THE RENAISSANCE

<< DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY >>

"Crystallised glorias" (hymns to the Virgin) is as concise a defining of the nature

and spirit of this highest type of mediæval art--perfected in France--as we can

find. Here we have deified woman inspiring an art miraculously decorative.

Chartres Cathedral and Rheims (before the German invasion in 1914) with Mont

Saint Michel, are distinguished examples.

If the readers would put to the test our claim that woman as decoration is a

beguiling theme worthy of days passed in the broad highways of art, and many an

hour in cross-roads and unbeaten paths, we would recommend to them the

fascinations of a marvellous story-teller, one who, knowing all there is to know of

his subject, has had the genius to weave the innumerable and perplexing threads

into a tapestry of words, where the main ideas take their places in the foreground,

standing out clearly defined against the deftly woven, intelligible but unobtruding

background. The author is Henry Adams, the book, The Cathedrals of Mont St.

Michel and Chartres. He tells you in striking language, how woman was translated

into pure decoration in the Middle Ages, woman as the Virgin Mother of God, the

manifestation of Deity which took precedence over all others during the twelfth,

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and if you will follow him to the Chartres

Cathedral (particularly if you have been there already), and will stand facing the

great East Window, where in stained glass of the ancient jewelled sort, woman, as

Mother of God, is enthroned above all, he will tell you how, out of the chaos of

warring religious orders, the priestly schools of Abelard, St. Francis of Assisi and

others, there emerged the form of the Virgin.

To woman, as mother of God and man, the instrument of reproduction, of tender

care, of motherhood, the disputatious, groping mind of man agreed to bow, silenced

and awed by the mystery of her calling.

In view of the recent enrolling of womanhood in the stupendous business of the war

now waging in Europe, and the demands upon her to help in arming her men or

nursing back to life the shattered remains of fair youth, which so bravely went

forth, the thought comes that woman will play a large part in the art to arise from

the ashes of to-day. Woman as woman ready to supplement man, pouring into life's

caldron the best of herself, unstinted, unmeasured; woman capable of serving

beyond her strength, rising to her greatest height, bending, but not breaking to the

end, if only assured she is needed.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RENAISSANCE

Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

HE marked departure is necks cut square, if low, and elaborate jewelled

chains draped from shoulders, outlining neck of gown and describing a

festoon on front of waist, which is soon to become independent of skirt to

develop on its own account.

As in the fifteenth century, when necks were cut low off the shoulders, they were

on occasions filled in with tuckers.

The skirt now registers a new characteristic; it parts at the waist line over a

petticoat, and the opening is decorated by the ornamental, heavy chain which hangs

from girdle to hem of gown.

One sees the hair still worn coiled low in the neck, concealing the ears and held in a

snood or in Italy cut "Florentine" fashion with fringe on brow.

Observe how the wealth of the Roman Empire, through its new trade channels

opening up with the East (the result of the crusades) led to the importation of rich

and many-coloured Oriental stuffs; the same wealth ultimately established looms in

Italy for making silks and velvets, to decorate man and his home. There was no

longer simplicity in line and colour scheme; gorgeous apparel fills the frames of the

Renaissance and makes amusing reading for those who consult old documents. The

clothes of man, like his over-ornate furniture, show a debauched and vulgar taste.

Instead of the lines which follow one another, solid colours, and trimmings kept to

hem of neck and sleeve and skirt, great designs, in satins and velvet brocades,

distort the lines and proportions of man and woman.

The good Gothic lines lived on in the costumes of priests and nuns.

Jewelry ceased to be decoration with meaning; lace and fringe, tassels and

embroidery, with colour combinations to rival the African parrots, disfigured man

and woman alike.

During November of 1916, New York was so fortunate as to see, at the American

Art Galleries, the great collection of late Gothic and early Renaissance furniture

and other art treasures, brought together in the restored Davanzati Palace of

Florence, Italy. The collection was sold at auction, and is now scattered. Of course

those who saw it in its natural setting in Florence, were most fortunate of all. But

with some knowledge and imagination, at the sight of those wonderful things,--

hand-made all of them,--the most casual among those who crowded the galleries

for days, must have gleaned a vivid impression of how woman of the Early

Renaissance lived,--in her kitchen, dining-room, bedroom and reception-rooms.

