{"id":3122,"date":"2024-06-14T16:17:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T15:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2024-07-15T16:53:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T15:53:44","slug":"creating-an-identity-through-clothing-a-renaissance-merchants-fashion-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3122","title":{"rendered":"Creating an identity through clothing: a Renaissance merchant\u2019s fashion book"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second year UoP History module, The Hidden Lives of Things, taught by Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Mary Cannon, for their assessment, students have to produce an \u2018object biography\u2019 for a historical artefact.\u00a0 Sadie White chose a sixteen-century German fashion book.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Math\u00e4us Schwartz by Hans Maler, painted in 1526 when Schwarz was 29, Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris<\/p><\/div>\n

Described as \u201cThe First Book of Fashion,\u201d Matth\u00e4us Schwarz of Augsburg\u2019s Klaidungsb\u00fcchlein<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Trachtenbuc<\/em>h or \u201cBook of Clothes\u201d is a fascinating object.[1]<\/a> This object biography explores Schwarz\u2019s reason for producing this book, entangling ideas of self-reflection linked to the Renaissance, the importance of clothes and the idea of sentimentality. It will explore the book\u2019s lifecycle and how someone\u2019s relationship with an object can change its function and importance. Throughout, Riello\u2019s approach of a \u201chistory of things\u201d will be prevalent, placing the object in its cultural and personal context.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The book itself contains over one hundred and thirty-seven colourful self-portraits that reflect upon the clothing Schwarz wore throughout his life.[3]<\/a> Each page is around sixteen by ten centimetres, produced on parchment paper with vivid watercolour paints, a rarer medium of the time.[4]<\/a> Also included on each page is a description of the outfit, alongside his age and occasionally the reason the outfit was worn, which Schwarz scribed himself. Schwarz worked closely with the artist Narziss Renner for four-fifths of the book, until Renner died in 1536. [5]<\/a> Woodward argues that objects are \u201cthe material embodiment\u201d of the human effort that first creates them.[6]<\/a> Meeting Renner when he was just twenty years old, portrays the personal effort involved, Schwarz entrusted Renner to produce something important to him. The personal relationship between the patron and the artist was paramount in the book’s creation: after Renner\u2019s death, only twenty-nine more paintings were produced for the book. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An entry showing Matth\u00e4us as a young man, aged 21.<\/p><\/div>\n

This leads to why Schwarz created such an object in the first place, it appears that it was intended as a personal project, that would have probably only been shared with family or close friends.[8]<\/a> This is interesting as it represents the object as being self-reflective, an idea that coincided with the increase of personal documents such as diaries during the period.[9]<\/a> The creation of this book started in 1520, the year that Schwarz secured his position working as an accountant to the Fugger merchants, \u201ccaptains of industry\u201d in Augsburg.[10]<\/a> This position represented a turning point for Schwarz, restoring family honour after the public execution of his grandfather.[11]<\/a> This idea lends itself to the book having a diary-like nature as Sangha argues they reflected the way people interpreted important events in their lives.[12]<\/a> Sangha also argues that self-examination at this time was usually focused on one aspect of someone\u2019s life, for Schwarz, this was clothing.[13]<\/a> During the early modern period, clothing was intrinsically linked to social status, as Prieto argues clothes were used to \u201cfashion oneself.\u201d[14]<\/a> Therefore the creation of the Book of Fashion exemplifies the reflection of identity through clothing. Vincent asserts that clothing was a choice of \u201cself-presentation,\u201d Schwarz was choosing to present and remember his life through his clothes.[15]<\/a> Art and fashion were \u201cimbued with meaning,\u201d therefore the book provides an insight into the way people chose to perceive themselves and reflects how the culture of the Renaissance meant art was just as contemplative as writing.[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Matth\u00e4us<\/a>

Matth\u00e4us Schwarz painted aged 45 in 1542 by Christoph Amberger, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid<\/p><\/div>\n

The Book of Fashion demonstrates arguments that have started to become prevalent in the historiography of material culture, the rejection that objects are inanimate and instead that they can possess agency.[17]<\/a> If the owner of an object \u201cascribes meaning\u201d to it, this can lead to an emotional attachment.[18]<\/a> Schwarz created this book over forty years, exemplifying that there was a relationship between the object and himself, it evoked reflection and memory through the creation of it, hence creating a personal connection.[19]<\/a> Books and emotions, Downes argues, are intrinsically linked, as they proved the connection between material culture and how people used it to express emotion.[20]<\/a> For Schwarz, this emotional expression is evident through the remembrance of events in his life, and the remembrance of his love of art and clothing through the object’s creation. Undeniably, The Book of Fashion had agency in Schwarz\u2019s life because it was how he chose to remember his life, particularly key events such as weddings. This is also telling of human behaviour, why he deemed certain outfits and events as important passageways to include. Important events linked to an object are key to building sentimentality towards an object, as Fletcher argues.[21]<\/a> Therefore as a book, it is an entanglement of nostalgia, passion and emotion that held forty years of life in it.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>

Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714), Princess Palatine, bought Matth\u00e4us’s fashion book after his death. Portrait by Gerrard van Honthorst, National Trust, Ashdown House, Berkshire.<\/p><\/div>\n

