Pride & Sensibility

Review - Agatha Christie, An English mystery

2012-01-31T14:05:00.004+01:00

Written by Laura Thompson, originally published 2007

My rating: 3/5

This is a problematic book. It has its good points, and some very negative. But let's start with the positive. The book is incredibly well researched, if there is anything you ever wanted to know you will find it here. You will find a whole lot of information you didn't even know you wanted to know. And Laura Thompson clearly loves her subject, she loves to write this book and it is very evident throughout it. No, throughout most of the book. She loves the subject and she loves the writer Christie and all this love and staunch belief in Christie can make an entertaining read.

But then there are some problems...

First of all this love for Christie makes Thompson a bit blind to the fact that not everyone that picks up this book will share her absolute devotion, considering Christie the best crime writer of the Golden era of English crime. It is of course quite alright to believe in your subject, but it can get a bit tedious with a long section stating Thompson’s opinions on why Christie is the greatest presented as unarguable fact.

Secondly, this is not a straightforward biography, you get all the facts, but a bit jumbled up as if you are supposed to have a grasp on the basic facts of Christie's life beforehand. For example, Christie’s first husband, Archie, is not much more than introduced before you are told that the marriage will end in shambles (which can get a bit boring for the reader, if nothing else). What Thompson want to tell her readers is instead the psychological biography of Christie. And that is a dangerous road to tread. Thompson seems incapable of consenting to that some things we just don't know, and we won't ever get the answer. The blurb on my copy talks about a unique access to letters, diaries and interviews with the family. This might be true, but it doesn't change the fact that most of the information come from Christie's books. Not her autobiography but her novels. Of course parts of it might very well reveal something about their creator, but it can't be used as facts, not even when semi-autobiographical. We just don't know what's true, and what is a pure fiction. Most of all Thompson turns to ‘Unfinished portrait’ and when there are facts and thoughts which collide with what we KNOW about Christie Thompson just pass them by without admitting the problem with using such a source when using the books for other parts of her life which we have very little, or no, other information about. Because we have to admit that there are quite frankly a lot about Christie's thoughts and inner life we don't know anything about. Not to mention that the novels are used in this way only when it suits this book's purpose. When a character says something less suitable it is labelled as a product of Christie's creativity.

Thirdly the main purpose of the book is without a doubt for the author to give her version of what she thinks happened when Christie disappeared for a week in 1926. I do not have a problem with that, it is an engrossing read. But there is a problem in this for the rest of the book. Everything that happened before this is analyzed with the knowledge of what was to happen then, and much afterwards is then analyzed as an effect of that one week and the media reaction afterwards, without taking into account that there are of course other things that must have influenced Christie and her actions. A person's actions in his or her life are generally not explainable with just one single cause. Another side-effect of this is that the later parts of her life are described in a way that is much less interesting, and since that is about fifty years of her life it is a bit of a problem.

Fourthly there are many instances in the book when what she writes is an answer to the book ‘Agatha Christie and the eleven missing days’ by Jared Cade, where Thompson mostly disagrees with the conclusions drawn. If you haven't read the book in question, and no I haven't, it is just pointless.

And finally Thompson has a clear concept of what she thinks, stating them as facts and not opinions, most prominent in her belief that Christie was too attached to her mother and the house where she grew up. I should say the evidences she puts forward are not hard enough to really sound convincing...

Neferiti

2012-01-07T16:21:00.000+01:00

The famous portrait bust of Nefertiti
ⓒRebecca Bugge

Name: Nefertiti (Nafteta)
Born: About 1370 B.C.
Died: About 1330 B.C.
Married to: Akhenaten
Children: Six daughters (at least)
Occupation: Chief consort of the pharaoh Akhenaten.

Nefertiti (or more correctly Nafteta) is one of the most famous faces of ancient Egypt - though the portraits of her that exist are hardly typical Egyptian portraits. She and her husband, pharaoh Akhenaten, were at the centre of a religious revolution with an upheaval of many Egyptian customs and traditions, and introducing a new art style (the Amarna style, named after the modern name of the new capital they made: Akhetaten) with contorted bodies and weird faces (having led to speculations on possible disfiguration of the pharaoh himself). Still the bust of Nefertiti is known for its beauty.

