Venetian clothing 

Paintings are the best source of information we have on Venetian clothing!

One big way we have of immersing ourselves into the feeling of another time and place is to put on the clothing of that era. What Venetians wore could be pretty simple or very elaborate and expensive, depending on their social status, wealth, country of origin, and occupation, just like today's world.
This page is designed to give you basic information about sixteenth century Italian clothing and how to make it, as well as point you towards the many MANY resources that exist to help you along the way.

The late 1500s in Venice was a hotspot of Renaissance artists, so we have lots of paintings and portraits to give us an idea of how people dressed. Here are some painters whose work might inspire you:

Titian  (c.1489-1576) Tintoretto  (1518-1594) Paolo Veronese  (1528-1588) Jacopo Bassano  (1510-1592)

Other painters who worked outside of Venice, but whose work is contemporary and has great clothes include:

Agnolo Bronzino  (Florence, 1503-1572)   Anthonis Mor (c. 1517-1577)  Giovanni Moroni (c.1524-1578)
Sofanisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) Francesco Montemezzano (1555-1602?)   
Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614)          Caravaggio  (1571-1610)  

And here are some slightly earlier painters if you want to style yourself more towards the early 16th century:

Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480-1556)  Jean Clouet  (France, c.1485-1540) Bernard van Orley (Flanders, c1491-1541) 
Jacopo Pontormo  (1494-1557)   Hans Holbein  (Augsburg & England, c. 1497-1543)

 Reference Books about painters and paintings
(feel free to ask Beth or Tori to bring these to a gathering if you would like to see them!)

• Moda a Firenze 1540-1580: Cosimo I de'Medici's Style (out of print), by Roberta Orsi Landini

• Moda a Firenze 1540-1580: Eleanor di Toledo's Style (out of print), by Roberta Orsi Landini and Bruna Niccoli
  These two are very detailed studies of the different parts of dress, comparing different styles and details over a variety of portraits. Landini has worked closely with the Medici burial garments and includes a lot of detail about period garment construction.

• The Medici: Portraits and Politics 1512-1570. - Portraiture from the Medici court in Florence at the height of its splendor.  This is the catalogue from a recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture (out of print) - Giovanni Battista Moroni (d. 1554) was an Italian portrait painter of the 16th century, who painted many members of the Medici family as well as other wealthy patrons.  This is the catalogue from a recent exhibition at the Frick Collection (museum).

• Holbein: Capturing Character.  Hans Holbein the Younger (d. 1543) famously spent a large part of his career at the Tudor English court, painting Henry VIII, his family, and his courtiers. This is the catalogue from a recent exhibition at the J. Paul Getty museum. 

• Authentic Everyday Dress of the Renaissance: All 154 Plates from the "Trachtenbuch", by Christoph Weiditz.  - Sketches by Weiditz, a 16th-century German, of the different costumes of the cultures and social classes he observed in his travels.