Week 26 - Fashion in the 15th Century with a little bit of Philosophy

"Lady in Yellow"

by Alesso Baldovinetti (1425-1499)

Alesso Baldovinetti's painting depicts the profile view of a lady

with whispy blonde hair set against a bright blue background.

The profile was used for portraits by many painters of the Early Renaissance.

Portrait of a Lady in Yellow, c. 1465 - National Gallery of Art, London

Baldovinetti's representation of a 'lady in yellow' shows the sitter almost to the waist.

Stitched to her sleeve is a pattern of three palm leaves

which is probably not merely a decorative pattern but the emblem of her family

 or of one into which she has married, or is soon to marry into.

She wears pearls on her head and around her neck which represents her wealth

and her hair is plucked back which was the fashion of the day.

Alesso Baldovinetti (14 October 1425 - 29 August 1499)

was an Italian early Renaissance painter, born in Florence to a family of a rich merchant.

He was a follower of the group of scientific realists and naturalists in art

which included Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano.

Tradition says that he assisted in the decorations of the church of S. Egidio,

however, no records confirm this.

In 1462 Alesso was employed to paint the great fresco of the Annunciation 

in the cloister of the Annunziata basilica.  The remains as we see them give evidence

of the artist's power both of imitating natural detail with minute fidelity and 

of spacing his figures in a landscape with a large sense of air and distance;

and they amply verify two separate statements of 

Giorgio Vasari - Italian painter, writer, historian and architect

concerning him: that "he delighted in drawing landscapes from nature exactly as they are,

 whence we see in his paintings rivers; bridges, rocks, plants, fruits, roads, fields,

  cities, exercise grounds, and an infinity of other such things," and that he was an

inveterate experimentalist in technical matters.

His favourite method in wall-painting was to lay in his compositions in fresco 

and finish them  a secco with a mixture of yolk of egg and liquid varnish.

This, says Vasari, was with the view of protecting the painting from damp;

but in course of time the parts executed with this vehicle scaled away,

so that the great secret he hoped to have discovered turned out a failure.

From 1466-67 date the "Annunciation wall"

in the Cardinal of Portugal Chapel, San Miniato, Florence

The Annunciation is placed over the empty throne that faces the tomb 

by  15th century Italian sculptor Antonio Rossellino

The background of cypresses and cedars is painted in fresco,

the wall, bench and figures were painted on oak panel.

The lily in the centre is carved and gilded.

 more about Alessio Baldovinetti:   here

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Back to Fashion:

Portrait of a Young Girl, 1465

attributed to Domenico Veneziano (1410-1461), alternatively to Alesso Baldovinetti 

Baldovinetti's style is marked by the influence of Veneziano,

who was active in Florence from 1439 to 1445.

 more about:  Domenico Veneziano

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Portrait of a Girl by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494)

 Domenico Ghirlandaio

An Italian Renaissance painter from Florence.

Amongst his many apprentices was Michelangelo

more about:  

Domenico Ghirlandaio

 by Domenico Ghirlandaio, c. 1490

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, 1488

by Domenico Ghirlandaio

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"Lady in Yellow"

Week 26, Diary 2011, National Gallery, London

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Know, first, who you are;

and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Epictetus

An artistic impression of Epictetus

Epictetus (AD 55 - AD 135) was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher.

He was born a slave at Hicrapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey),

and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece

where he lived the rest of his life.  His teachings were noted down and published

by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses.  

Heartfelt and satirical by turns, Epictetus has had significant influence

on the popular moralistic tradition, but he is more than a moralizer;

his lucid resystematization and challenging application of Stoic ethics

qualify him as an important philosopher in his own right.

read more:   Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
and: The Enchiridion by Epictetus

To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control,

 but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately.

Individuals, however, are responsible for their own actions,

which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.

Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable,

or from neglecting what is within our power.

As part of the universal city that is the universe,

human beings have a duty to care for all fellow humans.

The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness and peace of mind.

Une tres bonne semaine a tous!