The final important analysis when discussing the book is its lifecycle, how it survived and the changing meaning it acquired through the passage of time. Matthaeus encouraged his son to work on creating a similar book, demonstrating his sentimentality towards the book. However, his son scarcely carried the project on, adding to the personal nature of the book, and its specific socio-cultural context. During Matthaeus\u2019s time living in the rich industrial centre of Augsburg, there was a Renaissance trend of increasingly realistic portrayals of both the self and clothes in portraits, seen through the work of artists such as Daniel Hopfer.[22]<\/a> This links to self-observation and explains why Schwarz created this object the way he did in 1520, and why it is a specific outcome of the cultural context. After Matthaus\u2019s death, the book came into the possession of his granddaughter, who sold the manuscript to Jeremias Steiniger.[23]<\/a> This shows the loss of personal importance of the book. His granddaughter had no relationship with him and thus no relationship to the object. With no emotional connection, the object lost its agency. In this case, it was sold, considering this was not the original intention for creation, it demonstrates that as a relationship changes with an object so does the purpose of it. It is thought that the manuscript was then sold to Sophie Electress of Hanover and two copies were made, one remaining in the Imperial Library in Paris to this day. [24]<\/a> Vastly different from its original purpose of self-reflection, it now acts to reflect on the values of the Renaissance and how books are the mirror of the culture that made them.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, The Book of Fashion when studied as an object brings to the forefront many ideas surrounding the Renaissance. It shows us the rise of self-reflection and how people carried this out through a myriad of media, whilst simultaneously exemplifying the role of objects in this process. Another salient analysis of the Book of Fashion is the clear agency it had throughout Schwarz\u2019s life and the importance he attached to creating the object. This is why the book held a fascination, it was a personally reflective object, yet it created this reflection through art and clothing, which in turn provides huge insight into the culture of the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

To discover more about clothes and the construction of Renaissance masculinity, read our 2017 post on King Henry VIII’s wardrobe by Andrew McCarthy.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ulinka Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d in The First Book of Fashion: The Book of Clothes of Matthaeus and Veit Konrad Schwarz of Augsburg <\/em>ed. Ulinka Rublack, Maria Hayward and Jenny Tiramni (London: Bloomsbury Publishing 2015), 3.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Giorgio Riello, \u201cThings that shape history,\u201d in History and Material Culture: A Students Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources <\/em>ed. Karen Harvey (London: Taylor and Francis, 2013), 25.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 3.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 3.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 20.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ian Woodward, Understanding Material Culture<\/em>, (London: Sage, 2007), 82.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 10.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 3.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Laura Sangha, \u201cPersonal Documents,\u201d <\/em>in \u00a0Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources,<\/em> ed. Laura Sangha and Jonathon Willis (London: Taylor and Francis, 2016), 107.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Mark Haberlein and Gerda Schmid, The Fuggers of Augsburg: Pursuing Wealth and Honor in Renaissance Germany<\/em> (Virginia: Virginia University Press, 2012), 2.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 3.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Sangha, \u201cPersonal Documents,\u201d 112.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Sangha, \u201cPersonal Documents,\u201d 115.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Laura R. Prieto, \u201cClothing,\u201d in Approaching Historical Sources in their Contexts: Spaces, Time and Performance<\/em> ed. Sarah Barber and Corinna M. Peniston-Bird, (New York: Routledge, 2020), 184<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Susan Vincent, Dressing the elite: Clothes in Early Modern England<\/em>, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 7.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Vincent, Dressing the elite<\/em>, 5.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Stephanie Downes, Sally Holloway and Sarah Randalls, Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History<\/em>, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 8.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Downes, Holloway and Randalls, Feeling Things<\/em>, 9.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Stephanie Triig and Anna Welch, \u201cObjects, Material Culture and the History of Emotions,\u201d Emotions: History, Culture, Society<\/em> 7 (2023): 7.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Stephanie Downes, \u201cBooks,\u201d in Early Modern Emotions<\/em> ed. Susan Broomhall (London: Routledge, 2016), 132.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> Downes, Holloway and Randalls, Feeling things<\/em>, 13.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 5.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 21.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Rublack, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the second year UoP History module, The Hidden Lives of Things, taught by Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Mary Cannon, for their assessment, students have to produce an \u2018object biography\u2019 for a historical artefact.\u00a0 Sadie White chose a sixteen-century German fashion book. Described as \u201cThe First Book of Fashion,\u201d Matth\u00e4us Schwarz of Augsburg\u2019s Klaidungsb\u00fcchlein\u00a0or\u00a0Trachtenbuch or \u201cBook of Clothes\u201d is a fascinating object.[1] This object biography explores Schwarz\u2019s reason for producing this book, entangling ideas of self-reflection linked to the Renaissance, the importance of clothes and the idea of sentimentality. It will explore the book\u2019s lifecycle and how someone\u2019s relationship with an object can change its function and importance. Throughout, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[452,789,735,219,791,790,329,11,13],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning_in_focus","category-research-in-focus","tag-clothing","tag-egodocuments","tag-german-history","tag-material-culture","tag-matthaus-schwarz","tag-object-biographies","tag-sixteenth-century","tag-slider","tag-visual-sources"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Schwarz-cropped.jpg?fit=620%2C301","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-Om","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3134,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}