otsisto wrote:
-----Original Message-----
otsisto wrote:
http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=547
<She is wearing a fantasy creation that combines the most recognizable
elements of the sideless surcote (which was traditionally used for St.
Catherine but is by now a century out of date) with a hodgepodge of elements
of more recent
styles. The dress most definitely never existed.
This one will have to go into my collection of "weird Catherines." I have a
lot of those.
The same artist did multiple Catherines. Compare the Minneapolis example
with this one at the Philadelphia Museum of art, likely painted a decade or
more earlier:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/102091.html?mulR=26001
He did a lot of other paintings of female saints, too -- it was a specialty
of his, apparently -- and I'm sure he mixed and matched elements repeatedly.
--Robin
What threw me off is that the front, because of the "chains"? looks like a
wide front Burgundian. The belt is similar the belts worn with the wide lace
front.
The wide front opening and the belt are two of the elements the artist picked
up from contemporary fashion and threw in the blender here. The wide opening
seems to be used in art of this place/time in certain contexts, such as
adolescent girls, certain young female saints, and other youthful or
nubile-seeming females. I wouldn't use this to document the use of the wide
front opening in routine wear for noblewomen, never mind the combination of
this front opening with other elements of the dress.
I personally would read the horizontal lines as braided lacing rather than
chains, but in this context, it could be anything. I'd have to see the
painting to get a better idea. Again, whatever it is, it is not a reliable
source for what was actually worn. Basically, when you deal with an image like
this, by the time you figure out which elements are real (by comparing with
more reliable sources), you have enough other, better examples in hand.
--Robin
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