{"id":15390,"date":"2024-10-08T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=15390"},"modified":"2024-09-25T20:16:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T19:16:07","slug":"working-on-aethelflaed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2024\/10\/08\/working-on-aethelflaed\/","title":{"rendered":"Working on Aethelflaed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/falconergirl_Watermarked-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"256\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/falconergirl_Watermarked-2-256x300.jpg\" alt=\"Marginal picture from a medieval manuscript, showing a man and woman on horseback, the woman with a falcon on her wrist\" class=\"wp-image-15373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/falconergirl_Watermarked-2-256x300.jpg 256w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/falconergirl_Watermarked-2-768x899.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/falconergirl_Watermarked-2.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You may recall that the planning and designing of Aethelflaed is proving quite a long winded process, with a lot of repetition and rethinking going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve been looking for medieval women on horseback, because I want Aethelflaed under her own steam, as it were &#8211; not lead on a palfrey, but mounted on her own horse, with the reins in her hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best I&#8217;ve found so far is this one, which I think was in the Holkham Picture Book Bible. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked-226x300.jpg\" alt=\"A painting in gouache of a medieval woman on horseback, very clumsily done, and based on the lady in the picture above.\" class=\"wp-image-15371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked-771x1024.jpg 771w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked-768x1020.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth1_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I started with the lady, and began some alterations. I want her horse to have some personality, so I&#8217;ve turned the head towards us, and lifted it a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve extended the skirts somewhat, and given the rider a veil that flies a little, held in place by a golden fillet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the high contrast suggests a silk or brocade, and I want something that suggests a sensible woollen riding dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I found some Viking and Anglo-Saxon reenactors and talked to them. And goodness, that gave me food for thought. In particular, yes, riding dress was indeed a garment that an Anglo Saxon woman like Aethelflaed might have worn. But Anglo-Saxon dressmaking was not at all like ours.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth2_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"260\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth2_Watermarked-260x300.jpg\" alt=\"Another gouache of a medieval woman on a horse. Still clumsy but a new iteration.\" class=\"wp-image-15377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth2_Watermarked-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth2_Watermarked-768x886.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Aeth2_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In particular, whereas we tend to have pattern pieces that start with the widest part, and remove fullness by means of darts, pleats, or gathers, Anglo-Saxon dressmaking started with the narrowest width and added fullness by means of gussets and gores. In fact, an Anglo Saxon riding dress would have a full circle&#8217;s worth of gores inserted into the side seams, resulting in something roughly like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But not quite. I&#8217;ve actually been to talk to my reenactor friends, and there are a few bits which don&#8217;t quite ring true. I have some photos to work from, so there is more to come&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may recall that the planning and designing of Aethelflaed is proving quite a long winded process, with a lot of repetition and rethinking going on. I&#8217;ve been looking for medieval women on horseback, because I want Aethelflaed under her own steam, as it were &#8211; not lead on a palfrey, but mounted on her&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2024\/10\/08\/working-on-aethelflaed\/\">Continue Reading Working on Aethelflaed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[295,24,272,284,249],"class_list":["post-15390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aethelflaed","tag-design-elements","tag-designing","tag-medieval-movers-and-shakers","tag-opus-anglicanum","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15390"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15397,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390\/revisions\/15397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}