At certain times these rules were relaxed by necessity. How could plainly dressed women support the background of the salons of the Ducal Palace? When there they must be gorgeously attired; and knowing that these opportunities must come, the ladies of Venice bought as many pearls and other jewels and as splendid garments of every sort as they could get, and waited impatiently for a festival when they might wear them. In 1574, when Henry III. visited Venice, an edict announced that, "all contrary decrees notwithstanding, it shall be permitted to every lady invited to the said feast to wear all dresses and jewels of what kind soever seems to them most favorable for the adornment of their persons."
One can imagine the result. How gladly these ladies, so long restricted to plain dressing, would vie with each other in the beauty and richness of their dress in these festal days; and from the pictures and the written accounts of their magnificent costumes we know with what success their efforts were crowned. Some of them covered their arms, chests, throats, hair, and even their robes with pearls of untold value, sometimes costing millions of ducats.
For a long time the custom of bleaching the hair prevailed. A large hat-brim with no crown was used. The hair, being wet with some preparation, was thrown out of the crown space and spread over the broad brim, which shaded the person from the sun. Thus prepared they sat on their balconies and housetops as long as a ray of sunshine could be had. Titian and Veronese painted golden and shining hair on women, goddesses, and nymphs because no other color of hair was in good form. Many of the fashions in dress of the Venetian ladies of the time of the Renaissance were artistic and elegant; others were too grotesque for expression, and none more so than the pattens, to which we have already referred. Not being tall and stately, they wished to raise themselves artificially; but when pattens were extreme in height, all elegance and dignity of carriage was out of the question.
One can but wonder how the "potent, grave, and reverend seigniors" of the Venetian Senate could have found time to attend to all the detail of the dress, and even of the eating of the Signori, their wives, and their guests; but it is plainly to be seen that the jealousy which had led them to lessen from year to year the power and dignity of the Doge, found food to feed upon in the privileges and honors which were permitted to the Dogaressa.
As early as 1084 the extravagance of the wife of Doge Selvo was much written of by the chroniclers of the time. It was said that this Theodora, the daughter of a Greek emperor, had her cheeks bathed in dew every morning to give them a glow of freshness. This would not seem to have been an expensive habit. Her ablutions were made with rose water, and her linen was scented with fine balsams; and so many aromatic perfumes pervaded her apartments that it was not unusual for her maids to faint while dressing her. She always wore gloves, and fed herself with a double-pronged gold fork; and all this was so sinful in the eyes of the Venetians that the loathsome malady from which she died was regarded as a legitimate punishment of her vanity.
We have elsewhere spoken of the custom of conducting the wife of the Doge to be seated on the throne beside him soon after his own investiture with the insignia of his office; and as the luxury and pageantry of Venetian life increased, naturally the first lady of the Republic acquired more importance and greater privileges. At length, in 1595, the wife of the Doge, Marino Grimani, who was herself of the Morosini family, was conducted from her home to San Marco in a style that aroused all the jealousy of the Seigniory. She was dressed in cloth of gold, and wore a gold crown. The Bucentaur brought her to the Piazza, and strains of martial music there welcomed her, as well as salvos of artillery. In the palace she occupied a throne, and was attended by noble ladies in regal state. The festivities in which she played a prominent part were extended unusually, and the Pope sent her the golden rose, which is presented only to sovereign princes.
This was more than the jealous Senators could endure. It was also noticed that this ambitious lady wore a closed or arched crown,—a privilege denied to all but such reigning princes as acknowledged no superior. It was now thought to be high time to limit the state and assumption of these ladies; and the Senate published a decree ordering the golden rose to be taken from the Dogaressa and deposited in the treasury of St. Mark, and good care was afterwards taken that no other Dogaressa should be crowned at all.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS.