Leseprobe

27 The propagandistic depiction of the theme of mar- riage and love in the garb of ancient Rome increased greatly in importance in the 16 th century. As a result of the Italianization that took place in the Ger- man-speaking world, it also reached Dresden. In 1582, on the occasion of the marriage of the Saxon Elector Prince Christian I, Perseus and Andromeda were listed in a tournament procession in which the Prince Elector himself, dressed in white and gold, took on the role of the hero who slays the dragon and marries the rescued virgin. 18 A connection to the Christian significance of the color white is evident in the pictorial examples pre- sented here. It continues with the practice intro- duced at the Spanish-Burgundian court, which then gradually spread to other European royal circles, of dressing the bride and groom in white when they wed. Margaret of York wore a white silk satin robe when she married Charles the Bold in the year 1468. Charles the Bold’s daughter, Maria, wore a white silk damask robe with golden embroidery and a short jacket of similar material trimmed with ermine when she married the future Emperor Maximilian I in 1477. There are records of white clothing for brides and grooms at the Saxon Electoral court as of 1548 and 1604 (ill. 4). 19 Silver symbolically forms the counterpart to white in royal wedding apparel. The amount of gold and colored embellishments was always subordinate to the main color – white. First of all among the nobility, and in parallel to white wedding apparel, white de- veloped into the representative color for children’s clothing, from babies to youths, for boys and girls, as a symbol of their childish and youthful innocence. We encounter this in many portraits – especially of mem- bers of the House of Habsburg and those close to them, as well as Italian nobles, as seen in the por- traits of the later Emperor, Archduke Maximilian II, 20 his brothers Archduke Wenzel and Archduke Albrecht (both c. 1573) by Alonso Sánches Coello 21 , and Ales- sandro Farnese the Younger at the age of 13 or 14 by Anthonis Mor. 22 Among the early examples showing girls, particular attention should be drawn to the por- trait of Bia de’ Medici (1542) by Agnolo Bronzino, 23 as well as that of the two-year-old Clarissa Strozzi (1542) by Titian (ill. p. 37). In these two works, as well as “Infant in a Crib” (c. 1583) by Lavinia Fontana, 24 the child is not only garbed in white but also wears a long string of pearls as an indication that the picture is of a girl from an affluent house. As with a bride, the string of pearls underlines the Christian connotation of the significance of white. In the process of civilization throughout Europe – and, once again, beginning in Burgundy – the color white was cultivated as a sign of purity in the full sense of the word – meaning, not soiled or blemished. Ill. 3 Titian “Sacred and Profane Love” c. 1514/15, Rome, Galleria Borghese