Some images of men's clothing in the Quattrocento

This is for my friend Jan-Erik, who needs inspiration for new 15th century outfits.

First of all: Anéa has a good overview of preserved male garments from the Italian renaissance: see it here.

The there are so many images of men in paintings from 15th century Italy that I can only give a few  examples. As inspiration, not as a comprehensive guide.

This is from Palazzo Davanzati, which is a really cool place which you should visit if you go to Florence. ca 1450. Note that their hose are not yet joined.The doublets, which were called farsetto, are of roughly of the same popular type which can be seen in the rest of Europe; with puff sleeves reaching to the elbow and a narrow waist.

This is another, lovely, view of the back of a farsetto. You can see the way the collar is cut and the way the hose (still separate) are pointed to the farsetto. Piero della Francesca The battle between Heraclius and Chosroes, 1452-1466.

There's at least one preserved farsetto, which used to belong to Pandolfo III Malatesta, who lived between 1369-1427.

This photo doesn't show the back pieces, so I present you also with my extremely professional sketch of the pattern pieces from a presentation by Elisa Tosi Brandi at the first Dressing the Early Modern conference in Florence in 2015. The back is to the left and despite the drawing it was bigger than the front.

Another one by Piero della Francesca. The torturing of the jew. Yes, really :(

This shows some interesting variations of layering: 

The guy to the left has a brown doublet with a high collar in the back adn sleeves which are either tied to the doublet or just attached at the front, since we can see the shirt in the armscye. The sleeves are split and tied with ribbons at intervals. Over it he wears a light blue jacket with a deep v-neck in the back, a wide, gored skirt and long sleeves, with a pronounced puff at the top. In addition to being pleated they appear to have some kind of stiffening or padding to make them round. These sleeves are only attached at the shoulders, making it possible to take them off and let them hang.

The guy in the middle left  has a dark blue doublet and over it a pleated tabard-like garment, a giornea. The guy in the far right also wear a pleated giornea, light blue in this case, over a doublet with puffed sleeves. 

There is actually one of these preserved too, showing padded pleats held in place by sewing them to a ribbon or fabric.

The jew being tortured, finally, has a blue doublet with a high neck under a wide-necked brown jacket with long skirts.

The Allegory of April, Triumph of Venus by Francesco della Cossa, c. 1480 also show a pleated gironea, as well as a jacket with longer skirts.

Lovely mi-parti hose. And the interesting variation of the gironea where only the front is belted and the back hangs lose.

More farsettos and giorneas: Filippo Maria Sforza Count of Corsica and Pavia,son of Galeazzo and Bianca Maria,(second from left,with his siblings Galeazzo Maria, Ippolita Maria and Sforza Maria from left to right),c.1465-70

Portrait of Andre Jacquemart by Giorgio Schavone,c. 1460. Again high necked doublet, farsetto, worn under a giornea, which also has a stand-up collar, but lower. Nice hat.

Short clothing was, of course, mostly worn by the young. Andre Jacquemart above probably wore his giornea knee-long or longer. Long clothes were seen as fitting and honourable for us middle aged people. Melozzo da Forli. Foundation of the Library, 1477

But there's also  the golden middle way:

Piero della Francesca, Polyptych of St. Anthony c. 1470.

Though a jacket ending at the mid-thigh is still pretty short.

Mid-lenght, but in no way mediocre - or middle-of-the-road. So Much Pleating! The hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, 1440-44. Fur lined it appears. The pleats are probably held in place by (linen) stay tapes on the inside. Extravagant hose, to say the least.

One peculiar, and probably rather uncomfortable, trait in late 15th century Italian men's (and occasionally women's) dress is that the neck is very high in the front, dipping low in the back. As iullustrated here by Giovanni II Bentivoglio, painte by Ercole de Roberti c. 1490.

Nice back view of a pleated jacket with a rather low neck, over a high-necked light blue farsetto. Piero della Franscesca again.

Digging in your underwear: Piero della Francesca, Finding and recognition of the True Cross.

Looser jackets with a turn down collar, reaching to mid-thigh is seen on many "ordinary" men. Here we return to the battle between Heraclius and Chosroes.

As a last picture I give you this lovely outfit painted by Luca Signorelli, either at the very end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century. So many places to see the white linen shirt; and look at those boots!

Anyway, this was just some inspiration, there are also some valuable articles and web sites about Italian men's dress in the 15th century, aside from Anéas site, which I've already linked to. Here are two:

An Overview of Men’s Clothing in Northern Italyc. 1420 - 1480as reconstructed by Master Lorenzo Petrucci

Susan Reeds article on the construction of 14th century doublets.

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 ;)

Pimping my gown

Ten years ago I made my first c. 1300 silk gown. Then I wore it to my viva party and spilled something on it. In addition to that the fabric got an uneven bleaching when washed, or something - you can see it in the photos, it's at hip level. So, I didn't feel much like wearing it on its own, though it has seen quite a lot of use as an undertunic under surcoats.

