clothing, fashion, dress, and costume in venice 905
of Venice, and of students.” this dress allows the wearer, Vecellio states,
“to move easily and quickly. in the winter they wear a tall black cap, called
à tozzo, of gathered velvet, and in the summer hats of canevaccia of silk or
tabino (a rich watered silk), or ormesino, with linings of colored taffeta.”50
Damasco, damask, a figured silk, echoes the name of the city where it was
first made, Damascus, in southwest syria. Venice had been importing the
splendid textiles of the east for a long time before Venetian cloth makers
began exporting their own damaschino, a textile patterned in arabesques
of golden or silk flowers, which they sent especially to Constantinople.
Vecellio commends the “rector [or governor] of the students’ schools at
the university of Padua” [(Fig. 24.3) for his rank of knight and Venetian
noble; he also celebrates the beautiful damasks that form his silhouette:
he often dresses with great pomp, all in red velvet, damasco or satin. For his
many triumphal processions and festivals, he covers his head with a cap of
black velvet that has small points or horns like a priest’s cap, but is a little
longer in the back. his gown is of gold brocade and has a hood, lined with
marten fur, that rests on his shoulder. under this gown he wears a cremesino
satin or silk doublet with gold embroidery and trim or lace also of gold. his
breeches are made of the same cloth and his stockings are silk knit.51Velvet Production in Venice
italy by the 14th century was known for its lush red velvets. their high
cost was based in part on the dyestuffs used. Powerful dyers’ guilds, the
setaioli, regulated all aspects of their production. in 1395, Venetian velvet
workers separated from silk producers; velvet workers were the only pro-
ducers legally permitted to create worked velvet, but silk workers were still
allowed to make smooth velvet from silk.52 regulators were skeptical of
cochineal and preferred the prized kermes, the new red dye sources from
the americas, when early in the 16th century shipments began to arrive
in northern italy. after the dyers’ guilds conducted experiments and trials
with mexican cugnilia, cochineal began to be accepted by mid-century.53
to insure that kermes had been used in the production of the velvets,
a system of coded selvages was implemented whereby a solid green silk
50 rosenthal and Jones, ed. and trans., cesare Vecellio, Habiti Antichi et Moderni, p. 209;
molà, The Silk Industry, pp. 55–72.
51 rosenthal and Jones, ed. and trans., cesare Vecellio, Habiti Antichi et Moderni,
p. 212.
52 gregorin, Venice Master Artisans, p. 27.
53 de maria, Becoming Venetian, pp. 45–47.