It does not further concern us how far these frequent changes,
and the adoption of French and Spanish ways, contributed to the
national passion for external display; but we find in them additional
evidence of the rapid movement of life in Italy in the decades before
and after the year 1500.
We may note in particular the efforts of the women to alter their
appearance by all the means which the toilette could afford. In no
country of Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire was so much
trouble taken to modify the face, the color of the skin and the growth
of the hair, as in Italy at this time. All tended to the formation of a
conventional type, at the cost of the most striking and transparent
deceptions. Leaving out of account costume in general, which in the
fourteenth century was in the highest degree varied in color and loaded
with ornament, and at a later period assumed a character of more
harmonious richness, we here limit ourselves more particularly to the
toilette in the narrower sense.
No sort of ornament was more in use than false hair, often made of
white or yellow silk.81 The law denounced and forbade it in vain, till
some preacher of repentance touched the worldly minds of the wearers.
Then was seen, in the middle of the public square, a lofty pyre
(talamo), on which, besides lutes, diceboxes, masks, magical charms,
song-books, and other vanities, lay masses of false hair, which the
purging fires soon turned into a heap of ashes.
Pages:
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424