Results found: 1

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

'ZIBELLINO' AT THE JAGIELLON COURT. JEWELLED SABLE FURS OF QUEENS KATHERINE OF AUSTRIA AND KATHERINE JAGIELLON

100%

Letkiewicz E.

Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

2006

vol. 54

issue 2

203-210

One of the most remarkable garments in Europe in the 15th and 16th c. was a sabre fur worn over the shoulders or around the neck. Accessories of that sort, sometimes also made from the fur of martens, beavers or other species, initially worn for practical reasons, in the Renaissance became a favourite costume adornment, especially when their value and splendour was enhanced by gold, jewels and enamels. Imitating real animals, such furs were supplemented with golden heads and decorated with golden chains. Now they are known mainly from iconography; there are only a few items preserved. Until recently jewelled furs were considered an Italian specialty but Polish sources indicate that sabre furs decorated with gold, gems, pearls and enamels were also used in Poland, at the Jagiellon court. One of the earliest mentions relevant to the topic is found in the inventory of jewels belonging to Katherine of Austria, the third wife of King Sigismund Augustus. The queen brought to Poland a sumptuous trousseau, which was inventoried in Cracow in 1553. Among Katherine's valuables there was a sabre fur (sebellinus) with a golden head set with rubies, diamonds and pearls, decorated with an enamelled golden chain with 24 pearls; the sabre's feet were modelled in enamelled gold. Another mention of a jewelled sabre fur comes from the inventory of the trousseau of the Polish princess Katherine Jagiellon, daughter of King Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, who was married in 1562 in Vilnius to John Vasa, Duke of Finland, later King of Sweden. In her trousseau the princess had an exceptionally valuable black sabre fur decorated with gems, pearls, gold and enamels. Jewelled furs went out of fashion at the end of the 16th century. The information about 'zibellinos' at the Jagiellon court extends our limited knowledge of those unusual luxurious accessories, so characteristic of the refined taste of the European elite in the mannerist epoch. (6 fig.)

Refine search results

1 Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

1 2006

1 Letkiewicz E.

Search results

'ZIBELLINO' AT THE JAGIELLON COURT. JEWELLED SABLE FURS OF QUEENS KATHERINE OF AUSTRIA AND KATHERINE JAGIELLON