Giovanni Cenami's Veil, A Neglected Detail

Medieval Clothing and Textiles

Volume I

edited by

ROBIN NETHERTON

GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER

I THE BOYDELL PRESS

O Contributors 2005

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Giovanna Cenami's Veil: A Neglected Detail

Carla Tilghman

Jan van Eyck's Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami Betrothal (1434, National Gallery, London) is surely one of the most discussed and reproduced images of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art, and yet there has been little written about the figure of Giovanna Cenami, or the unusual clothes that she wears (fig, 10. I ) . Inter- pretations of the painting have ranged from Erwin Panofsky's iconographic read- ing to Edwin Hall's historiographic one, touching extensively on almost every detail of the painting with the notable exception of Cenami's headgear.' Examination of the headdress with which Cenami is accoutered in relation to its historical mani- festations and the role that it plays in Van Eyck's painting will help to fill in the conspicuous gap that has been left in Eyckian literature. An investigation into a possible method of veil construction will also be presented in order to provide an understanding of the painted veil from a vantage point other than art historical.

THE IMAGES

In 1434 Jan van Eyck was a valet de chambre or court painter to the Burgundian court.' This position left him well placed to receive commissions for full-length portraits ofwealthy merchants in Bruges. The double portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his bride-to-be Giovanna Cenami places the two opulently clad figures in an upper-class Flemish interior. The chandelier above the couple, the mirror between

1 would like to thank Dr. Stephen Goddard, Robin Netherton, Dr. Gale Owen-Crocker, Verna Rutz, and Dr. Diane Scillia for their assistance and encouragement Aversion ofthis paper was presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966), 1:201--3; Edwin Hall, The Arnolfini Betrothal: Medieval Mam'age and the Enigma of Van Eyck's Double Portrait (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).

2 James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Artsfiom 1350 to I 575 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, lq85), 30.

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i Fig. 10.1: Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Amolfini and Giovanna Cenami Betrothal, 1434, National Gallery, London, oil on oak, 82.2 x 60 centimeters (32.3 x 23.6 inches). Photo: National Gallery, London, by permission.

them, and the bed to Cenami's left are all types of objects pictured in many wn- temporary paintings from the Low Countries in the fifteenth century. It is exactly these realistic details that are usually examined in Van Eyck's paintings. Analysis of the Arnolfi ni portrait has also addressed the unusual inscription above the mirror, which implies more of a corporeal presence than is usually associated with works of this period.3 The possibility that the artist is pictured in the work has led to speculation about the verism of the painting; in other words, it seems as if the room and its furnishings could have existed. Yet it is clearly a carefully contrived painting, meant to indicate some kind of formal occasion or ceremony, and the details in the work, however realistic, seem to confirm that For example, the hand gesture of Amolfini and the formal taking of Cenami's hand, the dog representing 1

3 The inscription is often translated as "Jan van Eyck was here" as opposed to the more normal inscription "Jan van Eyck made me." Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art, I 12.

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fidelity, and the image of St. Margaret on the bed frame representing childbirth are details carefully arranged by Van Eyck to reinforce a sense of formality and occasion.'

Most, if not all, of the interpretations of the painting promote the idea of ceremony. Elisabeth Dhanens interpreted the painting as a marriage.5 We know that a Giovanni Arnolfini (Luccese silk merchant and banker living in Bruges) did indeed marry the daughter of another Italian textile merchant The date of this marriage (c. 1447) seems to be later than that of the painting, and so other art historians have labeled the ceremony being portrayed as a betrothaL6

Both figures are dressed in what appears to be early-fifteenth-century Flemish fashion. While it seems clear that the clothes of Arnolfini and Cenami were carefully considered by Van Eyck, they are generally overlooked by art historians. Lit- tle has been written about Cenami's lush, heavily draped, green gown (a style called a houppelande) or her fine linen headdress.

