Illustrated Handbook of Western European Costume

Thirteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Century

Iris Brooke

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780486149127
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Modedesign

This valuable survey uses theatrical costumes as contemporary clues to the wearing apparel that was in vogue in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Flanders from 1260 to 1840. Enhanced with the author's charming, accurately rendered illustrations, the study meticulously describes more than 200 costumes. Immensely useful to costume and cultural historians. 176 black-and-white illustrations.

INTRODUCTION

IN view of the highly finished productions of period plays and adaptations from the old masters of dramatic art to be seen in the theatre of to-day, it seems hardly credible that a little over a century and a half ago the production of any play, however ancient its origin, was performed in the contemporary habits of the actors and actresses—little or no attempt being made to reproduce the author’s original vision of his work.

With the advancement of interest in so-called ‘ Period plays ’ and films of historical interest, a wider knowledge is perhaps desirable of how any playwright or author originally saw his characters clothed.

The purpose of this book, then, is to give some of the more unusual styles and fashions worn since the theatre commenced to be a leading interest in Western Europe, and also to give the names of several authors whose work may possibly be utilized for theatrical purposes again.

That the early dramatists wrote much that has not been used on the stage or screen is an undoubted fact, and many themes for very attractive productions are still to be found in the plots of the old Italian, Spanish, and very early French authors.

The northern European countries were probably too concerned with the religious aspect of the theatre to adventure far into the fields of romance and fantasy, and it was not until the end of the sixteenth century that the secular stage was an established feature in Germany and Holland.

A rather difficult problem arises here concerning thesimplest means of classing the various countries or dukedoms that went to the eventual composition of Germany as we know it to-day.

As this book does not pretend to give an historical and geographical record, it will perhaps be easier to follow if they are collectively alluded to as ‘ Germany ’ Strictly speaking, the term is rather wide of the mark, because each and every division had its own particular style and fashion, and it would be almost an impossible task to sort and name them all. I must, therefore, plead the excuse that their relativity to the theatre is practically negligible.

For those who are not consulting this book in a theatrical light, but merely from the point of view of contrasting styles in European clothing, there are sufficient examples in the ensuing pages to give quite a comprehensive knowledge of the various differences in cut and style without plunging into the intricacies of the history and geography of Germany.

It must be borne in mind that, although at certain times the clothes worn in two different countries at corresponding dates are strangely different, it is quite probable that they might have been both worn in the same town at the same time.

People travelled a great deal, in spite of the dangers and difficulties they had to face. And in many records of the period one finds allusion to the strangeness of a foreigner’s clothing, and how certain travellers were forced to adopt the clothes of the country in which they were travelling so that they did not advertise their nationality.

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries seem to have most striking differences in national styles, or this may possibly be more obvious because of the scarcity of existing examples of the earlier centuries. It is nevertheless a curious fact that countries so far apart as Spain and North Germany happened to be wearing almost identical styles at identical dates during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To whom goes the credit of their original inspiration ?

The fourteenth century gives even more food for thought in this respect, because the styles were not, strictly speaking, entirely practical and obvious as were those of the thirteenth and earlier. The cut-away cote-hardies and surcoats of the fourteenth-century ladies were universally worn, and they certainly appear to our modern eyes as a mere freak of fashion, for they served no particularly useful purpose. The same might be said of other eccentricities of the century—long-tongued sleeves, tippets, the pocket-like slits in the gowns, the curious liripipe and hood, and numerous other peculiarities.

Many of the differences in styles may be put down to the different types of materials spun and woven in each country.

That the warmer countries were privileged in this essential may have had a lot to do with so many styles being of Spanish and Italian origin. Both sheep and silkworms can flourish in a warm and temperate climate. The northern countries were either forced to pay colossal sums for their imported silks or else to clothe themselves in wool and cotton—thus we see so many of the German and Dutch styles in heavy materials enlivened with linen collars and other extras. At the same time, France is privileged to adopt both styles, and Italy and Spain luxuriate in a wealth of brilliant shimmering silks.

The colours, too, were affected by the fabrics on which they were applied. And as the art of dyeing had not advanced to quite the remarkable range which we have at our disposal to-day—the silk and cotton fabrics only would take the pastel shades. Wool—being of a brownish grey when natural—must always have slightly dulled the brilliance of the finished article.

A point of great value to the would-be producer of plays of this period is that, as there was no imitation silk with its crude brilliance, the mat surface of silks was neither attempted nor attained—silks of the Middle Ages and sixteenth century glistened with a lustrous sheen—the higher the reflective values the better the silk, and many clever effects can be arranged with the assistance of a brilliantly shining material in conjunction with a heavier, more sombre, fabric.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY

THE aim and scope of this book is to point out differences in costumes, and the manner in which those costumes were worn at corresponding dates, in the more important countries of Western Europe—France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands—also to give their connexions in relation to the theatre and dramatists contemporary with them, in the hope that any one wishing to obtain information regarding a dramatist’s work at a certain period may be able, with the least possible research, to ascertain the principles governing the methods of dress at that particular date.

Several difficulties arise to harass and obscure the student’s views on this subject. Possibly the most trying is to separate the peculiar persistence of buffoonery and masked slap-stick comedy from the themes of traditional drama. A Comic Theatre existed and flourished as early as the fourteenth century, and in the sixteenth century the now familiar figures of Pantaloon, Harlequin, and Punchinnello, derived perhaps from the old Roman Theatre, make their appearance in every country in Europe. The last remnant of these eccentricities are still to be found in our Christmas Pantomimes of to-day. Their fantastic human animals, clowns, columbines and harlequins, and boisterous, childish buffoonery—in conjunction with a time-worn but pretty theme to please more sugary sentiments—owe their origin to the Profane Theatre of the Middle Ages and the Jugglers’ and Fools’ Fair of earlier days.

Secular drama of the Middle Ages abounded in theatrical disguises—false heads, fools’ caps, masks, patchwork coats (harlequin again), and a sort of pseudo-Greek armorial effect—the latter reserved for the most part for the more religious aspects of the production. It is almost impossible to separate the Secular from the Religious—as far back as the thirteenth century. So many plays or mimes were written as an expression of satirical gibe—and a moralistic attitude towards the sins of the flesh—that a heavy religious flavour might creep into a peculiarly obscene text. The reflection on costume with these semi-religious plays is too intricate to attempt to deal with, and we therefore must content ourselves with the more straightforward productions and those written in the style of Revues or Comic Opera.

As this book is to deal with contemporaneous clothes and their relation to the theatre, there is little worthy of note prior to the institution of the Profane Theatre— during the second half of the thirteenth century. Earlier than this the theatre in Europe was regarded purely as a means of making Biblical scenes more realistic. Miracle plays were perhaps the earliest method of religious instructions commenced at a date when almost the only educated people were to be fou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustration
• Volume One : Thirteenth To Seventeenth Century
• Volume Two : Seventeenth To Mid - Nineteenth Century
• Index To Both Volumes.