Food for Thoughts
One of VESTE main goals is to reflect on the meaning and context of using words related to fashion
that can be found in glossaries, dictionaries, and historical narratives.
This research is under construction and results from the analysis of the written sources and the interpretation we make of it, from the debate among the team members, and from the collaboration of the peers. Our commitment is, on the one hand, to test this information by applying innovative methodologies - hand-on projects, scientific illustration, workshops - in cultural studies of dress, and, on the other hand, to produce knowledge about the history of fashion in Portugal, covering the meaning and use of words and the recognition of the cultural and material processes associated with costume in the Early Modern period.
Scientific Illustration: Court Gowns on the
25th of December 1500
23/12/2019
How to view what narrative sources describe?
Having in mind this question we brought together an art historian and an historian of the Early Modern period, and an artist. Our aim was to interpret what the written source describes and, using contemporary visual sources, interpret sartorial choices by King Manuel I and Queen Maria on the
25th of December 1500.
The documental source is a letter written to Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon by the Ambassador to the
Lisbon court, Ochoa de Isasaga.
The document can be read at:
Antonio de la Torre e Luis Soarez Fernandez.
Documentos referentes a las relaciones de Portugal durante el reinado de los Reyes Catolicos. Valladolid, 1963, vol. III, p. 78.
King Manuel I wore a ‘French’ doublet made of crimson satin. The characterisation of ‘French’ is probably because either the doublet was bought in France or followed sartorial taste of the French court, that according to François Boucher, A History of Costume in the West, had pronounced necklines, favouring the display of the smock, with large dimension sleeves, slashed from the shoulder to the elbow or cut in the elbow. He also wore a kermes colour – a shade of scarlet red (pigment obtained from Hemiptera insects) – hose and white buskins, a kind of boot that often went up to the knee, with thin soles probably made of leather.
As accessories the King wore a ‘cinta’ (a sort of belt with jewels) and a sword – whose hilt, that is, the set formed by the pommel, the grip and the guard – were made of gold, and a necklace made of gold with many precious stones. We considered that such jewel was a shoulder necklace since this was the most usual kind among male courtly fashion. In the head he wore a hat garnished with small diamond jewels.
To complete his garment King Manuel I wore a black brocade ‘loba’ (a kind of cloak, similar to a poncho cloak) with embroidered ‘alcachofrados’ (an embossed kind of embroidery), opened on both sides to let the arms move freely. According to sources and literature the ‘loba’ was a piece of clothing usually worn by ecclesiastical dignities and legal authorities, so we find it very intriguing that Manuel I chose to wear this particular garment. Normally it would reach the feet. However, in our drawing it was shortened to allow the display of the outfit.
Queen Maria wore a black velvet petticoat with brocade horizontal strips, possibly also black. Over the petticoat she wore a crimson velvet ‘hábito’ (gown), probably opened at the front, decorated with many pearls and ribbons. This gown had already been worn by Queen Maria on her proxy marriage at the Alcázar of Seville.
On the waist she wore a ‘cós’ (a kind of waist band) made of ‘morado’ (that is, of the colour of blackberries; purple) brocade velvet with ‘pontas’ (that is, triangular aiguillettes), embroidered with gold thread. A ‘dianteira’ (a straight strip of fabric from the waist to the feet) made from the same fabric fell from the ‘cós’. On top of both, she wore a ‘cinta’ (a sort of belt with jewels) made of hammered gold leaf shaped like cobs
of corn but in our drawing, we choose not to outline the form.
The Queen wore a large pearls choker with a diamond cross pendant around her neck, and an emerald necklace decorated with the letter 'M'. Her wrists were adorned with many ‘achorcas’ (a kind of bracelet),
not include in the drawing because we do not know how they related to the smock cuffs.
Finally, Ochoa de Isasaga did not describe how Queen Maria covered the head or how was her hair done, thus we based her representation on Fons Vitae (1515-1517; unknown artist), currently at the
Museu da Misericórdia in Oporto, to provide an interpretation of the Queen’s image.