Virgin in vogue: Late Medieval Virgin iconography and

contemporary women’s fashion

Gülfem Demiray

Art 221

Fall 2010

Thursday, December 2

“Fashion isn’t something that exists in dresses only;

fashion is something in the air. It’s the wind that blows in

the new fashion; you feel it coming, you smell it. Fashion

is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the

way we live, what is happening.”1

Coco Chanel

“Fashion should thus be considered as a symptom of the

taste for the ideal which floats on the surface of all the

crude, terrestrial and loathsome bric-à-brac that the natural

life accumulates in the human brain.”2

Charles Baudelaire

Taking the Virgin and Child statue by the Master of Rabenden at the Cloisters of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art as a starting point, this essay elaborates on the Virgin Mary

figures in Late Medieval Germany and the ways in which they were being used for

various reasons. It also makes an attempt to relate the Virgin figure to the contemporary

fashions of the Late Gothic period in Germany.

The limewood Virgin and Child statue displayed at the Cloisters (Fig. 1)

embodies the Late Gothic style that continued to prevail in Germany in late fifteenth and

early sixteenth centuries and culminated in a distinctly national Gothic character, as

prolific sculptors of Southern Germany took different directions in sculpture than their

Italian counterparts who were then being kindled by the first waves of the Renaissance.3

The elegant carving has been attributed to the Master of Rabenden, based on comparison

to other works by the artist.4 Judging from its height and hollowed back (Fig. 2), the

limewood Virgin and Child seems to have been commissioned for the predella of an

altarpiece. Alternatively, it might also have been featured in the main central group of a

smaller altarpiece in the more intimate setting of a house or a private chapel.5 The statue,

which has lost its original polychromy, is in very poor condition, as the vast majority of

its surface has been ruined with holes and tunnels bored by termites (Fig. 3).6

The statue depicts the Virgin Mary, holding the baby Christ up with her hands. As

the Virgin and baby Christ figures were originally accompanied by a figure of Saint

Anne, mother of the Virgin, the Virgin is actually portrayed as handing the baby Christ

over to his grandmother (Fig. 4).7 With the long, curly strands of her hair, slightly

pouting mouth, smooth, full cheeks, and knobby chin, the Virgin appears as a very

youthful female figure. She is dressed in contemporary fashion, wearing a loose dress

with a wide-collar, wide sleeves, voluminous draperies, and pointed-toe shoes (Fig. 5). In

addition, the young Virgin is embellished with a simple, yet elegantly carved crown on

her head.

The statue radiates a sense of classic patterns through the folds of drapery,

idealized young features of the serene figures, and the harmonious simplicity of the

composition. Although the full group with Saint Anne does not reflect the Gothic

verticality, the statue still shows traces of the French Gothic in the exquisitely carved

strands of hair and other delicate features of the graceful figures. An eye for sustained

line keeps the composition in its self-contained form, despite the juxtaposition of

diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines, as well as the dynamic blend of thin and thick

contours, which suggests textural contrasts among hair, flesh, and fabric.

The contrast between the fabric of the Virgin’s outfit and her flesh is further

accentuated by the way her fingers press subtly into the flesh of the nude body of the

baby Christ. The expressive naturalism in the flesh and hair poses a striking contrast to

the drama and agitation fabricated by the deeply cut, massive drapery folds, which subtly

reveal only the bodice, shoulders, and knees of the Virgin. The deeply carved, diagonal

lines of drapery between the her calves also stimulate motion and convey an effect of

mobility along with the baby figure, whose lower body, tiny feet, and fat little legs

suggest a natural baby movement. The broad voluminous draperies possess a

monumental quality, forming horizontal patterns at the waist and falling into rippling

folds at both sides of the Virgin. The voluminous dress, which reflects the contemporary

fashions, would dominate the composition in its original location within an altarpiece, as

viewers would observe the statue from down below.

