More Spanish Gothic style

After I shared my previous post about trying to find distinctly Iberian elements in 14th century fashion, a kind Facebook user (Tasha Dandelion Kelly, who has a really great blog as well, which is referended in the first post) shared some photos of an alterpiece from Quejana in northern Spain, which seems to be in Old Castile.  It is currently in the Chicago Art Institute.  The paintings show scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary.  It is dated to 1396.

Photo by Tasha Dandelion Kelly

This piece has a lot of the same problems I encounter in other religious art.  A lot of the saints are depicted in voluminous draperies that are kind of reminiscent of ancient Greco-Roman styles, which I doubt are representative of the artist's contemporaries.  There's the three Oriental Kings arriving for the birth of Jesus, who are also not necessarily a good source for fashion, since their clothes are most likely meant to evoke foreign-ness.  But, there are a few panels with what seem to be representations of contemporary clothing of ordinary people.

Not all of these are helpful for me.  The patron and his wife (kneeling on either side of the crucified Jesus, top center) are fashion-forward and seem to be wearing an early form of the houppelande.  This is great, but not one of the styles I'm looking at repicating.  There are a couple of shepherds in the panel left of center in the lower row.  Their clothing seems to be of the geometrically-cut variety (earlier styles that obviously persist in the clothing of lower classes and those that do manual labor.  The scene to the left of center in the top row shows some soldiers who appear to be wearing jupons - but I don't want to extrapolate too much from images of men who are probably wearing armor.

Photo by Tasha Dandelion Kelly

There are 2 figures in this piece that I found very interesting, from the perspective of my current project. The first, seen here, appears to be Joseph from a scene of Joseph and Mary fleeing to Egypt with the infant Jesus. He is clearly not a soldier, but he is wearing what looks like a jupon - a fitted garment, buttoned all the way down the front - that is very similar to the ones the soldiers in the other panel are wearing.  Joseph's garment also has vertical lines marked on it, possibly indicating quilting.  His sleeves are fairly wide and loose, however, with a turned back hem.  This is unlike either the military-style jupons or other depictions of more fashionable civilian jupons.  Of particular interest on this figure is the fact that his hosen are clearly rolled down to just below the knee (where a garter would be holding them up).  This is commonly seen on men who are doing physical work or are otherwise in a situation where they might be partially undressed or trying to cool off.  But what makes it especially interesting here is that it indicates that, despite having a very short, fashionable garment Joseph is still wearing split hosen and not joined hose.

The other figure that I found particularly interesting is this one here.  Tasha's photos didn't have a good shot of this guy so I apologize for the low resolution - this is zoomed in from the photo on the museum's website.  The structure to the right of him seems to be a stable with horses inside and, since he's holding some kid of stick, I'm assuming he's meant to represent some sort of stable-hand.  But he may also be meant to be accompanying the oriental kings, who are on the other side of him.  This fellow is dressed almost exactly like the hunters on the Alhambra ceiling.  Short, closely fitted garment with buttons all down the front; tight sleeves with an obvious flare where they extend past the wrist (though no buttons are visible, this sleeve shape probably has them); a belt riding low on the hips; and a hood with short hem.  The main differences from the Alhambra hunters are the lack of explicitly drawn buttons on the sleeves and the front seam of the hood, and an apparent slight flare at the hem (where the Alhambra hunters have a narrow hem with side slits).  So, I've now got examples of this style from Old Castile, Andalucia, and Catalunya.  It's also very much in line with fashion north of the Pyrenees at the time.  This is pretty solid documentation for my planned late 14th century style Iberian outfit.   Next up will be some posts on construction, starting with drafting a pattern.