18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

16C Polish Women

Hans Krell (Polish artist, c 1490-1565) Portrait of Princess Emilia of Saxon

1518 Bona Sforza (1494-1557) of the Milanese House of Sforza. In 1518 became 2nd wife of Sigismund I the Old, the King of Poland

 1535 Portrait of Katharina Jagiellonka by a Polish court painter, follower of Lucas Cranach the Younger

 1540s Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545). Queen of Poland from 1543 until her death in 1545 by Monogrammist PF 

 1550 Barbara Radziwiłl, Queen of Poland

 1550 Polish court painter, circle of Lucas Cranach the Younger Elisabeth of Austria (1526-1545)

 1557 Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), Queen of Poland.

 1563 Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593) Erzherzogin Magdalena (1532-1590)

 1576 Anna Jagielion, Queen of Poland

 1595 Anna Jagiellonka as a Widow

 1640 Kotryna Potockytė_ & Marija Lupu Two wives of Janusz Radziwill

 Hans Krell (Polish artist, c 1490-1565)  or Follower Portrait of a Woman

 Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) - Portrait of Barbara Radziwill.

Portrait of  Anna Jagiellonka (1523-1596), daughter of Zygmunt Jagiellon and his wife Bona Sforza by a Polish court painter, follower of Lucas Cranach the Younger

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

16C Miniatures of Women at Stourhead in England

Italian School Girl with a Feather in her Hair National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire 1560-70

I first visited Stourhead on a beautiful May day, when a blanket of snow covered blossoms on Rhododendron ponticum planted there since the late 18th-century.  I went to see this great garden, & it was an amazing sight.  I immediately understood why it is one of the great landscape gardens in the world.  The house was not why I came, but it captivated me as well.  The Stourhead garden was created in the valley behind the 1725 Palladian mansion house by a wealthy English banker Henry Hoare II (1705-1785) who had been off buying works of art in Italy at the time he inherited the Stourhead estate.  A group of the smallest works of art in Stourhead is this collection of continental miniatures from the late 1500s to the early 1600s.

Spanish School An Unknown Lady in a Gold Dress National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire

Continental School An Unknown Lady with Towering Red Hair National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire

Continental School An Unknown Lady in a Black Dress National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire

Continental School An Unknown Lady in a Black Dress National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire

Continental School An Unknown Lady in a Black Dress National Trust Collections Stourhead, Wiltshire

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

16C Women in the Modified Ruff

Unknown Lady - English 1500s

1570 Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, Venetian Noblewoman

By the end of the 1500's, many ruffs were lace made of both needle & bobbin type lace. In the 1580s, ruffs generally began to expand even further outward. They became slightly flatter, no longer filling the space from shoulder to neck; instead, the figure-eights became wider & flatter & the ruff itself became wider in diameter. During the 1590s, both small & large open falling neck ruffs & larger standing ruffs & more open bodice areas became popular. By the end of the 16th century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in Western Europe, often in favor of lacy wing collars.

1578 Unknown Lady by Nicholas Hilliard

1578 Unknown Lady by Nicholas Hilliard

1580 Domenico Robusti Tintoretto Lady in White

1585 Unknown Lady - French School

1589 Elizabeth Brydges, later Lady Kennedy, daughter of Lord Chandos and maid of honor to Elizabeth I of England, aged 14 by Hieronimo

1590 Domenico Robusti Tintoretto The Dogaressa

1590 Mary Sydney (1561-1621) Herbert Nicolas Hilliard

1590 Unknown Lady by Nicholas Hilliard

1590s Young lady holding a book by Italian School

1592 Mary Rogers, Lady Harington by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

1595 Mary Fitton by a follower of George Gower  Note: Just a little gossip. While researching this painting I found the following, "...Maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, & alleged to be 'the dark lady' mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnets... Her vivacity made her popular with the young men at court, & she became the mistress of William Herbert (1580-1630), the young earl of Pembroke... Early in 1601 she was "proved with child." Pembroke admitted his responsibility, & both were threatened with imprisonment.  The earl "utterly renounced all marriage" and was sent to the Fleet in March, but his mistress, who was delivered of a son, seems to have escaped punishment.  The child died soon after birth.  According to Sir Peter Leycester (1814-1678) Mary Fitton also bore 2 illegitimate daughters to Sir Richard Leveson, knight...There seems no doubt that she married Captain William Polwhele in 1607."  (Stephen & Lee, 1889, p. 83)

1595 Unknown Lady painted by the Circle of Marcus Gheereaerts II

1595 Unknown Venetian artist, Portrait of a Noblewoman

1597 Unknown Lady painted by an artist in the circle of Robert Peak

Lady Francis Kildare Frances Howard (d 1628)

Mary Waldegrave Lady Clopton (d 1599) by Gheeraerts Detail of painting below

Mary Waldegrave Lady Clopton (d 1599) by Gheeraerts

Unknown English Lady

Unknown Lady of the English Court

Unknown Lady in white dress

Unknown Lady painted by an artist in the circle of Marcus Gheereaerts II c1595 Detail

Louise de Lorraine (1553 - 1601), Queen of France

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

Serious 16C Women by German & Austrian Artists

Hans Burgkmair, the Elder (German Painter, 1473-1531). Barbara Schellenberger-c 1505

Hans Baldung Grien (German Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1484- 1545) Portrait of a Lady, 1530

Anonymous Austrian Master Portrait of Kunigunde of Austria c 1485

1593 Unknown artist in the manner of Ludger tom Ring the Younger (1522-1584) Portrait of a Noblewoman

Unknown German artist, Unidentified Lady

1593 Unknown artist in the manner of Ludger tom Ring the Younger (1522-1584) Portrait of a Noblewoman