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.
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