James Snyder does not mention the headdress in connection with the Arnolfini panel and erroneously labels the same type of headdress "Bruges lace" when dis- cussing the 1439 Portrait of Margaret van Eyck.7 Dhanens comes closest to an accu- rate description of Cenami's headgear when she writes: "The woman in this picture is still very young; she wears an elegant headdress with horns over which a veil with a frilled edge is hung."8 Edwin Hall simply describes the headdress as a veil.9 Literature on theatrical costuming and fashion most frequently refers to the

4 Various art historians have tine-tuned their interpretations of these details. See Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (London: National Gallery Publications, 1998), 175- 205; Charles D. Cuttler, Northern Paintingfrom Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), 9798; Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism (London: Reaktion Books, 1991)~ 1-10 and elsewhere; Linda Seidel, Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories ofan Icon (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 3-5 and elsewhere; Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art, I 12-1 3. For general information about Van Eyck and issues surrounding the London panel, see Maryan W. Ainsworth, ed., Early Netherlandish Painting a t the Crossroads: A Critical Look a t Current Methodologies (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001); H. T. Musper, Netherlandish Paintingfrom Van Eyck to Bosch (New York: Abrams, 1981); Walter Prevenier, ed., Le Prince et le Peuple: Images de la SociMdu temps des ducs de Bourgogne 1384- 1530 (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1998).

5 Elisabeth Dhanens, Hubert and Jan van Eyck (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1980), 199. 6 There continues to be debate about the exact identity ofthe portrayed couple, i.e., which Arnolfini

married Cenami, and which Arnolfini is indeed being portrayed. For an extensive discussion of the issue, see Campbell, Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools, 19296.

7 Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art, 234. While there is no exact date for the origins of lace, it is generally agreed that lacemaking postdates the Van Eyck portrait For general information on lace, see Santina M. Levey, Lace: A History (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983), and Arlette Smolar-Meynart and A. Vincke, Dentelle de Bruxelles (Brussels: Museum of Costume and Lace, 1982).

Carla Tilghman

headdress as a "goffered" veil, even though the ruffled edges of Cenami's veil are - - - clearly not heat-set'"

At this juncture, there are two issues that bear closer examination: ( I ) whether the veil might have been a piece of actual headgear (as opposed to simply artistic imagination); and (2) if the veil did exist, how that might affect our understanding of Van Eyck's use of i t Examination of other portrayals of this style of headdress and the circumstances in which it appears should yield the necessary information.

Images of this kind of multiple-layered, ruffle-edged outer veil, sometimes called a "nebule" headdress," appear on tomb effigies from the fourteenth century in England and Northern Europe. In England, the Montacute-Despencer tomb in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire (1349-50) shows a stone effigy of a female figure sporting a stylized version of the Cenami headdress (fig. 10.2). One can clearly see multiple layers of cloth that are ruffled along at least one edge. The

I Fig. 10.2: Head of stone effigy on the Montacute-Despencer tomb, 1349-1350, Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Stella Mary Newton and Mary M. Giza, "Frilled Edges," Textile History 14, no. 2 (1983): 145, fig. 5.

l o "Goffering" is a term that comes from the Old French verb "gauffre," meaning to impress or imprint Probably developed in the sixteenth century, goffering is the act of starching linen fabric and then clamping an edge in heated goffering tongs. The result was a stiff fabric with figure-eight shaped ruffles, more like the Elizabethan ruffled collar. Cenami's veil drapes softly on her shoulders, as do other painted examples of this type of linen headdress. Unlike the regular ruff that goffering produces, the ruffles on Cenami's veil are irregularly shaped and do not appear at all stiff.

I I The term "nebule," meaning "wavy," is used by such authors as Dhanens and Malcolm Norris to refer to this style of headdress, with its ruffled or wavy edges.


brass effigy on Maud Foxley's tomb (Bray, Berkshire, England, 1378; fig. 10.3) also shows a ruffled veil, as do the brasses of Joan de la Pole (Chrishall, Essex, England, I 380; fig. 8.2 in this volume) and Isobel de Malyns (Chinnor, Oxfordshire, Eng- land, 1385)." All of these effigies show a veil with multiple ruffled edges draped loosely over the head. Unlike the Cenami image or the portrait of Margaret van

I Eyck, these effigies show no hair adornments other than the veil. Both of the Van Eyck portraits show that the women's hair has been braided and netted on either side of their heads to resemble horns, a Burgundian fashion.

