Wed Apr 6, 2022 09:43 AM

The Victoria and Albert Museum has this really interesting Italian smock dated around 1600, accession number T.770-1919. It was remade to clothe a statue out of two ladies smocks. The body is recycled from one piece and the sleeves from another. Both have beautiful, but different, embroidery. Being remade to be worn by a church statue was responsible for many of the extant clothing items we have. The red velvet Pisa dress from the court of Eleonora de Toledo survived because it was used in a convent to dress a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The colors on the shirt are wonderful. Even the bobbin lace is done in 3 colors (red, yellow, and green.) The couching is done in a yellow silk cord rather than a metallic. Other colors include red, purple, yellow, multiple pinks, blue, and green silks. The sleeves are finished with linen laces woven in pink and yellow. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O356595/image-robe-unknown/

The ebullient flowers remind me of those in Paul and Rosina Furst’s 4 book series from between 1660-1676 “Model-buch Teil 1-4.” The Clark Art Institute’s copy has all 4 volumes bound together and is available at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/modelbucht1400frst