The Plague Doctor

This frightening figure, already grotesque in its own right, was created and developed as a reinterpretation of the pandemic, that we are unfortunately facing today.

What mask could be more contemporary than the Plague Doctor?...

Our representation portrays a doctor who returns from the underworld to conclude his work; an almost Dantesque figure who purifies a sick society.

He brings with himself seven spectres, silent witnesses of the era we are living in.

It is interesting to know that the Plague Doctor was a figure who really existed in the Middle Ages, but not much is known about his origins, which is also part of his charm. What we do know is that Charles de Lorme, a famous French doctor of the 17th century, gave it the appearance we all know today. The inside of the long, beak-like nose was filled with spices and aromatic herbs in the illusion that isolating the bad smell of the plague victim would prevent contagion. Given the lack of medical knowledge, the possible contagion was attributed not only to the acrid odour inhaled, but also to the ghosts that hovered around the sick person and the doctor. Hence the decision to wear a gloomy mask to frighten off the spectral figures.

"The tinkling of the rattles, the dull clatter of the stick through the narrow "calli" (streets), precedes his fame.

The dim light of the lantern is the last warning....

Run away, mortals!

The Plague Doctor has arrived."