Of course, there are problems inherent in trying to determine fashion from tomb effigies. It is difficult to ascertain exactly when the clothing in question would have been in fashion. For instance, an effigy might be commissioned well prior to a death, or well after a death. Also, the deceased might be pictured in a particular

Fig. 10.3: Brass effigy from the tomb of Lady Maud Foxley, I 378, Bray, Berkshire, England. Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Henry H. Trivick, The Craft and Design of Monumental Brasses (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), fig. I 16.

12 Pictured in Henry H. Trivick, The Craft and Design of Monumental Brasses (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), fig. 134.

Carla Tilghman

fashion for a variety of reasons: tradition, symbolism, or a desire to demonstrate wealth or social standing. An additional problem presents itself when looking at brasses; it is necessary to determine which ones might have been custom-made, and which were simply standard workshop types, indistinguishable from one another except for the name of the deceased.

not her image of the veil from the late fourteenth century can be found on the p o a a i t bust of lsabeau of Bavaria (c. I 391, St. Denis, Paris).'3 Made of marble, the sculpture shows her wearing a veil with two layers of fine ruffles. This bust is particularly intriguing given Isabeau's likely support of Flemish economic interests during the Flemish weaver rebellions of the late I 390s.'4

A variation on the ruffle-edged veil arrangement appears in a German manuscript from about 1362 (fig. 10.4).'5 Instead of the veil draping loosely over the heads of the female figures (who are pictured apparently performing a German round dance) the veil is worn over the head and then tied or pinned under the chin, giving it the look of a hood. It is not clear whether this is a regional variation or simply a practical measure to keep the veil from flying off during the dance, but it is clearly the same kind of veil.

Fig. 10.4: Illumination of dancers, c. I 362, from Weltchronik (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Cod. Germ. 5, 166v). Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Newton and Giza, 146, fig. 7.

13 Pictured in Paul Rodier, The Romance ofFrench Weaving (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1931), 138.

14 For information about Isabeau's economic interests, see Rachel Gibbons, "The Queen as 'social mannequin': Consumerism and expenditure a t the Court of lsabeau of Bavaria, 1393-1422,'' lournal ofMediwal His toy 26, no. 4 ( 2 ~ ) .

I 5 Weltchronik, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Cod. Germ. 5, 166v.

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The number of secular images of women wearing the ruffle-edged veil from the mid-to-late fourteenth century seems to establish this as a fourteenth-century fashion. By the time that Van Eyck incorporated the headdress into the Arnolfini double portrait and the portrait of his own wife, the veil was probably a generation out of date. After about 1390, there are fewer tomb effigies with the multi-layered veil, and painted portraits show women wearing a different style of headdress.I6 Similarly, the statuettes from Louis de Male's tomb depicting relatives of Philip the Good show women wearing contemporary headdresses of the early-to-mid- fifteenth century: large arrangements that required a rigid support structure (fig. 10.5).'7 Dhanens claims that Van Eyck must have provided the drawings for these statuettes, indicating that he was familiar with contemporary fashion.18

Other examples of the ruffle-edged veil from the early fifteenth century give us a better understanding of how Jan van Eyck was probably intending for the Cenami veil to be read. In the early-fifteenth-century panel painting of the counts and countesses of Flanders from S t Peter's Abbey in Ghent, a prominent woman

Fig. 10.5: Selected statuette figures from the tomb of Louis de Male from the nineteenth- century engravings by A. L. Millin. Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Elisabeth Dhanens, Hubert and ]an van Eyck (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1980), 128-129, fig. 84.

16 Cheunsoon Song and Lucy Roy Sibley, "The Vertical Headdress of Fifteenth Century Northern Europe," Dress 16 (1990): 5-14.

17 The figures from the tomb no longer exist, but we know them from the engravings in A. L. Millin, Galerie mythologique: Recueil de monuments pour servir d \'Etude de la mythologie, de I'histoire e de I'art, de I'antiquit6jgur&ee, et du langage all6gorique des anciens (Paris: Soyer, 181 I). The images can also be seen in Dhanens, pp. I 28-29, fig. 84.