Hovering above all earthly concerns, literally and figuratively, the figure of

Virgin Mary was the most important figure in late medieval piety after Christ.8 The

theological controversies in the sixteenth century that were centered on her led up to a

crescendo in her worship as the mother of Christ, and motherhood became the most

prominent theme in the theology of the Virgin’s intercession.9 The theme started gaining

popularity with the Virgin and Child motif in sculpture in Germany and the Low

Countries from 1470s onwards.10

Bearing strong resemblance to the Byzantine

Hodegetria, the Virgin with Child motif depicted Virgin Mary holding the Christ child in

her arms, playing with the baby, or nursing him. Featuring the figure of Christ as a baby,

the Virgin and Child imagery clearly emphasized the Virgin’s motherhood and identified

her as the ideal of maternity in this world.11

The Virgin and Child theme was given many unique interpretations in different

ages and regions.12

The Holy Kinship, or in German, Anna Selbdritt [Anne in triplicate],

was a favored one in Southern Germany.13

The devotional image of the Holy Kinship

originated in Germany in mid-fourteenth century. Having gained impetus in the late

fifteenth century, the motif had spread throughout Europe by the beginning of the

sixteenth century.14

The visual representation of this theme existed in many different

compositional variations, including open or compact units, Mary and Saint Anne either

standing or seated, young or middle-aged Mary; (Fig. 6) shows one of the most renowned

examples of the theme, depicting Saint Anne, holding the Virgin as a child in one arm,

and the baby Christ on the other. The immensely popular motif was reproduced more

frequently in sculpture than in painting, as a three-dimensional image provided greater

immediacy in the service of worship; the biggest demand for The Holy Kinship statue

groups came from churches for altarpieces.15

The cult of Saint Anne became so popular

that her very head, venerated as a holy relic in Mainz, was stolen in 1510 to be taken to

Dürer.16

The popularity of the cult in late medieval Germany even shifted naming

patterns in Bavaria, as Anna became the most popular foreign name derive from the early

church and late antiquity.17

The theme’s appeal stemmed from Saint Anne’s dual

maternal symbolism as the Virgin’s mother and Christ’s grandmother.18

It is very intriguing that the rising popularity of the Virgin’s motherhood theme

coincided with a series of radical changes in women’s fashion in Germany in the 1400s.

At the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century, women’s

fashionable attire featured long-sleeves and very close-fitting bodices that delineated

women’s bodies and curves very clearly (Fig. 7). The under-dress, chemise, was closely-

fitted from the shoulders to below the hips; the over-dress, houppelande, was similar to

the under-dress, but it was longer and laced at the back. About the middle of the century,

styles shifted and the long houppelande became much longer. The neckline of the

houppelande was lowered, revealing a fine linen chemise that covered the upper body up

to the neck. The dress would be close-fitted to below the bust, then quickly getting as

wide as possible from that point on. The outfit would be marked by a loose mass of folds

at breast-height, which were formed by pulling up the waist-belt and the dress (Fig. 8).

By the end of the century, dresses, which were cut like wide tunics, became even longer,

wider, and fuller by long, wide sleeves and by the insertion of gussets (Fig. 9). At the

turn of the century, Goller, or Koller, was invented to cover the upper body when the

houppelande was low at the neck (Fig. 10). Also, the houppelandes were made with

increasingly fair and plain fabrics in somber colors.19

At first thought, it seems plausible that the sculpted mother Virgin figures were

dresses in contemporary fashionable attire, as medieval sculptors frequently imitated the

textiles found in contemporary costumes in order to enhance the beauty and realism of

their statues.20

However, a brief glance at Virgin figures the beginning and the middle of

the fifteenth century reveals that the figures are anachronistically dressed in the

fashionable attire of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The German Virgin

and Child, from ca. 1425-30 (Fig. 11), is dressed almost identically with (Fig. 9), which

depicts the fashion trends of the late fifteenth century. Similarly, Hans Multscher’s Virgin

and Child, from ca. 1435-40 (Fig. 12), features the bulky and voluminous shapes that

become very much in vogue at the end of the century, as opposed to the tightly-fit

bodices that were in fashion in mid-century. These comparisons suggest that the shifting

fashion trends were more likely to have been inspired by the iconic Virgin figure, and not

the other way around.

This changing trend in fashion might be directly related to the new notion of ideal

beauty, which was now represented as the happy young mother with her baby in her

arms, as opposed to a naked and voluptuous goddess of love and fertility.21

In other

words, women in late Medieval Germany might have been dressing like the young Virgin

figures consciously because they wanted to embody the perceived ideal beauty of the

period by imitating the Virgin.