About the lady herself not all that much is known - her place of birth is not known, who her parents were is debated, when she died isn't exactly known, if she ruled a few years after the death of her husband is debated and where she is buried is not known. There are of course theories on all of these subjects. One theory of her parentage is that she was the daughter of Ay (who was later to become pharaoh after the death of Tutankhamen), supported by the fact she is mentioned as the sister of his other, known, daughter Mutbenret. His wife Tey was given the title of nurse of Nefertiti. But it has also been suggested that she is to be identified with the Mitanni princess Tadukhipa, daughter of the Mitanni king Tushratta. Tadukhipa was married to pharaoh Amenhotep III and after his death she married his successor Akhenaten (though the princess has also been identified with Akhenaten's other wife Kiya). Given the evidence at hand the Ay-theory seems to be a bit more well-founded.

It is not known when Nefertiti married Akhenaten, but the names of their six (known) daughters are known:
Meritaten (the wife of Smenkhkare, born about 1356 B.C.)
Meketaten (lived about 1349-1335 B.C.)
Ankhesenamun (the wife of Tutankhamen, lived about 1348-1322 B.C.)
Neferneferuaten Tasherit (about 1344 - before the ascension of Tutankhamen)
Neferneferure (about 1341 B.C. - probably before Meketaten)
Setepenre (about 1339 - before Meketaten and probably before Neferneferure)

After 14 years as a royal consort to the pharaoh Nefertiti disappears from all records. At one point the theory was that she had fallen from grace, based on destroyed portraits of Akhenaten's consort - but it has later been shown that these were portraits of his other wife Kiya - and the theory has been abandoned. It has also been suggested that she in fact did not die at this point, that she instead was elevated to the rank of co-regent and as the successor of Akhenaten ruled under the name of Neferneferuaten (who in case was of royal descent - but might have been a daughter of Akhenaten rather than his wife). A very common interpretation of her disappearance is that she simply died.

(All dates are very imprecise in this post, because we simply don't know the exact ones.1339)

Nefertiti (to the right) with Akhenaten and three of their daughters.
ⓒRebecca Bugge

The unknown with the books

2012-01-02T17:54:00.000+01:00

Date: Sometime around 1900
Photographer: Thyra Dahlman
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Målilla, Sweden

A photo from a time when everyone went to the photographer to have their picture taken and give them to friends and family. This particular photo comes from a family album, but it still does not mean that I know who the sitter is. It was obvious to the owners of that album, they never bothered with writing it down - and now it is a knowledge lost to the world - a far too common fate with old photos.

This is also a good example of what cabinet photos would look like outside the big cities, no advanced backdrop and the treatment of the photo is actually rather crude - the motif is blurred at the edges, but so much that even the face is somewhat blurred and the clearest part of the photo is the dress. The dress is absolutely a Sunday best - but I doubt that was the intention of the sitter. Even so it is an interesting piece, a legacy from a time when photography was one of the few decent professions open to women without loss of social standing a hundred years ago and more... (Unfortunately, I have been unable to track down any additional information on Thyra Dahlman, apart from her being active around 1900.)

The woman in the photo is, as I said, unknown, but a few clues about her as a person can be glinted from this shot. She is obviously not married - not even engaged. She is not wearing a ring. Her dress is perhaps a bit provincial but the fabric isn't coarse, the sewing is well thought through (look especially at the chest area and the pleating there) and the collar is laced. There is at least some money involved here. I am actually guessing she is a school teacher. That would mean she earned some money in her own right, and that would explain the books by her side. Props are not unheard of in older studio photography, but there is usually a point to them, a reason for them being there, and illustrating a woman standing all alone ought to indicate some form of interest in books - and the most common outcome for women interested in books, and with no husband, at this time was to become a teacher.

