I’ve managed to delaminate my velvet from the support fabric for my vibrant red and black Cleves gown, and from there also carefully pressed it over baking paper to stretch each piece back to shape. Two stages with a day in between of rest. It turns out I probably have enough velvet to redo all pieces so I’ve taken a paper pattern from my skirt panels to create all new templates for the <<liste>> and <<bortgin>> just in case.
But.
I really want to use a technique used from the 16thC to lay the velvet to the support but… it goes against everything I normally do and ARGHHHHH!
So we have two garments that are well documented for laying guards to a ground fabric. Both use twists of silk to hide the raw edges as the guarding it left raw, rather than folded under, and in both cases there are regular little loops/scrolls of the twist onto the guards alternating with loops/scrolls on the main fabric.
I’m sorry, but that’s too much of a coincidence, and what artwork supports this frequency? I’ve spent so much time trying to find them, but can’t so what do I do? (What was she meant to do? Sorry not sorry about this obvious Six reference.)
It makes so much sense when you think in terms of a high output, many hands workshop. Of course it’s going to save money in terms of investment in the fabric, and of course it’s going to be labour intensive but with best predictable bang for buck.
I’m about ready to accept this is what I need to do- even if I use a machine to zig zag and even if I say No Way to the loops (Get Down with all the Six puns because they’re Not Going Away.).
But what I’m struggling with is the joins.
Oh yes.
It looks like joins in fabric are butted and not seamed.
Now this one is where my brain insists this is poor engineering just to save what? overall 10cm of fabric? In Cloth of gold that’s probably worth it. In velvet… okay that’s many times the amount of silk versus plain silk and it’s only a couple of hours of work to do some supporting stitches.
And this is why every project takes so long:
-I’m a Master Tailor without a workshop.
I pay for the fabric rather than passing the costs to a client. I’m drafter, draper, stitcher, cutter, historian, archivist, purchaser with no bargaining power. So while I know what 16thC practices were used and why? I’m not in a position to direct other people to to the work I shouldn’t be doing.
A disadvantage for my own output, but a fairly unique vantage to better understand the difference between 16thC and modern expectations.
Whoops. I have had to sort and categorise all my North Rhine research because I finally found a very small but very important stream of information in the form of both artwork and archives. One of the problems with both is being sure that what I’m seeing is indeed from the time.
One archive record I reread used a modern modern translation- both spelling and meaning- and I was about to put it in my stash of modernised records when I saw there was a scan, that while modernised it was not summarised so I was able to find the word in the scan. And yep. Modern translation and spelling but in a really easy to understand way so it means I now have a handful of matching modern records that I can use.
The second stream is potentially a record of four or five noble women that also confirm this. So another dissertation and journal on the way.
But all this tidying made it to my image files and I have now made 228 folders for individual paintings, and that doesn’t count the printed works and images of noble women. But it really has taken 15 years of repeated searches and not just in images and archives. I had to learn the dialect of the time to make sense. Interestingly one of the earliest articles I was sent (not OCR so I had to limit how much I hand typed from the 30 pages) confirms exactly what I have been reading.
But all of this needs to be presented as so many books are out of print, and I have had to back track a single repeated statement. I needed to do that as it’s become fact when it is really not at all.
I decided to try and overdye my velveteen (to extend my skirt panels for my red gown) one more time to get it to move from warm to cool red. It has not entirely worked but I think, I think it’s shifted it just enough for me to use it. So I have ordered some more magenta and also fuchsia Procion and some more soda ash.
I can at least now cut the velveteen to shape, overlock the edges and actually start to get my beloved dress wearable again as it has not been worn since 2006.
Even if I have to tint the original velveteen to match, I do have a really gorgeous rich red still. So time to get my skirt panels out to work on them.
I am currently making over all my jewelry for my Cleves ensemble so these are the references I am using.
One of the accessories Anne of Cleves wears is a striking collar like necklace made from wide stylised flowers set with large round gold beads between.
1539 nrw holbein anne portrait halsband1539 nrw holbein anne portrait miniature halsband1539 nrw bbda anne bernel halsband
This last version is most interesting as it matches so very closely to several other halsbander worn in cologne. Here are similar examples in chronological order.
