The feather-fan, referred to in the last chapter, although regarded as the sign of nobility, was occasionally carried by the wives of the rich merchants of Venice. A noble Venetian matron carries a tuft fan with a mirror in the centre garnished with pearls; the plumed fan is seen in the hands of the noble demoiselles of Milan, of married Genoese ladies, of the noble matrons of Siena, the latter of whom, together with the ladies of Venice, Perugia, and other cities, also carried the flag-fan.
The smaller fan, with long thin handle, surmounted with five or seven feathers set symmetrically, is carried by the Parmese, Ferrarese, and Florentine ladies, and by the noble matrons of Genoa.
The Milanese ladies carried a fan made apparently of feathers, rigid, and bound round in five sections. The married ladies of Naples and Bologna carried rigid screens designed in the form of a cartouche of the strap-work so usual in sixteenth-century Renaissance ornament. The later hand-screens, seen in the engravings of Callot and others, were obviously a development of this form.
The above instances are cited from the engraved work of A. de Bruÿn,[88] in which also appears a long-handled fan of seven feathers carried by a Turkish lady.
In an earlier work by the same engraver, Imperii ac Sacerdotii ornatus, 1579, a bishop holds in his left hand the feather fan, in his right a crozier.
In the art library, Victoria and Albert Museum, are several designs for feather-fans and handles, by an unknown artist, but certainly Italian, drawn vigorously with a pen and washed with bistre. In the same collection is a design in pencil for the panache of a folding-fan, in the Italian manner, displaying great knowledge of Renaissance design.
At the commencement of the seventeenth century, and indeed earlier, small screens were the fashion, painted either with love scenes, inscribed with suitable verses, or views of Italian towns, with a short description, and were sold for a sum equivalent to an English groat.
The English traveller, Thomas Coryat, in his Crudities (1608), writes: ‘These fans both men and women of the country [Italy] do carry to cool themselves withal in the time of heat, by the often fanning of their faces. Most of them are very elegant and pretty things, for whereas the fan consisteth of a painted piece of paper and a little wooden handle, the paper, which is fastened at the top, is on both sides most curiously adorned with excellent pictures.’ These, probably, are the fans referred to above as seen in Vecellio and the work of other engravers. Many were apparently rigid, and probably formed of ivory or similar hard substance; the size would be about six inches. They were by no means confined to Italy, but became the vogue in Spain, France, and other countries.
A long fan, carried by a noble Neapolitan lady, is given by Hefner-Altenek, in his work on costume. This is apparently rigid, since no sign of pleating is apparent in the representation, which is, however, small.