A Crowning Glory continued...
We
have seen how, in the Carpaccio Era (pre
1500-1510), most images depict women wearing some
form of headwear, be it veil (velo, veletto
da testa), netted headress or hairnet (reta)
or cap or caul (scuffia). But in the
next major period, the Palma Vecchio and early
Titian era (1510-40), it was a little different,
at least as far as the available art tells us.
The caul/scuffia continues to be the head wear of choice
for women, but starts to develop into a larger,
more bag-like item than in the previous period. As before, the caul is
made from sheer to semi-sheer fabrics, either
plain or figured. Image at left is Titian's
"La Schiavona", circa 1511. Two more
examples of similar cauls of the circa the same
year can be seen below.

We
cannot tell from most of these pictures how the
caul managed to stay on the head. It was worn so
far back, and were apparently filled with so much
hair, that it seems impossible that they stayed
on. Of course, we should all be familiar with the
fact that pictures of the back view of a person
are few and far between! However, there is a
portrait by Venetian artist Gentile Bellini which
may shed some light on the matter.
Seen
on the right, Bellini's "Woman at her
toilette", circa 1515, not only shows a very
ornate, and very large caul being worn, but it
also allows us, via the mirror on the wall, to
see that there is what looks like a fancy clasp
or brooch of some kind - perhaps a hair clasp
which allows the wearer to pin through the caul
into the hair beneath? It
is also possible that it is placed over the spot
at which a hair comb is attached to the inside of
the scuffia. In the case of the two
clasp-less cauls above, and others, it may be
that the attachment point of the hair comb is not
visible or is well disguised.
In
most cases it appears that the caul's function is
slightly different than previously - it no longer
appears to cover braided, pinned-up hair, but
loose coils, hence its larger dimensions,
presumably. Often there is no visible means of
fastening or attaching to the head, but in a
couple of examples, the caul is kept in place by,
as in a previous example, a lenza
(decorative cord or ribbon) wrapped around the
head at forehead level. In one example the role
of the lenza is performed by the woman's
own braided hair. See below:

The
example on the left could be made from either a
textured fabric, or it could be netted, whereas
the example on the right is obviously a simple
fabric caul. By far the
most common example is a simple fabric caul,
either plain, striped or otherwise figured. Both of the examples
above are likely to be of women from the
provinces of Venice, not Venice itself. From the same period, the 1520s, I have
also seen one example of a style of head wear
halfway between a fitted reta (netted
head wear or hairnet) and the bag scuffia.This example by an
unknown artist of the Venetian school, circa
1525, shows a netted caul embellished with what
appears to be either jade or some other green
stone bead, or, more likely from their
appearance, green glass beads.

Note the way
this reta does not seem to
"bag" the hair completely, but does
follow the contours of the hair closely. Nor is
its edge visible at the front or top of the head
- it is set far back on the head. How it is kept
on is a mystery. The edge of the reta is
braided gold thread, but the criss-crossing
threads appear to be flat ribbons.
Another
form of headwear seen in the Venetian provinces
in the 1520s is the larger, bulkier, hat referred
to variously as a balzo, or capigliara.
These could be very ornate, and quite large, and
are usually more structured than cauls. For a
great article on the Balzo, see "The
Wonderful Bulbous Balzo", by
Maestra Damiana Illiara d'Onde.
In my mind it is
likely that the term capigliara was used
to indicate those items that had the appearance
of a hairdo. Florio's Italian/English dictionary
"World of Words", 1598, does not
provide us with an entry for capigliara,
but does give capigliare as
"to dress, to tress, to plait, to curl, to
frizz, to lace, to tie up hair." There is
also some indication that there may be a
difference between balzo (given in Florio as
"a certain head attire") and balza,
which is given as "a certain head attire for
women".
There
are a couple of provincial Venetian examples:

Both of these
examples are from the 1520s - they were painted
by Lorenzo Lotto, who is known to have been
working in the Venetian provinces at this time.
In contrast,
during this same decade, we very often we find
portraits of women with completely uncovered
heads, their hair almost completely loose on the
shoulders, frizzed and restrained by nothing more
than a couple of thin braids used, as in the caul
examples above, in a similar fashion to the lenza.

I have collected
many examples, but is noteworthy that all of
them, to the best of my knowledge, are from
artists who are known to have been working in the
city of Venice at the time they were painted.
By the 1530s,
the question of what to do with the hair becomes
complicated indeed! This
is mainly due to whether we are trying to
re-create the style of Venice itself, or of the
Venetian provinces, where the style varied
somewhat from those of Venice proper. The fact
that one of the most prolific portrait artists of
this period - Bernadino Licinio - was known to
have worked in both Venice and the Venetian
provinces clouds the issue, which makes it a
little difficult to separate the city fashions
from the provincial ones. A lady may have worn
her hair uncovered, but braided, as in Bordone's
Portrait of a Lady (left),
...or she may have
worn either a small plain balzo, as seen in the
portrait by an unknown artist of the Venetian
school, circa 1530 (right), or larger and more
elaborate ones....

All of these
examples are painted by Bernadino Licinio in the
1530s.
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