1520 nrw unbek flugel frau mit 8 tochter 1 halsband (Also a wide kette around the gown opening)1520 nrw bbda beweinung christi halsband (a more standard kette worn over her shoulders as well.)1540 nrw bbda sibylla kessel halsband (A very wide ribbon type of kette outside her neckline)1538 nrw bbda flugel wolff frau mit 4 tochtern 1 halsband (compare her longer kette here to the extant examples below.)1565 nrw bbdj catharina von seigen geb kannegeisser halsband1575 nrw geldorp elisabeth von hackney halsband1587 nrw geldorp katharina von gail halsband
Of these most use a floral centre of some sort (passionflower maybe?) in a rounded/squared open worked gold with round gold beads/balls, at the points that the sections connect to.
Of the extant collars and gurdeln in the Nordrhein several use a hinge join between sections.
hinge: guertel heiligin anna, c1500 Dueren, St AnnaHinge: schuetzenkette, Goch, St Antonius, Emmerich
While others, usually the more open worked pieces, use a loop and ring.
Loop and ring: schuetzenkette sankt georgs bruderschaft, KleveLoop and ring: schuetzenkette sankt antonius bruderschaft, Kleveloop and ring: Schuetzenkette St Michael Bruderschaft, Goch
One final example uses loop and ring but further stabilises the pieces with stitches to a fabric base.
holes in each corner, thread in upper right corner and lower right corner: kette sebastians bruderschaft, Kalkarthread stitched through each loop at each corner: kette sebastians bruderschaft, Kalkar
I can’t seem to find the same kind of fastening between sections as used in the portraits but I hope also that these images help illustrate how very fine gold and silverwork was in this region and it was especially on display in these halsbander whether for personal or religious use. I also believe this kind of work was used on other accessories and my next post will deal with this.
Also of note, in this region a long kette (chain necklace) was worn but was usually of a single chain, occasionally of the latribbon type seen elsewhere but more often a simple solid oval ring, or ring with a slight twist to lay flat.
There are days my voice is Glinda clear, I mean bubbly and floaty and I can do trills and decorations. And then there are days like today. I think it is the RA. Inflammation seems to fit the bill.
I can at least sing early music. It just does not sound like me. It sounds somewhat appropriate if you think of reed instruments, but it’s not what I trained to get.
But, there are days where my voice is what I trained it to be. So I guess I have two voices due to RA. I have to think of it like that because I can’t predict exactly what day will be what voice and it’s not ideal for singing for an audience. I miss theatre so much. So much.
I did also spend a long time putting all my info for each and every portrait I have. And I still have a few hundred unattached files.
I also cut my Maria of Cleves gown lining, it’s been de-coloured and I will need to put it through a bluing wash after it’s washed properly.
I have been trying to work out if the Codice de Trajes can be trusted for the figures of women from Juelich. These are a lot of figures with nearly the same dress and sleeve arrangement after all and this is not an arrangement we see in the Bruyn portraits of women of Cologne.
1540s Julich nobility. Fig. 1, plate 42v, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Julich nobility. Fig. 3, plate 42v, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Julich citizen. Fig. 1, plate 43r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Julich citizen. Fig. 3, plate 43r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
I decided to treat these images as if they are representative of what I haven’t seen before, after all the rest of the figures really do match very well to imagery we have of dress across Europe.
We have a wealth of portraits of wealthy citizens of Cologne and a few precious images of Anna and her family. And these fragments of information do support this position as there are marked differences in style while maintaining features iconic of the region.
I am used to hanging sleeves of this region being made from the same fabric as the rest of the gown and lined in fur- and indeed even a very very fine fur that is often depicted as very delicate and very short and a very soft and thin skin- sometimes shown with the tails more often not. Sometimes these sleeves are pinned back and hide the outer.
However this is not what we see in the Juelich figures. And the Codies fortunately shows figures with sleeves of this arrangement to compare the treatment of this kind of turn back.
