900 margaret f. rosenthal
the watercolor and gouache illustrations reveal a keen attention to major
fashion changes such as the cuts and designs of a garment, particular uses
of fabrics and trims, and luxurious accessories such as feathered fans, hats
with plumes, precious fabrics, and more.
Textile Production and Trade in Veniceas one of the most industrialized cities of europe in the 16th century,
the Venetian state was both a major manufacturer of textiles and a trad-
ing crossroad. its wealth was attributed primarily to the many wool and
silk producers, shipbuilders, fullers, glassmakers, leather workers, and
printers who worked there.35 although the Venetian economy declined
after 1500 as a result of the Portuguese trade with the east and the rise
of the new World economy, the production and consumption of textiles,
particularly silk, attest to the fact that the Venetian economy had shifted
from a pan-mediterranean focus to a more local and regional one that
emphasized the development of new textile production techniques that
satisfied broader-based consumers’ needs for lower-quality products. in
fact, the silk industry emerged as one of the most resilient of the Venetian
economy in the late 16th century, largely owing to the support of its silk
guild, which insisted in keeping up with consumer demand.36
Product diversification (dyes, wools, density of weaves) was continually
stressed in Venice. increasing sub-specializations in the production of gar-
ments, the development of new places to shop, and the rise in the num-
ber of patents that provided monopoly rights to manufacture new goods
all meant that the Venetian textile industry was in a position to be able
to accommodate large sections of the population by imitating expensive
fabrics such as silk and velvet and substituting them with cheaper textiles,
for example, with an iridescent finish that looked like luxurious silks and
velvets.37 a Venetian specialty in the late 15th and 16th centuries was bro-
cadello, a mixed fabric made up of silk threads mixed with cheaper fibers
such as linen. it achieved the shiny iridescent finish of shot silk in which
35 elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, Venice Triumphant: The Horizons of a Myth (Baltimore,
1999), pp. 151–82; Joanne m. Ferraro, “the manufacture and movement of goods,” in The
World of the Renaissance (london, 2007), p. 92.
36 molà, The Silk Industry; Paola lanaro, ed. At the centre of the Old World: Trade and
Manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian Mainland, 1400–1800 (toronto, 2006), pp. 29–34,
39–42, 46, 378.
37 molà, The Silk Industry, pp. 199–210.