Week 22 - Fashion of the past - "Tailoring"

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 Portrait of a Lady ('La Dama in Rosso'), about 1556-60

by Giovanni Battista Moroni

National Gallery, London

 Giovanni Battista Moroni, c.1525, Albino - 1778, Bergamo,

was a North Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period.

He is also called Giambattista Moroni.

Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy,

he is considered one of the great portrait painters of sixteenth century Italy.

 The Gentleman in Pink, 1560

Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo

 Woman in a Red Dress, c. 1560

Gemaeldegalerie Dresden, Germany

Portrait of a Soldier, 1555-59

Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Tailor, 1570-1575

 
Giovanni Battista Moroni's The Tailor - a portrait of a man in cream doublet and red hose,
looking steadily and sensitively out of the picture as he poses, scissors in hand,
to cut a piece of black cloth - is one of the greatest paintings in the National Gallery, London.

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THE TAILOR:  IN MEMORIAM

by Irene Musillo Mitchell

Written in honor of her father, Michael Angelo Musillo,

who was born in 1899 in Motescaglioso (Basilicata), Italy.

He emigrated to America in 1920; he lived in the Bronx,

and died on August 13, 1956.

Here two stanzas from the poem:

I

I am a tailor from the old world.

My craft is dying.  Each tailor who goes is an end - let it be.

The old world is crumbling; there is no place in the new,

For the honored work, of an old humanity:

For the slow, patient labor of a simpler day;

For the personal, the fine work, detail - feeling becomes form;

And what is a man but his touch, his expressiveness through his metier.

The old customer who understood quality, goods, design,

Who was pleased with fastidious workmanship is passing away.

The new, accustomed to facsimile, duplicate, the ready-made,

Dulled by the prevalence of mediocrity is unable to evaluate.

He wears my coat but he is wanting in stature; his measure is small:

The new world extolling mechanical power has minimized him.

But my work is rooted in traditions affirming his unlimited potential.

My coat is cut to the man, his tone, his stance, his gesture -

The man at his best.  Stitches, darts, facing develop a theme.

Seams join, hems turn, the iron defines - a world is configurated:

I shape my life into design, the tailor and the boy who dreamed....

Brioni School still life

VI

I am a tailor from the old world.

My craft is dying.  Each tailor who goes is an end - let it be.

Declining, caught between modernity and its won flickering light;

Understanding progress, non-comprehending its willingness to subdue humanity;

Man, individual endeavor, its measure of the significance of life:

An opus mastered, a flawless coat - man bringing into form:

The children hand in hand on Easter morning,

In suits that poured from me like a fevered song:

Non-comprehending its willingness to efface diversity,

To integrate cultures into wholes without quality,

without color, without scope:

I am the cobblestone street in the ancient world,

The boy intoning Latin absorbing the old church modes.

(I find this very true and touching)

from:

  A documantery on Italian Master Tailors

more

here

*****

The Old Tailor

Photo by Mehmet Akim

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The "new" Old Tailor
..."Mark Hutter works by the light of the window"...

The Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site

  The art of cutting

The word "tailoring" means "the art of cutting" in many languages, and indeed,

it is the cut of the fabric that makes...... read more  here

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Ready for "tailoring"

Old French Farmers Linen from the 19th Century

Chanvre - pure hemp - dyed in a kind of dark grey, coarse weave

suitable for pillows, upholstery, table runners, other small projects, or...and...

Chanvre - pure hemp - here in a kind of medium grey

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 left hand side: pure linen with hemp in a kind of light grey (not blueish, fine to medium weave)

on the right: Chanvre - pure hemp in a earth color - beige, see photo below

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 Top: Linen with hemp in light grey (not blueish)

middle and bottom: pure hemp

 this photo shows nearly the right color of the linen with hemp(bottom piece)

The mesurement of this sheet: about 100" long by circa 75" wide, with center seem, all hand stitched

Weight: 1,8 Kg  -  suitable for all kind of projects...pillows, curtains, napkins, table cloth......

and cloths like blouses, trousers......

 here again nearly the right color - its so difficult to photograph natural linen!

(the photo is a close-up, the weave is fine to medium!)

