Liveblogging Kalamazoo (Friday 1:30-3)
May. 8th, 2009 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjSession 300: Costume in Medieval Literature
Old Habits Die Hard: Vestimentary Change in William Durandus’s Rationale divinorum officiorum (Andrea B. Denny-Brown, Univ. of California–Riverside)
Alas, scratched.
Raiment of Needlework: Clothing Images in Miracles of the Virgin and the Feast of the Assumption (Laurel Broughton, Univ. of Vermont)
Discussion of visions of the Virgin that dwell in loving detail on her sumptuous clothing. Most descriptions of Mary’s clothing, though, are more restricted to (symbolic) color, or vague generalizations of splendor. General background information on the Feast of the Assumption. And now we get to the pretty slide show! The mantle is a focus of rich decoration, either simply in the intense blue color, or with jeweled gold-brocaded orphreys or powdered with gold decorative motifs. When shown in scenes that include female donor images, Mary does not wear “current fashion” but always “old fashioned” garments of simple, loose cut. So the decoration is the focus of the sumptuousness. (The paper’s author observes that the relationship of Mary’s garments to “modern fashion” bear a stylistic parallel to that of priestly vestments to male fashion. (Mostly we’re simply getting a lot of pretty images now, not a lot of new information.)
Sartorial Strategies in the Roman de Silence (Nicole D. Smith, Univ. of North Texas)
Alas, scratched. Damn. I’m particularly fond of the Roman de Silence. I have vague plans to write a fantasy novelization of it some day (with a slightly different ending than the original).
What’s the Pearl-Maiden Wearing and Why? (Kimberly Jack, Auburn Univ.)
The “Pearl-maiden” who appears in the dream-vision of the text’s narrator wears garments and a headdress featuring … guess what? … pearls, in addition to bearing the “pearl of wonder” on her breast, a symbolic feature of the text. But there is disagreement as to the likely construction of her garments, apart from their decoration. Her gown is described as “blazing white”, open at the sides, bordered with pearled bands. The garment is describe as a “bleaunt” (but not to be identified with the “bliaut” of the early 12th century – the Pearl text is from the 14th c.) but also as a “beaumys”. Bleaunt can also be a type of fabric (a very fine linen or silk) as opposed to a garment name. “Beaumys” is emended in various edited editions as “beau amys”, “beau amice”, “beau biys”, or even “bleaunt of biys”. Another description provides “with lappes large”. One suggested interpretation for this is tippets. But this creates a problem with the description “vpon at sydez” (open at the sides) if one interprets that as referring to the sideless surcoat, as the two fashions, while present during a similar period, do not coincide. “Open at the sides” might refer to a slit in the overskirt, but visual evidence from the era doesn’t support the existence of such a garment. So perhaps the “lappes large” interpretation is wrong? Another possible reading of “lap(pe)” could be a skirt or any part of a garment loose enough to be raised, folded, or seized. The sideless surcoat does sometimes have full, loose skirts that would fulfill this definition. Following on, the garment has a double border of precious pearl “in porfyl py3t; Py3t watz poyned and vche a hemme; At hond at sydez, at ouerture”. This is interpreted as “purfled”, i.e., edged with an expensive fur (the continuation of a lining fur, but using a more precious fur where it shows externally). The areas where this purfling is described are consistent with a sideless surcoat. Furthermore, the positioning of the “wonder pearl” on the maiden’s breast would then correspond to the jeweled ornaments typically seen on high-end sideless surcoats on the front plastron. As discussed in detail by Robin Netherton [me: who is sitting next to me during this, nodding energetically], at the time of this work, the sideless surcoat had become symbolic of queens and other prominent women, rather than an ordinary garment, and also a feature of funerary images. These features come together in the symbolism of the Pearl maiden as well.
Old Habits Die Hard: Vestimentary Change in William Durandus’s Rationale divinorum officiorum (Andrea B. Denny-Brown, Univ. of California–Riverside)
Alas, scratched.
Raiment of Needlework: Clothing Images in Miracles of the Virgin and the Feast of the Assumption (Laurel Broughton, Univ. of Vermont)
Discussion of visions of the Virgin that dwell in loving detail on her sumptuous clothing. Most descriptions of Mary’s clothing, though, are more restricted to (symbolic) color, or vague generalizations of splendor. General background information on the Feast of the Assumption. And now we get to the pretty slide show! The mantle is a focus of rich decoration, either simply in the intense blue color, or with jeweled gold-brocaded orphreys or powdered with gold decorative motifs. When shown in scenes that include female donor images, Mary does not wear “current fashion” but always “old fashioned” garments of simple, loose cut. So the decoration is the focus of the sumptuousness. (The paper’s author observes that the relationship of Mary’s garments to “modern fashion” bear a stylistic parallel to that of priestly vestments to male fashion. (Mostly we’re simply getting a lot of pretty images now, not a lot of new information.)
Sartorial Strategies in the Roman de Silence (Nicole D. Smith, Univ. of North Texas)
Alas, scratched. Damn. I’m particularly fond of the Roman de Silence. I have vague plans to write a fantasy novelization of it some day (with a slightly different ending than the original).
What’s the Pearl-Maiden Wearing and Why? (Kimberly Jack, Auburn Univ.)
The “Pearl-maiden” who appears in the dream-vision of the text’s narrator wears garments and a headdress featuring … guess what? … pearls, in addition to bearing the “pearl of wonder” on her breast, a symbolic feature of the text. But there is disagreement as to the likely construction of her garments, apart from their decoration. Her gown is described as “blazing white”, open at the sides, bordered with pearled bands. The garment is describe as a “bleaunt” (but not to be identified with the “bliaut” of the early 12th century – the Pearl text is from the 14th c.) but also as a “beaumys”. Bleaunt can also be a type of fabric (a very fine linen or silk) as opposed to a garment name. “Beaumys” is emended in various edited editions as “beau amys”, “beau amice”, “beau biys”, or even “bleaunt of biys”. Another description provides “with lappes large”. One suggested interpretation for this is tippets. But this creates a problem with the description “vpon at sydez” (open at the sides) if one interprets that as referring to the sideless surcoat, as the two fashions, while present during a similar period, do not coincide. “Open at the sides” might refer to a slit in the overskirt, but visual evidence from the era doesn’t support the existence of such a garment. So perhaps the “lappes large” interpretation is wrong? Another possible reading of “lap(pe)” could be a skirt or any part of a garment loose enough to be raised, folded, or seized. The sideless surcoat does sometimes have full, loose skirts that would fulfill this definition. Following on, the garment has a double border of precious pearl “in porfyl py3t; Py3t watz poyned and vche a hemme; At hond at sydez, at ouerture”. This is interpreted as “purfled”, i.e., edged with an expensive fur (the continuation of a lining fur, but using a more precious fur where it shows externally). The areas where this purfling is described are consistent with a sideless surcoat. Furthermore, the positioning of the “wonder pearl” on the maiden’s breast would then correspond to the jeweled ornaments typically seen on high-end sideless surcoats on the front plastron. As discussed in detail by Robin Netherton [me: who is sitting next to me during this, nodding energetically], at the time of this work, the sideless surcoat had become symbolic of queens and other prominent women, rather than an ordinary garment, and also a feature of funerary images. These features come together in the symbolism of the Pearl maiden as well.