18 Dhanens, Hubert and ]an van Eyck, 127.

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Fig. 10.6: Countess Mathilda, as shown in the painting of the counts and countesses of Flanders, c. 1400, St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Dhanens, 148, fig. 102.

(Countess Mathilda) is shown wearing garments similar to Cenami's (fig. 10.6). Her hair has been coiled up to create horns, but her dress is a fourteenth-century houppelande, and she wears the ruffle-edged veil.'9 Mathilda is chronologically the oldest countess portrayed and so wears the oldest style of headcovering among those shown. Other countesses wear a progression of more contemporary forms of head accoutrement^.'^

Robert Campin's Portraitofa Lady (c. 1430, National Gallery, London) shows a three-quarter portrait of an unidentified woman sporting clothes of a style that Lome Campbell identified with "prosperous townspeople" (fig. IO.~)." The woman wears what appear to be three veils, two ofwhich are draped loosely over her head and secured with two visible pins. All three veils have delicately ruffled edges, and we can clearly see that they are long pieces of fabric that have been folded.

In the Portrait of Margaret van Eyck, Margaret is seen to be wearing exactly the same kind of veil as Cenami, though Margaret's veil appears to have seven layers of cloth, while Cenami's only has five (due to spousal diplomacy?). Margaret's hair, like Cenami's, is dressed in horns, edged with small braids and tightly packed into a patterned ne t

19 For a detailed discussion of the dating of this type of houppelande, see Anne Hagopain van Buren, "Jan van Eyck in the Hours of Turin and Milan, approached through the Fashion in Dress," in Masters and Miniatures: Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript lllumination in the Northern Netherlands (Utrecht, icrlj December 19891, ed. Koert van der Horst and Johann- Christian Klamt (Doornspijk, Netherlands: Davaco, 1991), 223-43.

2 0 Dhanens, Hubert and Jan van Eyck, 213. 21 Campbell, Fifteenth C e n t u y Netherlandish Schools, 77.

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Fig. 10.7: Robert Campin, Portrait ofa Lady, c. 1430, National Gallery, London, oil with egg tempera on oak, 40.6 x 28.1 centimeters (16 x I I inches). Photo: National Gallery, London, by permission.

The Campin and Van Eyck portraits are images of women who were contem- poraries of Cenami's. Though they are richly dressed, they are relatively unadorned other than with their conspicuous headcoverings. The copious amounts of linen that they are pictured wearing lend a certain sense of formality, while the expense of their headcoverings (to be discussed shortly) implies a certain financial standing, or at least the desire to be viewed as wealthy people.

While the above-mentioned portraits have the implication of formality, there are even more specific instances of the veil appearing in connection with ceremony. In Robert Campin's Marriage of the Virgin (c. ' go ) , there is a figure just behind and to the right of the Virgin who wears a ruffled veil with four layers and a linen gorget underneath her chin." This figure is most likely S t Anne, the Virgin's mother.

22 One source that contains a reproduction of this work is Albert ChBtelet, Robert Campin, le Maftre de Fldmalle: La fascination du quotidien (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator Paribas, 1996), 138.

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Fig. 10.8: Figures of Anne and Joachim from the wooden sculpture The Meeting ofjoachim and Anne, by the Master of Joachim and Anne, c. 1470, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Henk van 0 s and Jan Piet Filedt Kok, Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum, vol. I , 1400--1600 (Zwolle, Netherlands: Waanders Publishers, 2 m ) , 63, pl. 8.

Her wearing of the veil sets her apart from the other female figures in the compo- sition not only in terms of fashion, but also in terms of stature and gravity. While the veil is opulent in its use of fabric, it is also somber in comparison with the clothing of the other female figures. The woman directly to the right of the Virgin is wearing a much more colorful and elaborate headdress, while Anne (who seems to know the pain that her daughter will suffer) is solemn and formal.

