sprezzatura and the male form
However, nothing about male fashion at the time was genuinely effortless, from voluminous puffed sleeves and padded doublets to carefully tailored codpieces. Renaissance male fashion was a masterclass in extravaganza.
Men in this period began their dressing regimen with a foundation garment: the chemise. For elite men, these shirts were made from linen fabrics such as cambric or lawn (Edwards, 2020, p.16). On top sat the doublet, which in the first half of the century was the quintessence of masculine elegance, particularly when made of lavish velvets or slashed at the fabric's surface to accentuate texture. The chemise was then pulled through the slashes to create small puffs. The bottom half was short, with full trunk hoses attached to the doublet. Lastly came the gown; these were usually fur-lined and sometimes featured intricate gold or jewelled bead designs. In the late 16th century, men wore jerkins over their doublets: short, close-fitting jackets with sleeves attached with ties.
Framing masculinity through the ruff and gorget.
Sir Philip Sidney was a soldier, statesman and poet of the Elizabethan age. As evidenced in his portrait, he is the epitome of the Elizabethan courtier. Philip is flaunting a plain linen ruff. Below it sits a steel metal gorget edged in gold designs, a piece of military armour used to protect the vital areas of the neck. His white silk jerkin is slashed, and he wears black-and-gold embroidered padded round hose. In his hand, we see his sword, once again a piece of military attire: here, he reminds us of his role and ascension in society as a soldier. Philip's ruff and gorget frame his head, thus exaggerating his neck and jawline. The stiffened ruff, achieved with starch, draws attention to his upright posture, symbolising intellect and refinement. English starch production began in the 1560s; after this, ruffs became much more extensive and structured (Vincent, 2009, p.22). We observe that Philip's ruff in this portrait is small compared to other ruffs of the time. This may indicate his underlying economic status, as the prominence of one's ruff was linked to one's wealth. Interestingly, ruffs quickly became a hallmark of aristocratic fashion; although Philip was not a nobleman, he is seen here emulating elite trends. His collar's impracticality exemplifies this idea of false “sprezzatura”; his look is highly constructed yet intends to feign effortless refinement.
The elaborate collar, paired with Sidney's stoic expression, creates an idealised image of a Renaissance gentleman whose appearance masks the labour behind the perfection. While Sidney's portrait frames his masculinity through the refinement of his neck and head, young King Edward VI's portrait adopts a similar strategy of exaggeration and emulation; it focuses on breadth and stance to project sovereign authority.
Sovereign power shown through bombast and silhouette.
Edward VI mimics his father, Henry VIII, in this painting. X-ray analysis of the royal portrait revealed that the young king's stance was even broader, and his right foot was subsequently altered during the painting process. Edward's deep-skirted doublet is padded at the shoulders, creating a wide, square silhouette. His chemise frill is also visible, and his collar is high-standing. His extensive stance and vast shoulders make him a perfect figure of masculine power; as Isabelle Paresys writes, “an ‘athletic’ shoulder breadth was a visual marker of manhood” (p.64). Edward VI became king at only 9 years old after his father's death; this no doubt explains why he is dressed at nine like his father was at 55. His sleeves are puffed out, a clear symbol of status. Such sleeves were reserved for high-ranking officials (Hayward, 2009, p.124); they are slashed, and his chemise is pulled through them to create small puffs. The slashing and puffs add volume while accentuating the luxurious silver brocades on his doublet. Edward also wears an ermine fur-bordered crimson velvet gown that reaches mid-calf, with hanging sleeves that finish almost at level with the gown's hem. His doublet is closed with horizontal clasps and buttons that mimic those of his father's in his portrait by Holbein. Edward holds a dagger sheath and tassel and wears the first knitted silk stockings worn in England, given to him by Sir Thomas Gresham, who brought them back from Spain (Davenport, 1948, p.456). On his head, he wears a black court flat cap with feathers, and most importantly, he wears the collar of the Order of the Garter around his neck, the most prestigious symbol of sovereign rule. In this painting, young King Edward VI's appearance mirrors the physical ideals of power and dominance at the time. The broad-shouldered look, as well as his overall stance, signify strength and authority.
His natural form is exaggerated through “bombast”, a form of padding used to distend garments using horsehair, flock, wool, rags, flax, bran and cotton (Cumming, 2022, p.34). This amplification embodies sprezzatura by making him appear simultaneously commanding and natural.
Edward VI's doublet construction and inflated silhouette show how clothing could transform a boy into a visual representation of sovereign masculinity. This manipulation of silhouette parallels Robert Dudley's portrayal, where the peascod belly is used as a symbol of virility and sexuality.
The peascod belly as a marker of machismo.