They displayed her cooking utensils, her chairs and tables, her silver, glass and

earthenware, her bed, linen, satin damask, lace and drawn work; the cushions she

rested against; portraits in their gorgeous Florentine frames, showing us how those

early Italians dressed; the colored terra-cottas, unspeakably beautiful presentments

of the Virgin and Child, moulded and painted by great artists under that same

exaltation of Faith which brought into being the sister arts of the time, imbuing

them with something truly divine. There is no disputing that quality which radiates

from the face of both the Mother and the Child. One all but kneels before it. Their

expression is not of this world.

PLATE XXIII

Mrs. Vernon Castle who set to-day's fashion

in outline of costume and short hair for the

young woman of America. For this reason

and because Mrs. Castle has form to a

superlative degree (correct carriage of the

body) and the clothes sense (knowledge of

what she can wear and how to wear it) we

have selected her to illustrate several types of

costumes, characteristic of 1916 and 1917.

Another reason for asking Mrs. Castle to

illustrate our text is, that what Mrs. Castle's

professional dancing has done to develop and

perfect her natural instinct for line, the

normal exercise of going about one's tasks

and diversions can do for any young woman,

provided she keep in mind correct carriage of

body when in action or repose. Here we see

Mrs. Castle in ball costume.

Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume

That is woman as the Mother of God in art Woman as the mother of man, who

looked on these inspired works of art, lived for the most part in small houses built

of wood with thatched roofs, unpaved streets, dirty interiors, which were cleaned

but once a week--on Saturdays! The men of the aristocracy hunted and engaged in

commerce, and the general rank and file gave themselves over to the gaining of

money to increase their power. It sounds not unlike New York to-day.

Gradually the cities grew large and rich. People changed from simple sober living

to elaborate and less temperate ways, and the great families, with their

proportionately increased wealth gained through trade, built beautiful palaces and

built them well. The gorgeous colouring of the frescoed walls shows Byzantine

influence. In The Art of Interior Decoration we have described at length the house

furnishing of that time. Against this background moved woman, man's mate; note

her colour scheme and then her rôle. (We quote from Jahn Rusconi in Les Arts,

Paris, August, 1911.)

"Donna Francesca dei Albizzi's cloak of black cloth ornamented on a yellow

background with birds, parrots, butterflies, pink and red roses, and a few other red

and green figures; dragons, letters and trees in yellow and black, and again other

figures made of white cloth with red and black stripes."

Extravagance ran high not only in dress, but in everything, laws were made to

regulate the amount spent on all forms of entertainment, even on funerals, and the

cook who was to prepare a wedding feast had to submit his menu for approval to

the city authorities. More than this, only two hundred guests could be asked to a

wedding, and the number of presents which the bride was allowed to receive was

limited by law. But wealth and fashion ran away with laws; the same old story.

As the tide of the Renaissance rose and swept over Europe (the awakening began in

Italy), the woman of the gorgeous cloak and her contemporaries, according to the

vivid description of the last quoted author, were "subject to their husbands' tyranny,

not even knowing how to read in many cases, occupied with their household duties,

in which they were assisted by rough and uncouth slaves, with no other mission in

life than to give birth to a numerous posterity... This life ruined them, and their

beauty quickly faded away; no wonder, then, that they summoned art to the aid of

nature. The custom was so common and the art so perfect that even a painter like

Taddeo Gaddi acknowledged that the Florentine women were the best painters in

the world!... Considering the mental status of the women, it is easy to imagine to

what excesses they were given in the matter of dress." The above assertions relate

to the average woman, not the great exceptions.

The marriage coffers of woman of the Renaissance in themselves give an idea of

her luxurious tastes. They were about six feet long, three feet high, and two and a

half feet deep. Some had domed covers opening on hinges--the whole was carved,

gilded and painted, the background of reds and blues throwing the gold into relief.

