User:Johnbod/chaperon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Boethius initial consolation philosophy.jpg Image:Le Bal des Ardents.jpg
The Chaperon is a form of hood or, later, hat worn in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was especially fashionable in the middle of the 15th century in Burgundy.
Contents |
[edit] Humble origins
It began before 1200 as a hood with a short caped hood put on by pulling over the head. The hood could be pulled off the head to hang behind, leaving the short cape round the neck and shoulders. The edge of the cape was often trimmed, cut or scalloped for decorative effect. There were wool ones, used in cold weather, and lighter ones for summer. In this form it continued through to the end of the Middle Ages, worn by the lower classes, often by women as well as men, and especially in Northern Europe. The hood sometimes ended at the back in a tail that came to a point; this tail, often quite long, was called the liripipe or cornette in French.
[edit] Using the wrong hole
About 1300 it began to be worn by putting the hole intended for the face over the top of the head instead; perhaps when it began to get hot. This left the cornette tail and the cape, patte in French, hanging loose from the top of the head. This became fashionable, and chaperons began to be made to be worn in this style. See the wearing Colley-Weston-ward of the Mandelion for an analagous development in a type of coat.
A padded circular bourrelet evolved, which sat around the head, whilst the cornette became much longer, and gradually more scarf-like in shape, until by the 1430s it was usually straight at the sides and square-ended.
By 1400-10, the period of the famous illuminated manuscripts of the Livre de Chasse of Gaston Phoebus (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Ms Français 616), and the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry chaperons are to be seen worn by many figures. In the famous Calendar scenes of the Trés Riches Heures, they are worn by the peasants working in the fields, both men and women (February, March and September), and huntsmen (December), and some of the courtiers (January and May), who wear coloured and scalloped ones, probably of silk. However the Duke himself, and the most prominent courtiers do not wear them.
By the 1430s most chaperons had become simpler in the treatment of the cloth, although a perhaps overdressed courtier in a Van der Weyden workshop Exhumation of St Hubert (National Gallery, London NG 783) from this decade still has a very elaborately cut and dagged patte. A figure behind him is wearing his in church, which is unusual.
[edit] Evolved chaperon
By the middle half of the fifteenth century the evolved chaperon had become common wear for males in the upper and middle classes, and were worn in painted portraits, including those of the Dukes of Burgundy. The amount of cloth involved had become considerable, and although chaperons seem to have normally been of a single colour, a silk or damask one would have been a conspicuous sign of affluence (chaperons are nearly always shown in art as plain-coloured at this period, but painting a patterned one would have been a daunting task).
The cornette now stretched nearly to the ground, and the patte had also grown slightly. Bourrelets could be very large, or quite modest; some were clearly made round a hollow framework. Sometimes they seem to be just a ring (the doughnut analogy is hard to resist) with an open centre, and sometimes the opening seems to be at least partly covered with fixed cloth. Because the bourrelets were usually the same shape all the way round, several different parts of it could be worn facing forward. Probably for this reason, chaperons are rarely seen adorned by badges or jewelery. There were now many ways of wearing, and indeed carrying, this most complex and adaptable of hats:
- A) the cornette and patte could be tied together on top of the head, to create a flamboyant turban-like effect, sometimes with a short tail of cornette or patte hanging to the rear.
- B) the patte could be looped under the chin and tied or pinned to the bourrelet on the other side of the face, whilst the cornette hung behind or in front, or was tied on top.
- C) the patte could be worn to the loose to the rear, with the cornette tied on top, or hanging loose to front or rear.
- D) conversely the patte could be tied above, whilst the cornette hung loose to front or rear.
- E)the patte could be worn to the rear, loose or tucked into the other clothes at the back of the neck, whilst the cornette was wrapped round over the top of the head and under the chin a couple of times and secured. This was suitable for cold or windy weather, especially when riding.
- F) when the chaperon needed to be removed, in warm weather, or in the presence of a person much higher in rank (and, usually, in church) it could be put over the shoulder with the patte and cornette hanging on opposite sides, or ound the shoulders. Which came forward and which went back varies considerably, but more often the bourrelet went behind. Presumably the chaperon was secured to the shoulder, as the assemblage often looks very precarious.
[edit] The height of fashion
The only surviving manuscript miniature by Rogier van der Weyden shows Philip the Good, dressed to kill, wearing a chaperon in style B. Next to him stands Chancellor Nicolas Rolin, using a less exuberant version of style B; he has sufficient status to wear his chaperon in the Duke's presence. Apart from the Bishop of Tournai, next to Rolin, all the other men are bare-headed , even Phillip's young heir, despite the fact that several of them are high-ranking intimates who, like the Duke, wear the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. But as far as can be seen, all have hats. The man in grey seems to be carrying another sort of hat, but all the other ones visible are chaperons worn in style F, mostly with the cornettes to the front. The young Charles the Bold has his patte wrapped round the back of his neck, and the man on the extreme right has his bourrelet further than usual down his back, with the patte hanging down from it. Most of the chaperons are black, although the man in blue has one in salmon-pink; black was having one of its earliest periods of being the most fashionable colour at the time.