Classical hair - in 1805

2011-09-14T17:27:00.000+02:00

This is a marble bust of the Baltic-German poet and writer Elisa von der Recke (1754-1833) - made by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1805-1806. It is a great example of the classical ideas and ideals of the early 19th century. It was meant to look like something from the Roman empire; the whole portrait is made to look like something 1800 years older than it actually is. This includes both hair and dress. And though the dress might have worked back then, the hair is very much a statement of its own time.

The hair was kept long, very long, but cut short in front and curled to frame the face and leaving the ears bare. The hair was then parted in to three braids (one is on top of her head from front to back, which can't really be seen here, but you can see it here). The other two braids were wrapped around the head in a full circle - hence that it at first glance look like just one, but very broad, braid around the head. And the extra hair in the back was then shaped into two extra, wavy buns. It was really meant to look like something from the Antiquity - but even though Roman hairstyles could be quite intricate they would never look like this, making this something very typical of the early 19th century.

And it should also be remembered that this is not just the hair-do for some young girl playing around, the sitter was actually a famous, 50-years-old writer at the time of this portrait. This was meant to be original and elegant - and I think she succeeded in that.

Woman from Vetlanda

2011-08-26T15:47:00.000+02:00

Date: Late 19th century or early 20th century
Photographer: B. Bolling
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Vetlanda, Sweden
This a great example of the fashion at the turn of the 19th century - when the blouse was becoming a favourite piece of clothing for many women, more practical worn together with a skirt than a dress. And as can be seen here this did not necessarily mean that the blouse was not a fancy garment. This blouse is in all probability home-sewn, but elegantly so. Note the lace on the front of the blouse, the creases on the sleeves and of course the high collar - also with lace. This blouse is really a show-piece.

The brooch is a rather typical late 19th century piece, but the necklace is a bit more original - and it is hard to say if the design is crude or edgy and modern (for the time).

2011-07-22T15:51:00.000+02:00

Date: July 1850
Originally published in: Le Moniteur de la mode
Description: Two women outdoors - one in a walking-dress and one in a somewhat less formal day-dress.

The day dress is perhaps the most interesting piece here, with the pink skirt and the white blouse. The key question is if this is a one-piece dress sewn in two different fabrics, or if it is a skirt and a blouse. It really does look like two-piece thing, the material is obviously very different and dresses sewn in two separate fabrics are not a common thing (it is actually so rare that I have never seen any evidence for it). But there is a big problem with this - in the 1850's a blouse was not considered a fashionable garment for the upper classes, and these fashion plates were made for that specific audience. (And no, it isn't a jacket since a jacket couldn't be tucked in to the skirt as is the case here.) Still, the material of the blouse is obviously expensive, only for the well off. From this I think we can draw two conclusions: it's a garment meant to be worn at home as it is much less formal, and it was probably aimed at the somewhat younger clientele, being a bit more practical, probably somewhat less expensive than a whole dress and easier to wear. The woman in the picture is wearing a bonnet, but since it's outside and the black lace is obviously there to hide her face from the sun it only reveals that she doesn't want a tan and nothing about weather she is a married (older) woman or not. But she definitely comes across as younger than the other one, the woman in blue.

The other dress, the walking-dress is much more straight forward. It's the typical shape, size and model for a dress of that type at that time - with the usual accessories of bonnet and gloves (and dog). Though I am not sure light gloves are the ideal for picking cherries...

A 1900 tea-gown in the Victoria & Albert Museum

2011-07-03T18:54:00.001+02:00

This tea-gown, by the Parisian Rouff, dates to around 1900. The front panel was probably made in India, but to suit European tastes, and the lace is from Limerick, Ireland. According to the Victorian & Albert museum (where it can be seen) it is: woven silk damask embroidered with glass and metal beads, and metal thread, chain-stitch embroidered net.

Additional shots of the dress:

(Back)

The lace on the back of this dress is quite amazing - flowing like a cascading waterfall to the floor. Very beautiful but more meant for standing up than sitting down, one would assume. The same lace can then be seen at the sleeves and covering part of the skirt giving it a feeling of a fairy-tale princess dress.

