Renaissance Fashions (Dover Pictorial Archives)

The Renaissance marked Europe's transition from medieval to modern times. Art, literature, and science flowered in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while a vigorous trade with the Far East via newly developed sea routes enabled Italian merchants to supply a recently evolved middle class with materials and adornments for elaborately designed apparel. After careful research, illustrator Tom Tierney has portrayed this dynamic age by accurately rendering an amazing diversity of clothing styles. Forty-five finely detailed, ready-to color illustrations showing attifets, chopines, doublets, farthingales, houppelandes, and other elements of Renaissance garb depict: an Italian peasant couple dressed for their wedding day (c. 1450); an Italian knight in steel armor (c. 1460); an English lord and lady in riding outfits (c. 1510); children of a German royal family garbed in velvet and accompanied by a soberly dressed nanny (c. 1550); and many more outfits designed for various activities and occasions. In addition, seven plates feature dozens of examples of fashionable headgear, footwear, and hairstyles for men and women, from several stages in the flourishing of Renaissance styles. Descriptive captions accompany each handsome, ready-to-color illustration, making this a collection that will appeal to colorists as much as it will delight costume historians and designers.