Crimson & Green & Cobalt

Crimson is the tabarro — the deep vivid cool-red of the tabarro (the traditional Venetian Carnival hooded cloak — from Italian: tabarro — a full-length hooded cloak, typically of wool or silk) that is one of the most dramatically theatrical elements of the Venetian Carnival. The crimson tabarro, worn with the bauta (the white mask that covers the upper face, with a distinctive projecting chin that allows the wearer to eat and drink without removing the mask) and the tricorn hat, is the most formally significant Carnival outfit in the 18th-century Venetian tradition — it was worn by patricians (the ruling class of the Venetian Republic) at the most formal Carnival events, specifically the ridotto (the state-licensed gambling hall established in 1638 by the Council of Venice — the first public gambling house in European history, and the origin of the word 'casino' via French). The specific deep crimson of the tabarro in the 18th-century Venetian tradition (documented in paintings by Pietro Longhi, the most celebrated painter of Venetian everyday life, 1702-1785) is the most dramatically warm color in the otherwise cool and pale Carnival environment. Green is the domino mask — the vivid mid-green of the Venetian domino mask (the full-face mask — masque de domino — originally worn for Carnival and later for theatrical and social disguise) and the green-colored domino cloak. In the Venetian Carnival tradition, the domino (a half-face or full-face mask combined with a long hooded cloak, typically in black but also in green, blue, or crimson) is worn to create complete anonymity — the domino tradition, along with the more formally specific bauta/tabarro/tricorn combination, was the most widely used Carnival disguise. The specific vivid mid-green domino appears in Longhi's paintings and in the most celebrated 18th-century Venetian paintings of Carnival scenes as the most immediately attention-commanding cool accent. Cobalt is the blue-and-gold costume — the vivid cobalt-to-deep-blue of the most elaborately theatrical Venetian Carnival costumes, specifically the blue-and-gold combinations that reference the Byzantine and Venetian imperial visual tradition (the blue-gold of the winged lion of Saint Mark — the symbol of the Venetian Republic — on the Venetian flag). The specific cobalt-blue of Venetian decorative arts (specifically the cobalt-blue glass of the Murano glassmaking tradition — the vivid cobalt achieved by adding cobalt oxide to the Murano glass melt, the same technique used since the 13th century) creates the most characteristic Venetian decorative blue.