The Beginning of Fashion illustration—from
the 16th Century to the 17th Century (1500 - 1700)
The
fashion illustration was originated in Europe
and its history begins in the sixteenth century. Before we introduced the representative
works of this period we have to mention a German named Johannes Gutenberg who
introduced the printing press into Europe
during the 14th century. This is a huge event of the modern period
because this technique led to a revolution of European bookmaking which helped
the fashion illustrations could be seen by more and more people.
Fig.1-1 Johannes
Gutenberg
Before
the word Fashion Illustration was created, the style of fashion was known by
the image on the engravings and utensil, oil paintings, or the etchings and
woodcuts about costumes.
In
the 16th century, the time which the experts recon that the history
of fashion illustration begins, there are more than 200 collections of woodcuts
of garments were published. The best-known book is the De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del
mondo(1590) published in Italy
by Cesare Vecellio, which includes 420 woodcuts depicting garments of Europe,
Africa, and Asia. And these illustrations of
dress became the prototype for fashion illustration as we known today
(Blackman, 2007).
Fig.2-1 the woodcuts in Cesare
Vecellio’s book
In
the 17th century, Wenceslaus Hollar’s master work Winter is a representative of fashion
etchings. Wenceslaus is a Bohemian etcher who worked in London since 1640 and produced the drawings
of dresses and texture of English fashion.
Fig.2-2 Wenceslaus Hollar and his
master work -- Winter (1643)
From
the 1670s, journals began to be published especially in France. Louis
XIV supported a newspaper named Le Mecure
Galant which was founded in France
in 1672. This newspaper included articles about fashion and beautiful fashion
illustrations. The picture below is the content of this newspaper.
Fig 2-3 the newspaper Le Mercure gallant (1672)
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