Another instance of Anne wearing the ruffled headdress appears in several small wooden sculptures in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 10.8).~3 The Master of Joachim and Anne (active c. 1460-1480) shows the meeting of Anne and Joachim and the birth of the Virgin. In both scenes, Anne is wearing a nebule-type veil. Like the figures in the German manuscript mentioned earlier, Anne pins her veil underneath her chin. The sculptures (each about 46 centimeters,

23 Henk van 0 s and Jan Piet Filedt Kok, Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum, vol. I , 14oe1600 (Zwolle, Netherlands: Waanders Publishers, zooo), 62-63. While little is known of the training and travels of the Master of Joachim and Anne, some would argue for stylistic reasons that he could be Michel Erhart, indicating that he worked for some time in Germany. The incorporation of the headdress into sculptures made in the late fifteenth century indicates that the veil was being used as a historicizing feature.

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Fig. 10.9: Brooch, early fifteenth century, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Drawing: Carla Tilghman, based on Dhanens, 45, fig. 25.

or 18 inches, in height) show the veil in remarkable detail; we can clearly see the folds of the layers of cloth, and unlike the paintings, we can see the back of the veils. This three-dimensional view shows that there are ruffles present on both selvedge edges of the fabric, a detail that will be discussed further in the section on construction.

A third example of the veil appearing on a figure engaged in ceremony is seen in a small brooch in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (fig. 10.9).'4 Originally from the collection of Mary of Burgundy and identified as a marriage brooch, the Vienna piece shows a couple holding hands and standing in a nest of gold wires, surrounded by pearls.'r The diminutive female figure is wearing a ruffle-edged veil, but her clothes and those of her husband appear to be more

. .. . - contemporary to the early or middle fifteenth century. Hence, the veil is the only

24 The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has a similar brooch, though it is not as finely crafted, nor is the provenance as clear as that of the Vienna brooch.

25 Dhanens, Hubert and ]an van Eyck, 44. The Vienna brooch was in the inventoty of Mary of Bur gundy's possessions upon her marriage to Maximillian I in 1475.

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out-of-date garment in the piece, suggesting that the veil is being used as ceremonial headwear-a wedding veil, if you will.

Given the provenance ofthe brooch, it is entirely possible that the two figures were partially modeled after the couple in the Arnolfini panel. However, the shift in fashion of the clothes suggests that the veil had become not just a historicizing garment, but one that specifically indicated ceremony, and in this instance was used to indicate marriage.

In these three examples, the use of the ruffle-edged veil conveys ideas of dignity, maturity, and ceremony. In the Marriage of the Virgin, the veil appears in a marriage ceremony, though not worn by the bride. In the case ofthe Rijksmuseum sculptures and the Vienna brooch, the veil alludes specifically to the ceremony of marriage. Despite these seemingly obvious examples, caution is necessary. The examples that have been cited are quite a limited sampling. The Vienna brooch has a strong stylistic connection to the Van Eyck painting. The Master of Joachim and Anne probably traveled throughout the southern Netherlands and so may have been familiar with Van Eyck's work.

At this point, it seems reasonable to conclude that the layered ruffle-edged veil did indeed exist as a garment, but was probably worn as a current fashion in the mid-to-late fourteenth century. Any later instances of the headdress's actual use were probably ceremonial, while the veil was used artistically to indicate ceremony and/or historicization.

THE CONSTRUCTION

The significance ofthe veil can also be understood by considering the nature of the Flemish linen industry and examining a possible method of constru~tion.'~ While there is much documentation of the wool industry in fourteenth- and fifteenth- century Flanders, there is relatively little literature on the linen industry. John H. Munro postulates that the divergent settings for these two industries is to blame. The processing and weaving of wool was an urban-based enterprise governed by town and subsequently guild regulations. Because of these governing agencies, more records have remained for historians to examine.'' The linen industry, on

26 In 1983, Stella May Newton and May M. Giza described their experimena with weaving ruffle-edged veils in "Frilled Edges," Tewtile H i m y 14, no. z (1983): 141-52. While their efforts are commendable, I think that their conclusions are incorrect both in terms of loom technology and weave structure. New ton argues in favor of a double back-beam being used as a way to establish two systems of tension in order to create the ruffles. I have been unable to find any indication that this type of technology was used in linen weaving of any kind. Newton also proposes the idea that multiple ruffles could be woven on the edge of theveil. In order to do this, the weaver would have to combine a type of double weave with a single weave, and again, I can find no indication of this type of structure being used.

