Museu da Marioneta

The estate of Museu da Marioneta represents one of the most significant and complete collections of Portuguese traditional puppets. Additionally, it also features an outstanding and wide collection of African and Southeast Asian puppets and masks belonging to the collector Francisco Capelo, with some exceptional quality oriental masks and puppets from Java, Bali, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, India, Vietnam and China, preserving however the core of the most significant European and Brazilian puppet families. Animated figures can be found in almost every culture, although they may have different shapes and are sometimes difficult to identify as real puppets.

They certainly do not have a common origin because they appear in distinct eras and amongst people who are not linked to each other. They can be found in Europe and in Asia, but also in Africa and the Americas. But both puppets and their manipulation techniques however developed mainly in Asia and Europe.

The use of puppets for religious purposes and its influence in the theatre can also be found in the Western world since ancient times. In ancient Greece, however, puppets soon lost their sacred character and turned into a more entertaining use.
Later the Romans adopted them as a popular entertainment.

Reports on puppet theatres in Europe during the Middle Ages are scarce, but nevertheless enough to let us know they were indeed a living presence.

The first evidence of a profane puppet theatre is a wood engraving from the 12th century depicting two armed characters fighting on a table, and supported by strings manoeuvred by two persons standing by that table.

The 16th century Council of Trento forbids puppet theatres to be performed in churches, as it was usual since the 13th century. And thus, as off the 17th century, puppets theatres became definitively profane.

Animated shows were highly appreciated during the 18th century. But later – due to the aristocratic society crisis – as off late 18th century and throughout the 19th century street shows became more defiant and a means to convey social criticism and political satire, triggering situations in which the police persecuted puppeteers.

An experimental interest by cutting edge artists emerges during the 20th century.

Their activity gave birth to a whole new type of puppet theatre, the one that is currently on worldwide stages. New puppets are frequently the result of mixed techniques. We can no longer talk about mere glove, string or rod puppets. The materials from which they are manufactured have changed.

But above all, it was mostly cinema and television that had the strongest influence upon the world of animated figures and that altered this type of show radically.