To give an idea about the quality: The weight of a sheet this size in pure hemp will be around 2 to 2,3 Kg

to be continued.....slowly but surely!

From the catalogue of  the Mutual Tailor Company of Chicago, 1916

(source: internet)

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Bonne Semaine!

Week 21 - Fashion in the 17th Century

Fashion and costume

have always formed an integral part of society, class and individualism. 

The Diary 2011 from the National Gallery, London,

explores a variety of trends depicted by a selection of the world's finest artists.

For this week:

Anthony van Dyck, 1599-1641

 


The Balbi Children - Anthony van Dyck, about 1625-7, detail

Diary 2011, May Week 21, National Gallery London

Van Dyck used Genoa as his base during his six-year stay in Italy

and spent most of 1625-7 in the city enjoying great success as a portraitist.

This work, traditionally entitled 'The Balbi Children' 

because it belonged to the 18th-Century collector, Costantino Balbi,

shows three young aristocratic Genoese children who remain unidentified.

It has been suggested that they are members of the Franchi family,

whose arms contained a black crow,

but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim.

Portrait of Marchesa Balbi, 1622-1627

The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA

Self-portrait, 1613-14

He painted this Self-portrait when he was only 14 or 15 years old.

How amazing and what a talent!

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Sir Anthony van Dyck - 22 March 1599 - 9 December 1641 -

was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England.

He is most famous for his prtraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland

and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the

dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years.

He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, 

displayed outstanding facility as a draftsman,

and was important innovator in watercolour and etching.

'Portrait du Roi Charles I a la chasse, vers 1635'  Louvre, Paris

In France before 1738;

purchased by Louis XVI. from Madame Du Barry in 1775

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Antoon van Dyck (his Flemish name) was born to prosperous parents in Antwerp.

His talent was evident very early, and he was studying painting with Hendrick van Balen by 1609,

and became an independent painter around 1615, setting up a workshop with

his even younger friend Jan Brueghel the Younger.

By the age of fifteen he was already a highly accomplished artist, 

as his Self-portrait, 1613-14 shows.  He was admitted to the

Antwerp painters' Guild of Saint Luke as a free master by February 1618.

Within a few years he was to be the chief assistant to the dominant master of Antwerp,

and the whole of Northern Europe, Peter Paul Rubens, who made much us of

sub-contracted artists as well as his own large workshop.

His influence on the young artist was immense;

Rubens referred to the nineteen-year-old van Dyck as "the best of my pupils".

The origins and exact nature of their relationship are unclear; it has been 

speculated that Van Dyck was a pupil of Rubens from about 1613,

as even his early work shows little trace of van Balen's style,

but there is no clear evidence for this.  At the same time the dominance of Rubens

in the small and declining city of Antwerp probably explains why,

despite his periodic returns to the city, Van Dyck spent most of his career abroad.

In 1620, in Ruben's contract for the major commission for the ceiling 

of the Jesuit church at Antwerp, van Dyck is specified as one of the "discipelen"

who was to execute the paintings to Ruben's designs.

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In 1620, at the instigation of the Duke of Buckingham, 

van Dyck went to England for the first time

where he worked for King James I & VI, receiving 100 Pounds Sterling.

It was in London in the collection of Earl of Arundel that he first saw the work of Titian,

whose use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational,

offering a new stylistic language that would enrich 

the compositional lessons learned from Rubens.

The more intimate, but still elegant style

he developed in England, ca 1638

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In 1620 - After about four months in England he returned to Flanders,

but moved on in late 1621 to Italy, were he remained for 6 years,

studying the Italian masters and beginning his career as a successful portraitist.

He was already presenting himself as a figure of consequence,

annoying the rather bohemian Northern artist's colony in Rome,

says Bellori, by appearing with "the pomp of Xeuxis... his behaviour was

that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, and he shown in rich garments;

since he was accustomed in the circle of  Rubens to noblemen,

and being naturally of elevated mind, and anxious to make himself distinguished,

he therefore wore - as well as silks - a hat with feathers and brooches,

gold chains across his chest, and was accompanied by servants.