Then my recent interest in fabric printing happenede, in combination with me being on sick leave, because the pain of my arthritis makes it impossible for me to concentrate and think. Printing doesn't take much concentration though,. luckily. And neither does fixing the paint on each motif with an iron; it is just extremely boring. And you can always take a half hour break lying down on your acupuncture mat. So, this is the result:

I look a little like a victorian bookmark angel, but that isn't so strange, since they were often based on Italian renaissance art.

I tried putting on the pink gown over it, with the necklines pinned together, and another veil, which has a small pattern painted on in gold, though that is hardly visible in the photo.

Some friends of mine had a class called "Pimp my garb", which was all about accessorizing, decorating etc, medieval style. Hence the title of this post, though I went for gold paint instead of naughty pewter pins or belt hooks.

On women's headwear in Italy ca 1300-1350

As a married woman nearing my fifties I of course had to wear some kind of veil or other headwear. There are many lovely ways to wear the hair in Italian pintings from the period, but since we have no evidence that the bareheaded women are married, and quite a lot of them are clearly young maidens, I will assume that they, like in the rest of Europe, reserved uncovered hair for the unmarried.
However, the head covering was sometimes minimal and they were very fond of sheer veils and/or wrappings. Thus my veil, which I wrapped double around my hair, and chinstrap in the photo above are made of very thin silk.

But, this is not abou tmy first, quick try to make Italian headwear, but about period images, so, here we go:

Nice striped veils - end of 13th or beginning of the 14th century.
Gratianus' Decretum,  Bologna.

Simone Martini 1328, Siena. She has wrapped her rolled up hair in a piece of fabric and put a veil on top, which basically is the look I was aiming for, or a variation of it.

I need to make a much longer thin strip of silk for this look. Actually, I am not sure this was a married woman's look, but I'm hoping :)
British Library Royal 6 E IX Regia Carmina - Address in verse to Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, from the town of Prato in Tuscany. 1335 -1340

Same manuscript, wimple and hood, in the bottom left corner.

This is one of my favourite manuscript, which I plan to make many outfits from, I've even made a scroll based on it:

But, back to the veils and wraps:

This looks more like it does north of the Alps. Buonamico Buffalmacco, Triumph of Death. Pisa 1336-1340 (Some bycockets for Charlotte)

Without veils and wimple, probably an unmarried woman, but with a bycocket: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good and Bad Judgement, Siena 1344

Another Lorenzetti, look at the woman to the right with taped hair and a very sheer veil over it.

This one has a great variety of headwear, the more covered versions reserved for widows and/or older women. Bernardo Daddi, Madonna della misericordia, Florence 1342-43

Giotto di Bondoni Capela Scrovegni, Pádua 1304-1306

Her hair is covered by a kerchief or possibly a cap, though judging by other Italian art of the period, it's most likely the former, which is very common.

Seriously weird headwear here, a sheer pillbox cap?

More Giotto,  ca 1334, wimple, wrapped hair rolled at the neck, and veil. Yes, it's Mary, but you find this headwear style on "normal" women too in art of the period. The same gos for her style of dress. The fact that she's wearign the married woman's headwear actually shows the more realistic approach in early renaissance art compared to the gothic painting north of the Alps, where Mary usually is depicted with loose hair and a very stylized loose, flowing gown.

Jacopo del Casentini (attributed) ca 1340, same style as above.

And again, Maso di Banco c 1335.1350. This time the wimple is tighter and the fabrics are more sheer.

More Maso di Banco, the woman to ther right has a wimple and veil. She also has a band tight around her forehead. Santa Croce, Florence 135-1340

In these, by Taddeo Gaddi in Santa Corce in Florence, from 1328, you really see the rolled, or braided hair with  a piece of fabric wrapped over it. You also get to see that band wrappe dover teh forehad and under the chin. I haven't made out exactly how to wrap this yet, but I'm working on it.

More Gaddi, - look at that woman to the right. And the pleated strip of fabric hanging down, you see the same in the painting by Bernardo Daddi above.

And I guess you could always add unicorn horns? Or possibly this is the top of the braids being wrapped, if you have your hair like this attendant in the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.

Actually I like the "I put a handkerchief on top of my head"-look best in this image.

More Gaddi, triptych from 1334, briaded hair and a sheer veil over it.

And a virtue (Temperance) with a nice combo of veil and a strip of sheer fabric around the forehead and chin.

Variation with just a sheer strip o ffabric around the chin and forehead, fresco from San Zeno in Verona.

Pseudo Jacopino ca 1330, detail, again showing that band across the forehead.

Vitale da Bologna, Madonna dei Denti 1345. Very sheer wimple and a sheer veil drawn over the forehead. This is a rather common thing which I plan to  wear as soon as I get it right.

Simone Martini (before 1344), lovely gold striped wimple and sheer veil with gold decorations. And a circlet with pearls and stones.

So, now I'm going to sit down and hem a long strip of sheer silk, which is the only component I haven't made yet.