Marie Botkin, Ph.D.MLIS Graduate Student Valdosta State University

marie.m.botkin@gmail.com

Medieval Manuscript Illuminations and Fashion Change

Fashions and Medieval Illuminations

Manuscript illuminations and sculpture provide the best visual sources of evidence for fashion changes in the Middle Ages.

According to Pinder, there are three chronological styles of illuminations in the 14th century.‘Manneristic’ style with a flat, graphic

aestheticThree dimensional with use of shading for

volumeIntegrated style with use of both volume and

line

Stylistic Changes in the 14th Century

Flat, graphic style in the Roman d’Alexandre

Three dimensional style by Jean Pucelle

Integrated style with line and volume

Fashion Change in the Medieval Era

Many scholars claim the medieval era hosted the beginning of fashion

“...this change... transformed human beings from soft rounded creatures with a mobile surface into harsh, spare, attenuated insect-like things...”

Stella Mary Newton, 1980

Early Medieval Clothing

Influence of Military Costume

Late Medieval Clothing

The graphic style

Which came first?Or the fashion?

Any questions?

Thank you~

Avril,François. Manuscript Painting at the Court of France : the Fourteenth Century, 1310‑1380. New York: Brazille, 1978.

McWebb, Christine. Reading the Roman de la Rose in Text and Image. http://margot.uwaterloo.ca/ROMAN/imagetab le .html (accessed December 1o,2009).

Newton, Stella Mary. Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340‑1365. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1980.

Pinder, Wilhelm. Die Kunst der Ersten Burgerzeit. Frankfurt: Menck, 1956.

Porter, Pamela. Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.

References