However, women are more likely to have been influenced by the morality of the

motherly Virgin figure, as the Virgin was not merely an ideal beauty, but was also a role

model for Christian women’s behavior and life style in general.22

Representations of both

Virgin and Saint Anne served as exemplary female figures, outlining the proper moral

codes of behavior for women with their chastity and humility.23

The Virgin’s chastity and

humility were indicated by her dress, as fashion was a medium for signs and any piece of

clothing or garment was linked to rites of passage in the Middle Ages;24

The Virgin’s

voluminous dress was modest and conservative, as loose and voluminous attires

symbolized morality.25

The dress also covered most of the skin, whose exposure was very

problematic in the Middle Ages.26

Thus, women might have been willing to dress more

like the Virgin, because clothing conveyed social identity in the late Medieval German

society and dressing modestly like the Virgin would provide a woman with a presentable,

moral image.27

In addition to serving as a role model for female behavior, the iconography of the

Virgin also functioned as the representation of the ideal of maternity. As implied by the

plethora of vernacular texts on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth, as well as Martin

Luther’s famous argument, “women should have as many children as possible,”28

the

Lutheran society in the Late Medieval Germany ascribed a significant spiritual and

symbolic meaning to motherhood,29

such that women who were reluctant to get pregnant,

go into labor, or take care of their babies, were accused as criminals and send to the ducal

supreme councils.30

A great number of women were scared by procreation, because both

pregnancy and labor were physically very hard, painful, and risky in the Middle Ages,

not to mention that there was a great chance that either the mother or the baby would die

during the process.31

So, the motherly Virgin figures were used, along with the vernacular

texts, in order to help women find a meaning out of the physically straining, long process

of pregnancy. The Virgin figures were aimed to build a link between divine creation and

human procreation by projecting the notion that “god himself fashioned each child in the

mother’s body.”32

The Virgin and Saint Anne figures were intentionally used also by the clergy, in

order to demonstrate and frame specific behavior that they thought was appropriate for

women.33

For example, in order to convince mothers to keep their daughters at home,

Trithemius wrote in his De laudibus sanctissimae matris Annae, 1494, that Saint Anne

was rarely spotted in public.34

“No one ever saw her running in the lanes and streets; no one ever heard of her

uselessly chattering in the houses of neighbors; no one found her attending dances and

shows. From her youth she learned to stay at home; she accustomed herself to work with

her hands; she did not desire to be seen outdoors by people. She sought to observe

concord in goodness and peace with her neighbors; she injured no one; she perturbed no

one by words or deeds; rarely was she seen in public; she did not sit with foolish,

chattering women in the streets; and in slanderous conversations she took no part.

O mothers, teach your daughters to honor God: not to love the pomp of the world, to

flee the shameful gaze of the people, to stay at home….the archangel did not come to

Mary in public but in secret: not in the street, chattering, but in her room, silently.”

It is clear from the second part that the text isn’t merely narrating Saint Anne’s and

Mary’s lives, but is instead serving to exemplify both figures in such a way that compels

contemporary women readers to imitate them. Another very common representation of

the Virgin in late Gothic German sculpture, ‘the reader’, was similarly used as an

exemplary motif in order to promote the reading activity of laywomen in the late Middle

Ages (See Fig. 12). The reader Virgin, accompanied by her mother Saint Anne, not only

prompted laywomen to read more, but it also offered an incentive to mothers to teach

their young kids to read and to learn the elements of their faith.35

Given these deliberate attempts at influencing female behavior by promoting

various images of the Virgin, the shifting trends towards more conservative fashion might

have resulted from intentional schemes as well. Moralists and preachers of sermons in the

late Middle Ages incessantly fulminated against women’s fashions.36

In fact, German

society in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was one of the rare European societies

where ostentatious male fashion was acceptable, while women’s fashion was always

downplayed and subdued.37

According to the social norms, men were expected to be

dressed in elaborate attire, while women were expected to cover themselves up and wear

pale clothes, mostly due to the severe misogyny that characterized the late Middle

Ages.38

The new style of clothing resembling the Virgin’s attire might also be a

deliberate attempt to diminish the feminine presence in the society even more, as such a

style with voluminous sleeves, dresses, and wide cloaks hide almost all of the features

that highlight a woman’s femininity.39

Fashion is an element of a sign system generated by historically specific

conditions.40

In the Late Medieval Germany, fashion and contemporary costume were

bound to be influenced and inspired by religious figures, as religion was one of the most

important and essential parts of Medieval life, if not the most. It is also unsurprising that

the motherly Virgin look came in vogue at the end of the fifteenth century, as the

motherly figure had been rising in popularity during the century. The motives for the

Virgin Mary fashion might have originated from her status of ideal beauty, ideal

morality, or ideal maternity; however, it might also be related to deliberate misogynist

attempts of the patriarchal society, that depraved women of some many other things

besides fashion. After all, the controversial relationship between fashion, gender,

morality, and sexuality that occupy a vast space in contemporary culture seems to have

origins in the late Middle Ages.