27 John H. Munro, "Urban Regulation and Monopolistic Competition in the Textile Industries of the Late-Medieval Low Countries," in Textiles ofthe Low Countries in European Economic History, Session B-15: Proceedings, Tenth International Economic History Congress, Leuven, August 1990, ed.

. Erik Aerts and John H. Munro (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, ~qqo), 41-52.

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the other hand, was considerably more rural, run primarily by small communities or family units. Processing of fibers, weaving, and processing of the cloth were often done near where the flax was grown.28

We do know that in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, there was Burgundian support for Flemish textile industries. While linen was woven throughout Europe, Flemish linens (probably due in large part to the Burgundian support) were known as the finest9

Understanding the fine quality of Flemish linens is important to the notion that Cenami's headdress was something special. Extant examples of linen damask show that thread counts ranged between 60 and 200 threads per inch, and that the fabrics were carefully finished, bleached, and pressed.3" Maureen Mazzaoui indicates that Flemish linens cost 30 times as much as some finely woven ~00ls.3'

Christine de Pisan, writing about 1410, was shocked by a merchant's wife's ostentation, describing the expensive textiles: "Linen cloth, delicate as silk, was made in one piece, without seams, in a newly discovered way that was very expensive.'+ This is a particularly telling observation both in terms ofthe willingness of members of the merchant class to show offtheir wealth and in terms ofthe specific reference to linen "all in one piece." One of the unusual features of Cenami's veil is that it appears to be a long piece of cloth that has been folded several times in

28 H. van Werveke, "Industrial Growth in the Middle Ages: The Cloth lndustry in Flanders," Eco- nomic Histoy Review, 2nd ser., 6, no. 3 (1954): 238. For a general discussion of linen weaving, see Dominique Cardon, La draperie au Moyen Age: Essord'unegrande industrie europienne (Paris, CNRS, 1999); Nesta Evans, The East Anglian Linen Industry: Rural Industry and Local Economy: 1500-1850 (Aldershot, England: Gower Publishing, 1985).

29 Van Werveke, "Industrial Growth," 244. The Burgundian court supported the textiles industries for its own economic and political reasons; predictably, such support varied from decade to decade and ruler to ruler.

30 William E Leggett, The Stoy of Linen (Brooklyn, NY: Chemical Publishing Co., 1945), 42. Gener ally monochrome, damask fabrics are made by combining warpfaced weave structures with weft-faced structures in a way that creates images such as animals or flowers. These patterns are visible because the warp and weft structures reflect light differently. Because of the intricacies of its weave structures, damask tends to find its way in to the literature, whereas fabrics in plain weave or twill weave (structures most probably used in the Cenami-type veil) are less visually exciting and so not generally written about. The thread counts found in damask weaves are similar to twills and so are a good basis for determining possible thread counts in the ruffle- edged veils. For additional background, see N. B. Harte, ed., The New Draperies in the Low Coun- tries and England: 1jow1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).

31 Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui, The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages: I 100-1600 (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 67.

32 Christine de Pisan, Le livre des trois vertus, ed. C. Cannon Willard, Bibliothkque du XVe sikcle, vol. 50 (Paris: Libr. H. Champion, 1989), 185. The entire passage reads: ". . . les tapis d'entour le lit mis parterre sur quoy on marchoit, tous pereilz a or ouvrkz, les grans draps de parement . . . de si fine toile de Raims que ilz estoient prisiez a .ccc. fi-ans . . . un autre grant drap de lin aussi deli6 que soye . . . tout d'une piece et sans cousture--qui est chose nouvellement trouvee a faire et de moult grant coust" This book is dedicated to Philip the Good's sister, Margaret of Burgundy. Translation mine.

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order to create the headdress. I t takes more skill to weave one continuous piece of cloth without error than to weave a long piece that can then be cut apart in order to hide errors.

