22-09-2018, 07:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 22-09-2018, 10:45 AM by davidjackson.)
Without wanting to overly muddy the pond, it may be worth considering the sumptuary laws. True, they were ineffective but they would have permeated into popular culture, and hence could give a hint as to the social status of the figures under consideration.
On a different note, I consider the dress to be quite Italian in fashion - we're basically looking at the chap in the forefront of this painting by Sandro Botticelli (Italy, 1470), but with a hat on his head. (And the hat may have been coloured in later, remember). It's a short overgarment worn over a doublet.
![[Image: Botticelli_magi_detail.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Botticelli_magi_detail.jpg)
The colouring on the figure is quite suggestive. It is coloured in a very slapdash fashion, in a green wash colour that is not very common within the book, and the strokes are diagonal against the grain of the figure. The hat has been crudely outlined and then badly coloured in using broad stokes of a much stronger nature than the main figure. It's as if they did the hat first and then finished off the body.
Most floppy hats of the era had trailing fabric, as in this example by Petrus Christus. But such hats would be expensive and belong to the aristocrats. I'm not sure how this would fit with the doublet clothes. The way I see it, the hat and the clothes belong to two different outfits, and could represent a carnivalesque inversion of order.
![[Image: Petrus_Christus_003_detail.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Petrus_Christus_003_detail.jpg)
On a different note, I consider the dress to be quite Italian in fashion - we're basically looking at the chap in the forefront of this painting by Sandro Botticelli (Italy, 1470), but with a hat on his head. (And the hat may have been coloured in later, remember). It's a short overgarment worn over a doublet.
The colouring on the figure is quite suggestive. It is coloured in a very slapdash fashion, in a green wash colour that is not very common within the book, and the strokes are diagonal against the grain of the figure. The hat has been crudely outlined and then badly coloured in using broad stokes of a much stronger nature than the main figure. It's as if they did the hat first and then finished off the body.
Most floppy hats of the era had trailing fabric, as in this example by Petrus Christus. But such hats would be expensive and belong to the aristocrats. I'm not sure how this would fit with the doublet clothes. The way I see it, the hat and the clothes belong to two different outfits, and could represent a carnivalesque inversion of order.