The Pearl of Venice

A Venetian Gown of the 1510's

By Signora Catalina Doro

 

Introduction

Like a middle sister, the fashions of Venice in the 1510's are often overshadowed by the more glamorous and extreme fashions of the 1490's and the 1560's. Nonetheless, there is much to be said for this 'plain sister,' and a wealth of good research to be found. The art and written history of the time indicates that, as always, Venetian fashions were like nothing else in the world at the time.

What made the Venetian fashions unique at this time were the extremely wide and deep necklines, exposing a great deal of skin and the fantastic, flamboyant sleeves.

Examples of concurrent styles of fashion from other regions:

German

ENglish

Florentine

DESIGN

I took the design for the gown from three pieces of period art, each of which shows the subject from a different perspective. By using three contemporary paintings, I could bring together all the elements of each into a style that could have been worn in the period.

The first painting I used as a source was Portrait of a Young Lady by Pietro degli Ingannati, c. 1515, Staatliche Musuem, Berlin. This painting was used for the sleeve cap design, the shape of the bodice and waistline, and the trim design.

Daughter of Herodias by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1510, National Gallery, London, is the second source for the gown. I used this for the trim in the back and as an example of how the sleeves could be managed in a working situation, as well as the pleating of the skirt.

The last source is Palma Vecchio's The Three Sisters, 1515, Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Dresden. This was used for the details of the sleeves (the slit and pleating) as well as the bodice trim design and skirt pleating.

               Portrait of a Young Lady,                      Daughter of Herodias
        Pietro degli Ingannati, circa 1515             Sebastiano del Piombo, 1510


 


            The Three Sisters, Palma Vecchio, c.1520

 

 

Sleeves

During the first half of the sixteenth century Venetians were obsessed with sleeves. In a custom unique to Venice, all (male) patricians and citizens over 25 years old were members of a body known as the togati (Newton, 9). By definition, this body had a uniform, which they believed to be a form of toga. Ranking in the Togati, and in the city in general was indicated by the cut of the sleeves of your toga. There were four standard cuts, each limited to a different social and political level. The beauty of this system is that at a glance, one could tell who the 'powerful' people in a room were, hence their importance in the Venetian mindset.

 

Lorenzo Medici, Francesco Sassetti and his son,
Ghirlandaio, c1485


Women, of course, were not allowed to be a part of the togati or wear their uniforms, but their fashions were influenced by it in two important ways. First, the body passed numerous sumptuary laws governing what the ladies of Venice could wear, regulating the size of their sleeves, the amount of trim and the type of fabric that could be used; and second, the women's sleeves were often cut with a very clear awareness of the regulated Toga cuts. This was especially prevalent in the period from 1510 to 1530, during which the sleeves were large, full and specifically patterned after the sleeves of the men's Togas.

A gown with the extremely large dogale, or bell shaped sleeve, the cut of which was reserved for the highest rank of the Togati would be considered a provocative, and possibly garish, display of wealth. The more common a comeo sleeve, used by the lower ranks of the Togati, in which the fullness was caught up in a restraining cuff would be thought of being a more modest and appropriate display, as well as being more functional.

The sleeves for my gown were taken from all three of my painting sources. They each show different views of what I believe to be the same cut, which would be called dogale in period.

The Three Sisters gives us a view of the sleeve unbound (for this project, I'm using the sister on the left). It is large and conical in nature, with a slit revealing the lining (and possibly an under sleeve) along the seam that runs along the top of the arm. In The Three Sisters and in the Ingannati Pietrodegli portrait we see that the sleeve cap has been pleated to form the actual edge of the neckline, which seems to be unique to this period and location.

In Daughter of Herodias the sleeves are rolled up and either pinned or bound in some way with her camicia. This is a really important painting for me, because it shows how women handled these large sleeves when they were active. The subject's arms are bare and unencumbered past the elbow.

Bodice

In Venice between 1510-1540 bodices all had wide, boat-shaped necklines, which ended at or slightly above the natural waistline. Three different variations have been found.

The most common is tightly fitting, cut to cover the tops of the breasts, with no obvious openings and closings. This style is the basis for my gown. The other styles were one that is shaped the same as the first, but with an opening going down the front of the bodice that was tied closed with ribbons, and one that was cut below the breasts, leaving the breasts covered only by a chemise. This last style was often shown in art as being worn with a fur caplet.

 

                   

                       La Schiavona           Woman In Blue,             Portrait of a Lady,            

The shape of all of these styles indicated that there was some reinforcing of the bodice, but the is no indication of the stiffness associated with a corset, which is compatible with the historical record. The women in the source paintings are all women of size and their curves are not only evident, but also enhanced. This shape leads me to believe that the bodices were lined (a common period practice) and it is possible that the ladies had some additional form of support, which is still unknown. Possibly their breast were bound with long strips of linen, or they had an 'under bodice' or 'pair of bodies', which while not having the stiffening power of a reeded or boned corset, would have provided the needed shape. Unfortunately, there is no art or extant garments that answers the question definitively.

The gowns in The Three Sisters and Portrait of a Young Woman are trimmed with an embroidery pattern running horizontally across the front, very close to the neckline, with a secondary design going down the center front of the bodice. Daughter of Herodias does not present a front view, but more interestingly, we have a back view (rare and treasured in garb research) that shows a similar line of trim running along the back in the same location as we found it in the front of the other examples. In Daughter of Herodias the trim is a contrasting color, where as in the other two works, the trim matches the color of the gown.

 

 Skirt

The Ingannati Pietrodegli portrait does not show the skirt at all. However, in Daughter of Herodias we see the top of a closely pleated skirt, and in The Three Sisters, while the left sister's skirt is mostly hidden, the center sister has what looks to be a cartridge pleated skirt attached to her bodice. Other art from the period consistently show full, heavily pleated skirts that fall more or less straight to the floor. There is no indication of stiffening or hoops, leading one to believe that the skirts followed the natural line of the body.

 

Fabric

By the 1510' Venice had become one of the centers of silk production in the western world. The city's location gave it an advantage in trade, which the city leaders were quick to capitalize on. Merchants from all over Europe traded in Venice, giving the city a cosmopolitan culture unique to the rest of Italy. For a Venetian woman silk, wool, or a blend including one of these, were the available fabric choices for a gown. Wool was highly common, so much so that it was usually referred to as pano, the word for 'cloth' (Newton, 21).

Red was the most common color for Venetian gowns, as evidenced both by historical records and by art of the period. Red was also one of the colors that the men's Toga
could be made in, the others being black and a dark purple called paonazzo, so we know it was plentiful. Gowns would often be lined with linen or fur for winter use.

Venice was involved in a number of wars during the 1510's, so the city government passed regulations to limit the expense that could be spent on clothing to conserve needed funds. One of these regulations was that fabric had to be 'plain', meaning without a patterned design woven in. In art of the period, we see that these laws were obeyed for the most part. Velvet was still used freely, but the artfully woven damasks and brocades of the previous decades are missing. In their place are plainly woven, darkly colored wools and silks. This regulation was not long lived. By the 1520's Venice's political fortunes had improved and the lushly patterned fabrics had returned.

 
Construction of this gown can be found here