About Marionette Puppets

Featured in popular movies such as "Pinocchio" and "The Sound of Music," these lifelike string puppets have a long history. Not just for children, marionettes have been used to perform operas, to send messages from kings and for religious services and ceremonies throughout the ages. This ancient art form lives on even today, as puppeteers delight audiences with handcrafted marionettes that, in the hands of a master, appear to have a life of their own.

Features

Marionettes are puppets that are three-dimensional figures with strings attached to various body parts. The strings run up to a controller, known as an "airplane," that is held by the puppeteer. Basic marionettes have approximately nine strings, usually attached to hands, feet, joints such as elbows and knees, the back and the head. More complex marionettes can have more than 30 strings. Marionette bodies can be made of any number of materials, but are most commonly crafted from wood, papier mache or foam.

Function

The puppeteer controls the marionette's movements by rocking, twisting and jiggling the airplane with one hand, and plucking individual strings with the other to make individual parts move more dramatically. The more joints and strings a marionette has, the wider range of movements a puppeteer can achieve. In the hands of a skilled puppet master, a marionette can mimic any movements that a human or animal can make.

Types

The Sicilian-style marionettes are one of the most simplest of this type of puppet, with only one string attached to the hand and a rod that runs through the puppet's body and head. Czech-style marionettes are more complex, as they also have a central rod, with additional arm and leg strings, and occasionally strings attached to the jaw and ears. Bunraku marionettes from Japan are large, sometimes more than 4 feet tall, and considerably more complex to operate. They can have so many moving parts that a single marionette will require a team of several puppeteers to operate it.

History

The art of puppetry began in ancient China. Shadow puppets were flat figures made of animal skins, cut into a human or animal shape. Rods operated from below were attached to the arms and head to make them move. In India, puppets appeared with wires controlling them from above, rather than rods from below. In these early, primitive marionettes, one string went through the crown of the puppet, and ran through the puppet's arms and legs. Known as "string puppets," the puppet would move by jiggling the string.

Time Frame

The use of these puppets took off in the Middle Ages, when they showed up in European churches performing Bible stories. The marionette, French for "Little Mary," was named after the Virgin Mother. The church stopped use of puppets, but they were so popular that street performers began to use them at markets and fairs. In the 1800s the marionette took the form we are familiar with today. English puppet master Thomas Holden added strings to the hands and feet so that they could have more complex and lifelike movements. In the 20th century, puppeteers began opting for rod-arm and glove puppets, but marionettes remain the most difficult and delicate form of puppetry to master.

Resources

• Marionette: From Traditional Manipulation to Robotic Manipulation
• Origins of American Marionettes
• A Brief History of Puppetry