Ha on me! Just showed this to my husband. His immediate reaction?
Of course it's Victorian, that's a metal engraving. (Not before
18thC, used extensively in Victorian period.)
He also opined that there probably is a real painting something like
this, and that most of the odd bits could eventually be identified as
things that the Victorian copyist didn't really understand when s/he
looked at the original. We see it all the time when we compare
Norris drawings to originals. (N puts in lines that looked like
seams to him; to us they look like folds or shadows; and our opinions
are often validated by surviving period garments or other
representations of the period originals he was looking at.)
If our hard-disc wasn't currently hors-de-combat we might even be
able to find the original; Himself has been collecting examples of
originals and Victorian renditions.
Chimene
Robin wrote:
... it's something that you pick up after looking at lots and lots
of images from the periods in question.
Absolutely agree with this!
A quick way to get a feel for this would be to go to your nearest
library and pull together two piles: costume surveys that are
photographic collections of period images (like Millia Davenport and
Francois Boucher), and another pile of Victorian histories of
costume (like Braun & Scheider, Planche, Fairholt, Racinet, or
Norris) -- whatever you can find. Be sure to check both the
Reference and circulating shelves. (Hmm, coffee-table medieval
period survey books may also be helpful; many of them are copiously
illustrated with photos of period images; Ref collection for these.)
Then just sit down and compare. Pick a particular place or period
and check it in each book, first the period originals; then the
Victorians. If you already have a visual sense (of anything), this
will work faster, but enough exposure should eventually work for
anyone.
You can sort of do this on-line, but there you have more work to do
to verify the periodicity of your non-Victorians; it would probably
be easier to start at the library.
Oh yes, just because a survey of costume is more recent (ca. 1960 to
present) doesn't mean it will be more reliable than Davenport or
Boucher. Their strength, in spite of their ages, is that neither
one does RE-DRAWING, they both do photographs of period portraits,
drawings and paintings.
And don't EVEN consider looking in the theatrical costuming section.
Some of what you will find there is better than others, but even the
best have a central focus that is something other than authenticity!
have fun! Chimene
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
