![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_raphaelI give you the rather breathtaking Van der Weyden's portrait of Isabella of Portugal, painted around 1500.
A young lady who is studying 15th century headgear in detail for her degree, especially the double horned headdress in 15th century England and has contacted me and asked for help. It's such a great subject and I'm always happy to chat medieval clothing and headwear with others who are equally enthused.
A lot of reconstructions take liberties with what we see in art and/or don't cite their sources. Sources are few at best, with Christine de Pizan being used although we can't see the headdress itself, just the white pinned veil around and over it.
I believe there are no extant samples of this style of headwear and all we have to go on are a handful of paintings and manuscripts. Narrowing it down to an exact country will make it very difficult for you if one is hoping for info about the horned headdress, as we have three big issues.
1. They really weren't that popular that I can see. Hennins of the usual kind with one point were the preferred option, and even then, they were worn for such a very, very short time in the costuming timeline. The heart-shaped hennin shows up a little more frequently. Wills show next to none, if not none.
2. Most of the greatest painters, van Eyck, Van der Goes, Memling etc at that time were European, so they painted Europe. There are English church effigies and memorial brasses, but the number of them in England showing that exact style is pretty low. Off the top of my head, I can think of exactly zero, but it's early and I've not had coffee yet.
3. A lot of costuming recreations are guessing like mad, because the original sources aren't terribly clear and could be one of several things. Creators often add a lot of extras to bling them up way more than anything I've seen.
A young lady who is studying 15th century headgear in detail for her degree, especially the double horned headdress in 15th century England and has contacted me and asked for help. It's such a great subject and I'm always happy to chat medieval clothing and headwear with others who are equally enthused.
A lot of reconstructions take liberties with what we see in art and/or don't cite their sources. Sources are few at best, with Christine de Pizan being used although we can't see the headdress itself, just the white pinned veil around and over it.
I believe there are no extant samples of this style of headwear and all we have to go on are a handful of paintings and manuscripts. Narrowing it down to an exact country will make it very difficult for you if one is hoping for info about the horned headdress, as we have three big issues.
1. They really weren't that popular that I can see. Hennins of the usual kind with one point were the preferred option, and even then, they were worn for such a very, very short time in the costuming timeline. The heart-shaped hennin shows up a little more frequently. Wills show next to none, if not none.
2. Most of the greatest painters, van Eyck, Van der Goes, Memling etc at that time were European, so they painted Europe. There are English church effigies and memorial brasses, but the number of them in England showing that exact style is pretty low. Off the top of my head, I can think of exactly zero, but it's early and I've not had coffee yet.
3. A lot of costuming recreations are guessing like mad, because the original sources aren't terribly clear and could be one of several things. Creators often add a lot of extras to bling them up way more than anything I've seen.
