Nobelmente adornati: textiles, identity and status in quattrocento Italy

Authors

  • Jane Bridgeman University of the Arts London

Abstract

This article explores some examples of the well-established and widespread employment of textiles as signifiers of celebration and status in Italian Quattrocento ceremonial. Wearing costly textiles for clothing was a necessary prerogative of high status, but also an essential and recognizable attribute of important offices of state. In addition, furnishing textiles conferred prestige through the manipulation and embellishment of the environment surrounding authority. In this period when cities generally contained small populations whose members were acquainted with almost everyone, the formality of ceremonial and celebration was powerfully influential. It also served to create a distance between the ruler and the ruled. The sight of rare and costly silk weaves, exotic rugs and carpets inspired admiration, awe and respect. Amongst equals in both private and public ceremony they were an essential manifestation of courtesy and honour which served to enhance the authority of the principal participants.

Author Biography

Jane Bridgeman, University of the Arts London

Jane Bridgeman è laureata presso l’Università di Birmingham in Lingua e Letteratura italiana e in Storia del costume presso il Courtauld Institute of Art – London University. Ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in Storia dell’Arte. Insegna “History of Dress and Textiles and the History of Art and Design” in corsi universitari e post-lauream. La sua ricerca si focalizza sull’iconografia del costume e dei tessuti, in particolare nel Rinascimento italiano.
Ha tenuto insegnamenti di “History of Art and Design” presso numerose istituzioni universitarie, quali l’Università di Birmingham City, il Courtauld Institute of Art di Londra, la Middlesex University di Londra, il Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art di Ramat Gan e la Winchester School of Art. Attualmente insegna “Fashion History and Theory” presso il Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design (University of the Arts di Londra).
Collabora regolarmente con il Victoria and Albert Museum di Londra, dove tiene corsi sull’Arte e sull’Architettura del Medioevo, del Rinascimento e del Barocco europeo e nell’ambito del programma “Textiles: Ancient to Modern”.
Tra le sue pubblicazioni, A Renaissance Wedding. The Celebrations at Pesaro for the marriage of Costanzo Sforza & Camilla Marzano d’Aragona 26-30 May 1475, Harvey Miller/Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, London and Turnhout, 2013; «“A merchant in mottelee...” The dress of some medieval and early modern merchants trading in Italy and Flanders», in Anne Sutton and Caroline Barron (a cura di), Proceedings of the 29th Harlaxton Medieval Symposium, Shaun Tyas, Donington, 2014, pp. 378-91; «The Origins of Dress History and Cesare Vecellio’s ”pourtraits of attire”», Costume, The Journal of the Costume Society, vol. 44, 2010, pp. 37-45; «“...Una adorna e fresca cameretta”. Verso un’indagine sullo spazio domestico nel primo Cinquecento», in Jeannine Guerin Dalle Mese (a cura di), Il Bello, L’Utile, Lo Strano nelle Antichi Dimore Venete, Atti del Convegno, Castello di Lusa, Villabruna di Feltre 9-11 September 2005, Villabruna di Feltre, 2007, pp. 89-103; “Sumptuous silks. Textiles in Renaissance Italy”, in Zoe Hendon (a cura di), Woven Splendour: Italian Textiles from the Medici to the Modern Age, Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University & Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Middlesex University Press, 2004, pp. 14-21; «“I santi "gagliardi guerrieri”. Veste e armature nell'iconografia dei Santi Faustino e Giovita di Moretto, Ferramola e Moretto», in Massimiliano Capella, Ida Gianfranceschi, Elena Lucchesi Ragni (a cura di), Le ante d'organo del Duomo Vecchio di Brescia restaurate, Mostra al Duomo Vecchio, Brescia, Grafo Edizioni, Brescia 2004, pp. 65-67; «“A guisa di fiume...” I ritratti di Cesare Vecellio e la storia del vestire», in Jeannine Guérin Dalle Mese (a cura di), Il vestito e la sua immagine. Atti del convegno in omaggio a Cesare Vecellio nel quarto centenario della morte, Belluno 2002, pp. 81-94; «“Troppo belli e troppo eccellenti”, Observations on Dress in the Work of Piero della Francesca», in Jeryldene M. Wood (a cura di), The Cambridge Companion to Piero Della Francesca, Cambridge, 2002, pp. 76-90; con Karen Watts, “Armour, Weapons and Dress in four paintings attributed to Dosso Dossi”, Apollo, n. 456, vol. CLI, febbraio 2000, pp. 20-27; “Dress in Moroni's Portraits’”, in Peter Humfrey (a cura di), Giovanni Battista Moroni, Renaissance Portraitist (catalogo della mostra del Kimbell Art Museum), Fort Worth, 2000, pp. 44-52; «“Pagare le Pompe”: Why Quattrocento Sumptuary Laws did not work», in Letizia Panizza (a cura di), Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society, Oxford 2000, pp. 209-226. In uscita, “Bene in ordene et bene ornate: Eleonora d’Aragona’s Description of Her Suite of Rooms in a Roman Palace of the Late Fifteenth century”, in Robin Netherton e Gale R. Owen Crocker (a cura di), Medieval Clothing and Texiles, vol. 17, 2017, Woodbridge, pp. 107-20 (2017) e «“Habeant alia indumenta inhonesta”: aspects of late Trecento dress in Lombardy and the Veneto», in Robert Gibbs e John Richards (a cura di), Proceedings of the Scottish Trecento Seminar 3rd May 2013, University of Glasgow (2018).

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Published

15-06-2017

How to Cite

Bridgeman, J. (2017). Nobelmente adornati: textiles, identity and status in quattrocento Italy. Elephant & Castle, (16). Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/354

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No. 16 (2017): Fashion Lines

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Articoli

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