Cranach gown

Portrait of a Woman - Detail about 1525, Lucas Cranach the Elder This image clearly shows golden loops where the black lacing ties the bodice together. The lace seems to start on the right of the dress (left of the image) and laces back and forth until finally disappearing under the right side of the skirt.

If I say “I’m making a 16th century German dress” that means different things to different people. Here are some examples and conventions used on this site. Housebook Dress/Durer Dress – AFAICT this is an unofficial SCA-created name used to describe the style drawn by an anonymous late Gothic painter and engraver who was one of the outstanding early printmakers.…Continue Reading→

The magnificent rooms of the Thiel Gallery are always filled with art from around 1900 collected by the banker and patron of the arts Ernest Thiel. But this unique collection consists of nearly 900 works and there is not enough room to…

Ah, the irresistible mystique of the Cranach Gown. Just what is it about this early 16th century Saxon fashion, which gained its modern epithet by virtue of being portrayed in countless paintings …

meanderings through the 15th century

German Saxon court gowns of the first half of the 16th century, made famous by painter Lucas Cranach's ladies, have one particularly defining feature: a plastron (brustfleck) with a decorative band at the top and a laced-over bottom (usually white, but not always). I've been studying this style for more than a year, trying to work out the construction. After looking at many, many portraits,...

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of a lady with an apple. 1527. Prague Castle Picture Gallery Nr.: FR178

Hans Holbein the Younger - Portrait of a young woman. c. 1517, 45 x 34 cm, Oil on panel, Mauritshuis, The Hague

Ah, the irresistible mystique of the Cranach Gown. Just what is it about this early 16th century Saxon fashion, which gained its modern epithet by virtue of being portrayed in countless paintings …

Louis Cranach, the elder