoyed so much success that it was difficult to find any theatres big enough to contain the public: for this reason, Gianduja arrived at being hosted no less than in the assembly hall of the University of Turin.

 

Art. J2GI Small Gianduja.  Five jointed parts made of terracotta, dressed in cotton fabric, treated with a special brownish bee wax for antiques; individually hand-made, hand-painted.                                           Height 16 cm.