La indumentaria infantil en la corte española de los Habsburgo (1556 – 1621)

Résumé

In 1548 Emperor Charles V introduced the «Burgundy protocol» at the house of his heir, Prince Philip, and the implementation of a new dress code was initiated, conceived as an expression of the House of Austria’s power and majesty. The introduction of Burgundian etiquette – inherited from the Habsburgs's ancestors and dating back to the time of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (1396 – 1467) –, aimed to establish order and hierarchy through provisions governing the functioning of all the Court's departments, including the ceremonial aspects of the different public acts. In this context, apparel characterized by its magnificence, luxury and sumptuousness was exploited as an instrument to highlight the royal family's greatness; in short, it was a form of propaganda based on dynastic self-affirmation. In this way it was sought not only to exalt the kings through their appearance, but also their descendants, through specific attire-related practices applied to all the contexts in which they appeared: ceremonies, portraits, engravings… This was done not only to legitimize the status of the children, but also to provide them with their own identities. Children's Apparel at the Spanish Court of the Habsburgs (1556 – 1621) is a work of research arising out of a desire to expand our knowledge of the attire of the members of the House of Austria during their early childhoods, as well as of its masterful couturiers, in the period between the second half of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the following one, corresponding to the reigns of Philip II (1556 – 1598) and his son and successor Philip III (1598 – 1621).