The chaperon never became quite this dominant in Italy or France; nor does it seem to have been worn as often by grand personages. They are more characteristic of merchants and lawyers in these countries, for example in the images of Nicolas Fouquet from the mid-century.
[edit] Christmas chaperons
Apart from portraits, many of the best, and least formal, depictions of the chaperon in art come from paintings of the Nativity and other scenes of the early life of Christ. It is of course always winter, when the chaperon was most likely to be worn. Saint Joseph is especially useful, as it is never part of his depiction to be fashionably dressed, and it is part of his character in the period that he is often shown quite dishevelled (see examples below).
[edit] Decline
By about 1480 the chaperon was ceasing to be fashionable, but continued to be worn; St Joseph is now to be seen wearing evolved the evolved form. By 1500 the evolved chaperon is definitely outmoded, but the original form remains a useful headgear for shepherds and peasants. By now the chaperon had become fixed in some forms of civilian uniforms for lawyers, academics and the members of some knightly orders. In these uses it gradually shrank in size and often became permanently attached to the clothing underneath, effectively just as an ornament.
In a later related use of the term, the name chaperoon passed to certain little shields, or escutcheons, and other funeral devices, placed on the foreheads of horses that drew the hearses to processional funerals. These were called chaperoons or shafferoons, as they were originally fastened to the chaperonnes, or hoods, worn by those horses with their other coverings of state.
[edit] Gallery
 Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, January (detail), c1410. the two courtiers standing behind the table to the left wear elaborately cut and dagged patterned chaperons. |
 Probable self-portrait by Jan van Eyck 1433 - the chaperon is worn in style A with the bourrelet completely hidden by the cornette wound round it (practical for painting in). |
 thumb|right|250px|Leal souvenir by Jan van Eyck 1432. a relatively simple chaperon, with bourrelet, and cornette hanging forward |
 detail of Jan van Eyck's Rolin Madonna, c1435 -two citizens wear their pattes behind in style C |
 The Vision of Saint Eustace by Pisanello, c1440. The dandyish saint wears an especially voluminous chaperon in style A. |
 St Francis renounces his father by Sassetta, 1437-44. The father's patte, or possibly cornette, appears to be wound vertically through the bourrelet, which is rather flat. He wears a matching cloak. The companion who restrains him has a chaperon that looks like a turban. |
 Duke Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy by Rogier van der Weyden, c1450, has an unusually large bourrelet, surely hollow, worn in style D |
 Rogier van der Weyden- Seven Sacraments Altarpiece - Baptism, Confirmation, and Penance. The man on the extreme left gives a clear view of his dagged patte. The two teenage boys who have been confirmed also wear chaperons. The old man confessing seems to wear a cut original-form chaperon as well as his hat on the floor. |
 Donor figure by Petrus Christus c1450 - The chaperon is carried over the shoulder, with the cornette to the front, in style F. |
 Nativity by Rogier van der Weyden, 1446. St Joseph wears a small unevolved chaperon, pulled back off the head. The richly dressed donor has his evolved chaperon hanging behind him, with the long cornette trailing on the ground above his feet. |
 Nativity by Petrus Christus, c1450. St Joseph carries his purple chaperon in a tangle in his hand, with the cornette vanishing into his other clothes. |
 Petrus Christus c1450 - This seems to be a hat with a cornette and either a patte or a fitted cap-piece to the rear of the head. |
 Presentation at the Temple by the Master of the Prado Annunciation, or Hans Memling, 1470s - St Joseph wears a working-mans chaperon in the original style, whilst the relative at right wears an evolved one. |
 another Presentation at the Temple by Hans Memlingc1470 - St Joseph now wears an evolved but simple chaperon with short cornette around his shoulders. |
 Nativity by Hugo van der Goes, 1480 - the figures holding back the curtain wear chaperons with short cornettes. |
 Nativity by Hans Schäufelein, c1507. The chaperon is back to being work clothing. St Joseph has his over his choulder, and all the shepherd have them, with the hood pulled back. |
[edit] References
- National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Campbell, 1998, ISBN 185709171
- National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume 1, by Dillian Gordon, 2003, ISBN 1857092937
- T Kren & S McKendrick (eds), Illuminating the Renaissance - The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, Getty Museum/Royal Academy of Arts, 2003, ISBN 19033973287
- J.O. Hand & M. Wolff, Early Netherlandish Painting, National Gallery of Art (catalogue)/Cambridge UP,1986, ISBN 0521340160
- L Syson & Dillian Gordon, "Pisanello, Painter to the Renaissance Court",2001, National Gallery Company, London, ISBN 185709946X 525081
- Gabriel Bise, The hunting book by Gaston Phoebus, heritage books, London, ISBN 0946470 545
- Edmond Pognon,Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Liber
[edit] External links
- History of the chaperon, with simple diagrams
- CORSAIR database from the Morgan Library - search for chaperon gives 25 results from 2 manuscripts
- Le Livre de Chasse c 1400, from Ms Fr 616 from the Biblitheque Nationale, Paris. Feature with many illustrations, texts in French.
- Another stylish chaperon by Pisanello, from a medal in the NGA, Washington
