By Janet Cox-Rearick,
Distinguished Professor of Art History

For the rulers of the Renaissance in Italy—and everywhere in Europe—choosing what to wear was a political decision. Dress was an important aspect of life at court, vividly evoking the luxurious and costly attire of

	Giulio Romano’s portrait, traditionally identified as Isabella d’Este.

rulers who used the art of costume, together with the figural arts of painting and sculpture, to proclaim their political power and magnificence.

Sumptuous Renaissance costumes are familiar from portraits of the period, but New Yorkers now have a rare opportunity to experience the heights of sartorial luxury in three dimensions. Fifteen carefully researched and executed reconstructions of Italian court costumes, dating mainly from the mid-16th to the early 17th centuries, will be on view in “Splendors of the Renaissance: Princely Attire in Italy,” which opens in the Art Gallery of the Graduate Center on March 10 (it runs until April 24).

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with King Studio of Codisotto di Luzzara, near Mantua, and is the creation of its director, Fausto Fornasari. In 2002-03, Fornasari’s exhibition toured museums in major cities in Italy and Spain, as well as being shown in five South American capitals and in Canada. The exhibition, which it has been my pleasure to curate, makes its U.S. debut at the Graduate Center.

Explained and illustrated at the beginning are some of the exacting techniques that Fornasari’s craftsmen used to make the reconstructions. The costumes themselves are dramatically presented on life-size mannequins. All the costumes are based on Renaissance portraits and other paintings, large color reproductions of which are displayed next to the mannequins.

The history of Italian Renaissance court attire is introduced by two mid-15th-century costumes from the North Italian city of Ferrara. These, which have never been previously exhibited, recreate an elegant blue and white dress of a princess, which is based on a costume study by Pisanello, and a similar costume worn in his portrait of Margherita Gonzaga, wife of Leonello d’Este of the ruling family of Ferrara.

The centerpieces of the show are court costumes of the mid- to late-16th century. Some of them are based on paintings by Florentine artists such as Bronzino, whose “Eleonora di Toledo and her son Giovanni” (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) is one of the masterpieces of 16th-century portraiture. It depicts the duchess in a magnificent white, black, and gold court dress, the reconstruction of which occupied Fornasari and his team for three years.

Others were created for the celebration of marriages between the princely families of Italy and Europe. “The Marriage of Vincenzo Gonzaga and Eleonora de’ Medici,” also in the Uffizi, by the Florentine painter Jacopo da Empoli portrays a politically advantageous marriage of 1584 between the daughter of the Grand Duke of Florence and the future Duke of Mantua that linked the ruling dynasties of the Medici and the Gonzaga. Five costumes reconstruct the sumptuous attire of the bride, groom, and wedding guests as depicted by Jacopo, bringing into real life a late 16th-century court spectacle.

Another type of ceremonial costume is Vincenzo Gonzaga’s attire for his 1587 coronation as Duke of Mantua. A great deal of research was necessary to recreate a costume which is described at length in contemporary chronicles and depicted in paintings by Giovanni Bahuet (private Collection, Mantua) and Rubens (Palazzo Ducale, Mantua). Made of white satin, embroidered gold, silver, and pearls and topped with an ermine cape, it is the most lavish and costly of all the costumes in the exhibition.

The reconstructed costume of Eleonora de’ Medici, based on Jacopo da Empoli’s wedding picture.

Fornasari also reconstructed costumes depicted in portraits of various members of the Gonzaga family such as Titian’s portrait of Federico, 1st Duke of Mantua

(Prado, Madrid). Perhaps the most famous of these is Giulio Romano’s portrait of Federico’s wife, Duchess
Margherita Paleologa (Hampton Court).

The portrait is traditionally identified as representing Federico’s mother, Isabella d’Este, since the spectacular black and gold dress is typical of Isabella’s attire, which was designed to display the female figure. The repeated curves of the low neck, shoulders, and the rounded sleeves are echoed in a dramatic head-dress invented by Isabella, who was the most famous fashion-plate of her day.

A last section of the exhibition presents the court dresses of two Euro-pean royal ladies. They are based on portraits showing them in costumes in the international court style of the late 16th to early 17th centuries, which was dominated by the highly severe and formal fashions of Spain. In this period attire became more than ever an essential part of the pageantry of rule, with opulent brocaded silk garments trimmed with lace and jewels functioning as outward signs of princely power, prestige, and wealth.

ABOUT THE CENTER ART GALLERY “I Since it opened in 2000, the Art Gallery at the Graduate Center has presented twelve exhibitions, including three shows organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Among the favorite shows of the Gallery’s Curator and Professor of Art History Emerita, Diane Kelder, have been “Elective Affinities: Prints by Goya and Manet,” “Esther Boise Van Deman: An Archaeologist’s Eye” (historic photographs from the American Academy in Rome), and last fall’s “George Segal: Works on Paper, 1960-1999.” Recently the Gallery announced the formation of The Gallery Associates, which offers a variety of benefits to those who wish to support the Gallery’s work with their contributions. The 1800-square foot Gallery is open to the public and accessible from the main lobby of the Graduate Center’s Fifth Avenue entrance. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 6 p.m

A 40-page catalogue with essays on the costumes and color illustrations of them has been produced to accompany the exhibition.

Associa-ted with the exhibition are a pair of lectures that will be given at the Graduate Center: On March 17 I will speak on “The Fashioning of a Public Persona: Duchess Eleonora di Toledo’s Ceremonial Dress and Her Portraits by Bronzino,” and Professor Emerita Diane Kelder, Curator of the Art Gallery, will lecture on “Princely Games: Medici Festivals in Tuscany, 1550-1650” on March 31.

I have also been pleased to organize two sessions on Italian court costume at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, a resident affiliate of the Graduate Center. Sponsored by the Graduate Center’s Renaissance Studies Certificate Program, these sessions will focus on late 15th-century to early 17th-century Florentine and Mantuan court costume, sumptuary laws, the role of tailors in the design of court costumes, and on contrasts between the indigenous styles of dress of various Italian centers and those of other European countries.