Florentine Dress

This collection of images was assembled to help me research early 16th century Florentine dress for one of my recent costuming projects. Although there are several different styles of women's dress that can commonly be seen in art from this period and region, I am specifically looking at gowns with three major characteristics: contrasting colored guards on the bodice and hem, full tied-in sleeves, and a slightly raised waist-line. I have also included a section of paintings that come from artists working outside of the Republic of Florence, but they show a striking resemblance to the fashions found in the Tuscan region. I have posted them along with the other images to point out the similarities in dress throughout a variety of Italian city-states and to explore variations on the Florentine fashion trends. Although I have included a few notes next to the thumbnail images on this page, you can also read a more complete overview of the fashions in an article on style and construction. You can see my interpretation of a Florentine gown in my personal costume gallery and you can read more about the construction of this gown in my dress diary. And finally, there are two other image galleries tracing the evolution of women's costume in Florence for the 25 years both before and after the years covered on this page.

	Raphael: The Woman with the Unicorn, 1505 Galleria Borghese, Rome Nice view of the pleating. From the looks of the jewelry and mythical iconography symbolizing her virginity, I would guess this was a wedding portrait of upper class woman.
	Raphael: The Mute Woman Galleria Nazionale della Marche, Urbino The lack of jewelry and apron in this example might seem to suggest a middle-class woman, but the blackwork on the chemise, extremely fine silk veil covering her shoulders, and multiple rings are all subtle signs of material wealth.
	Raphael: Portrait of a Woman (La Donna Gravida), 1505-1506 Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence The gown worn during pregnancy.
	Raphael: Portrait of Maddalena Doni, 1506 Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence Good view of this style of dress with a front laced opening. When the front lacing is not present, I am assuming the bodice was laced on the side, as back views never seem to show an opening there.
	Andrea del Sarto: Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1513-1514 Museo del Prado, Madrid Since we know this is an artist's wife, we can probably assume that she is a middle class woman. The striped turban is also quite interesting.
	Andrea del Sarto: Birth of the Virgin (detail) 1513 SS. Annunziata, Florence Notice the two standing women who are carrying their past-floor-length overskirts. They have the very wide sleeves that are similar to styles worn in Spain during this same period. You can also clearly see the slippers on the floor and box-pleating on the skirt of the servant to the far right.
	Andrea del Sarto: Miracle of the Relics of St. Phillip (detail) SS. Annunziata, Florence What appears to be the patron (lady in green) and servant (to the far left) both seem to be wearing this style of gown. You can also see a bit of the curved or V-shaped back of the neckline.
	Andrea del Sarto: Lightning Strikes the Blasphemers (detail) SS. Annunziata, Florence Lovely striped sleeves and matching stockings!
	Andrea del Sarto: The Curing of the Possessed Woman (detail) SS. Annunziata, Florence On the far left, you can just barely make out some slipper style shoes being worn by two ladies. The fainting woman's bodice seems to have a slightly heart-shape to the neckline (this neckline is common in other styles of Florentine dress).
	Andrea del Sarto: Presentation of the Head of the Baptist (detail) Cloister of Lo Scalzo, Florence Back V-shaped neckline on the servant, and the other woman appears to have the wide open sleeves flipped back to reveal tighter undersleeves.
	Bacchiacca: The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist (detail), 1520 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Nice view of the two types of sleeves commonly worn with this dress. Both sets of sleeves have tassels hanging from the cuff.
	Fra Bartolomeo: Deposition, 1515 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence I can't be completely sure this is the same type of dress, but it looks similar, just with the sleeves removed. Note the curved back neckline, the absence of visible lacing, and what might be cartridge pleating on the skirt
	Giuliano Bugiardini: Portrait of a Woman, called "The Nun", 1506-1510 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Although these gowns were typically very colorful, they occasionally can be found in black. I think the white strips on the shoulder might be the same thing worn by Tudor women. It could be a scapular, which would denote religious devotion and could play a part in her mistaken identity as a nun.
	Giuliano Bugiardini: Portrait of a Young Woman, 1525 National Gallery of Art, Washington Another turban, and notice how the bodice becomes lower cut and the waist higher at this late date.
	Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio: Portrait of a Woman, 1509 Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence Nice decorative border on the chemise.
	Bacchiacca: A Lady with a Nosegay, 1520's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston A bit of a transitional style gown--the sleeves are still tied in with large poofs of the camicia showing at the shoulder, but they are a style that is much more typical for the years 1525-1540, with a very full upper-sleeve and tight forearm.
	Plate with Maiolica Artist (detail), 1510 Victoria and Albert Museum, London The woman has a few unusual features in her dress, including what looks like metal tips on the sleeve ties, a greenish neck-covering, and a beaded girdle.
	Bust of an Old Woman Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge This ceramic sculpture could have been a mocking look at old age, or possibly a portrait of a female dwarf or jester. But either way, it is interesting to see the Florentine style of dress in a comical mix of colors and patterns!

