Allegory of Virtues and Vices at the Court of Charles V by Hans Daucher 1522 (The Met Museum accession no. 17.190.745)
When delving into a new area it's important to have a few prime images to fixate on otherwise you'll get lost down the rabbit hole. Often people use an image of something they've seen someone else wear and they try to find references to reference it, make it fit a costume or make it more period. In this case, I started by collecting a Pinterest board of Landsknecht, Cranach and general German-ish hats. This gave me a good reference base for the variety of hat types available within my scope. I then narrowed the field by focusing on one item and using it as the basis for my research. If you want to do the same, there's a large collection of hat references collated by Jeanne de Pompadore here. It'd be nice if they're hyperlinked to a primary source but they typically contain sufficient information in the caption to help you find the original without needing to use Google image search.
Personally I found my focus image deep in a Pinterest linked-linked-link. The sculpture by Hans Daucher contains a good number of hat types. As it's a crowd scene, it also has a few back of hats so we can see the crown detail. I've numbered the hats to assist as I discuss the various types and my construction conclusions.
Details are below the jump cut as this the first of three long research posts
Details are below the jump cut as this the first of three long research posts
Which hat - the numbered hats are referenced in part 1 of this analysis.
Haube
Lets start with hats that look like rolls. There are a number of women wearing these in the image. Without colour and back-hat detail, it's difficult to tell if these are whitehaube/goldhaube, steuchlein or a wulsthaube (worn under the steuchlein).
The ladies hats are not the focus of my interest in this sculpture but I found it interesting that seven of the men (but not all) appeared to be wearing something similar. As far as I can tell, these do not fit the definition of schlappe as they have no neck and ear flaps. Three individuals summarize this style nicely:
Stiffer brims
Of the stiffer hats in the sculpture, Hat 4 has two splits and potentially an overlapped brim. The split doesn't appear to extend all the way to the crown of the head (blue). There is a small flap which could ear length hair or evidence of a schlappe. If this were the case, it's the only schlappe in the carving. Given Hat 5 is worn by a guy with chin length hair, I feel hair is more likely than a schlappe. Hat 5 shows only 1 split due to the angle of carving. The orientation and drape of the feathers suggest the crown of this hat has bulk rather than being flat like a tellerbarret. Hat 6 is clearly split and overlapped (blue) but is unique in that it is assymetrical. I suspect this was an artistic decision as if the hat weren't so fashioned, all you'd see of the individual would be a tiny bit of beard poking out.
The ladies hats are not the focus of my interest in this sculpture but I found it interesting that seven of the men (but not all) appeared to be wearing something similar. As far as I can tell, these do not fit the definition of schlappe as they have no neck and ear flaps. Three individuals summarize this style nicely:
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| 1 - Gent's rolled cap | 2 - Gent's rolled cap with cord detail and gathering? | 3 - Gent's rolled cap under a slashed split brim hat. |
Hat 1 shows a smooth hat with a thin forehead band. The puckers (red) in the hat suggest it's gathered into the brim. Hat 2 is similar, with narrow band however in this case the vertical features (red) are sitting proud of the hat. Angled creases in the stripes suggest these are cord. Looking closely at the body of the cap we see a regular criss-cross pattern suggesting either the hat is smocked or there's a finer net linking the vertical cords. 2 also has a bundle strapped to his back from which protrude feathers, suggesting he has a secondary hat which looks a little squishy to be a helm. 3 is a good example of this sort of cap being worn with a split brim, slashed and doubled hat. It must be noted that this sculpture features a rather wonderful collection of Turkish figures wearing a variety of turbins. They are significantly larger and clearly demonstrate complicated wrapping techniques. For now I'm calling this hat the haube as it's not a schlappe and it's closer in appearance to the goldhaubes. I feel this could be created very similar to a puff hat simply by gathering an circle or oval of fabric into a thin band. There is a similar hat in Cranach's 1524 painting of Margrave Casimir of Brandenburn-Kulmbach. The caption suggests the hat is ringmail however the way it's painted is very similar in colour and texture to the goldhaubes seen in Cranach's Judith portraits. I find it more likely that a schlappe or haube would be worn under a flat hat than a ringmail cap would. Albrect Durer's 1516 Portrait of a Man supports the haube proposition as he has clearly depicted a floppy hat (see part 2) under which the male sitter wears a gathered net cap.
