Search results

1

CHAPEAU BAS. ON THE MODERN PREDECESSORS OF THE TRICORNE (Chapeau bas. O nowozytnych przodkach trikorna)

100%

Zukowski J.

Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

|

2010

|

vol. 58

|

issue 3-4

367-385

EN

The wardrobes of modern gallants were full of varied hats, caps, nightcaps and skullcaps which kept the wig in place; the mediaeval kiwior was still popular around the year 1620. Due to the climate, sabre or marten caps were often worn even by the followers of the Western fashion. For example, King Sigismund III was wearing a 'wolf fur hat' when he was attacked by Piekarski. King Vladislaus IV Vasa was fond of two-peaked caps, which were called boukinkans in honour of the Duke of Buckingham. But even the Sarmatians valued the practicality of the hat. This article presents hats as an element of the Western fashion, a cultural trend that was never truly eliminated from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The hat was regarded as a signal of social distinction, religious denomination and political preferences. It had varied social functions, being a prop in legal relations, in the diplomatic protocol, in the court ritual and in the royal rite. Guides to etiquette taught when the 'jewel of the manly head' absolutely had be taken off, for example before the portrait of one's superior or in the presence of a person positioned higher in the hierarchy, unless they kindly relinquished their privilege on the occasion, etc. The sovereign had special prerogatives in this respect; apart from situations accounted for by the diplomatic protocol, courtesy and court etiquette rulers never appeared in public bare-headed. Tipping one's hat was a primary gesture of greeting, especially before the spread of the handshake custom. Finally, one's headgear could be an instrument of refined stylizations, as was the case with the 'chimney-like' a la bravado hats or the huge drooping a la Negligence hats. With the dictate of the beret receding, the second half of the 16th c. was dominated by velvet and silk hats shaped by inner constructions made of wire, straw or papier mâché (cardboard, felt, buckram, palm leaves, bast), which were often called 'Milanese hats' or 'high German caps' in Poland. Richly embroidered, usually leather a tozzo berets (French tocques, Italian tocchi, Spanish gorras aderezadas) of German provenance with a high crown and a small brim were sewn of strips of cloth so they needed 'keystones' on the top, which were often spire-shaped or covered with a 'cabochon'. To avoid fraying, the seams in silk hats were impregnated with wax. The puggaree was first used to hide seams, creases, stains of wax and glue, etc., at the joining of the crown and the brim. In the 17th c. the light a l'espagnole hat gave way to felt hats, usually made of wool mixed with beaver fur. The most popular varieties were hats of grey felt (of Italian origin) and of waterproof beaver felt (Dutch kastoor), sometimes covered with silk. 'The Albanian hat' with a wide brim and a small head-fitting crown, worn since the third quarter of the 16th c., together with the Spanish sombrero, was probably a model for the so-called 'French hat' (chapeau francais), popular in the time of Henry IV. In Polish sources hats are divided into beaver hats, called 'castor' ('full', 'three-quarter' and 'half-castor', French semi-castor) and other types, called 'simpler'. The city of Gdansk (Danzig), which played an important role in transmitting the Western fashion, was a centre of felt production and had several dozen hatters and haberdashers who manufactured puggarees (Hundbandmachere). A whole collection of a la mousquetaire hats is found in the painting The execution of a convict by Bartholomäus Milwitz in the National Museum in Gdansk. Other sources document the battle for ruling gallant heads between the hat and the wig. Hats were worn inside until c. 1685; later they no longer served to cover the head but to bare it on order to show respects, therefore they were often carried in one's hand or under one's arm. The reduction of the wig promoted tricorns, which came back to their original function; its retreat at the end of the 18th c. cleared the way for top hats.

2

Vestiti di conserto, maschare di cera. Kostiumy baletowe na dworze Wladyslawa IV Wazy

100%

Zukowski J.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

|

2011

|

vol. 60

|

issue 1-2(237-238)

5-44

EN

Almost throughout the whole reign of Vladislaus IV (1632-1648), the monarch kept a court ballet ensemble, which was a Polish counterpart of the French ballet de cour or the court masque of the Stuarts. Beside ballets as such, various dances (of Furies, amazons, gladiators, nymphs and satyrs) served as entertaining additions to opera and commedia dell'arte performances, as well as tourneys. The king supervised the process of making costumes (he personally chose fabric samples!), which were devised by the general stage designer and engineer, Agostino Locci the Elder, and had been on occasion inspired by Italian prints provided by the monarch himself. Rich experience in these matters gained by Vladislaus at the court of his father (for instance, on 7 September 1619, he was the leading dancer in a ballet with Turkish youths) was greatly expanded during his famous Grand Tour of 1624-1625, when he commissioned drawings to be made of dancing outfits. Meant for court spectacles which blurred the boundaries between dancers and their viewers and had the characteristics of both play and ritual, the ballet costume combined the qualities of a court uniform, dancing outfit and theatrical costume. The author attempts to indicate the features that were characteristic of an aristocrat's dancing dress and a professional dancer's costume - as perceived in groups and individually, statically and kinetically. The author also explains the principles of their uniformity (for the costumes en suite, in conserto) and emblematic coding. Female costumes were more heavily influenced by current fashion than the male ones. Regardless of various historicisms and costumes alla polacca, the dancers' dresses were fashioned after what was in vogue on the Seine, as the French fashion was favoured by the king. Thus, in use were 'French' bonnets and such sleeves, tied with golden taffeta. The headdress included obligatory wigs, artificial flowers, high caps made of taffeta and silver lace, and diadems. Spectators were impressed by such witty concepts as ballerinas with two faces and four hands (the Carnival of 1643). Feathers, long veils, 'Spanish' coats, scarves, strings of pearls, hip-encircling 'bourrelets' and 'whale bones' shaped the dancers' silhouettes as was required. Royal register books testify that the court painter, Christian Melich painted costumes gold and silver. In accord with the idea of the lighting-machine costume, the textiles were predominantly white (the colour of Antiquity) and light in colour, often in the colour of flesh, symbolising heroic virtues. Armour was made of papier-mâché and elaborate golden trimmings. Various stylisations (negligentia diligens, etc.) did not exclude conventional or hybrid features to maintain the quality of fancy dress. The ritual emblematic spectacle required costumes to be rich in meaning, inspired by allegories in art and architectural pattern books. The professionals painted their faces and hands while the noblemen wore masks (made, for example, of wax) and gloves without which their public appearance as ballet dancers would not be acceptable. The act of taking them off was an elaborate ceremony of neoplatonic representation, aestheticization, transfiguration and ontological transformation, which was also of great importance in creating the monarch's image, with its ample use of all instruments of rhetorical persuasion and theatrical gesture language.