1540s Cologne Burger. Fig. 1, plate 45r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Cologne Burger. Fig. 1, plate 44r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Gelders nobility. Fig. 3, plate 33r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Gelders nobility. Fig. 2, plate 33r, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE: bdh0000052132
1540s Gelders Burger. Fig. 1, plate 33v, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
1540s Gelders Burger. Fig. 2, plate 33v, Codice de trajes, Christoph Weiditz. BNE bdh0000052132
In the Juelich figures we can see vertical gathers on the white hanging sleeve where it meets the fitted upper sleeve which does not indicate that the sleeves are pinned over.
I thought perhaps the way the book was created was from sketches Weiditz created during his travel and then he copied those into his book, thus maybe he did not take note of the colour of the hanging sleeves. His first book has been extensively studied but not this second so I am working with a lot of assumptions here!
I may be right, as the last figure (pink with black guards) is missing colour on her shoulder to our left. And the figure in yellow has some darker paint on her shoulder to our right which may indicate some trouble.
However this kind of separate soft and hanging sleeve is seen all over artwork of saints and allegorical figures and it does appear in different forms on portraits of women.
Freiburg, Münster, Stürzel Chapel, Stained Glass 1528 (Hans von Rapstein, Rappoltstein) after design by Hans Baldung Grien (copy, original in Augustinermuseum.)
These figures are not North Rhine but they are of the family of the founder of the Chapel. And the female figure in the middle of the right panel is wearing an example of the loose separate sleeve.
This is not conclusive obviously, however these sleeves are seen from the south to the north of the Rhine and so might be a kind of shared fashion.
It is tempting to call these “stoichen” after a term used in Cologne inventories as this has been taken to mean a kind of pendant sleeve. I had originally thought perhaps they were matching sleeves as the de Bruyn costume book shows quitely clearly little fasteners on several loose sleeves that match the same sort of detail seen on fitted sleeves (though they look like thumb tacks not pins.) I suspect this is still a term for the type of sleeve even if not a separate item.
1581 Cleves. Fig. 1, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
1581 Cologne, unmarried woman. Fig. 3, page 16, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
1581 Aachen, unmarried girl. Fig. 9, page 18, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
1581 Cologne, bride. Fig. 2, page 11, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
1581 Cleves, unmarried woman. Fig. 3, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
1581 Cleves. Fig. 2, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus […] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811
But here we do see that a short half length sleeve not only was in fashion in the later half of the century but also it does make for a very versatile garment. Sumptuary laws clearly show that the accessories were a very strong indicator of rank and so were very important. By alternating accessories and wearing the skirt open or closed the one dress can be worn in many ways.
Short half sleeves can also be seen in paintings. The earliest I’ve found is on a child before 1550 and then on adults after this date. These all are puffed not fitted.
But what of the paned sleeves? These are seen on both figures of Anna and Amela in the triptych of their family, while the rest of their court ladies have loose sleeves.
Anna, Maria and Amalia
This last portrait is frustratingly difficult to find the original. It was part of an auction on a site that no longer hosts the originals nor any information about the auction, and this is a zoomed view. But there is a very clear paned upper sleeve seen here. This is from a pair of portraits thought to be by the Bruyn workshop. They may have been restored or they may be copies as they do not have the same softness of features.
The half length paned sleeve is seen in allegorical and religious figures especially in sculpture.
Of special note is the figure on the far left as she has the same style of hat Anne wears in the triptych. A different kind of cap is also seen on a portrait of the Countess Emeza von Kappenberg as a sketch and detail of the Xantener altar.
The figure to the right of the group of three even has sleeves quite similar to the portrait of Maria (the mother of Sibylla, Anna, and Amalia.)
On balance it does seem more likely that Weiditz had access to images or people that are no longer represented clearly in the art we can easily access now. However elements of the style can be found both within the North Rhine and outside.
This painting has always been a bit of a mystery to me. It really does look like the work of Bruyn, her face especially but her dress does not look entirely as expected from Cologne, but it does not mean it isn’t North Rhine.
Last year the painting was taken out of storage to be studied. So far fake aging has been identified as well as an understanding that the crest was added in the 19thC.