Pisan's observation that there were no seams is critical to understanding how such a veil might have been constructed: a long piece of cloth without seams between the body of the veil and the ruffled edge. Close examination of paintings in which ruffle-edged veils are apparent show that the verist painters of the Nether- lands did not paint seams between the ruffle and the body of the veil, though there are abundant examples of painted seams in other garments and headdresses. Secular paintings by Campin, Albert Ouwater, and Dirk Bouts only show a continuous fabric, as do sacred works by Campin, Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Jacques Daret This lack of seaming can be explained if the ruffles were created during the weaving of the cloth, not as a supplemental piece of fabric added later.

By the mid-fourteenth century (the period when the veil was probably most commonly worn), loom technology in Europe had generally shifted from the vertical, warp-weighted loom to the horizontal treadle loom.33 As textile production in medieval Europe had become a booming industry, weavers needed a technology that would allow them to keep up with demand. Fabric length on a vertical loom was generally limited by the height of the loom: One end of the warp was attached to the top beam, while the other end was attached to weights that hung just off the ground. On the horizontal loom, however, long warps could be wound around the back beam during the initial stage of weaving preparation, known as "dressing the loom." This allowed for longer lengths of cloth to be woven off of one dressing, thus using the weaver's time more eficiently. The horizontal loom also allowed for a greater degree of tension control on the warp threads, so finer and finer threads could be woven without breakage or tangling.

However, despite the general shift to the horizontal loom, warpweighted looms did not rapidly disappear. I t is the combination of these two technologies that suggests a possible means for the creation of the ruffle-edged veil. Groups of threads held under similar tension will stretch similar amounts. The length of the result- ing cloth will thus be uniform across the entire breadth of the fabric. But what happens if a cloth is woven with differing tensions in the warp threads? When the cloth is taken off the loom, the threads that were held under the greatest tension will remain straight; the fibers of those threads will retain a certain amount of tension and so will remain elongated. The threads that are held under less tension will bunch up during the weaving process, and the fibers of those threads main- tain their more relaxed state.

33 Another loom that was in use in Europe in the fourteenth century was the two-beam vertical loom, a loom that both pre- and post-dated the warpweighted loom. In some regions, this type of vertical loom may have superceded the warpweighted loom for the weaving of wool; however, it is the horizontal loom that provided the technical improvements that gradually replaced the warp-weighted loom for the weaving of yardage. For good discussion of all three types of looms, see H. Ling Roth, Studies in Primitive Looms, 3rd ed. (1918; repr. Bedford, England: Ruth Bean, 1977).


!

Fig. 10.10: Back view of eight-harness Norwood loom set up to weave linen with ruffled edges. The ends of the selvedge threads, which will form the ruffles, are placed in weighted canisters, which are then hung over the back-beam of the loom. These canisters constitute a tensioning system separate from the rest of the warp threads. Photo: Carla Tilghman.

This, then, is the key to determining how the Cenami veil might have been woven. It is my contention that the ruffles may have been created by placing a certain number of threads on each edge of the veil under less tension than the

I threads in the body of the veil. I tested this theory by weaving a number of sam-

~ ples of this type of veil using a loom arrangement that combined warp-weighted- loom technology with the use of a horizontal loom. In this setup, the selvedge-edge threads are weighted offthe back of the horizontal loom using a tensioning system that is separate from the rest ofthe threads (fig. 10. lo). The threads in the body of the veil are attached to the warp-beam ofthe horizontal loom and are placed under quite a bit of tension. The selvedge threads are tensioned using a series of weights that hold those threads under less tension. Tension differences between the two groups of threads can be varied depending on the amount of bunching or "ruf- fling" that the weaver desires. Cenami's veil shows deep ruffles, while the veil in Campin's Portrait of a Lady shows smaller, shallower ruffles.

My experiments with weaving ruffle-edged linen revealed several issues. In order to weave a very fine linen veil, I used linen singles (unplied threads typical of Flemish linens). Using the same number of warp threads per inch in the body and in the selvedge caused the ruffles to be irregular and rather loose in structure. To create a more uniform and dense ruffle, I increased the number of threads in j

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Carla Tilghman

the selvedge, giving a final thread count of 60 threads per inch in the body of the veil and p threads per inch in the selvedge.

