Frock Chick

I’m at the point with my research to feel confident to give myself a break but I’m so behind in getting my North Rhine gear finished including some alterations. I’m deciding which frock to give tube sleeves and which to leave open. I think I could convert my startling orange to a shorter kirtle and make tube sleeves to my red linen.

These later costume albums might overstate brightness but it would make a fabulous version of this:

I just love the orange tube sleeves as they remind me of the tube sleeves worn by a figure in two of Leyden’s paintings:

Playing chess:

Watching fortune telling.

They do appear all over tapestries, longer usually. And oh they are so beautiful.

And there is this sculpture of Saint Cecelia with the same tube sleeves- her left arm goes through the cut, her right arm through the wrist.

So much for lowlands, what about the North Rhine.

I cheated a bit in including Anna Tom Ring as she was further into Westphalia.

And the stained glass might have been restored. So much stained glass was dispersed when the French invaded. It’s good that it was all sold off rather than be destroyed but what a reality. Sadly the lack of understanding of North Rhine culture and dress means a lot of restoration inserted Flemish or German details that now wind up informing what we think of dress of the region.

And all of this of course comes back to my timeline being uploaded to wikipedia. It’s a kind of archive of my site that might survive me, and as there is full credit it’s not like researchers who need to date or fix a restoration can really easily find the timeline.

Anyway. I need to fix all my accessories and get photos. I really want to record my modular linen layers as they are based on extant items, and they make life so much easier in terms of comfort and ability to wash different layers differently.

Suddenly you find ALL THE THINGS! Finally finding people interested in the 16thC even if it’s only the first decade. A portrait that’s disappeared (sold at auction but I can’t find the catalogue) but includes completely new clothing information for children, a book on all the pieces at a Cathedral, a dissertation about the Cleves-England marriage that builds in a totally different direction that other authors that rely on the same resources he used but matches the day by day details in L&P, stained glass window book.

Seriously, just so very cool. I need to add some of the images to my timeline ASAP as the painting with new clothing information? Includes multiple depictions of the same pattern of goldwork on the kopfbedeckung in two, maybe three, other paintings. I think that might mean they are a specific pattern to a specific group of workers because I haven’t seen this kind of decoration elsewhere.

I have to admit I’m sort of working my way through all of the Codice de Trajes depictions of people in the North Rhine. It’s really fun but I’m suddenly faced with working with a synthetic for my Gelderlander frock and after so many years using them only for historic inspired work that I’m struggling a bit.

You see the stunning silk brocade loses it’s brilliance when it’s paired with even crimson. It is however stunning when paired with the magenta velvet ribbon I have been using on my farthingale. And that makes me want to use it to make a very different gown.

Yep that’s my Mantua fabric and you know… I’ll keep it that way. I think the power of the particular texture really does work best how I’ve already got it. But oh boy does that red velveteen cause it to flash beautifully. But it’s pleating that really makes the most of the shot taffeta.

The blue wool is documentable with rich reddish velvet so I think if I can push the red into true crimson I’ll be happy to use my blue wool.

There is going to be a heck of a lot of fabric dyeing but I’m also hoping to luck into a shade I can use for my pulled apart frock and so I probably should rest up from a week of exhausting health care.

Something that’s a bit of a myth in the historical costuming world is that you can’t use allegorical images for clothing information. But it’s not entirely true. I’ve been building up a collection of instances where both saints and background figures are based on real people. This is not new, I’m trying to get the examples specific to women’s dress. While organising some folders into what I like versus strictly catalogued I spotted these two images clearly use the same figure.

The family portrait that includes the young woman in red is dated to 1502 and is by Hans Holbein the elder.

HANS HOLBEIN D. Ä. (1465-1524)
Epitaph der Schwestern Walther: Heilung des Besessenen, 1502

The second image is also by Hans Holbein the Elder and approximately the same date.

HANS HOLBEIN D. Ä. (1465-1524)
Kaisheimer Altar: Darbringung im Tempel, 1502

I had both in my folder for deeply scooped necklines like this which is probably most famously represented in Bianca Maria Sforza’s potrait by Strigel.

Kaiserin Bianca Maria di Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1472 – 1510), Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

 I’m not going to lie, I’ve loved this gown since the time I only had low quality black and white prints to go by. So this may be what I make from the small amount of “Cranach” gold fabric I have. Oh no. No it’s okay, I can reuse my Heuke fabric into a ropa to go with my wool kirtle for a more comfy ensemble.

An upbeat title for what’s actually been a very tough week. I’ll get back to the title but I had to cancel my “Stickelchen” class. Barely a few hours before I needed to be asleep my pain levels were ramped up and despite being also fatigued I was no where near able to sleep. Horribly I’ve needed to recover as if I actually did do the class.