3

A 'DELIA' AND A HAT, OR ON THE PHENOMENON OF MIXED COSTUME IN OLD POLAND (W kapeluszu i w delii, czyli ewenement stroju mieszanego w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej)

100%

Zukowski J.

Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

|

2009

|

vol. 57

|

issue 1

19-37

EN

A portrait of king Vladislaus (Wladyslaw) IV Vasa (circa 1635) from the Regional Museum in Ilza is a testimony of the old-forgotten custom of combining Polish national costume with some elements of Western fashion. The latter was shaped by the ethos of chivalry, the so-called emblematic sentimentalism, the etiquette that forbade to lower one's hand too much and to straighten one's elbow, and finally the practice of courtly dance. The Polish 'Sarmatian' fashion was rooted in the mediaeval tradition of gesture and in the gentry life style favouring riding and hunting. In the West a muscular, slender, well-proportioned leg was treated as an attribute of the knightly elite, an evidence of riding, fencing and dancing skills. Apart from legs, Western fashion highlighted male hips (through the use of a padding called bourrelet); the pubic area was accentuated with a V-shaped basque or the horizontal lines of the tails, but primarily with a protruding codpiece, which after 1603 gave way to a fly decorated with a row of buttons or a bunch of braid (tablier de galants). The national costume of the 'Sarmatians' hid the intimate parts, since it was not supposed to serve erotic allurement. National-style breeches were usually tied, Western-style ones were buttoned and tied up with straps and hooks. 'Sarmatian' footwear was much simpler, with flat soles and metal semicircles instead of heels. In spite of some similarities, colours were also used differently. The Polish fashion preferred textiles with large ornamental motifs, which were emphasised by the cut of garments; it also relied on jewels to a lesser extent. In the Polish costume a greater role was assigned to the vertical axis and to symmetry; it relied much more consistently on conical shapes and on emphasising the shoulders. Even greater discrepancies can be found as regards underwear and perfumes. Finally, the Polish costume was never affected, effeminate or directly influenced by female fashion. Some historical sources confirm that kings of the Vasa dynasty often wore mixed costumes. For example, on the occasion of the homage of the Elector of Brandenburg in 1611 both the King and Prince Vladislaus wore red Polish overcoats and large feathered hats. The False Dimitri and Duke Janusz Radziwill (d. 1620) had their portraits painted in that convention. In probate inventories of Polish burghers Western style garments and accessories (hats, trunk hose, breeches, doublets, ruffs, stockings, rapiers, etc) are usually marginal in comparison with the numbers of Polish-style garments (delie, ferezje, giermaki, dolomany, kontusze, magierki, bekieszki, etc). Yet, in the second half of the 17th c. 69% of inventories from Warsaw, 57% from Cracow and 50% from Poznan include items that may be connected with Western fashion, even if these are only accessories. Inhabitants of Lublin, especially when travelling abroad, used garments that were described as 'a French coat with large buttons' or 'azure breeches of fine woollen cloth with narrow grey braids'. He affluent citizens of Przemysl, Jaroslaw, Nowy Sacz, Lutomiersk and Poznan had many Western-style garments in their wardrobes (various doublets, jerkins and vests, Spanish breeches, silk-embroidered French boot cuffs, lace ruffs, etc). Burghers wore full Western dress for public ceremonies. Alternating national and Western dress depending on the occasion was an accepted social custom in Old Poland, even among the gentry, especially in the second half of the 17th c. The national costume was mostly worn on festive occasions. Mixing the two styles was a everyday practice, with elements of Western fashion used for convenience. Regardless of the model's motifs (the climate, health or propaganda purposes) the costume depicted in the portrait from Ilza reflects the rivalry of the two styles which must have been known to Vladislaus IV since his early childhood, as well as the syncretism of the Old Polish culture, which was open to both Eastern and Western trends.

Refine search results

2 Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

1 Pamiętnik Teatralny

3 Zukowski J.

1 2011

1 2010

1 2009

CHAPEAU BAS. ON THE MODERN PREDECESSORS OF THE TRICORNE (Chapeau bas. O nowozytnych przodkach trikorna)

Vestiti di conserto, maschare di cera. Kostiumy baletowe na dworze Wladyslawa IV Wazy

A 'DELIA' AND A HAT, OR ON THE PHENOMENON OF MIXED COSTUME IN OLD POLAND (W kapeluszu i w delii, czyli ewenement stroju mieszanego w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej)