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| Marie-Louise de Tassis by Van Dyck |
This started when someone posted a detail of a SebastianVrancx painting onto the English Civil War (ECW) and Mid-17th Century LivingHistory Group page on Facebook, the detail is in the bottom right of the painting. Whileothers were discussing the fact that she’s wear a partlet under her gown I waslooking at two other features. First since she is taking off the gown, thepainting is entitled travellers attacked by robbers, you can see that it is abodice with a skirt attached, an over gown. Second that she has “viragosleeves,” and as the museum date the painting to 1617-19 these are early.
The over gown.
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| 1620s and 1630s outfits from Kelly and Schwabe |
Over gowns with separate skirts attached to them rarelysurvive from this period, the only adult one I can think of is the 1639 gownworn by Pfalzgrafin Dorothea Maria von Sulzbach.(Arnold, 1985) The loose gownsexamined by Janet Arnold cover the period 1570 to 1620, but they are one piecefrom shoulder to ground, and the next examples are the manutas from the late1690s, early 1700s, again one piece from shoulder to ground.(Arnold, 1977) There was asurviving over gown of the 1620s in France before the Second World War whichappeared in Kelly & Schwabe’s (1929) book HistoricCostume 1490-1790, shown left. I have no idea where this garment is now, it was originallyin the collection of the Société de l’Histoire du Costume, Paris. This is thesort of over gown which appears in the Vrancx painting and here in theVan Dyck portrait of Portrait of Marie-Louise de Tassis. In the Van Dyckportrait, like the example in Kelly & Schwabe, the virago sleeves are onthe under bodice, and the over gown has a simple sleeve open at the front andcaught together only at the cuff. Whereas in the Vrancx painting the viragosleeves appear to be on the gown. The pattern in Kelly and Schwabe is describedas after Leloir, Leloir’s Histoire du costume, tome VIII, Louis XII (1610-1643)was not published until 1933, but the authors acknowledge his help in theirintroduction. The pattern gives only the under bodice and the bodice of theover gown with no pattern for the skirt, nor any information as to how it wasattached, and is shown below.
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| Pattens from Kelly and Schwabe |
Emily Gordenker(2001) has commented thatVan Dyck, in his later years, removed the over gown from the ladies he paintedin order to simplify the garments worn, so that he could paint the costume morerapidly. However the gown does appear to be going out of fashion by the middleof the century, though at least one of Hollar’s Ornatus prints seems to show thisstyle.
The sleeves.
According to several sources Randle Holme in his Academie ofArmory, 1688, described virago sleeves as ‘The heavily puffed and slashedsleeve of a woman’s gown, then fashionable.’ I haven’t actually been able tofind this quote. Comments I can find in Holme are that sleeves have “As muchvariety of fashion as days in the year,” and “The slasht-sleeve, is when thesleeve from shoulder to the sleeve hands are cut in long slices or fillets; andare tied together at the elbow with ribbons, or such like.” When looking at a series of dated women’sportraits the earliest I have previously found was 1620 and the latest 1632,giving a fashionable period of some ten years. There is some slashing at thetop of QueenAnne’s 1617 sleeve in the painting by Somers, but it is not a viragosleeve. In most of the portraits the virago sleeve is on the garment worn underthe gown and not, as in the Vrancx painting, on the gown itself.
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| Hollar. Plate from Ornatus |
Bibliography
Arnold, J., 1977. Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860.London: Macmillan.
Arnold, J.,1985. Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men andwomen c. 1560-1620.. London: Macmillan.
Gordenker, E.,2001. Anthony Van Dyck and the representation of dress in seventeenthcentury portraiture. Turnhout: Brepols.
Kelly, F. M. andSchwabe. R., 1929. Historic costume. 2nd ed. London: Batsford.
Somepaintings with virago sleeves.
PrincessMagdalena Sybilla, unknown artist c.1630
Queen HenriettaMaria by Mytens 1630
QueenHenrietta Maria by Anthony Van Dyck
GraceBradbourne (d.1627), Wife of Sir Thomas Holte attributed to Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen
CharlotteButkens, Lady von Anoy, with her son. Anthony Van Dyke C. 1631
AbigailSacheverell, Mrs Humphrey Pakington by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen 1630
KatherynSpiller, Lady Reynell attributed to Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen 1631
ElizabethWriothesley, née Vernon, Countess of Southampton, unknown artist, c.1620
