Careless Romance: Van Dyck and Costume in 17th-Century Portraiture

This dissertation aims to show that an understanding of dress can offer a new way of revealing the associations and ideals that a portrait may have projected, and that the history of costume provides a unique set of tools with which to analyze the creativity and contributions of Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). Van Dyck introduced a new type of costume in his portraits during his second English period (1632-1641), one that blurred the margins of fact and fancy. Until Van Dyck's time, Northern European portraitists either showed formal clothing rendered in great detail or fanciful attire that was part of a broader program of narrative or allegory. While Van Dyck initially adhered to the established protocol for dress, he soon changed the rules for costume in his portraiture. He did so by eliminating fashionable accessories, by adding fantastic details, by presenting his sitters in informal attire, and by emphasizing plain satin fabrics rendered in broad brushstrokes. The bulk of the evidence for this thesis derives from a close examination of the paintings themselves. The costume represented is compared to surviving garments, to fashion prints, and to the dress in paintings by other artists. Contemporary writing--in the form of art-theoretical texts, diaries, drama, poetry, and publications on etiquette and morals--indicates where the costume diverged from that actually worn and illuminates the portraits' cultural context. It is crucial to understand that dress can convey a multitude of meanings simultaneously. Van Dyck used costume to forge a complex and memorable image of his English patrons, the Caroline courtiers, one that captured their ideals and yet had resonance for many years after his death. Van Dyck established new conventions for the representation of dress in portraits that held sway until the end of the seventeenth century. Later generations of English, Dutch, and French painters, used Van Dyck's innovations as a touchstone for a new manner of dressing sitters, one that was partially fictional, and much more casual and unbuttoned than had ever been represented before.