Fig. 1

Master of Rabenden, German

Virgin and Child, 1510–15

Limewood with traces of polychromy, 23 5/8 x 13 3/4 x 9 7/16 in. (60 x 35 x 24 cm)

Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1987.15

From the online collection database of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fig. 2

Detail of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3

Detail of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5

Detail of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4

Drawing after the Holy Kinship

group, ca. 1520-25

Church of Saint John, Erding

From William D. Wixom,

"Medieval Sculpture: At the

Cloisters," The Metropolitan

Museum of Art Bulletin 46, no. 3

(1988-1989): p. 24.

Fig. 6

Tilman Riemenschneider, German

Saint Anne, the Virgin, and the

Christ Child, ca. 1510

Limewood, 39 3/8 x 13 x 8 1/16 in.

(100 x 33 x 20.5 cm)

The Walters Art Museum,

Baltimore, MD

27.294

From ARTstor.

Fig. 7

German Women's Dress, Fifteenth century

From Karl Köhler and Emma von Sichart, A

History of Costume. New York: Dover

Publications, 1963, p. 190.

Fig. 8

German Women's Dress, Middle of the fifteenth century

From Karl Köhler and Emma von Sichart, A History of

Costume. New York: Dover Publications, 1963, p. 192.

Fig. 9

German Women's Dress, End of the fifteenth century

From Karl Köhler and Emma von Sichart, A History of

Costume. New York: Dover Publications, 1963, p. 195.

Fig. 10

German Women's Dress, First half of the sixteenth century

From Karl Köhler and Emma von Sichart, A History of

Costume. New York: Dover Publications, 1963, p. 253.

Fig. 11

German

Virgin and Child, ca. 1425-30

Sandstone, polychromy, 57 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 15 in. (146 x 54 x 38.1 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1986.340

From the online collection database of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fig. 12

Hans Multscher,

Virgin and Child (detail), ca.1435-40

Limewood, polychrome, 70 in. (178 cm)

S. Maria Himmelfahrt, Landsberg

From Michael Baxandall, The Limewood

Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, 1475-

1525: Images and Circumstances. (New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), p. 14.

Fig. 13

Detail of Fig. 6.

Notes

1 Madsen, Axel. Chanel: A Woman of Her Own. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1991, p. 124.

2 Baudelaire, Charles. “The Painter of Modern Life.” in The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. New

York, NY: Phaidon, 2008, p. 33. 3 Gottfried Lindemann, History of German Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, (New York: Praeger,

1971), p. 54. Lindemann describes the Late Gothic as, “one of the three great episodes in the history of

German sculpture,” along with the Romanesque-Gothic and the Baroque-Rococo periods. The Late Gothic

period is defined as “the years between the union of Burgundy and Hapsburg in 1477 and the crystallizing

of the Reformation in the confession of Augsburg in 1530,” (Baxandall 1974, p. 9). 4 William D. Wixom, "Medieval Sculpture: At the Cloisters," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46,

no. 3 (1988-1989): p. 24. Named after his most complete work, an altarpiece in the parish church at

Rabenden, the Master of Rabenden is an unknown sculptor from upper Bavaria, Chiemgau (See also

Milliken 1939, pp. 43-4). 5 William D. Wixom, "Medieval Sculpture: At the Cloisters," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46,

no. 3 (1988-1989): p. 24. 6 Michael Baxandall, South German Sculpture 1480-1530, (London: H.M. Stationery Off., 1974), pp. 9-10.