I’ll be interested to know to what extent her clothing has been altered, one element rings as untrue and that is the cuff. Not for being rather flamboyant but how the red has been treated- I suspect it is the other side of the cuff but might have been repainted over the wrist as it it was decoration.
The paned sleeve is also seen in the Weidtz costume book and on the triptych on the figure of Amalia. But the specific style is straight from several Tom Ring portraits of women in the second half of the 16thC.
Interestingly while we are very familiar with the style of hat worn by Anne of Cleves I do have several instances of headgear that is very different.
Right now I am backtracking all my image references to group by date. So this is going to be a bit of a project but it is happening. This post has been brought to you by this search. I have a folder of a 215 images still to date, not including all the bildindex images that also need dates added.
But there will be a page on hats. Because they are extremely misunderstood. There are several forms and how they came about is very fun to track.
Sartor’s reproduction has a 36cm repeat of the pattern
So, for years I have wanted to recreate Anne of Cleves wedding gown or her black and gold gown. But I just have not found a brocade (or brocotelle, or cloth of gold) that really would match what I have seen or read.
Sartor’s other fabrics are magical, absolutely magical. But this weave, though it is 15th Century is closer to the fabric seen in the guarding of gowns all over the Saxon and Westfalen regions.
The fabric is being woven right now. So it’s not available as pre-order any more. I have enough to make the same style of dress as I have recently made or the same style dress as one of her mother’s gowns.
So this means I also need to publish my information about those images or this is my third pretty dress with no information.
I think I have a way to get through it though. I have a few blog posts already added. I just need to get all the Cologne information out first.
This means all the Bruyn portraits first.
Then I can do the Trachtenbuch information. (I have gone through what I think is finally all the books including the italian. I don’t think I have found any more images.)
Then the inventory information.
Or should I just publish the Cleves stuff. It would be out of context though. right lets see what the gallery functions of my blog can do to make it easier.
I think in Anglo-centric writings and art history there has been a lot of context missing when interpreting the clothing depicted in the portraits of Anne of Cleves.
I have also been looking through modelbuchs at embroidery and found some patterns that seem to be used in art (if not in entirely there are deer/hart that look to be worked in a similar fashion.
I was not able to find any pattern for the scrolling embroidery/weave of the fabric of Anna’s haube which reads “abon fine.”
This phrase has been interpreted to be her personal motto. However this same pattern is found on the clothing of other women across the Germanic states.
Burkmair was active in Augsburg and this portrait is of an Augsburg citizen.
Here the phrase is “a bon fino” In all cases “a bon” is contracted to read as “ABON.”
And on one of my favourite gowns of one of my favourite women in fashion history:
http://www.hdbg.de/portraitgalerie/gemaelde-18-zoom.php Bildnisdiptychon -Rechte Tafel: Bildnis der Maria Jacobaea von Baden, Herzogin von Bayern Maler: Hans Wertinger Datiert: 1526 Bild: Öl auf Holz, 69 x 45 – Inv.-Nr. 18
Of special interest is that his appears to be worked in pearls while the previous seem to be woven or embroidered in dark silk on gold, or may even be gold work.
Anne of Cleves has this motto in a similar pattern (capitalised on a geometric scroll effect outline, worked in alternating diagonal directions on a wide band.
Holbein’s portrait quite clearly show the design worked in red on gold. This may be woven as are most bands on hauben from this region. Most commonly they are purely geometric designs but of a similar scale.
Bruyn in particular captures the gold threads of woven patterns of women of Cologne.
St John’s copy of the Bruyn portrait (note the portrait I believe to be the original has a flat pearled baret masking the view of her haube. I believe the copies to not include the hat are copies as they do not perfectly represent the Stickelsche as it appears in work direct from Cologne. )
The design is worked upside down in comparison to all others (and this is repeated in other copies.) It is also worked in a pale colour, in the small digital copies it appears white or off white.
So this leads me to the most recently discovered potential portrait of Anna.
Having spent many years looking at Anne she doesn’t look anything like her. I have several portraits of the same women at different ages painted by the Bruyn workshop and there isn’t any resemblance to the Rosenbach portrait by Bruyn nor the Holbein portraits.
