EARL OF ROCHESTER, 1641-1711.
Kneller, National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker & Cockerell.
The mantle does not appear to have particularly excited the wrath of the satirists. It is, indeed, so entirely reasonable a garment both for men and women, that it is difficult to see how it could possibly provide material for satire.
Broadly speaking, there are three conditions necessary to beautiful dress, namely, beauty of material, excellence of workmanship, and variety of fold. If ornament be introduced, it should be of a good character, and employed rather in accordance with those well understood laws of contrast than an indiscriminate covering of the whole field; in fact, this defeats its own purpose, as richness of effect depends upon concentration, as a painter focusses light, colour, or other interest in a particular part of his work and allows nothing to detract from it. As a general rule, plain spaces are best adapted for ornamentation, although in the rich brocades of the fine periods the foldings of the material give an added richness and variety to the patterning.
The mantle, therefore, is usually bare of ornament or simply bordered, except for occasions of high ceremony; certainly plain if worn loosely, and many foldings ensue; and any richness of ornament is confined to the more closely fitting portions of the dress. In a word, the decorative conditions of dress are as well defined, as absolute, as in any other of the ornamental arts.
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.