I have been told that the common method (at least for Italian painters of this period) was to be granted a relatively short audience often while the subject was doing something else and the prinicipal artist would bring several apprentices with them each one would be give a task to pay attention to the details of a particular part of their appearance e.g. one is told to sketch the dress, another the jewelry, another their accessories etc. while the principal artist pays attention to the face.
Thanks to everyone who has replied it has certainly helped. Elizabeth On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Sharon Collier <sha...@collierfam.com>wrote: > It may even be like Copley, the American painter did----Paint the same > dress, and just add the face of the person you are painting. I often wonder > if the painter had the gown on loan and painted it, in its minute detail, > without the subject having to sit there all day. Or maybe the painter > embellished from his imagination. > Sharon C. > > -----Original Message----- > From: h-costume-boun...@indra.com [mailto:h-costume-boun...@indra.com] On > Behalf Of lynlee o > Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 5:04 PM > To: h-cost...@indra.com > Subject: Re: [h-cost] partlets > > > > > > > Hi, > > I am not nearly as experienced here as most of you, but looking at the > pictures, what I see is not "always brocade with brocade" or "always black > velvet if plain", but that "the partlet always matches another fabric in > the > dress". The black velvet partlet matches the black velvet on the sleeves, > the brocade partlet matches the brocade in the dress. I don't think that > from 3 or 4 images you can make any tighter assumption. Unless you are > doing > an exact reproduction of a picture, I do not think anyone can call your > plan > "unsupported". > > It appears to me that the partlet fabric was likely chosen to balance the > design and/or make best use of available fabric. I am sure the gowns in > pictures were a tiny minority of all gowns made and probably chosen as > those > with the best sense of symetry and balance to the eye of the painter rather > than painted to be a representation for "today in fashion". I believe > details were included to show allegorical and political messages, rather > than photographic-style accuracy in many paintings. The whole painting was > to represent the person to the world as they wished to be seen, they may > not > have even been wearing brocade on the day! Note that there are different > brocades in exactly the same colour pallet. I believe this is evidence of > massaging reality with artistic licence. > > Lynlee > > >I've been planning some fabric purchases with a new Tudor court gown > >(in a 1540s - 1550s style) in mind and have ordered some red silk > >taffeta I was originally planning to include a matching partlet but I've > encountered a problem. > > >The portraits I can find are either plain black silk with a matte > >(probably > >velvet) partlet e.g. > >a velvet gown with a matching velvet partlet e.g. > >a brocade gown with a matching brocade partlet e.g. > >What I can't find is a gown made of a plain coloured (for these > >purposes I'm not counting black as a colour) silk (e.g. satin or > >taffeta) with a partlet. > > >This evidence leads me to two possible conclusions either the only time > >a partlet is not made of velvet is when it's a brocade or that if you > >have a coloured gown you make the partlet out of the same dress. > >So I'm hoping that either somebody else on this list has a better art > >collection than me and can provide an example of a coloured silk gown > >with a partlet or, failing that, somebody can make a good logical > >argument why one is more likely than the other. > > -- > ------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > -- ------------------------------------------ Elizabeth Walpole http://magpiecostumer.wordpress.com/ http://magpiecostumer.110mb.com/ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
