Gallery

Sardinian Mamuthones

ProMax

In Mamoiada the Mamuthones walk out in black sheepskin, faces cut from fig or alder and blackened with soot, a rank of bronze bells — the carriga — strapped across the back. Beside them the Issohadore inverts everything: white mask, red waistcoat, a woven rush lasso. The rite runs at Sant'Antonio Abate and Carnival, from afternoon into late evening.

This system takes that procession literally. The ground is black wood and matted fleece. Bronze is the only metal, and it is rationed — it reads as metal because it is rare. Elements hang from a top line in an even rank. Nothing is centred; everything moves left to right, single file.

Learn more about the Sardinian Mamuthones style

  • OriginMamoiada, province of Nuoro, Barbagia, Sardinia, Italy
  • Periodpre-1900 — pre-Christian winter rite of undocumented antiquity, continuous into the present
  • DesignerMamuthone · Issohadore · the Mamoiada mask-carvers
  • MovementsSardinian Barbagia carnival masking · European pre-Christian winter and bell-procession traditions

Web examples

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Slide examples

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