Because the selvedge threads were under less tension and were bunching up during the weaving the length of those threads needed to be increased. Sampling indicated the need to carefully consider the original length of all the warp threads. If threads of the same initial length were used, the threads held under more tension would retain their original measurement (or possibly even stretch), while the threads under less tension-the selvedge threads-would actu- ally become shorter as the weaving process packed down the fibers of those threads. The selvedge threads would also bunch up during weaving to create the ruffle. Not wanting to end up with extra of either group of threads when the cloth was finished, I increased the length of the selvedge threads by one-third of the total length of the body threads. The loom was set up with a warp that was 28 inches (about 71 centimeters) wide; the length of the body threads was 5 yards (about 4.5 meters), while the selvedge threads were just over 6.5 yards (about 6 meters) long.34

Another issue that had to be addressed during my experiments was the gradually changing tension between the developing ruffle and the body of the veil. In order for me to open a clean shed, I needed to do two things:

I pin the ruffles down as they were woven so that the last weft thread thrown was parallel to the threads in the body of the veil (fig. 10. I I )35

2 pass a stick into the newly opened shed to make sure that no threads were sticking together (fig. 10. I 2).

Processing the linen after weaving is a crucial step in creating a stable cloth that drapes beautifully. Traditional methods of linen processing include "beetling" (beating the cloth so that the fibers mesh together) and "calendering" (rubbing a heated piece of glass over the surface of the cloth to press the fabric and to polish it). Both finishing techniques were employed to complete the creation of the Sam- ple veil.

Re-creation can often yield interesting insights into a historical process or method, though as with any type of experimentation, caution must be taken in interpreting the results. Attempting to re-create the type of linen that might have been used in Cenami's headdress demonstrated that there is a fairly straightfor- ward method by which the veil can be made that is consistent with the technology

34 "Warp" refers to the long threads that are placed on the loom and held under tension. "Weft" refers to the threads that are passed over and under the warp threads in sequential patterns, thus creating cloth.

35 The "shed" is the space that is created between warp threads when some of the threads are up and the rest of the threads are down. The passing of a weft thread through that opening consti- tutes one "shot" being "thrown." All the threads are then returned to a neutral position. The next shot takes place with a different group of warp threads (the next in the sequential pattern) being raised to create another shed. Those readers less familiar with weaving but old enough to remember computer punch cards should recognize the workings of a binary system.


Fig. 10.1 I (top): Pinning the ruffles. Photo: Carla Tilghman. Fig. 10.12 (bottom): Clearing the shed. Photo: Carla Tilghman.

available in the mid-fourteenth century. The need for a certain amount of skill to weave the ruffles suggests that this type of linen was probably a specialty item.

The length of the veil is also an important feature in understanding it as a novel piece of clothing. In order to achieve the five layers in Cenami's veil, the piece of linen would have had to be quite long: approximately six yards. More

Carla Tilghman

importantly, it would have had to be a single length without ~eams.3~Any seams in the headdress would show and ruin the effect of cascades of pristine linen. The need for a single piece no doubt added to the expense of the fabric.

Finally, it is conceivable that Cenami's veil was an heirloom. Given that it was in fashion in Cenami's mother's or grandmother's time, the veil could have been passed down to her. There is ample evidence of inherited clothing in extant wills.37 Linen is a durable fabric, able to survive for generations, and the headdress is not a garment that would have been subject to much wear and tear. Linen processing and bleaching was well known in Flanders, suggesting that linens could be passed down still in excellent condition for several generations.

I t is quite clear that Giovanna Cenami's veil could have existed. Experimenta- tion with re-creation coupled with information about the linen industry indicates that the veil would probably have been a specialty item and thus expensive. Tomb effigies give us a time period when the veil might have been fashionable, reinforc- ing the historical nature of Cenami's veil, Jan van Eyck's inclusion of the veil in the Arnolfini double portrait suggests that he wished to invest the figure of Cenami with a sense of history, dignity, and ceremony appropriate to the social stature of the young woman upon her betrothal.

36 The seven layers in Margaret's veil probably required an additional two yards of cloth. 37 For just one example of the widespread practice of clothing bequests in this period, see Kristen

Burkholder, "Threads Bared: Dress and Textiles in Late Medieval English Wills," in this volume.

Documents

Giovanni Cenami's Veil, A Neglected Detail