Italy:

He was mostly based in Genoa, although he also travelled extensively to other cities,

and stayed for some time in Palermo in Sicily.  For the Genoese aristocracy,

then in a final flush of prosperity, he developed a full-length portrait style,

drawing on Veronese and Titian as well as Rubens' style from his own period in Genoa,

where extremely tall but graceful figures look down on the viewer with great hauteur.

Genoan hauteur from the Lomelli family, 1623

In 1627, van Dyck went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years,

painting more affable portraits which still made his Flemish patrons look as stylish as possible.

He was evidently very charming to his patrons, and, like Rubens,

well able to mix in aristocratic and court circles,

which added to his ability to obtain commissions.

London:

Van Dyck had remained in touch with the English court,

and had helped King Charles' agents in their search for pictures.

In April 1632, he returned to London, and was taken under the wing of the court immediately,

being knighted in July and at the same time receiving a pension of £ 200 per year,

in the grant of which he was described as principalle Paynter in ordinary to their majesties.

Children of King Charles I

Children of Charles I - a few years later in 1637
(the "little one" no longer needs a rostrum)

Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, UK

King Charles I was the most passionate and generous collector of art among the British monarchs,

 and saw art as a way of promoting his grandiose view of the monarchy.

He was extremely short (less than five feet tall)

and presented challenges to a portraitist.

This triple portrait of King Charles I

was sent to Rome for Bernini to model a bust on

During his time in London, van Dyck was provided with a house on the river Blackfriars,

then just outside the City and hence avoiding the monopoly of the Painters Guild.

A suite of rooms in Eltham Palace, no longer used by the Royal family,

was also provided as a country retreat.

His Blackfriars studio was frequently visited by the King and Queen

(later a special causeway was built to ease their access),

who hardly sat for another painter whilst van Dyck lived.

Self Portrait With a Sunflower

showing the gold collar and medal King Charles I gave him in 1633.

The sunflower may represent the king, or royal patronage.

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James Stuart (1612-1655), Duke of Richmond and Lennox

by Anthony van Dyck, ca. 1634-35, Oil on canvas (216 x 127 cm)

Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

James Stuart, fourth duke of Lennox,

was made first duke of Richmond by his cousin, Charles I, in 1641,

he married Mary Villiers, daughter of the king's favorite, the duke of Buckingham.

It has been suggested plausibly that van Dyck painted this canvas in London just before 

or after his stay in the Netherlands (early 1634 to early 1635) 

in order to celebrate Stuart's investiture into the Order of the Garter in November 1633.

The order's insignia are conspicuously displayed 

amidst van Dyck's masteful description of luxurious materials:

the silver star on the mantle; the red and gold Jewel,

or lesser George, on the green ribbon (to which the greyhound seems to refer);

and the garter itself, behind the bow at the duke's left knee.

The composition recalls Titian's famous Charles V with a Hound, 

which was then in Charles I's collection.

A preparatory sketch of the figure 

and a sheet bearing two studies of the dog are in the British Museum, London

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

and His Brother Lord Francis Villiers, 1635

Windsor Castle, Royal Collection

Princess Henriette Maria of France

Queen consort of England, 1632

Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, UK

*****

But now back to the 21th Century 

and La Pouyette....in France...

 salmon colored Oleander starts flowering

Honeysuckle - Lonicera Caprifoliceae

on the back wall of the house, next to the window of the laundry room, 

filling the whole area with an infatuating perfume!

Lonicera japonica

Evergreen twining climber. Height up to 10 meters (70ft), frost hardy.

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 another Honeysuckle on our front field...

 Lonicera japonica 'Halliana'  -  not evergreen, also frost hardy,

 already in full flower, nearly 2 month earlier as 'normal'!

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and....

 .....all these old linen, washing - dyeing - experimenting......

and the colors don't even suit me....!

...apart from all that...it is far too hot....

nice cool spot.......

...much better...

Why do you disturb me??? Laisse moi tranquille!

Bonne Semaine

P.S. by the way....

dyeing old linen...

making slowly progress...

 trying to get all kind of beige, gray and natural colors

   

more about...soon in a future post 

about dyeing linen: see also www.trouvais.com - Trish