Scenes taken from mythology were done in what was known as "pastille,"

composition work raised and painted on a gold background. On one fifteenth

century marriage coffer, Bacchus and Ariadne were shown in their triumphal car

drawn by winged griffins, a young Bacchante driving them on. Another coffer

decorated in the same manner had as decoration "The Rape of Proserpine."

Women rocked their infants in sumptuous carved and emblazoned walnut cradles,

and crimson satin damask covered their beds and cushions. This blaze of gold and

silver, crimson and blue we find as the wake of Byzantine trade, via

Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Florence on to France, Spain, Germany, Holland,

Flanders and England. Carved wood, crimson, green and blue velvets, satin

damask, tapestries, gold and silver fringe and lace. Against all this moved woman,

costumed sumptuously.

Gradually the line of woman's (and man's) neck is lost in a ruff, her sweeping locks,

instead of parted on her brow, entwined with pearls or other gems to frame her face

and make long lines down the length of her robe, are huddled under grotesque head

-dresses, monstrous creations, rising and spreading until they become caricatures,

defying art.

In some sixteenth century Italian portraits we see the ruff flaring from a neck cut

out square and low in front, then rising behind to form a head covering.

The last half of the sixteenth century is marked by gowns cut high in the neck with

a close collar, and the appearance of a small ruff encircling the throat. This ruff

almost at once increased to absurd dimensions.

The tightly laced long-pointed bodice now appears, with and without padded hips.

(The superlative degree of this type is to be seen in portraits by Velasquez (see

Plate IX).)

Long pointed toes to the shoes give way to broad, square ones.

Another sixteenth century departure is the absurdly small hat, placed as if by the

wind, at a careless angle on the hair, which is curled and piled high.

Also we see hats of normal size with many plumes, on both men and women.

Notice the sleeves: some are still flowing, with tight undersleeves, others slashed to

show full white sleeve beneath. But most important of all is that the general license,

moral and artistic, lays its ruthless hand on woman's beautiful, sweeping shoulder

line and distorts it. Anne of Cleves, or the progressive artist who painted her, shows

in a portrait the Queen's flowing sleeves with mediæval lines, clasped by a broad

band between elbow and shoulder, and then pushed up until the sleeve forms an

ugly puff. A monstrous fashion, this, and one soon to appear in a thousand mad

forms. Its first vicious departure is that small puffy, senselessly insinuated line

between arm-hole and top of sleeve in garments for men as well as women.

Skirts button from point of basque to feet just before we see them, in the

seventeenth century, parting down the front and separating to show a petticoat. In

Queen Elizabeth's time the acme of this style was reached by Spanish women as we

see in Velasquez's portraits. Gradually the overskirt is looped back, (at first only a

few inches), and tied with narrow ribbons.

PLATE XXIV

Mrs. Vernon Castle in Winter afternoon

costume, one which is so suited to her type

and at the same time conservative as to

outline and detail, that it would have charm

whether in style or not.

Victor Georg--Chicago

Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon

Costume--Winter

The second quarter of the seventeenth century shows the waist line drawn in and

bodice with skirts a few inches in depth. These skirts are the hall-mark of a basque.

Very short, full coats flaring from under arms now appear.

After the skirt has been pushed back and held with ribbons, we find gradually all

fulness of upper skirt pushed to hips to form paniers, and across the back to form a

bustle effect, until we have the Marie Antoinette type, late eighteenth century. Far

more graceful and séduisant than the costume of Queen Elizabeth's time.

The figures presented by Marie Antoinette and her court, powdered wigs and

patches, paniers and enormous hats, surmounting the horsehair erections, heavy

with powder and grease, lace, ribbon flowers and jewels, are quaint, delightful and

diverting, but not to be compared with the Greek or mediæval lines in woman's

costume.

Extremely extended skirts gave way to an interlude of full skirts, but flowing lines

in the eighteenth century English portraits.

The Directoire reaction towards simplicity was influenced by English fashion.

Empire formality under classic influence came next. Then Victorian hoops which

were succeeded by the Victorian bustles, pantalets, black velvet at throat and

wrists, and lockets.

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