7 William D. Wixom, "Medieval Sculpture: At the Cloisters," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46,

no. 3 (1988-1989): p. 24. The presence of the Saint Anne figure was established by a near replica of the

entire group. Executed a decade later and now in the church of Saint John at Erding, the replica was larger

and of lower quality. 8 Donna Spivey Ellington, "Impassioned Mother Or Passive Icon: The Virgin's Role in Late Medieval and

Early Modern Passion Sermons," Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 2 (1995): p. 231. The Virgin Mary, whose

story begins in the Gospel, always had a privileged relationship with Christ as a fully participant in his life

and death. 9 Marina Warner, “Icons and Relics,” in Alone of all Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary,

(New York: Knopf, 1976), p. 286. 10

Robert A. Koch, "Saint Anne with Her Daughter and Grandson: Notes on a Late Gothic Sculpture in the

Art Museum," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1 (1970): p. 8. 11

Shulamith Shahar, “The Old Body in Medieval Culture,” in Framing Medieval Bodies (New York:

Manchester University Press, 1994), p. 170-1. 12

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and William H. Forsyth, Mediaeval Sculptures of the

Virgin and Child; A Picture Book (New York: 1939), p. 1. 13

Robert A. Koch, "Saint Anne with Her Daughter and Grandson: Notes on a Late Gothic Sculpture in the

Art Museum," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1 (1970): p. 9. The image of Saint

Anne was created and promoted in order to give Christ “earthly kin, in addition to His parents” and give

support to the idea of the Immaculate Conception. It is very interesting that both the Holy Kinship and the

Virgin and Child motifs became widespread in Southern Germany, as Martin Luther had a clear opposition

to the theme of the Holy Kinship and the Reformers disapproved it (Koch 1970, p. 10). The Virgin images,

relics, and churches faced persistent attacks in countries turning towards the Reformers; however, the

Lutherans had the most enthusiasm in their devotion to the Virgin (Warner 1976, p. 296). 14

William D. Wixom, "Medieval Sculpture: At the Cloisters," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin

46, no. 3 (1988-1989): p. 24. 15

On late Medieval German altarpieces, see Rainer Kahsnitz, and Achim Bunz, Carved Splendor: Late

Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria and South Tirol, (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum,

2006). 16

Robert A. Koch, "Saint Anne with Her Daughter and Grandson: Notes on a Late Gothic Sculpture in the

Art Museum," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1 (1970): p. 9. 17

Steven D. Sargent, "Saints' Cults and Naming Patterns in Bavaria, 1400-1600," The Catholic Historical

Review 76, no. 4 (1990): p. 674. Sargent added that names “provide insight into how people thought,

behaved, and viewed the world in the past. Changes in naming patterns can signify shifts in basic attitudes

about the definition of the family and lineage, the value of tradition, the boundaries between the social

classes, the sense of regional identity, and the relationship of groups and individuals to church and state.” 18

Ibid., p. 686.

19 For more information on fashion and costume in the Middle Ages, see Karl Köhler and Emma von

Sichart, A History of Costume, (New York: Dover Publications, 1963); Peter McNeil, Fashion: Critical and

Primary Sources, (New York: Berg, 2009); Blanche Payne, Geitel Winakor, and Jane Farrell-Beck, The

History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia through the Twentieth Century, 2nd ed. (New York:

Harper Collins, 1992); Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane, Dress in the Middle Ages, English ed. (New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1997); and Phyllis G. Tortora and Keith Eubank, A Survey of Historic

Costume: A History of Western Dress, 2nd ed. (New York: Fairchild Publications, 1994). 20

Rebecca Martin and Cleveland Museum of Art, “Textiles in Ecclesiastical Settings” in Textiles in Daily

Life in the Middle Ages, (Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana

University Press, 1985), p. 35. 21

Madge Garland, "The Eclipse of the Nude," in The Changing Face of Beauty, (New York: M. Barrows,

1957), p. 31. 22

Donna Spivey Ellington, "Impassioned Mother Or Passive Icon: The Virgin's Role in Late Medieval and

Early Modern Passion Sermons" Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 2 (1995): p. 232. 23

D. H. Green, “Feminisation in the Twelfth Century,” in Women and Marriage in German Medieval

Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 38. 24

Peter McNeil, “Introduction” in Late Medieval to Renaissance Fashion (New York: Berg, 2009), p. xx. 25

Joelle Rollo-Koster, "From Prostitutes to Brides of Christ: The Avignonese Repenties in the Late Middle