Front:

Here the beading and embroidery can be seen very clearly - along with the dress silhouette so typical of the Edwardian era: a thing waist and the chest pushed out like on a hen (perhaps not the most flattering of models that fashion history has come up with).

All photos are (c) Rebecca Bugge.

Self promotion

2011-06-13T14:29:00.000+02:00

I know a lot of you who come to this blog do so because you're interested in fashion history. Good for you, since I'm that way too - I might add. This means that you might be interested in photos I have that relate to this subject and which can be found here!

It is a collection of two kinds of things, one part photos taken in museums of different clothes and accessories, and one part is vintage photos which shows more of the clothes than just the upper part (as can be quite common in portrait photography). I hope you can find something there to enjoy!

Women from 1850 (this time with riding habit)

2011-05-15T14:57:00.001+02:00

(Click on the picture for larger version.)

Date: 1850
Originally published in: Le Moniteur de la mode
Description: These two women actually manage to look rather natural in this scene - it is not a case of a morning dress and an evening dress sharing a bench in a garden (the arrangement of the models shown on these fashion plates does not always have much to do with logic), but two women dressed to be outdoors, in the daytime - which is exactly where they are.

The woman to the left, the one in the light blue dress, shows an ordinary dress - though with more trimmings than were always common even on fashion plates. She has the typical wide dress for the time around 1850, the slim waist and the sloping shoulders which were an ideal back then. The sleeves are long and indicate that this is a dress meant to be worn in the day time, or less formally (if you had the money you were expected to change for dinner - and if you could afford this dress, you had that kind of money! But as I have pointed out before, these prints were inspiration for people with less means too, they just did not make them quite as fancy but a liking for fashion among not just the richest is not a phenomenon new to our time).

The dress, or skirt and jacket to be more precise, to the right shares the same silhouette on the upper part of the woman's body, but the skirt is not as wide. This is a riding habit and meant to be at least a little bit practical (in reality it still meant that women couldn't sit in a normal saddle on a horse but had to have a ladies version where they could have both legs on the same side of the horse's back). A riding habit was of course really a garment only meant for the rich and idle who could keep riding horses - horses were common back in the good old days, but that does not mean everyone kept one, least of all for riding - which could explain the light, rather impractical colour of the skirt which ought to require washing up after just one outing, suggesting a lot of servants who could take care of that. More often riding habits were made of darker materials which could take at least some dirt.

The woman in a coat

2011-04-28T21:59:00.000+02:00

Date: Late 19th century or early 20th century
Photographer: Thyra Jensen
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Målilla, Sweden
Against a painted backdrop with birches and a stream this unknown Swedish woman shows off her quite elegant coat and walking stick. I have a quite extensive collection of vintage photos, but I do not have all that many showing women in coats - generally they prefer to show off their dresses (but for an example of a coat-dressed lady, see this photo - though admittedly that is a lady with quite a different... flair). Why this woman chose this outfit, and to pose with her walking stick will remain a mystery.

Whatever her reason, her clothes, attributes and general pose reminds you more of a portrait of a man from the turn of the last century than a woman. But a woman she is, most definitely.

Ester Blenda Nordström

2011-04-06T17:38:00.000+02:00

Name: Ester Blenda Nordström
Born: March 31 1891
Died: October 15 1948
Married to: René Malaise
Children: None
Occupation: Writer and journalist

Nordström was born in Stockholm and it was there her working career started. At first she was volunteering at the newspaper Stockholms Dagblad, and later she got a job at Svenska Dagbladet. There she wrote under the pen-name "Bansai" and worked there 1911-1917. It was while at SvD she did her first work as an undercover journalist (she was one of the first to do so in Sweden). She took work as a servant girl at a farm and published a series of articles with the title "En månad som tjänsteflicka på en bondgård i Södermanland" [translated the title would mean: A month as a servant girl on a farm in Södermanland] and it was later turned in to a book: "En piga bland pigor" (1914). The main focus of both articles and book was to report on the harsh living and working conditions for a group of people who had very little ability to protest or in any way improve their lives. The book was later turned into a film in 1924, directed by John W. Brunius (but the actual story only loosely follows the book).

