The Saxon Court Pedigree by Lucas Cranach, 1500-1546

[mmcnealy]

{Edited to fix link rot, July 10, 2012}
If you were ever curious about what styles were worn at the Saxon court before the "Princess dress" came into fashion, (which might give clues as to the construction) well now we've got some more pieces in the puzzle.

Lucas Cranach painted a book of the people at the Saxon Court, some of them in quite informal poses and appearing to be in the middle of conversations. Each person depicted has their name, a short verse and their coat of arms down below, some have the coat of arms of the city that they are from or have the name of their town in the rhyme above their heads.

Das Sächsische Stammbuch - Mscr.Dresd.R.3 - The Saxon Pedigree
A collection of portraits of Saxon princes, with rhyming text, from the period
1500 - 1546


This one, is a gown in a transitional style, part Master of the housebook dress with the neck chains and part Saxon court style with the cutout front, brustuch and lacings. 

This picture of two women,  makes me wonder if we're seeing the same style of dress, but the lady on the left is pregnant, and the lady on the left isn't. But either way, you've got to love the green Zopfe and the red and gold striped Haube on the other.

Cranach did us all a favor by painting most of the portraits in 3/4 view,  and some of them from the back,  and side, (this is crucial to understanding how the dress might be constructed, and how it should fit from all angles). 

There are also women in multi-parti dress, which may be heraldic dress, 108, 149, 158.

In the back, there are flip pages, where first you see the person as an adult, then you open the flip, and you see them as a child.   And then there are these three young ladies, in beautiful silk gowns that look to be pink/blue shot silk taffeta.

There are plenty of other lovely pictures (200+ total), including lots of men's clothes too, these were just the ones that caught my eye tonight.

Comments

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

And this is why I worship the ground you walk on. ;-)

[vanderbruegghen.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that I was a bit annoyed with her for giving me more items on my to do list. But yes, I'm right there with you in the awestruck section.

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have that same problem too, the To Do list is far too long at the moment.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. Is there an index to track down who the people depicted are?

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Not that I've found yet, one might be able to cross reference it with a heraldry book, but I haven't even started looking for that yet.

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

Already started a spreadsheet - I should be whipped for my peregrinations. It is apparently a genealogical text. I'm thinking Cranach worked off of then extant artwork for some of these depictions of those that died before he was on the scene.

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

In the foreward part of the book, the handwriting says that there is a journal article about it. As far as I can make it out is says see Wold Lippert, 'Das Sächs(ische) Stammbuch, eine Sammlung Säch(sische)Furstenbildnisse, in "Neuen Archiv für Sächs(ische)Geschichte, Band XII. Let's see if I can find a World Cat entry.

Ah success....Looks like it was bundled into book form

Gesamt-inhaltsverzeichnis zum Neuen archiv für sächsische geschichte und altertumskunde (band I-XXV) nebst seinen vorgängern. Dresden: W. Baensch, 1904.

Hmmm, at Yale. I can probably get that. It's at BNF too. I wonder if it is digitized?

39 German libraries have the journal itself. This looks doable. You want that I get it and share?

What I did was log on to familysearch.org and look for Johann Friederich der Grossmutige. There is a pedigree chart in the user submissions. I then checked wiki's on the individuals and found that have quite a bit of family info. Stammbücher are fun.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

*jaw drops*

Well, I know what I'll be doing all day tomorrow...*chuckle*

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

oh no! I'm feeling the urge to make a new German gown! and it's all your fault!

[eleonoraproject.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a reason I just bought all that pale pink linen...

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

bippimalin who already has decided to switch from early 16th century German to late 15th century German because it's not such a fashion fad right now will love this. And I don't mind late 15th century either - I love my housebook dress and it's accompanying tasseled cap.

/Eva

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

The really funny thing is to see the 16th century take on earlier styles, to figure out what he had seen (mostly church painitngs and sculpture I presume) and is interpreting. It was also funny to find at least ione of the images Köhler uses for his book back in the 19th century, without mentioning that it's a 16th century rendering of 15th century fashion of course.

/Eva

[heike.livejournal.com]

How awesome! Now if only I had free time to sew.

[lorebubeck.livejournal.com]

This is the AWESOME!!!!

THANK YOU for posting!!!!

[corsetrasewing.livejournal.com]

I love the child/adult pages, too cool!

[sitpadeshu.livejournal.com]

This is an incredible resource!!! Thanks for sharing this. :)

[alysten.livejournal.com]

Do you know if they have the collection anywhere else? The digital library just re-org'd all the material.

[vanagnessayem.livejournal.com]

http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/cache.off?id=5363&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=56803&tx_dlf%5Bpointer%5D=0&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=1
I just had someone find it for me, bit late but here ya go anyways :)