The Florence Files: Documentation: Colours of Florence - first half 16thC
Recreating 16th Century Florentine and Tuscan  Clothing and Lifestyle




Florence Files























by La Signora Onorata Katerina da Brescia 
Popular colours over the entire first half of the 16thC, appear to be reds/oranges, gold, black, white, yellow. 

Black showed wealth being expensive to dye. Brown was the colour of mourning.
Purplish-violet was a  colour recorded to be worn by Eleanora and her handmaidens (*)

Reds were the most popular colours with Kermes being a very expensive dye, showing wealth.

Though there are many greens here, they are mainly from 1500s-1530, with one in 1540. Green was not as popular with Eleanora  (only 3 items)

Pictorially, blues were more common up to the 1520's and then towards the 1550's. Sky blue (3 items), is recorded as being worn by Eleanora (in later years flower blue and aquamarine were recorded) and by her daugthers; this can be seen in the Maria d'Cosimo portrait by Allori.
Greys were common colour in Eleanora's time (1538-1562). White was also a favourite of hers. (which was an expensive and prized colour for material)


The Colours of Eleanora d'Toledo:
The following is recorded in her Gardaroba; (La Moda a Firenze, pp 88, 100, 112)
She preferred the play of texture, not contrasting colours.: velvet/satin, wool/velvet, wool/satin. Though, in her later years, she did use contrasting colours, such as red-white, white with grey or brown.
Petticoats: (90)

red (chermisi) mainly with di grana (a less precious red)

fleshtone (incarnato)
white
grey
brown
purplish- violet
skye blue
yellow
green

In her final years, mauve, aquamarine and gilt were also recorded.





25
11
9
6
5
3
3
3
Gowns: (40)

grey
crimson and black
brown
purplish-violet
white

(gowns worn over petticoat in winter, for warmth)


11
7
6
3
2
Zimarra

red
grey
black and brown
purplish-violet
white

Later years: aquamarine, sky blue, flax, flower blue, amaranta (a purple), wallflower.


20
20
11
8
5

By the 1600's names for red included: penna d'angelo (angel wing), rosso ciliegia (cherry), la fiammetta (flicker), incarnato (wounded), il pulmone (lung), zecca (tick). By 1629, there were more than 29 names for red. (Dressing Renaissance Florence)
Green: 33 names - verde pappa-gallo (parrot green), festichino (festivity), verde lauro (laurel), verde botta (toad green), verde della borraccina (mossy green).

There were also many names for blacks, whites, violets, yellows and blues: 
  • neutrals and darks: scuro (dark) cenerito (cinders), gigio (gray), morello (purplish black), 15ht C.
  • neutrals: terra d'Egitto (egyptian earth), fango do Parigi (mud of Paris).
Pre 16thC Florence:
Dressing Renaissance Florence
lists some colour names from the 1400's on. The colour names given by merchants was not always what was recorded in 'family records. Also, wool colour names were apparently more conservative, with the silk dye colours being more imaginative:
rosa di zaffrone (pink sapphire), giaggiolino (gladiiolus), persichino (peach blossom), rosa, rsina, bianco, tane, schizzo d'oca (goose dung), pie di cappone (foot fo the capon).

The Colour Purple in and out of Florence:
Though purple does not seem to be a commonly used colour in Italy, (in Venice they appear to be non-existant - see Oonagh's Own.), there is written documentation in Eleanora d'Toledo's Gardaroba that she had

dresses in purplish-violet. There is also a recorded stomach bands in the same colour tafetta. It is also recorded that her handmaidens often wore dresses of the same colours and materials.

Also there is the following portrait, (*) Bronzino's Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi (1540) that shows a purple-violet looking sleeve (again colour rendering can be variable ) Lucretzia was a wife of a Medici Official. This is visual evidence to support the written documentation stated in La Moda a Firenze.

Outside Florence:
Sumptuary Law in Italy 1200-1500 also has mention of a gown of purple silk worn by Nicolosa Sanuti, wife of the Count of Porretta (mid 1400's) from e Porretane by Sabadino degli Arienti (p125). This also gives evidence of purple being worn, earlier than 1500, in Bologna. (just North over the Alps from Florence).  Elizabethan England (where sumptuary laws strictly prohibited the use of the colour beyond the very high rankings).

Extant Examples:
I have found two (so far) of extant examples of purple used in Italy around 16th C, though it cannot be confirmed which part of Italy they originated from. 