The Dutch peascod belly was briefly in fashion between 1575 and 1590 and heavily ridiculed at the time. Susan J. Vincent quotes Philip Stubbes in The Anatomy of Fashion Dressing the Body from the Renaissance to Today: “For my parte, handsomnes in them, I see none”. As its name suggests, the peascod belly was inspired by peapods and was linked to male genitalia (Edwards, 2020, p.17). This look was achieved through bombast in the centre front of the doublet, which overhung the girdle. This extreme padding suggested notions of virility and sexuality. In his portrait, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, shows off his high-necked jerkin with wings on the shoulders; this effect was achieved by sewing stiff welt seams around the armholes, as jerkins were sleeveless, to conceal the fastening of the sleeves to the doublet below. These wings served a dual purpose, concealing the fastenings of the doublet sleeves while drawing attention to the luxurious fabrics beneath. His high collar is stiffened with small stiffened tabs called pickadils, which spread out at different angles (Sichel, 1977, p.37). Robert's choice of collar was commented on by Thomas Middleton in The Ant and the Nightingale; he writes, “The collar... rose up so high and sharp as if it would have cut his throat by daylight” (Morse, 1934, p.33). His jerkin is crimson and pinked, with intricate gold lining and detailing. His peascod belly sits comfortably above his girdle and seems to be pointing towards his perineum. As a prominent courtier and trusted confidant of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley was expected to embody an idealised image of chivalric masculinity and courtly appeal. His hand ruffs echo the one at his neck, and his short hip-length skirt is of the same satin as his jacket. Around his neck hangs the collar of the Order of the Garter.
The peascod belly, though ridiculed by many, was a visual assertion of strength and virility, connecting Dudley with an ideal of innate masculine elegance that was, paradoxically, labour-intensive and artificial.
The exaggerated masculinity conveyed through Robert Dudley's peascod belly finds a parallel in Boy with a Greyhound, where Veronese employs the codpiece and trunk hose to present a youthful ideal of male virility and aristocratic refinement.
Youthful masculinity through the codpiece and trunk hose.
Paolo Veronese's Boy with a Greyhound epitomises the Renaissance ideal of youthful masculinity. The young subject displays his status and virility through his gilded codpiece and costume. He is dressed in finely decorated trunk hose, padded and bombasted to create an exaggeratedly voluminous silhouette. In contrast to the previous portrait's sitters, the boy's lower body is highlighted here. His thighs and hips are amplified, as are the lower parts of his legs. As Vincent writes in The Anatomy of Fashion, “showing the legs in stockings and breeches is the corporeal shorthand for elite manliness” (p.98). The contrast between the daintiness of the limbs and the full, hip-enhancing breeches and trunk hose is evident and accentuates this idea of exaggerated features. At the centre of this composition lies the codpiece. The codpiece had evolved from its original function as a protective covering into a highly symbolic element of male attire. The codpiece, often padded and ornamented, accentuated the genital area and acted as a clear marker of masculinity and sexuality. In Veronese's work, the codpiece marks the transition from adolescence to manhood. Its presence complements the trunk hose, creating an overemphasised display of masculine confidence that is now as performative as it once was practical. The young boy's hose is made of luxurious satin with intricate gold embroidery; his greyhound symbolises nobility and agility, further reinforcing the Renaissance's glorification of youth and excellence. His doublet is of the same satin as his bottoms. Although he appears confidently nonchalant, standing at the threshold of a doorway and gently looking out onto a vast landscape, his garments' meticulous tailoring and padding underscore the labour behind his effortless grace.
Much like the ruffs, bombasted doublets and peascod bellies discussed earlier, the codpiece and trunk hose reflect the aspiration towards sprezzatura achieved through gruelling, highly artificial means. Veronese's painting captures this aspiration, presenting the boy as a symbol of burgeoning masculinity whose natural form is augmented by the exaggerations of his clothing.
16th-century male fashion, as immortalised in the portraits of Sir Philip Sidney, King Edward VI, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and Boy with a Greyhound, manipulated clothing to project ideals of masculinity. From the ruff framing Sidney's intellect to Edward VI's broad bombasted shoulders, Dudley's provocative peascod belly and the codpiece and trunk of Veronese's youth, these attire elements served as embellishments and were tools for constructing identity.
Through exaggeration, fashion transformed the male body into a display of authority, virility and refinement. Castiglione's sprezzatura, a performance of effortless elegance, was, in fact, an intensive study of perfection. These garments and the men who wore them embody a broader concept: our fascination with this notion of natural grace that is, in reality, unachievable.
Sir Philip Sidney, 1576, Unknown artist, oil on panel. National Portrait Gallery.
King Edward VI, c. 1547, Workshop associated with Master Johns, oil on panel. National Portrait Gallery.
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, c.1575, Unknown Anglo-Netherlandish artist, oil on panel. National Portrait Gallery.
Boy with a Greyhound, c.1570, Paolo Veronese, oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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