Di queste opere si belle è stato in Venetia auttore M. Bartholomeo Bontempele dal Calice, il quale alle volte con le mostre, ch’ egli fa di questi drappi de’ quali lui è stato inventore, mostra la grandezza dell’ingegno suo, la quale è accompagnata da una incomparabile liberalità, e bontà, per ilche è molto amato dalla nobiltà Venetiana, & da molti Principi d’Italia & in specie dal Serenissimo Duca di Mantova. Nella sua buttiga dove molti Signori e Principi mandano a fornirsi, & fino al serraglio del Gran Turco, si veggono broccati à opera di tutte le sorte d’oro e di argento.
It may seem strange that within 20 years of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) Venetian fabrics were exported from Bontempele’s sign of “The Chalice” to Constantinople to compete with the noted velvets of Brusa. After describing the clothes of the best dressed merchants, Vecellio does not hesitate to mention his
friends Master Paolo, spice merchant and vendor of the celebrated Theriakon (known in England as Venice treacle), of the sign of “The Ostrich,” and Bernadino Pillotto, seller of pictures and other ornaments.
Figure 10.—Fashion plate depicting fanciful hair style of a lady from Ferrara, by Christoph Krieger. From Varie acconciature di teste, ca. 1590. (Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London.)
At this time there were also woodcuts illustrating hairstyles. The exact date of Christoph Krieger’s Varie Acconciature di Teste (fig. 10) is not known. While Vecellio had remarked that the Venetian ladies were imitating the goddess Diana and surmounting their tresses with two little curls like horns, Krieger made illustrations that were even more fanciful. Each lady bears the name of a city and a distinguishing quality or temperament, but there is no more reason to connect the styles with local fashions than to believe
that the ladies of Ferrara were bold or those of Todi capricious.
Indeed, this series would not be considered in connection with fashion plates were it not for a conversation in Ben Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels, first acted in 1600 by the Children of the Queen’s Chapel. Philautia addresses her friend Phantaste (Act 2, scene 1):
Philautia: . . . What, have you changed your head-tire?