Reformation fashion is
divided into two periods from 1520 to about 1560 when German influences
and ideals predominated, and from 1560 to about 1620 when Spanish styles
were in the ascendancy. Both periods stressed an artificial distortion of
the human body into a grotesque, ornamental encasement. Fantastically
varied use of puffed linings forced through small slits in the outergarment, like the interpenetration of plot lines in Elizabethan plays
and the interpenetrating scrollwork in interior decoration, achieved a
rich, ornamental tension in dress.
From 1520 to 1560 the emphasis was on a broad, horizontal, square
silhouette for men and a conical, angular silhouette for women. The major
elements in the silhouette were distortion and a padding of the body; the
major decorative accent that created a sense of tension was the slashing‑outergarments
literally attacked with a knife so that lining fabric could be forced
through the slits. To see the changes in European culture that occurred in
only 25 years, compare the portrait of Castiglione by Raphael, painted
about 1516, with the portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein, painted about
1540. The former exists in a real world of beautiful, rounded forms,
natural fabrics, and a relaxed dignity. The latter portrays an immobile,
ruthless, commanding personality surrounded by excessive richness which
both fascinates and repels.
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Summary
This period marked the shift from the balanced, relaxed, expansive beauty
of the High Renaissance to the inward tensions and grotesque dislocations
of the Mannerist Renaissance. It was one of the strongest periods in the
history of clothing for antinatural, artificial silhouettes and surfaces;
everything took on a twisted, layered, interpenetrated, tense look. This
first phase of the Mannerist Renaissance was marked by the bulk and
angularity of the so-called German style, with great weight placed on the
horizontal spread of clothing. Such antinatural clothing clearly marked a
withdrawal from interest in the outer natural world to the imaginative,
personal world within.
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