> Re the perception of color in these portraits: > For you who do dyeing (Natural or otherwise) did the color of dyed > textiles > of the past change because of exposure to sunlight or was there some > chemical element that was not always stable and would mute or even mutate > over a period of time. In the present world, I have seen color changes on > bolts and even garments that have never seen the light of day go entirely > from one color to another. > For instance, there is a certain grey from the middle of the 20th C, that > seems to change to pink within a 40 yr. span. My daughter"s pale blue > taffeta promgown from the 1990s is now a sort of interesting pale rose. I > have a bolt of rayon velvet from the'70s that is presently an interesting > shade of lavender. > > In reference to these portraits under discussion, might the colors on the > canvas have changed, or the garments themselves have been 'changeable'?
I would say yes. Paint colors change, fabric colors change and/or fade. I have some wool floss that was dyed with period dyes and it has faded after only 10 years. As for your personal fabrics, I have heard that acetate changes colors after many years. I'm not sure how rayon behaves but maybe it is similar. The more likely reason for the Princess Elizabeth painting changes is that there were copies made. I have personally seen a copy of the famous Eleanora of Toledo wedding dress painting in Sacramento, California at a small museum. It is one of 4 copies of the painting and was copied close to the time it was originally painted. I'm not sure why painters would have made more than one copy of a portrait, but they did..... Diana www.RenaissanceFabrics.net "Everything for the Costumer" "Become the change you want to see in the world." --Ghandi _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
