Italian women's 14th century gowns split at the sides

A lot of people seem to like my new pink gown with split sides as much as I do. So I promised my friend Astridh that I would share my collection of images of this style. There's lots of them. Most images are from wikimedia commons (Gods! I love that site).

Notable is that most of the times the split over gown is worn over a tunic in the same fabric, often also with a matching cloak. You can also see that you find trims down the front and around the armscyes also in the late 14th century. Beware of the angels gown's though. they often show Byzanteine elements. Still, it appears that both saints and Mary still often wore ordinary, fashionable clothing through the 14th century, and actually, you see a lot of pretty fashionable Madonnas in the quattrocento too.

1300-1350
Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Allegory of Good and Bad Government  1338-40. Palazzo Publico, Siena,
Rather short gowns, split at the sides and fur-lined. And with 7/8 sleeves and a lovely dragonfly pattern on the brocaded gown in the centre. Undergowns in other colours. I must, however, admit, that I am not 100 % sure these are women, though the hairstyles suggest that they may be. Men in the same fresco also all have shorter tunics.

Bad Government, a woman in a red gown split at the sides, it has some kind of decoration over the bust and either a belt or a seam just under the bust (this is a topic I will discuss in later posts). Pale yellow undergown.

Bernardo Daddi, 1337-1338, The story of the girdle (Mary's girdle, it's in Prato, near Florence). Red tunic and red surcoat with slits up the side and elbow sleeves with a "tounge" hanging down. Both undertunic and surcoat are decorated with gold at the sleeves and the surcoat has gold decoration around the neckline and on the sides of the slit too.

Bernardo Daddi, St. Reparata (patron saint of Florence, I had never heard of her before). I want to make this one! Light green tunic, and surcoat, the latter with short sleeves and gold deoration along the neck, edges of both garment's sleeves and along the hem and the (slightly shorter) split at the sides.

Taddeo Gaddi, Presentation of Mary at the Temple, 1328-130. No trim on either tunic or surcoat and they are in different colours. Fairly high slit.

Same painting, a red split surcoat with a green tunic.

Same fresco, Mary's wedding. Mary wears a rose pink tunic and surcoat. There is green visible at the side slits of the surcoat - maybe a lining? The surcoat has gold trim around the neck and armscyes and at the edge of the elbow length sleeves with their slight trumpet shape. The tunic has trim around the wrist.

Nex to Mary a woman is kneeling, wearing a purplish grey tunic and surcoat, held together just above the hips with a red belt with metal ornaments. The surcoat has elbow length sleeves with an interesting cut out shape and it appears to be lined in an ochre coloured fabric.

A polyptych by Tadeo Gaddi 1320s. It is very subtle, but if you look at the woman in read you see that she wears a red surcoat over a red gown. It also appears to be open all the way to the armscyes, just held together at short invervals - either sewn, or maybe with hooks and eyes?

Vitale da Bologna, ca 1335. The kneeling woman has a red surcoat with a slit, which (probably) shows the black lining, which can be seen also at the hem where it folds.

Giovanni Baronzio 1325-1350, The Life of St. Columba, Red tunic and brocade surcoat with elbow lenght sleeves with short tippets. Gold trim around neck, armscye and the sleeves of both garments. The red tunic either has gold buttons or gold trim along the sleeve.

Pietro Lorenzetti, Madonna with child, St. Agnes and St. Catherine. 1342

St. Catherine wears a pink surcoat and a tunic of the smae fabric. The surcoat has elbow length sleeves with a hanging "tounge". The slit reaches to the hip and has narrow gold trim, which we also see around the neck and armscyes. It is lined in dark blue-grey fabric. A line of  gold is seen just under the bust, either a narrow girdle or decoration at a seam (as said, above, I will get back to this in another post).

1350-1400 
Wedding, ca 1350. The bride wears a peach coloured tunic and surcoat. The tunic has gold trim around the wrists and the surcoat has gold trim aroudn the neck, the lower hem, along the slit at the side and on the elbow length sleeeves which end in tippets.

Ca 1350. This one is now in Switzerland, in the town of Medrisio. But in the Middle Ages Medrisio  was an important town in Lombardy. Madonna and saints. Red surcoat with short sleeves with white tippets. High side slit edged with white. Under it a red tunic.The tunic has gold trim at the wrists and the surcoat has gold trim around the neck and armscyes.

Lorenzo Veneziano, Marriage of St. Catherine, 1360. Red brocade with trim around the square-ish neck, and down the front on the surcoat, whoch is fur-lined and has elbow length sleeves with tippets, likewise fur-lined.

Paolo Veneziano unknown date, but he was active at least between 1333 and 1358.  Saint Catherine to the extreme left wears a tunic and surcoat in salmon or coral brocade. The surcoat has a square ornamnet on the chest, usually asscoiated with Byzantium and trim around the neck. It is fur lined and appears to have long sleeves. St. Ursula at the extrem right is wearing a yellow surcoat which is slit at the front. it is furl ined, and apepars to have long sleeves. Due to the cloak we cannot see if it has trim around the neck.

Andrea di Bonaiuto - Fresco from Santa Maria Novella in Florence,'Way of Salvation',1365-68. A gown with wide horizontal stripes and shrot sleeves with tippets. It is lined in white and the bottom edge is also white, possibly fur. In this image you also see examples of gowns with different colour on the bodice and skirt. This is not unique for this image, there are other examples, and you can also see them, on both men and women in the Romance de Alexander, a manuscript made in Flanders in the period 1334-38 which is now at the Bodleian Library in Oxford (you can see that manuscript here).

And here's a grey surcoat with slit at the sides, no decoration.

Painter from Lucca, 1365-70, Coronation of the Virgin. St. Catherine wearing a red tunic with a green surcoat with hanging sleeves from teh shoudlers. Possibly also a hood attached, which would make it a variation of the gardecorps, but the hood could be separate. Interestingly the long sleeves are from the same fabric as the surcoat, which alreafy has hanging sleeves - artistic license? Again a slightly shorter slit at the sides and trim around the neck, armscyes, wrists and along the slit.

Altichiero da Verona (also called Aldigieri da Zevio) Crucifixion, 1372

A ressonably fitted seagreen sleeveless surcoat with trim around the neck and armscyes, slit at the sides, worn over a blue tunic.

Tommaso da Modena, 1360s-70s? St. Catherine wears a mi-parti surcoat with a broad trim along the front, and side slits which are edged in fur. It has short sleeves and is worn over a yellow tunic.

Pietro Nelli 1365, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. St. Elizabeth has an ensemble consisting of tunic, surcoat and cloak from teh same pale pink brocade with patterns in red, black and gold. The surcoat has short sleeves with tippets lines with miniver (probably the whole surcoat). There is gold trim both along the edges of the slit and the hems on both surcoat and tunic, as well at the edge of both pairs of sleeves, the neck and the edge of the cloak.

An interesting thing one sees is that it's not until the very late 14th century and then only in the most northern parts that the extremely tight version of the Gothic fitted dress is worn. The gowns are either loose or just slightly fitted, skimming the figure, but not shaping it.
And of course that Italian 14th century ladies were a lot more substantial than those north of the Alps ;)