A 



MRO NO.'; ORATORE? TAM VF,<;TE An 

 TVRCARV.M IMItRATOREM MISSL 



Figure 3. — Dress of Sigmund von Herberstein for 

 an embassy to the Sultan, 1541. The short gown 

 {Schaube) of Italian brocade figured with black and 

 gold has wide shoulders and padded upper sleeves. 

 The collar, lining, and foresleeves are of similar 

 fabric but with a dark violet ground for contrast. 

 From Gratae Posleritati. 1560. (Courtesy of British 

 Museum, London.) 



on his drawings the dress material and colors of 

 the clothes worn by iiis sitters.* Even a much less 

 distinguished person, Matthaus Schwartz, a clerk 

 employed by the banking firm of the Fuggers at 

 .Augsburg, had a book prepared showing the clothes 

 he wore at what he considered to be the most im- 

 portant stages of his career.'' 



The first person to have such pictures printed was 

 Sigmund von Herberstein, who deserves detailed con- 

 sideration.* In his diplomatic career, which extended 

 over 30 years, Sigmund von Herberstein served three 

 Emperors — Maximilian I, Charles V, and Ferdinand 

 I. He was a student of Russian history and an out- 

 standing linguist, who, having learned Wendish as a 

 boy, found no difficulty with the Polish and Russian 

 languages. When, in his old age, he printed his 

 memoirs, he doubtlessly aimed at giving information 

 on how an ambassador should conduct himself and 

 to this end included illustrations of what he actually 

 had worn, which in many copies of the memoirs are 

 carefully colored by hand.' Concerning his journey 

 in 1517 (fig. 1), he states that "In these robes 1 was 

 sent on the embassy to Sigismund King of Poland," 

 no doubt the fashion for the formal dress of an envoy. 

 On his first embassy to the Grand Duke of Moscow 

 in 1517 he was presented with a Russian fur-lined 

 robe, but on his second embassy in 1526, he received 

 a greater distinction (fig. 2): "Having been sent a 

 second time by the Emperor Ferdinand then Archduke 

 to Moscow, the Grand Duke bestowed upon me these 

 robes." This dress was far more sumptuous than the 

 formal black \-elvet gown which he normally wore 

 for embassies to tiie Spanish and other courts. 



By 1541 there was a change in fashion (fig. 3). 

 \'on Herberstein wrote : "We two orators were sent 

 in this dress to the Turkish Emperor," and it was in 

 this dress that von Herberstein, suffering perhaps 

 from arthritis, complained of having great difficulty 



of their times, their portraits of individuals consisted 

 in the tnain of medallic heads and busts. It W'as the 

 German portrait painters who, to a greater extent, 

 recorded and di.sseminated the knowledge of fashions. 

 Hans Burgkmair painted himself on the occasions of 

 his betrothal in 1497 and his marriage in 1498, ^ and 

 in the 16th centurv Hans Holbein the younger noted 



' SioRiD F. Christensen, Die miinnlic/ie KleiJuiig in der siid- 

 deutschen Renaissance (1934), pi. 21. 



f' Sir Karl T. P.'XRKEr, 1 he drawings oj H. Holbein at Windsor 

 Cai//« (1945), pis. 16, 19, 24. 



" This book, Klaidungsbiichlein, in the Merzog .Anton-Ulrich 

 Museum, Brunswick, Germany, was edited by August Fink 

 and published in full in 1963 by the Dcutscher Vcrcin fiir 

 Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin. 



* For a genera! account, see J. L. Nevinson, "Sigmund von 

 Herberstein: Notes on 16th century dress," i^jitschrift der 

 Gesellschajt fiir hislorische Wajfen- und Koslum-Kunde (1959), new 

 ser. 1, p. 86. 



Sigmund von Herberstein, Gratae Posleritati . . . (V'icnna, 

 1560). 



P.APF.R 60: ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE FASHION PLATE 



69 