It’s hard to really explain fibro pain, despite being a classic patient in that I have a very strong and vivid memory and recall. So I should be able to articulate it better.

But if you’ve ever been in a situation where heavy machinery is used all day every day for a week then you know how noise and the deeper vibrations really drain your ability to concentrate and make you more aware of the noise not less.

The hyper stimulation that’s external is I think easier to understand, and respect, than when your nerves are doing it to themselves. But the effect on said nerves is still the same. They are firing overtime and no matter the cause the effect is the sensation that the external world has seeped into your blood and bone. You can’t shake it out. You can’t walk it off, and because so many of our senses are physically in our head and close to each other you find smell overbearing. Light is that much brighter. At least it’s fairly cheap and easy to gargle with mouth wash when taste starts getting in on the act.

But I’m taking this as an opportunity to further refine what I’ve been trying to articulate.

I have a timeframe in mind. And in the days since I’ve been working to make sure I’m properly utilising the work of researchers I need to rely on. For example I’m quoting from Textiler Hausrat and I’ve already found differences in translations I did a few years back and now.

I’ve got some more documents that are really patchily OCR ready which means I need a mix of A5 notebook compactness of terms to search for manually. OMG. Had I known this when I first accessed these I’d have already worked out where we have all gone wrong.

It helps that I can read these fairly easily. And much better than translation software for modern translations.

I am really excited by the prospect of both the research and making sides of all the hats. Especially given these were worn by my ancestors! Not the super OTT gold and pearlwork obviously, but Gelderland keeps springing surprises on me by how wonderfully Dutch and NRW influenced they are.

These two pages from the Codice de Trajes really do reveal this dual influence. And I love it.

Mr Carlo has made so much progress that today he got himself across the lounge three times and even meowed to me! His little mrr-ow? with the upward inflection that sounds like a question. He’s normally so chatty that this is absolutely a good sign. He’s now within the healthy weight range, but still low, so I think the vets want to make sure it’s stable.

We both are dealing with neuropathy from about the lower spine/hip, and probably for the same reason some erosion in our spines. Yeah I haven’t really written much about this but it sometimes makes it hard to walk as the numbness can work in a weird way that it feels like my hip and knees are not bending the right way. But it means I have a bit of understanding of what he’s going through too.

So I’m also trying to work on my own health because on top of this lower limb shenanigans I’ve been dealing with undiagnosed POTS* for a while. I need to swap from lying, to sitting, to standing to limit any kind of pressure from my lower spine but that’s meant my pulse shoots up with each and takes ages to come back down.

I do indeed use breathing exercises- I am a singer so breathing techniques are a thing I just do- and it does help me get through that without becoming anxious.

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. And yes I’ve on occasion stood up fast and then just dropped to the floor.

And another figure I’ve been interested in a very long time. It’s from The Book of Costume by Davenport. Like my figure from the Eton and/or Escorial Codices I have regularly tried searches based on the information provided in the figure descriptions. Normally a collection name . Even a reverse image search didn’t work.

Until it did. But not her. This is a pair of stove tiles at the Boston museum of fine arts and the details of the background match so perfectly. And now I realise why I thought she might have been part of an architectural element, the size of these tiles “68.6 cm (27 in.)” mean that yes the glazing blurs some fine details but they still show through.

DESCRIPTION Tile with portrait of Jacobea Maria of Baden.
PROVENANCE Igo Levi (b. 1887 – d. 1961), Lucerne. April 11-12, 1962, Levi sale, Weinmüller, Munich, lots 385-6. Edward M. Pflueger (b. 1905 – d. 1997) and Kiyi Powers Pflueger (b. 1915 – d. 2008), New York; 2006, bequest of Edward M. Pflueger and gift of Kiyi Powers Pflueger to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 26, 2006)

Stove Tile – Works – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (mfa.org)

But wait, there’s more.

DATE: ABOUT 1550
ACCESSION NUMBER: 62.618
Description Figure of Sybilla of Saxony, on yellow ground, in shell-topped arch in blue and green.
Green skirt with yellow, blue and brown bands, blue bodice with green, white blouse,
plumed hat.
Provenance Igo Levi (b. 1887 – d. 1961), Lucerne; April 11-12, 1962, Levi sale, Weinmüller, Munich. R. Thornton Wilson (b. 1886 – d. 1977), New York; 1962, gift of R. Thornton Wilson to the MFA

Stove tile – Works- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Firstly hooray for these two depictions of powerful women because despite idealised faces these tiles were important works of art that are about political connections and aspirations and that is predominantly through clothing.

Secondly this now lets me find my figure through an entirely new term to me, and let’s me imagine just how very vibrant this tile must have been. But first I need to prove she is on a tile, and hopefully identify who she is.