While working at Svenska Dagbladet she also made her other big undercover project, travelling as a teacher in Lappland and meeting the Sami people - it ended with yet another book "Kåtornas folk" (1916) [The people of the kåta].

Having left SvD she also took up a career as a fiction writer, aiming at young girls and she published "En rackarunge" [A little rascal] in 1919. This book is famous for actually mainly dealing with a young heroine who does not just end up married but the girl's growing independence. But her main work still lay with the social journalism and in the beginning of the 1920's she travelled to the US as a third class passenger on a boat, worked as a waitress once arrived and then travelled across the country as a hitch-hiker. She wrote about her experiences in the book "Amerikanskt: som emigrant till Amerika" (1923) [American: as an immigrant in America].

In 1925 she married the entomologist René Malaise (1892-1978) and went with him to Kamchatka in the Soviet Union and she stayed there in a small village for five years. She wrote about it in the book "Byn i vulkanens skugga" (1930) [The village in the shadow of the volcano]. By the time she returned to Sweden her marriage was over - they divorced in 1929.

She died in Stockholm in 1948, 57 years old.

Evening dress and walking dress from 1846

2011-03-18T19:23:00.001+01:00

Date: 1846
Originally published in: Unknown
Description: Two women in what is supposed to come off as natural poses where they are to show off the latest fashion.The naturalness of the picture is somewhat hampered by the woman to the right wearing a walking dress, and the woman to the left an evening dress - a combination that would rarely have been seen in reality. Especially not since it is hinted (with the bench one of the women is sitting on) to be outside.

The sitting woman in the walking dress is wearing a light blue dress (probably painted darker in original - the print has been somewhat bleached by the sun) with frills not just on the skirt but also on the sleeves, a detail that is not that common. She also has the usual attributes for a proper lady being out-doors: a bonnet on her head, gloves on her hands and a shawl behind her. The shawl is supposed to be worn over the shoulders, instead of a coat, which was quite popular at the time.

The other woman, the one who is standing up, has a dress a lot in common with the other woman's - in spite of this being an evening dress. The silhouette is the same, with sloping shoulders, V-shaped neck-line, the corset-created slim waist and a wide skirt (still not as wide as it would become some ten years later, but still wide enough to require a lot of undergarments). The thing that gives away that this really is an evening-dress are the short sleeves. A proper lady did not show her bare arms in the day-time. And if you spotted that, the lower neck-line hints at the same thing (even though it is far from as low as it could get). The fabric is very light, there are a lot of additional details to the dress, both to the bodice, sleeves and skirt, and is obviously made for showing off at social gatherings and dancing. And of course she is wearing gloves - because that is what you did at a dance.

Woman from Wimmerby

2011-03-05T15:31:00.001+01:00

Date: Sometime 1883-1888
Photographer: August Widén
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Vimmerby (or possibly Hultsfred), Sweden

Another shot from my collection of unknown persons from the past - from a family album. I don't know if she was a friend or a relative and no description was given on the photo. It was obviously clear to the owner and little thought was given to what would happen to it a hundred years or so later.

(Learn from this the good idea of always writing down who is on a photo, and perhaps also when it was taken - be it a photo on paper or on your computer, you will regret it otherwise, some day. End of lecture.)

The woman comes from somewhere in Småland, perhaps from Vimmerby (then spelled Wimmerby) or Hultsfred, where the photographer also had a studio. There is no date and her dress is rather indistinct fashion-wise, but the photography itself is revealing. On the back it says the photographer was awarded in 1883 (which of course means it can't be earlier than that) but I know from other sources later photos from the same man boasts of an award he won in 1888 - which makes it highly unlikely this would be taken after that.

