If you could make garb to match a portrait........

[gem]

Another pink Moroni! I wonder if that man had access to any other colors of paint. Ha!!

[operafantomet]

The most striking female renaissance portrait ever painted, IMHO:


Portrait of Bianca Ponzoni Anguissola, painted ca. 1557. The painter was Sofonisba Anguissola, the sitter's daughter and one of the most celebrated portraitists in the late 16th century.

Nevermind that the dress is utterly gorgeous, look at that face, those eyes! And see how it's balanced with the golden hair and the golden marten. This is to me extreme beauty, and if I ever find a similar fabric I just need to recreate this dress. Though, as mentioned, it's the face that fascinates me the most. 

[amy]

Can someone tell me the term for that accessory she is holding... the marten?   What were those fur pieces called.  I have 3 beautiful minks I would like to play with and make one, but I need to research them.  Thank you!!!

[operafantomet]

Can someone tell me the term for that accessory she is holding... the marten?   What were those fur pieces called.  I have 3 beautiful minks I would like to play with and make one, but I need to research them.  Thank you!!!

Too tired to give you a proper reply right now, but here are two links:
http://sablegreyhound.com/ZibelliniPicsAndInfo.html
http://operafantomet.livejournal.com/202696.html

[amy]

Thank you so much for the help!  They are beautiful! I will give it some kind of shot!

[DonaCatalina]

This is the best copy of this portrait that I have yet seen.
I love it- all that gold embroidery.
(oh and it might actually be pink also)

[gem]

How is he claiming copyright on that image?

I love that portrait, too, DC.

[operafantomet]

This is the best copy of this portrait that I have yet seen.
I love it- all that gold embroidery.
(oh and it might actually be pink also)
http://www.sandstead.com/images/cincinnati_museum_of_art/BRONZINO_Portrait_of_Eleonora_di_Todelo_and_her_Son_c1549_CMU_source_sandstead_d2h_54.jpg

A tricky portrait, that one... Cause there exists so many versions of it. The original by Bronzino is the one where she wears the white dress with black and gold pattern. THAT dress, you know... She's depicted towards a blue evening sky, and has the son Giovanni by her side:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/bronzino1545.jpg

Some years later the same artist made a new version of the portrait. Because it was meant as a gift and needed to be sent ASAP, Bronzino was ordered to simplify the dress of the countess, and to depict the son as an adult, as he appeared in Genoa the previous year(*). In documents about this portrait it's described as "pagonazzo/pavonazzo", a purplish hue. She was also set towards a green curtain, and with the elder son Francesco by her side.

Some years later, a copy of that second portrait was made, probably by Bronzino's workshop. Amusingly enough, they've tried to copy the pattern from the first dress, but the style and colours from the second dress... The facial expressions are also sweetened. That's the portrait you posted overneath, from Cincinnati. But it's a later copy of this portrait:

The "Pisa" version:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/bronschooledt1550s.jpg

From that second link, you can see that the portrait dress originally was browner in colour and wasn't patterned, while the son had a red outfit. In the portrait copy you posted both outfits has a purple/pink hue. But that is not how the artist originally painted it. It might be due to the use of inferior painting, which could lead the second version to fade or react differently. That's what happened with a copy of the original portrait, in Detroit - the sky has turned grey, and the outfit of the son brown. Originally the sky was blue, and his outfit purple with gold.

The "Detroit" version
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/eleonora/portrait2.jpg

There exist even more of this portrait. It is an oddity in many ways, because it's the first Florentine secular portrait depicting mother and son, and because later copies and versions shows her with different sons. Sorry for me obsessing over it, but I'm working on a master thesis about the original compared to the Pisa one. I'm still so thrilled when people post about it!  


ETA: In a Medici letter from 1549:
(*) "Their Excellences say that they are content that for the convenience of Bronzino and in order to hasten the completion of the paintings which the most Reverent Monsignor of Arras desired of them, that the clothing of the Duchess should not be made of broccato riccio but some other figured textile that would give a beautiful effect" (...) So her Excellency suggested that I should write to your lordship to make it known to Bronzino that, as for the saio of Don Francesco, he should paint one of red triple-pile velvet (tertio pelo) the most beautiful that he knows and is able to do, but that he should accompany it with a robba lined with marten or sable, as it did not seem to her that the young lord should be portrayed any longer in just a saio but in a robba, as he was seen at Genoa. And concerning the robba which was requested of her Excellency, she told me the same as for the saio of Don Francesco, that Bronzino may paint one of his own way in the same colour."

[Kate XXXXXX]

How is he claiming copyright on that image?

Copyright will be of the photo, not of the portrait.  If he took that photo, he owns the rights to it.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

The Pelican Portrait Gown is finished. See Finished Projects thread.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

The Pelican Portrait gown

My version as done as closely to the portrait as possible, guessing the distances of pearl and jewels placements.

[gem]

How is he claiming copyright on that image?

Copyright will be of the photo, not of the portrait.  If he took that photo, he owns the rights to it.

Yes, except photographs that are "slavish reproductions" of the original artwork aren't subject to copyright protection. See Bridgeman v. Corel.

(I should point out that I make my living by my copyright, so I'm certainly not out to rob creators of their intellectual property!)

[Lady Rebecca]

I realize this has appeared in the thread before, but I stumbled across this portrait today, and decided my next project will be based on it. I already had sketched out a navy blue velvet doublet bodice and skirt, with gold brocaded forepart, and am now slightly altering my sketch to make it a little bit more like this portrait. It's such a striking picture!

[gem]

If you Google "embroidered partlet," you'll find a recreation of this gown (I think it's in Katrina's Purple Files, but I may be mistaken).

[operafantomet]

I realize this has appeared in the thread before, but I stumbled across this portrait today, and decided my next project will be based on it. I already had sketched out a navy blue velvet doublet bodice and skirt, with gold brocaded forepart, and am now slightly altering my sketch to make it a little bit more like this portrait. It's such a striking picture!

Isn't it? It's one of the daughters or wards of Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora di Toledo. Problem is that no-one knows exactly who... The museum in Vienna (where the portrait is) names it Maria de' Medici. But she died in 1557, and the style of dress is a bit later than that. It might be the younger Isabella de' Medici, who adapted her mothers love for drop pearl earring and pearl necklaces (which you find in this portrait). Moda a Firenze suggests it is her, and it reminds of her except other portraits shows her with very dark eyes. Or it might be Dianora di Toledo de' Medici, niece of Eleonora, as the colours seems to match the Toledo heraldry. Gabrielle Langdon has convincing a chapter about that in her "Medici Women" book.

It's definitely not Marie de' Medici, queen of France, as people often mistake it as!

Whatever the case, the portrait is drop dead gorgeous! It was painted by Alessandro Allori, which was pupil and adopted son of Bronzino. Moda a Firenze drescribes the dress as "a gown of sky blue taffeta, with a French-style bodice fastened with invisible hooks, with embroideries of gold purle on bands of velvet." (page 99).

There has been several lovely recreations of this portrait, some shown here:
http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/yourgarb/2009/Kerri.htm
http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/yourgarb/2008/Deb-Ginny.htm
http://katerina.purplefiles.net/garb/diaries/FLGeorgiera_Maria_dMedici.html
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__YfwK4DqANw/S8I9-gkeE2I/AAAAAAAAG1s/FQcpyC-_4mo/s1600/Picture+1.png

(the latter one is my favourite, both details and silhouette. And it's made of paper! Amazing!)