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Title: Vecellio's Renaissance Costume Book
Author: Cesare Vecellio
Genre: A 16th C set of woodcuts showing costumes from history and around the world
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Vecellio was one of the first people to really take costuming seriously, instead of just portraying all historical/foreign characters in contemporary clothing. This is a reprint of his book of studies of clothes from different social classes, countries, and historical periods.
Thoughts: If you're really into costuming, this book is awesome. Want to know what a Venetian prostitute would have worn in the sixteenth century? How about a merchant from Westphalia? A Persian lady's street dress? An English peasant or a nobleman from Cuzco or an Ethiopian princess?
It's pretty much just woodcuts and captions, though. There are no labels on the different parts of the costume, and I'll confess that the Venetian noblewoman's costume didn't look all that different to me from the prostitute's. Clearly there are subtleties of dress escaping me. So this will not be your sole resource. But the fact that the drawings themselves are historical and done by the same hand makes for some fascinating comparisons.
Author: Cesare Vecellio
Genre: A 16th C set of woodcuts showing costumes from history and around the world
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Vecellio was one of the first people to really take costuming seriously, instead of just portraying all historical/foreign characters in contemporary clothing. This is a reprint of his book of studies of clothes from different social classes, countries, and historical periods.
Thoughts: If you're really into costuming, this book is awesome. Want to know what a Venetian prostitute would have worn in the sixteenth century? How about a merchant from Westphalia? A Persian lady's street dress? An English peasant or a nobleman from Cuzco or an Ethiopian princess?
It's pretty much just woodcuts and captions, though. There are no labels on the different parts of the costume, and I'll confess that the Venetian noblewoman's costume didn't look all that different to me from the prostitute's. Clearly there are subtleties of dress escaping me. So this will not be your sole resource. But the fact that the drawings themselves are historical and done by the same hand makes for some fascinating comparisons.
