The Venetian bauta mask (or bautta) is the most quintessential and recognizable Venetian carnival mask. For many centuries it represented the Venetian Republic's aristocracy. This is why today we find it depicted in a variety of paintings and antique prints.
The bauta is very practical to wear, and can be worn comfortably for many hours. Its protruding shape allows one to even eat and drink without taking off the mask. The more mysterious aspect of the Venetian bauta has been highlighted in films like “Amadeus” and has taken hold in the popular imagination as “the Casanova mask”. Actuality, the bauta was a mask for men and for women that was very common among Venetian masks, worn not only as part of a carnival costume, but sometimes for more than six months out of the year.