The first is housed in the The State Hermitage Museum Digital Collection - violet material with Pomegranite pattern - 16thC.

and a brocade textile fragment from Italy (1615-25) from LACMA, in gold and lavender

Materials Used in Florence

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

  • Agnes Geijer ,A history of textile art, London. Pasold Research Fund in association with Sotheby
    Parke Bernet. Totowa, N.J. : distributed by Biblio Distribution Center, 1979 (This was from the ANU library.- with scans from Mistress Oonagh) 
  • Kovesi Killerby, Catherine, Sumptuary Law in Italy 1200-1500, Oxford University Press. NY. 2002. ISBN:0-19-924793-5
  • Piponnier, Francoise & Mane, Perrine Dress in the Middle Ages, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997. ISBN: 0-300-08691-1
  • Crowfoot E, Pritchard F & Staniland K, Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450, Boydell Press, Woodridge, 2001 (ed) ISBN: 0-85115-840-4
  • Arnold, Janet Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, Maney, Leeds, 1988, ISBN:0-901286-20-6
  • Arnold, Janet Patterns of Fahsion, MacMillan, London, 1985. ISBN: 0-333-38284-6
  • Frick, Carole Collier. Dressing Renaissance Florence.: Families Fortunes & Clothing. John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore. 2002. ISBN: 0-8018-6939-0
  • Jones, Ann Rosalind & Stallybrass, Peter. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory.
    Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN: 0-521-78663-0
  • Bruker, Gene A. Renaissance Florence. University of California Press. Berkely. 1983 (reprint). ISBN:m0-520-04695-1
  • Orsi Landini, Roberta & Niccoli, Bruna. La Moda a Fioenze 1540-1580. Pagliai Polistampa, Firenze, 2005. ISBN: 88-8304-867-9
  • The Art of Textiles by Alberto Tagliabue http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/tessuto/italiano/Italiano2.htm
  • The Art of Textiles - definitions: http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/tessuto/glossario_uk.htm
  • The State Hermitage Museum Digital COllection http://www.hermitage.ru or http://www.hermitagemuseum.org - search Textiles Italy(?)
  • LACMA Collections online: http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record&key=13756
  • All About Fabrics - Dictionary. http://allaboutfabrics.com
  • Oonagh's Ownhttp://www.geocities.com/oonaghsown/
  • Medici Archive Project: www.medici.org/  (1/06)

© K Carlisle, September,2006.




All intellectual content, original photos and layout are copyright to La Signora Onorata Katerina da Brescia (K Carlisle), except those original renaissance artworks and extant articles whose copyright remains with the current owner.
If you would like to use something from this site, please contact me, and cite this website reference.

(c). K.Carlisle, 2008.

. : distributed by Biblio Distribution Center, 1979 (This was from the ANU library.- with scans from Mistress Oonagh) 
  • Kovesi Killerby, Catherine, Sumptuary Law in Italy 1200-1500, Oxford University Press. NY. 2002. ISBN:0-19-924793-5
  • Piponnier, Francoise & Mane, Perrine Dress in the Middle Ages, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997. ISBN: 0-300-08691-1
  • Crowfoot E, Pritchard F & Staniland K, Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450, Boydell Press, Woodridge, 2001 (ed) ISBN: 0-85115-840-4
  • Arnold, Janet Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, Maney, Leeds, 1988, ISBN:0-901286-20-6
  • Arnold, Janet Patterns of Fahsion, MacMillan, London, 1985. ISBN: 0-333-38284-6
  • Frick, Carole Collier. Dressing Renaissance Florence.: Families Fortunes & Clothing. John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore. 2002. ISBN: 0-8018-6939-0
  • Jones, Ann Rosalind & Stallybrass, Peter. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory.
    Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN: 0-521-78663-0
  • Bruker, Gene A. Renaissance Florence. University of California Press. Berkely. 1983 (reprint). ISBN:m0-520-04695-1
  • Orsi Landini, Roberta & Niccoli, Bruna. La Moda a Fioenze 1540-1580. Pagliai Polistampa, Firenze, 2005. ISBN: 88-8304-867-9
  • The Art of Textiles by Alberto Tagliabue http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/tessuto/italiano/Italiano2.htm
  • The Art of Textiles - definitions: http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/tessuto/glossario_uk.htm
  • The State Hermitage Museum Digital COllection http://www.hermitage.ru or http://www.hermitagemuseum.org - search Textiles Italy(?)
  • LACMA Collections online: http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record&key=13756
  • All About Fabrics - Dictionary. http://allaboutfabrics.com
  • Oonagh's Ownhttp://www.geocities.com/oonaghsown/
  • Medici Archive Project: www.medici.org/  (1/06)
  • © K Carlisle, September,2006.




    All intellectual content, original photos and layout are copyright to La Signora Onorata Katerina da Brescia (K Carlisle), except those original renaissance artworks and extant articles whose copyright remains with the current owner.
    If you would like to use something from this site, please contact me, and cite this website reference.

    (c). K.Carlisle, 2008.