But I needed the translation and google translate did help: Ofenkachel I also tried the reverse to find the entire stoves in case any view revealed more uses of these particular kinds of tiles depicting clothing as revealing identity.

And wow. Also, oh no, another folder of new to me information including from archaeological finds, and unfinished tiles that really do reveal such an interest in essentially pretty clothing because aside from depictions of well known nobility, there are tiles that mimic the wedding dancer prints (a totally separate post for that.)

But I did eventually find her.

Ofenkachel-Paar
Datensatz 71298056
Aufsberg, Lala: Ofenkachel-Paar, 1961/1964
Beschreibung: Ofenkachel-Paar. Keramik, farbig glasiert. Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Deutsche Fotothek

So this must be the photo used after the sale/auction of the Igo Levi collection when the GNM purchased it. Unfortunately that’s as far as I can go as I can’t seem to search for either the provenance nor an Accession number. I may have better luck trying to identify her partner. Her clothing includes sleeves pinned back and her haube is distinctly shaped which reminds me of the Aldegrever wedding dancers. But I do think I’ll have better luck looking for his beard and short hair. They are almost certainly copied from printed works.

I’ve finally managed to connect appropriate accounts as I’m working on getting all my research actually published. This is from my talk at the Vision Symposium, and I’m having to edit down my over long extended paper because as I was editing I found some very cool new stuff.

These two quotes really neatly capture exactly why I’m so fascinated with our perception of Anne. While we think of the transactional nature of these marriages we tend to forget that marriage brings overt and covert changes. The overt being introduction of new ideas and fashions, the covert is the ability to travel ostensibly to merely have a catch up while actually being able to discuss great matters without record of them.

Letters could be intercepted, the ability to meet in person was much safer.

But I do love the shock of Marillac at the total lack of shame Anne expressed. It is an attitude that I think has shaped perception to this day.

I’ve also finally managed to get quality copies of references I really need and oh boy. Yes. I remember why they were so difficult to start with.

So connection is a very apt title for this post. I’m using the connections of the courtiers around Anne for one.

It’s the anniversaries of the celebrations of the marriage of Anne of Cleves so I thought I’d share an update.

Each time I follow another seam of evidence I come back to the same answer. Each time I try to break that answer, I find several authors who can back it up even more vividly with records.

I’m bothered by the misinformation about Anne existing in the first place, I suspect I know why it exists, but also by why we seem to keep repeating it as if the misinformation is real. Over the far more interesting pieces we have.

This even affects the artwork. The St John’s portrait is not original. It’s just not. There is confusion in every element of clothing that the workshop of a North Rhine artist just would not misunderstand.

These four images help explain. The left is a portrait of Elisabeth Bellinghausen. The luminosity and depth of facial features are distinctive. Next is the Bernal/Rosenbach portrait of Anne. The similarity of care in shadows around and under her chin follows the same care.

Next is the St John’s copy. While there is an attempt to copy her features it’s in a very different style.

To the right is a portrait said to be of Anne Boleyn with her features a bit cold, and pulled back. The St John’s portrait is more related to this than anything from the Bruyn workshop. She looks like she belongs on a playing card because of the flatness of the painting. The attempt to create dimension results in very hard lines around the eyes especially.

I suspect the Bernal/Rosenbach portrait was copied locally (the wood came from the Black Forest so I need to look into the trade in art supplies) and the artist tried to extrapolate what was going on under her <<benet/bonit.>> I suspect I might know why they didn’t just copy it, but that’s for a much more in depth chapter.

I also need to share the provenances of different portraits and that gets super weird. And results in some interesting takes in costume history books due to the incorrect attributions.

Today is a day many of us celebrate as part of tradition. Ours has changed a lot over the years and Mum and I both need to reduce the stresses that can come with preparing a fest with newer traditions. But it’s also a good time to ask what traditions to keep and what to discard.

Take how to lay out cutlery. It’s supposed to help us, but there are placement rules that mean left handed people are totally ignored. Then depending on where you live you are stuck with how many peas you can skewer with your fork or you can turn tines up and scoop the things.

If you are at a restaurant tradition says you wait for everyone, but I’ve been vegetarian most of my life and for some reason my food always arrived very early and would go cold before everyone else was served.

Eat that food as it’s presented because that’s what the chef put out and it’s supposed to be at perfect temperature when it arrives.

I learn rules so I know if they are based on safety, or about predictable results, or if why we do these have been forgotten over time.

My research into both Anne of Cleves and the various trades involved in producing her clothing and accessories, involves a lot of traditions and it’s really amazing how much is right there. I’m studying in a non traditional manner as well, yet also follows the path a heck of a lot of specialists have trod since antiquity. Many had to sneak into libraries but during my lifetime at least they have been so very open to all.