"Tellerbarret" (platter hats) appear to be the name of the hats I've been making. They have an unbroken rim and are either very shallow or simply perched and pinned to the head like Cranach's Portrait of a young lady holding a finger fern. Some appear have fabric gathered to the crown.
At this point, I'm not sure what gives the brims structure, wire, cane, cord or they may be reinforced with extra fabric. There are many likely period options. Other researchers reference and extant covered straw hat. I suspect this wasn't the only method and I believe my wire technique to be a valid fabric saver. The wire technique only works if the wire is a complete circle to it can exert an even force to the brim. In theory you could use sections of wire but I suspect you would encounter push through, similar to bra underwire gone wrong.
There are no hats with unbroken rims in this image but there are a variety of other styles. I've acquired a handful of descriptive terms from various German hat themed blogs. "Split brim hats" have multiple brim sections which overlap.
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| 4 - Split brim hat with possible schlappe | 5 - Split brim hat with indications of raised crown |
Of the stiffer hats in the sculpture, Hat 4 has two splits and potentially an overlapped brim. The split doesn't appear to extend all the way to the crown of the head (blue). There is a small flap which could ear length hair or evidence of a schlappe. If this were the case, it's the only schlappe in the carving. Given Hat 5 is worn by a guy with chin length hair, I feel hair is more likely than a schlappe. Hat 5 shows only 1 split due to the angle of carving. The orientation and drape of the feathers suggest the crown of this hat has bulk rather than being flat like a tellerbarret. Hat 6 is clearly split and overlapped (blue) but is unique in that it is assymetrical. I suspect this was an artistic decision as if the hat weren't so fashioned, all you'd see of the individual would be a tiny bit of beard poking out.
I've done some experiments to determine why a split hat might be desirable. From what I can see, if you split and overlap a circular brim, you can cut out almost a quarter of the fabric. Not only do you get fabric savings, if the brim is overlapped at the edge, the external circumference shrinks significantly more than the circumference of the crown. As a result, a natural tension is formed lifting the brim away from horizontal. The more of the circle that is lost, the higher the angle created. The additional benefit is that you don't need to have a piece of fabric that is the diameter of your circle. Semicircle slices nest a lot better than doughnut shapes.
I've also dabbled with paper cutouts as the asymmetrical hat as an interesting thought experiment. If the shape wasn't a sculptural decision, it is reasonably easy to recreate. If there are two splits (one wide brim section, one small) it would be possible to create this hat from a semi-circle of fabric with one brim cut from the leftover center of other. This will create an oval shaped crown when constructed. If there is only one split my first thought was a spiral, but that creates over 360 degrees of brim. Instead, I offset the inner brim so the outer brim tapered and the inner brim started the same width as the outer finished. By connecting these seamlessly then overlapping the smallest and widest edges you can re-create this style. If I were to make this hat, I'd actually cut a number of 360 degree spirals that taper together. These would provide tension to the brims and save significantly more fabric than simply trimming semicircles.
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6 - Asymmetric split brimmed hat with slashed circular four piece crown.
I've also dabbled with paper cutouts as the asymmetrical hat as an interesting thought experiment. If the shape wasn't a sculptural decision, it is reasonably easy to recreate. If there are two splits (one wide brim section, one small) it would be possible to create this hat from a semi-circle of fabric with one brim cut from the leftover center of other. This will create an oval shaped crown when constructed. If there is only one split my first thought was a spiral, but that creates over 360 degrees of brim. Instead, I offset the inner brim so the outer brim tapered and the inner brim started the same width as the outer finished. By connecting these seamlessly then overlapping the smallest and widest edges you can re-create this style. If I were to make this hat, I'd actually cut a number of 360 degree spirals that taper together. These would provide tension to the brims and save significantly more fabric than simply trimming semicircles.
Part 3 further develops ideas around crown construction and provides theoretical patterns.
Other resources:
My instructions for the St Florian hats
A collection of Landsknecht hat images
Steuchlein by Cathrin Ahlen
Wulsthaube by Cathrin Ahlen
Gathered Tallerbarret by Geonevra von Lubeck
Gathered Tallerbarret by Brigitta (Canada? California?)
Tallerbarret with straw base by Whilja.
Tallerbarret by Cathrin Ahlen
Split brim hat by Geoneva von Lubeck
Split brim hat by Dawn (Canada)
Upright brim hat by Vanessa Nessayem
Parcel hat by Carro of ProKnekt
Impressive creations by Daniela Engel (Germany)
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