Elizabethan Geek

Subject:	William Brooke, 10th Lord of Cobham and his Family
Artist:	British School
Date:	1567
Source of image:	http://www.tudor-portraits.com
Uploaded by:	KatRowberd
Upload time:	2003-08-23 05:50:49

Reviews

Review by: alienor	There are lots of items of interest to the reenactor in this picture, moreso than many portraits. First, note that the children are wearing 3 types of outfits. The girls are wearing matching dresses in a style similar to (but less formal) than the adults. One of the boys is wearing clothing similar to the style for the male adult, but the other two are in something much more different. Boys wore gowns until they reached a particular age, when they were 'breeched' (allowed to wear pants like an adult). The two younger boys are wearing gowns that are representative of this pre-breeching stage. Also note the table. The vast majority of table settings that I have seen have had a white tablecloth, as is shown here. It is often speculated that the table cloth is white so that the stains can be more easily cleaned off (without worrying about taking the color with them). Each child has a plate, which is different from what you see in many eariler time periods where the number of sitters at the table is greater than the number of dishes available. The fruit and animals seem significant, but I'm not sure what to make of them. Also there's a weird cylinder with a 'T' and bells near the young children. I wonder if it's some sort of rattle? The details are harder to make out for the adults, and I wonder why the children seem to be more the object of the painting. I also can't make out the words in the background.
Review by: KatRowberd	This picture shows William Brooke, two women, and six children (three boys and three girls). William wears a doublet or gown so dark that it is hard to see. The most distinctive item of his attire is the collar of his shirt, which is decorated faintly with embroidery (or possibly cutwork or drawnwork lace)and ties shut with three little cords. It is currently untied, and lies flat as a "falling band". He also wears a black hat of some kind. The woman opposite him, on the right hand side of the picture, is probably his wife. She wears a style of gown absolutely typical of mid 1560s noblewomen (compare with Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk (also on this site)). However. Lady Cobham's gown has long sleeves rather than elbow length, and may only be fastened at the neck rather than down to the waist, because you can see that the lines of aiglets diverge at the neck. Speaking of the aiglets, the gown is decorated with them all over the sleeves, around the collar, and down the front as aforementioned. If the gown is open as I postulate, her kirtle is also black and is high-necked. She has a narrow figure-8 ruff at neck and wrists. She wears a headdress that covers the upper part of her head in black, has a crescent of jewels set far back on the head, and a black veil hanging behind. It could be a sort of transitional style between the French hood style popular during Mary I's reign, and the black cap worn by Bess of Hardwick later in her life (see picture on this site). Lady Cobham wears a very rich necklace made up of about 12-14 large jewelled links with an even larger pendant jewel. A tear-shaped pearl hangs from the very bottom of the pendant. Finally, she has a gold ring on the ring finger of her left hand. It is unclear what the relationship is between the other woman (on the left of the painting, near William Lord Cobham) and the family. The text in the picture might tell us, but I can't read it properly. My guess is that she is William's first wife, because her style of dress suggests a similar social class to the family (thus not a servant), but her headdress is about 10 years out of date. But that means she probably isn't the mother of any of the children, as they are younger than 10 years old, I think. Another option is that she is an aunt or something, but the Elizabethans didn't tend to go in much for extended families, except those brought about by remarriage. Anyway, the second woman wears a dark gown with white puffs on the sleeves, two necklaces (one choker style, one with a triple string of gold chain and a single pendant), a small ruff, and a French hood with a black veil falling behind her head. As for the children, the first two (on the left) are toddler-aged boys. They are dressed alike in white doublets and probably a sort of skirt. The skirt would be worn by young boys until they were "breeched", which occurred after potty training. The toddlers' doublets are trimmed with narrow black(?) cord, which decorates the shoulder wings, across the shoulder seam, and down the front on each side. The toddlers also wear narrow ruffs at wrists and neck. The third child is an older boy, and wears a doublet and (presumably) breeches. The doublet is black, and embellished with gold. The boy wears a slightly larger ruff than his young brothers, and it is open in front. He also has a necklace made of a black ribbon with a pendant which contains a single large stone set in gold. The three young girls (two of whom are about 5, at a guess, and one a couple of years younger) are dressed alike, in a style very different from their mother. In fact their gowns look rather like the one worn by Helena Snakenborg in 1569 (also on this site). Distinctive features are the large shoulder rolls with puffs, and the triangular lines on the front of the bodice. The girls' bodices are possibly a striped fabric of black with gold, and the lines forming the triangle may be bias-cut strips of the same fabric. (Don't believe me? See how the stripes in the bias-cut strip all lean the same way no matter where they are on the bodice, rather than mirroring from left to right.) The girls wear some kind of garment underneath (kirtle? sleeves and partlet? shirt?) with yellowish stripes. The way the garment is open at the neck suggests it might be a shirt, in which case the yellowish colour is rather unusual. The girls wear ruffs like just about everyone else in the picture. They all wear matching jewelry: a choker consisting of a jewel suspended from a ribbon, and a looped chain and large jewel hanging down around the top of the bodice. Another reviewer has already commented on the table, which I will skip because it's not costume-related. However, I do agree with her that the silver item at the left is a rattle.
Review by: Morwenna	A reviewer wrote: "Also there's a weird cylinder with a 'T' and bells near the young children. I wonder if it's some sort of rattle?" I believe it is a perch for the little bird on the hand of the oldest boy. It's very hard to make out, but there is a fine cord connecting the bird's foot to the perch. Another note: the two girls in the center have the label "AEATATIS SUAE 5 GEMELLI" They are twins, 5 years old.