Ages," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 32, no. 1 (2002): p. 121. The Avignonese repentant

prostitutes in 14-15th

cc would shred their old clothes (“trade vestments”) and replaced them with bulky,

voluminous white dresses that symbolized their new, moral lives. 26

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, “Chaste Bodies: Frames and Experiences,” in Framing Medieval Bodies (New

York: Manchester University Press, 1994), p. 30. The display of flesh was problematic, because it was

viewed as “the territory where the senses and he volition can be held astray – it is the border zone to a body

which is both sinful and capable of redemption.” 27

Joelle Rollo-Koster, "From Prostitutes to Brides of Christ: The Avignonese Repenties in the Late Middle

Ages," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 32, no. 1 (2002): p. 14. 28

Kathleen Crowther-Heyck, "Be Fruitful and Multiply: Genesis and Generation in Reformation

Germany," Renaissance Quarterly 55, no. 3 (2002): p. 907. 29

Ibid., p. 906. e.g. Walther Hermann Ryff’s New Albertus Magnus (1545) was printed in 30 editions in the

sixth century alone. The text featured “discussion of human reproduction, causes and cures of infertility,

conception and the stages of development of the unborn child, techniques for determining whether or no t a

woman was pregnant, whether a pregnant woman was carrying a boy or a girl, and how a couple could

increase their chances of conceiving a boy, the kinds of foods pregnant women should eat, remedies for

commomn physical ailments associated with pregnancy.” 30

Ulinka Rublack, "Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Female Body in Early Modern Germany," Past &

Present no. 150 (1996): p. 90. 31

Ibid. 32

Kathleen Crowther-Heyck, "Be Fruitful and Multiply: Genesis and Generation in Reformation

Germany," Renaissance Quarterly 55, no. 3 (2002): p. 912. 33

Donna Spivey Ellington, "Impassioned Mother Or Passive Icon: The Virgin's Role in Late Medieval and

Early Modern Passion Sermons," Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 2 (1995): p. 247. 34

Virginia Nixon, Marys Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania

State University Press, 2004), p. 70. [nemo unusquisque per vicos et plateas discurrentem illam repperit:

nemo in domibus vicinarum inutiliter fabulantem audiuit: nemo ad choreas et spectacula unusquisque illam

astitisse inuenit. Domi manere a iuventute sua didicit: laborare aliquid manibus consueuit. Foris videri ab

hominibus non quesiuit. Concordiam in bono et pacem cum vicinis obseruare studuit: nemini iniuriam

fecit: verbo vel ope neminem perturbauit. Raro videbatur in publico: in plateis cum mulierculis

fabulantibus non sedebat: et in colloquio detrahentuum non stetit:

dicite o matres filiasvostras ad honorem dei instituere: mundi pompas non amare: publicum turbe

conspectum fugere: domi residere…. Ad mariam archangelus venit non in publico sed in secreto: non in

platea loquentem: sed in camera tacentem.]

35 D. H. Green, “Feminisation in the Twelfth Century,” in Women and Marriage in German Medieval

Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 38. 36

Malcolm Jones, "Folklore Motifs in Late Medieval Art II: Sexist Satire and Popular Punishments,"

Folklore, 101, no. 1 (1990): p. 69. 37

See Karl Köhler and Emma von Sichart, A History of Costume, (New York: Dover Publications, 1963);

Peter McNeil, Fashion: Critical and Primary Sources, (New York: Berg, 2009); Blanche Payne, Geitel

Winakor, and Jane Farrell-Beck, The History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia through the

Twentieth Century, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 1992); Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane,

Dress in the Middle Ages, English ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997); and Phyllis G. Tortora

and Keith Eubank, A Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress, 2nd ed. (New York:

Fairchild Publications, 1994). 38

On misogyny in the Middle Ages, see Mary Carpenter Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski, Women and

Power in the Middle Ages, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988); D. H. Green, Women and

Marriage in German Medieval Romance, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); and Joel

Thomas Rosenthal, Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History, (Athens: University of Georgia

Press, 1990). 39

The rise of anorexia in the same period might also be a related phenomenon, as anorexia, too, erodes

feminine features. 40

Margaret F. Rosenthal, "Cultures of Clothing in Later Medieval and Early Modern Europe," in Journal of

Medieval and Early Modern Studies 32, no. 3 (2009): p. 462.

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