Bernardon

This mask is one of the most disputed being defined as a "lurid popular caricature". It represents a lousy old man showing the sores of youth’s excesses and the syphilis which consumes him or a man covered in bloody threadbare rags revealing fake sores and bubos.

His head is wrapped in a heavy blood-soaked cloth and he has a wooden leg.

He would go around the town singing mournful laments as to his plight.

Povero Bernardon tuto impiagao!
Col baston son redoto, e pien de fame,
a pianzar per la strada el mio pecao
che tuto intiero m’à imarzio el corbame;
causa ste scarabazze, e la so scuola,
so sta butao ne la quinta cariola.

The mask and the song were banned by the second Austrian government in 1815 even though right from the beginning they were used to seeing such people begging around the cafes.

It was discovered that many of the masqueraders were in perfect health and so the ban served as a warning to profligate Venetian youth.