In Italy, as everywhere else, different styles lived side by side. But the main garment for women of the 16th century was the sottana, the dress. It could be worn on its own, or under an overdress. Various items could also be worn underneath ( Read more... )

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Third batch: A fresco cyclus from the Eagle Tower (Torre Aquila) in Castello de Buonconsiglio in Trent, Italy. From ca. 1400, the cyclus shows the months of the year, and it's reckoned one of the finest examples of "International Gothic" in Italy. Though, Trent has changed borders many times, and the artist of the Eagle Tower frescoes was from ( Read more... )

Those who search (long and hard and in the strangest places) will find.... I found, I found ( Read more... )

A double portrait painted by Tizian in the 1550's was re-discovered in 1948 using X-rays. The painting had shifted hands many times, travelling from Italy to Russia to France to England. It was re-discovered in a garage in Bayswayer in London in 1946, after WW2, then depicting Tobias and the archangel Raphael. The biblical theme was a later ( Read more... )