Mapping the world: The political geography of dress in Cesare Vecellio's costume books

The World in Dress

“…In recent years, much has been written on Cesare Vecellio, a versatile artist, active as a painter, engraver, and printmaker living and working in Cadore, Belluno, and Venice in the second half of the sixteenth century. The Habiti are the most extensively discussed costume books by Renaissance specialists mainly in terms of a history of clothing, textile production, and dress which is now expanding in the field of global fashion studies (Wilson, 2005;Jones and Rosenthal, 2008;Paulicelli, 2008;Paulicelli and Clark, 2009;Riello and McNeil, 2010;Riello, 2019). Sidestepping the analytical perspective of a history of fashion, my methodological approach to Vecellio's costume books is that of viewing them as a 'contact zone' (Pratt, 1992) where a wealth of visual and textual sources is creatively appropriated and reinterpreted.…”

Mapping Culture in the Habsburg Empire: Fashioning a Costume Book in the Court of Charles V

“…While existing studies have shown that printed costume books after the reign of Charles V often harbored nationalist, moral agendas, this article draws attention to the contrasting incentive of transnational exchange that prompted Sternsee's costume album, repositioning the narrative of costume books' emergence and purpose. By examining the progress of a Habsburg military official through the lens of his personal album, I demonstrate, more-1 See, for example, Jones, 2006 and2009;Mentges;Rublack;Paulicelli;Vecellio;Wilson. 2 Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM), Hs.…”