Just to keep things a little better organized, I have made a second grouping for related styles that are technically not from Florence, but still provide important clues to the study of this style of clothing. Most of these works are from other central Italian regions, but they show a remarkable correlation to Florentine fashions. Others were created by foreign artists who were known to visit Italy or paint Italian women. To get a better idea of the origin of these works, you can check out this map showing the political divisions of Italy around the year 1494.

	NEW! Sodoma: Great Cloister (detail), 1505-1508 Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Siena Finally! A back view of the hair nets! It also shows another example of striped sleeves in the Tuscan region of Italy.
	Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio: Portrait of a Young Woman Castello Sforzesco, Milan This dress shows the same black brocade fabric being used for the sleeves and guards on her bodice. Although I haven't seen any reference to who the woman was or where she was from, the artist's workshop was in Milan, so I've moved it to this category just to be safe.
	Lorenzo Costa: Portrait of a Woman, 1500-1506 The Hermitage, St. Petersburg A similar gown to all of the other red and black gowns show above, but the artist mainly worked in Bologna and Ferrara. It looks like there might be some blackwork on the chemise encircling the sleeve at the shoulder, but I can't see it well enough to say for sure.
	Pinturicchio: Scenes from the Odyssey (detail), 1509 The National Gallery, London Although this is from a mythological scene and was painted in Siena (which is only 35 miles from the city of Florence), a female servant is shown in a style of dress that is just like the Florentine gowns. I was really excited when I saw this picture, because it shows another type of shoe--don't they look just like modern Mary Janes?!?
	Pinturicchio: The Betrothal of Emperor Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal (detail), 1502 Libreria Piccolomini, Duomo, Siena The artist is from Siena, and the women are Portuguise, but the gowns look like elaborate versions of fashions seen in Florence. But most interesting to me is the great view of the hairstyles.
	Lorenzo Costa: Allegory of the Court of Isabella d'Este (detail), 1504-1506 Paris, Louvre Two more examples of the wide flared sleeves on women from Ferrara.
	Lorenzo Lotto: Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (detail), 1521 The Gemaldegalerie, Berlin The female donor in this images is from Bergamo, and her dress with the wide split sleeves are a bit more Spanish than most Florentine examples, but I have included it because it shows a nice side-view of the hair net and band so often seen in Florentine fashions.
	Albrecht Dürer: Adoration of the Trinity (detail), 1511 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Dürer was a great German artist who painted Italian women on a number of occasions, and here he portrays St. Catherine in a dress very similar to those seen in Florence. The main variation is in the sleeves, which are a tight, split style common to Florence and other areas at the end of the 15th century.
	Vittore Carpaccio: Holy Family with Two Donors (detail), 1505 Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon This dress is a bit of an anomaly - it was extremely rare to have a bodice and sleeves in a print with a solid colored skirt at this date, but otherwise it seems to fit the description for the type of dress I am studying. The artist was Venetian, but I have read that the donor in this painting was from some other area, although they didn't know where.
	Judgement of Solomon (detail), 1500-1520 This maiolica dish was possibly made in Deruta, Umbria, and although it doesn't show the typical puffs of chemise at the shoulder, it does show a interesting back-view of a long, bound hairstyle and an embroidered apron.
	Venetian School: Portrait of a Lady, 1525 National Galery, London Here is another Venetian take on the basic Florentine design. Extra embellishment was added by using brocade instead of a solid fabric, and the guards now contain elaborate designs. However, the basic construction, hair net, and camicia visible under the arm remain the same.