As many of you may know, I love looking at old portraits from antiquity, especially Medieval and Renaissance England. The Kings of England generally have fairly consistent headwear in their portraits, if you look at them chronologically. Basically from William the Conqueror all the way up to the early Renaissance, the kings wear the stereotypical crown. During the Renaissance, it changes to cloth caps. Then from James I onwards, bare-headed is the style.
There is only one outlier here, but it’s a major one: King Henry IV. What in Christ’s name is he wearing on his head? WHY is he wearing this? What is the explanation for this bizarre fashion statement amidst the otherwise un-interrupted traditions of conventional crowns and caps?
Is there some significance to the fact that he’s the only king of England to wear such a hat?
Fashions of Renaissance monarchs never cease to amaze me.
I still would love to know if there is a technical term for Henry IV’s hat. It really doesn’t look much like those “Chaperons” linked to earlier, except superficially. It seems more distinct and more extravagant - looks like it belongs on the head of some Middle Eastern or Indian potentate of old, not an English king.
I just want to say to Argent Towers that I really enjoy looking at the links to antique portraits you post! I also love looking at Medieval and Renaissance portraits, especially of women. If you have any more favorites or interesting ones, please post.
Oh, and I have no idea what that strange hat is. The pearls on the edge make it look really feminine. But otherwise he is a pretty nice looking guy. Oh and to the person asking about his hand, I believe he is holding a flower with it, with the stem between his thumb and index finger.
Thank you; I am utterly fascinated by Renaissance fashion and especially armor - my goal is to be rich enough someday to become involved in museum curation (I do have a B.A. in history but I think I would have to go for a PhD for that.) Who knows. But I never get tired of looking at it. I even drew a portrait of myself in Tudor-era armor.
You can see hundreds of amazing Renaissance-era paintings just by clicking through Wikipedia a little bit. List of English Monarchs is a great place to start; Dukes of Saxony is a good starting point for looking at the German styles.
It also notes that involved arrangements of the idea became stylish in 1377. It was probably still very much “in” when Henry IV (b. 1367) was a young man.
No it’s not. In the second picture, Henry’s moustaches are pointed, in the first one, they’re not. In the second picture, Henry has a goatee, in the first, he has a full beard, etc.
It might be the same hat. Often, multiple paintings were made based upon one particular painting that became the “official” portrait of the monarch. This way, a monarch didn’t have to sit for multiple portraits, and could have one particularly “good” painting pose be the standard.
One problem in interpreting this painting is that none of the known versions can be dated earlier than the late sixteenth century. Indeed, it cannot even be assumed that any panel portrait of Henry ever existed from about the time he actually lived, as panel portraits, although not unknown, had still been freakishly rare in early fifteenth-century England, even in court circles. This portrait type of Henry IV was almost certainly developed in the late sixteenth century to make up sets of portraits of English kings. The ‘Hornby Castle’ set, now at Montacute, is one such group and it includes an early version of this portrait.
At worst, the Henry IV type was just invented in the late sixteenth century. In which case, it tells us more about how a late Tudor artist imagined how Henry might have dressed than about any actual early-fifteenth century fashions. Or it might have been based on a lost source. In which case, it might not have actually shown Henry. Or, in using such a source, the artist might have misunderstood what he was copying. Complicated, archaic fashions often confused copyists.
