HRJ, Sorry dont know much about the Manesse Codex and the surrounding culture or even much about the 14th c. I've been head-first into the serving hall fashions of 1420-1440s Catalunya preparing for the Perfectly Period Feast next month. There's a diagonal striped garment here, as well. I'll use it to provide a parallel example.
It's worn by a panter, or carver in the panel "St Andrew saves a bishop" (they're dining with the devil in the form of a woman). See the Retable of the Golden Legend of St Andrew, 1420-30 - Master of Roussillon, Perpignan – now at the Met NYC . (I can comment further on the Catalunya-Italian penninsula cultural relationships, or on the social place of staff at a formal dinner in a small but noble household, but I suspect that would wander off topic quickly.) Back to the St Andrew panel. What I see is black with gold plaid diagonally striped with a red-orange solid. The paint is quite damaged here in the corner of this image. The garment is not just diagonally striped in a flattened "V", it's counter changed. With modern materials I'd probably recreate this with the black & gold plaid wool cut on the straight grain as the gold stripe in the plaid runs parallel with the red-orange panels. The (modern) quilter in me demands use of straight grain in the red-orange stripe as well. L&R panels have to be cut on the opposite bias. This is not particularly sparing of materials, but then I'm not going to find this stripe in a modern fabric store either. With infinite time & money for materials, I'd experiment with weaving a striped velvet fabric that alternated these panels. For anyone doubting the striped ground, I refer you to the book Brocarts Celestes where you can see a picture labeled "Fragment de velour coupe polychrome avec un motif de grenade", last 3rd15th c. With either reconstruction, I'd have to cut the garment panels with the CF on the bias. Allow me to note that in the common recontruction of the short houppe, the modern seamstress puts the straight grain on the CF&CB and has a true bias on side seam. In constrast, a reconstruction cutting the garment with the CF/CB bias means the sideseam is now the straight grain. A crazier reconstruction (with more extravagant use of expensive fabric & even less use of historical methods) I'd have to cut the left & right panels to counterchange the stripe on the bias. Use the image with caution as the individual panel is quite small, and the figure a very small part of it. Anyway, Heather, love to share a drink with you & noodle over the possibilities! --cin Cynthia Barnes cinbar...@gmail.com On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:47 PM, Heather Rose Jones <heather.jo...@earthlink.net> wrote: > With the caveats that artistic representations aren't always intended to > represent actual clothing construction, and that representations of clothing > decoration are sometimes intended to convey symbolism rather than fabric > structures, and that there are multiple ways to create any particular > decorative effect in fabric ... _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
