Category Archives: Codpiece

Picture of the Month – The Tailor

Always so many things to love about this painting. The pumpkin breeches, the cod piece, the pinky ring, the flushed cheeks above a scruffy beard, the tailoring shears…

Giovanni Battista Moroni’s The Tailor (from 1565-70) is the Picture of the Month at London’s National Portrait Gallery. See what they have to say about it here.

Tomorrow they’re hosting a talk about fashion and accessories in art, given by Lois Oliver and Jenny Tiramani – wish I could be there! Details here.

So many things.

So many things to love:

The x-shaped slashing on his back, which makes him look kind of like an apple pie.
The high-waisted breeches
The red under-tights
The black mary jane shoes that have the extremely low vamp & sides
The dude in the background’s codpiece

I was in Detroit last week for a wedding, and I made a visit to the Detroit Institute of Art, which was nearly worth the trip in itself. What a great museum! A beautifully designed space with an inspiring collection of some real treasures. I hope for Detroit’s sake they don’t have to sell them. In an appropriate-to-the-weekend-highlight was this fantastic painting “The Wedding Dance” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1566). Of course I’ve seen it before, but not until it was in front of my face did I notice the amazing detail of this gentleman’s codpiece – with what appears to be a money purse in it! There are so few painting sources for codpieces used as pockets that they are precious to come across:

If you’re interested in learning more about that fascinating fashion, you can visit this video I made about the History of the Codpiece.