1605 Brigida Spinola Doria by Peter Paul Rubens (National Gallery of Art, Washington)
This Rubens portrait of Brigida Spinola Doria shows an Italian lady in gorgeous, but probably uncomfortable, dress.
This spectacular Rubens portrait shows what the ruff evolved into. Surviving an Italian summer in such a gown would have been difficult, but it looks magnificent.
The huge ruff is supported by a supportasse that may have originated in Spain according to Norris, "Tudor Costume and Fashion, p.626 (Dover re-issue 1997). "It was a circular gold or silver frame fitting the neck, whence wires or spokes radiated to the circumference. To this was sewn a narrow fringe in gold, silver, or silk giving a very pleasing effect."
The gown is very similar to some of those worn by Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia in the Iberian style album and the one worn in the next image by Maria Serra Pallavicino. Black and Garland gave this overview of the first half of the 1600s in A History of Fashion, p. 134 (1990 ed.) - "The exaggerated high coiffures which typified the late sixteenth century remained fashionable for a decade (as shown by this picture - gogm) but changed well before the other Renaissance fashions..."
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