Chiming in late, I'm afraid, but toss my reading into this camp:
On 10/20/2010 11:47 PM, Heather Rose Jones wrote:
Symbolic interpretation of armorial designs not intending to represent actual garments?
I suppose the garments *could* be made by a variety of conjectured methods, as others have pointed out, but I see nothing in other art of the period to indicate that it *was* done, at least not as routinely as this particular manuscript would suggest.
It's important to remember that the Manesse Codex consists of a series of "biographies" of historical courtly poets carrying out highly romanticized deeds of arms and love. Heraldic motifs and patterns are used throughout the manuscript, often as identifiers but also as part of the general aesthetic presentation, and at least some of the poets' heraldic coats-of-arms were likely invented for the purpose.
Remember also that stripes, particoloring, and similar colorful variations were a standard way of identifying "entertainers" in artwork of this period ... and all of these story subjects were entertainers.
--Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
