A Step Through Time
"Conspicuous Consumption with Elegance"
Reconstructing
History
Venetian Noble Women's Dress
Late Sixteenth Century
Introduction
Buon giorno!
In this Step through time you are welcomed to a little slice of sixteenth century Venetian life.
Italy of the sixteenth century was regionalized and political boundaries were more pronounced. Each region had its own political structure, foods, wines, customs, social structures and dress codes. Little has changed today with the exception of the politics. Of these regions the most exotic in Italy and indeed Europe of the sixteenth century was Venice.
Venice was the cross roads of east and west. Where as other region of Italy were under foreign rule and occupation at the time, Venice clung desperately to her republican status. Late in the sixteenth century was Venice was in decline, not that you would have known this by the way her citizens conducted themselves. The men of Venice were as most other men of Europe at the time, leaders of the community, holders of public officers, prominent in society. The Courtesans of Venice, for which Venice had reached some notoriety, were allowed a certain freedom unlike the common prostitutes of the time and have been almost beatified by some.
But what of the noble women of Venice? The women who were left at home to care for their husbands affairs while he was at war with the Turks, or off pursuing his more carnal interests with those other women of Venice. This exhibition will look at the dress that a Venetian Noble woman would have worn.
This is an overview of the courtly dress of Venetian ladies of the mid
to late 16th centaury. Various laws dictated the limits on what a citizen of Venice
was permitted to wear. As with most
laws at the time, if you had enough money you could pay off officials so that
you could get around such laws.
If you had money and position you could afford to eat, and eat well.
Venetians, or just about any other renaissance ladies of position for
that matter, were not small lasses. If
there were a term to describe Venetian dress it would be ‘Conspicuous
Consumption with Elegance’. How many ways can you
show off your wealth and position? One
is to have a well-fed, well-attended and well-dressed wife.
And these ladies wore it very well indeed.
While first impressions of this style was that it was a simple style, further investigation of this dress type has proven that there is more than meets the eye.
Venetian Noble women followed some of the same dress rules that were seen elsewhere in Europe at the time. Skirts and sleeves were long. Underwear was basically the same as elsewhere also with base elements of an underskirt, carmicias (chemise), and corset. From there on it was rather different.
As there are no extant dress from Venice at this time this exhibition relies on recreations by enthusiasts of the style to give a practical demonstrations of the dress of the day.
Front Page Introduction Principles of Design 1555 Titian 1560 Veronese 1570 Veronese 1580 Vicellio Accessories Lace Textiles Patterns About the Designers Further Reading
All intellectual content, composition, layout, designs and photographs, unless otherwise noted are copyright 2007 to Deborah Lane ©, or, copyright 2003 to Deborah Murray © also known as Mistress Oonagh O'Neill ©. All Original renaissance art works and artefacts are not copyright to Deborah Murray, and are shown for educational use only . If you see something you'd really like to use, please contact me!