Natalie Burrell

FCSFA 360 History of Costume

Portrait Assignment
The Renaissance era is known as the period of transition into the
modern day. The Baroque era comes from the Portuguese term
irregular pearl because of its strangeness and irregularity. Fashion in
15th century Europe was taken to the extreme with embellished floor
length gowns and overstated headdresses. Men wore breeches that
were tapered at the knee and a ruff made of highly starched fabric
around the neck. Men also wore a peascod belly, which was a puffy
version of the doublet. The Baroque era also emphasized lavish
ornamentation. They had more free and flowing lines than that of the
Renaissance and it was also less delicate. Clothing styles were affected
by the changes in the arts. According to our book, The fashionable
dress of men and women in the second half of the seventeenth century
interpreted the regimented ceremonial, the disciplined restraint and
the academic precision of French modifications of an earlier exuberant
Baroque.
The Portrait of a Lady in White by Moretto da Brescia, an Italian
artist, was created in circa 1540. The woman who was painted by
Brescia is wearing a white farthingale, and a green petticoat
underneath that. A petticoat is a type of underskirt. The skirt of the
farthingale opens at the front, you can see a little bit of the petticoat

underneath that which seems to be made of brocade or a velvet fabric.

Around the waist is a ruffle that is the same width as the farthingale.
Her hair is pulled back from her face and rolled into the crown of her
head, known as a coif, and dressed high with what looks like lace and
maybe jeweled decorations. She has a high neckline with ruffles on her
chemise that you can see at the neck area and at the wrist area. It
looks like she has a bum roll on also. You cannot see from the waist
down but she most likely has a floor length dress and duckbill shoes,
which were wide toed shoes that were popular during this time period.
She is most likely wearing a corset. The bodice and the skirt were sewn
together. The bodice narrows into a V shape and small waistline. Her
sleeves are quite bulky and puff out around the shoulder and close
fitting to the wrist. Her jewelry consists of what looks to be like a
rosary, five sets of ten beads. She is also wearing a shorter gold
necklace that has what looks to be jade or green stones in it. She is
wearing gold earrings and three gold rings. She seems to have a type
of handkerchief in her hand.
Portrait of a Lady by Pieter Nason is a work of art from the
Baroque period, circa 1683. The Baroque style emphasized more free
flowing lines than that of the Renaissance time period. The undermost
garment that the woman in the painting has on is most likely a
chemise made of linen material, same at the Renaissance. She
probably also wore an under petticoat and draws. Normally, gowns

were made with bodices and skirts sewn together as one of several
layers. She has on a corset, which was a stiff garment that comes into
a V shaped stomacher at the front of the garment. She has what looks
to be a lace whisk, a wide lace collar or band of linen, which you can
see at the sleeves and around the neckline, which could mean royalty.
Her sleeves are very full. Her neckline is low with a slight V, but more
horizontal. Her sleeves are set low on the shoulder and opened at a
puff at the end of the sleeve. Her dress seems to be made of a heavy
satin fabric in the color black. She has a broach at the top of her bodice
connected to a shawl that is wrapped around the back of her that is
probably made of silk. She has a middle part in her hair and drawn
back into a chignon at the back of her head and arranged in curls
around her face. Although you cannot see the bottom half of her outfit,
she is most likely wearing wooden soled shoes with no heels that were
popular of the time and kept them out of the wet streets or pointed toe
shoes with thin heels made of Brocades or leather for more fashionable
shoes. The jewelry that she is wearing is all pearls, which could also
indicate wealth. She has large pearls in her ears and a string of pearls
around her neck. She also has a gold ring on her finger, most likely a
wedding ring.
Both of the paintings are portraits of women who seem to have
higher standings and are possibly wealthy. They both are wearing
jewelry with expensive stones. Both of the women have V shaped

bodices and the skirt and the bodice on both of them are sewn
together. The first painting of the lady wearing white has a high
neckline while the second paining has a much lower neckline that is a
little bit off the shoulders. The woman in the first painting had sleeves
that went all the way to her wrists and the woman in the second
painting only had three quarter length sleeves. They most likely had
different shoes that werent wooden like the Baroque. They are quite
different in many ways but they have some similarities.