After a decade or more of looking at North Rhine paintings what sticks out to me is that this is absolutely not the clothing of Nobility of Cleves, Julich, and Berg. This is absolutely perfect for middle class clothing of Cologne. Very wealthy but very clearly of someone affected by sumputary laws.
Red velvet sleeves and brusttuchs are found repeatedly in inventories/documents of burgersfrau of Cologne.
The pendant is absolutely of a common shape, the girdle of a common type, the single wide chain necklance. Even the black on black fabric of her goller (kleyr) and gown.
The partlet under her gown is likewise of a type that puts her firmly in the city of Cologne.
It is also quite late in style. I would put this at 1550s. But this stage the Hat starts to look like a wing nut with a flat top and not just width at the upper side but lower side and is quite flat in regards to depth. And it very quickly changes shape again so that the sides sit much higher. After that it gets pinched back to the point it’s very hard to even see them behind the various linen pieces.
Commemorative paintings are not unusual, what is unusual is to lower the apparent status of the subject. Gold brocade trim on the gown at the very least would mark the subject as of nobility.
The painting looks from the surface to be from Bruyn’s workshop. The curved top of the canvas (though not the only shape), the shaded plain background, the flat table top in front of the subject. These are also seen in the other copies of the Rosenbach Bruyn.
Without access to information about the painting itself this asks many more questions than it answers.
In all the copies the words are upside down and in pale paint on warm gold. Could this indicate they are painted by someone not familiar with the physical properties of these hauben? Could that indicate they are all copies from outside of her homeland?
If so how can the details of this portrait match so well to the garments of burgersfrau of Cologne?
If this is by Bruyn (possibly the younger) does this mean the princesses could have worn clothing not indicative of their wealth? Or is this a deliberate statement?
Or could it be simply a portrait of an unrelated woman from Cologne?
There is very little in the way of imagery of real people from Cleves, Julich, and Berg from this time to be found online or printed in books. I have been very lucky to have a copy of the inventory of Jocabe of Juelich-Kleve-Berg but it is very definitely from a time where the Spanish influence has nearly overwritten the local clothing style. I have also been lucky enough to find/be lead to collections of inventories of women of Cologne.
A future blog post will explore the artwork of the Duchy, specifically those of the Duchess Maria and her Daughters (Sibylla, Amalia, and Anna.)
After years and years of searching I agree, yes, stickelchen does refer to headgear. It’s been harder to confirm than might be thought, however dictionaries of the region during the time frame that the term was used are rare. But one has been found. A copy and a transcription.
*faints*
“sticksel” seems to be the original term. But it still may refer to the band at the front, not the bulk of it.
Why is is so difficult?
A “stuck” is a piece and “stick” can refer to a pointed stick, literally, or embroidery.
And “chen” is a diminuitive. Also “gin.”
So little embroidery just doesn’t seem correct for a rather large hat.
And at the time “perlen” was most frequently used to describe pearled pieces.
Many of the headpieces were pearled, or made from gold fabric, or covered in netted work. Rarely do they seem to be embroidered in a general sense.
The front piece more regularly is decorated in pearls or jewels.
Clothing is also tough. There are lots of garments, but very little in the way of definition. Rock might be a gown or it may be a skirt alone. And the lovely huge inventory I have is full of spanish styles!
I’ll just have to take time to read the full texts not just skim! 😉
![1581 Cleves. Fig. 1, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-17-1.jpg)
![1581 Cologne, unmarried woman. Fig. 3, page 16, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-16.jpg)
![1581 Aachen, unmarried girl. Fig. 9, page 18, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-18-9.jpg)
![1581 Cologne, bride. Fig. 2, page 11, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-11-2.jpg)
![1581 Cleves, unmarried woman. Fig. 3, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-17-3.jpg)
![1581 Cleves. Fig. 2, page 17, Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus [...] de Bruyn. Rijsmuseum BI-1895-3811](http://www.arrayedindreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1581-debruyn-rijks-17-2.jpg)
