Copyright Alistair Ramsden 1997

Art History research - Italian Men's C15th Clothing - Hukes and Tunics

Having put aside camping in general for the time being, I need some more Italian Clothes for Rowany Yule AS XXXII. The original idea was to find a fairly generic pattern, so as to be able to make several copies in different colours and with (minor) stylistic variations. The path has so far been, and is no doubt still to be, arduous.

- L. Stefano d’Urbino
Shire of St. Florian
Po’Lochac, Ko’t’West

Our starting point is the always cheerful, but sometimes slightly erroneous Known World Handbook. I quote the following from the KWH article on later period clothing:

“Italy (around 1480)

“In Italy the cotehardie shortened and became the jerkin for men. Hose were finally joined together to become tights, with a triangle of fabric, the cod piece, covering the join. The hose were held up by ties inside the jerkin at the waist. Sleeves remained snug, but the seams opened to reveal puffs of the fine white shirt beneath.”

Well and good, but including a picture of a gentleman in what another authority on such clothing can only describe as underwear! Further investigations into paintings from 1450 to 1500 has shown that this latter comment seems to be correct, but has also turned over several other interesting stylistic issues which I intend to apply to my costuming, and may also be useful to others.

Let us start with Botticelli (b.1444-45 d.1510). He worked mainly in Florence except 1481-82 when he worked for the Pope in Rome. His excellent depiction of Hukes and tunics comes from the panel work of “Nastagio delgli Onesti”’ c.1483.

The panels depict (amongst other things) a young man in red hose and tan boots with an indigo-blue mid-thigh length huke, girthed by gold rope, open at the side and probably made from a wide (trapezoid) drop rather than being pleated. The huke has a light coloured simple pattern embroidery along its lower edge. Under the huke is what appears to be a red tunic with gold crosshatched brocade. it is cut to just slightly below the waist but quite definitely above the hip. The tunic sleeve is whole, open on the underside of the sleeve from the elbow to the wrist only. It is laced in four places from the wrist to the elbow, the last lacing going completely around the arm just above the elbow. It is also open under the shoulder, and presumably can be detached from the body of the tunic although no lacing can be seen there.

The panels depict other variations on the theme, including green, pink and red Hukes and orange and blue tunics. Another item shown are servants wearing pink, front opening upper-thigh length tunics, again girthed with gold rope, with grey sleeves of the same style as above. This time the tunics have finer pleating gathered at the front and back of the waist, which indicates stitch work. Also present are the ubiquitous red felt “beanie” caps (originally Venetian but finding popularity in the whole of Northern Italy, at least) amongst a variety of hats and more solid coloured and parti-coloured hose.

Pietro della Francesca, a contemporary of Botticelli, depicts very similar clothing styles. In the “Torture of the Jew” painted in Arezzo c.1456, his protagonists wear huke and tunic ensembles, or puffed shoulder, front opening jackets with high collars; separate sleeves are open and laced along the underside of the arm. In the “Madonna and Child with Angels” painted in Urbino c.1470, the Angels are shown in longer mid-calf length tunics, high waisted with a puff of fabric presumably belted in to the waist; the sleeves are split in the same style as in “Nastagio delgli Onset”.

In the Venetian (or Paduan) illuminations from Strabo’s “Geography” c.1458-59 are depicted amongst others, one Jacobo Antonio Marcello, a Venetian nobleman, wearing a floral gold brocade huke lined with white, over red hose and a waist length puffed-sleeve tunic in the same brocade. Further representations of the same style are shown in “De Sphaera” c.1450-60 and Benozzo Gozzoli’s Medici Chapel Fresco c.1459. The is probably the style which Carl Kohler is trying to represent in his diagram of c.1400 purpoints. It appears that the fashion of wearing puffed sleeves was superseded by that of fitted sleeves as the 15th C. progressed.

Finally, a superb depiction of various styles of the single pleated tunic comes to us from the Fresco “Camera delgi Sposi” by Andrea Mantegna. Completed in Mantua in 1474 for the Gonzaga family and their court. Ludovico Gonzaga is wearing a long robe, but almost all other men are wearing the mid thigh length pleated tunics, in gold brocade, rich burgundy velvet or a plainer blue or green for servants. White undershirts are visible on the sleeveless designs, and some have differently coloured oversleeves, such as red sleeves on a gold brocade tunic.

Studying these pictures conclusions can be drawn as to what sort of garment would look at home c.1450-1490, and possibly later in some of the more backward places.

The tunic, or purpoint, is of a fitted design which finishes on or about the waist, not including the area on the bottom of the tunic used for attaching hose lacing points to, which extends the tunic down a further two to three inches to end low on the waist but above the hips. The huke should be as close to a circular drape as possible and should drape at an equal length, somewhere on the mid thigh. Finally, a codpiece covers the join in the hose at the groin, and should be more or less the shape of two half ellipses sewn together down one of the curved sides.

As an aside, since the cloth can be as rich or as poor as you require to look in persona, I chose to use as a mixture; one set as rich as I can afford, dark purple silk with white linen lining; another white linen with white linen lining, and a third in blue cotton with black cotton lining. In other words I have three interchangeable garments on the same pattern piece. Further recommendation from the use of these garments is the inclusion of a woollen lining if cold or wet weather functionality is required, and that the removable sleeves for warm weather functionality are appropriately successful.