The dress itself is not very fashionable, she is not wearing expensive clothes of the latest cut and her hair-do is quite simple. Her dress has a rather coarse fabric and the fitting is far from perfect - and at the same time it is likely this was her best dress, she has tried to add some finer details with the placing of the buttons and the arrangement with the collar. It is very likely she had seen pictures of the current fashion and then sewn this dress herself (and if she did not, someone in her family - in any case not anyone professional). She is in her Sunday best for this photo-shoot and she has even added some jewellery, both a brooch for the collar and a little horseshoe-shaped pin for her hair. All in all it would seem she was a member of the lower classes, probably one of those who worked the land without owning it, who were in abundance in the late 19th century Sweden - many of whom would leave this either for a life in the city or even take the big leap of faith and move to the US.

Compare this photo with this - it is from the same album, but of one of those women who left with hopes of a better life in a new place.

Women from 1850

2011-02-02T16:12:00.001+01:00

Date: October 1850
Originally published in: Le moniteur de la mode.
Description: These two dresses clearly point to the thin line between day-dresses and walking costumes, they are both very elegant with a lot of trimming and lace details. Even the day-dress, the light blue one, is made to look fashionable and expensive and not just to be a practical costume worn around the house when doing the daily chores. It looks just as formal as the walking dress, the green one, which was meant to be worn when going out and when you were seen by others. The difference of function can only be spotted in the details.

The light-blue day dress is accompanied by a small lace cap on the woman's head, signalling her married status and worn all the time. The woman in the green walking dress has the necessary attributes for going out in a more formal way, she has a bonnet on her head (worn by both married and unmarried women when outside) and a big shawl over the dress - the same colours indicating they were meant to be worn together as one ensemble, though you might question how often that was done in real life since most women did not own that many dresses and most likely did not have a matching shawl for each and everyone of them for when going out.

(If you look at the photo at the original resolution - click on it - you cannot only see the dresses in high detail but also the names of the places where to buy the different details of the dresses, for example the lace comes from Cambrai - formerly spelled Cambray.)

Immigrant woman

2011-01-28T22:47:00.002+01:00

Date: 1890's
Photographer: Cody - probably the photographer's last name
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Genoa, Nebraska, USA

At the end of the 19th century thousands of men, women and children left their homes in Europe in search for a new life in the US. Quite a few of them came from Sweden - some of them made it over there, some of them did not, and quite a few of them sent photos home to family and friends they had left behind. This is an example of that. It comes from a family photo-album, which once belonged to my great-grandfather who had relatives who went over and sent photos home to him and his family. But the name of the woman in the photo is lost.

This photo is quite typical of the ones people took to show how well they did in their new world. It is much bigger than your typical CDV (the usual format for portrait photos from this time), over twice the size actually, and the woman shown in full figure is wearing a very elegant dress - especially if you keep in mind that she came from rather humble surroundings in her old homeland where a dress like this would have been reserved for higher classes than hers. Also the hair is made with great care. It is actually made with so much care that the poser chose to take her hat off and keep it on the chair next to her, and not on her head (which would have hidden her carefully arranged curls). And at the same time it is important to show the hat too - something she most likely would never had owned back home, women of the lower classes most often wore shawls and not hats.

Compare her with the woman on this photo from the same album - who is a typical example of what the women back home looked like, and how she herself would have been dressed had she stayed in her old country.

Sakuya Shiina

2011-01-21T18:20:00.001+01:00

Name: Sakuya Shiina ( 椎名サクヤ), Saku for short.
Appears in: Hoshi wa Utau (also known as Twinkle Stars, manga in 11 volumes)
Creator: Natsuki Takaya
Age: 18 years old

A character I love from one of the best mangas out there - and created by one of my favourite mangakas (manga creators) Natsuki Takaya, most known for Fruits Basket. The last chapter of the story was released in the magazine Hana to Yume in Japan on the 20th of January this year.

Saku lives in a small town in Japan, attending the last year of high school, working part-time, and has a small stargazing club at school with her two friends, Hijiri and Yuri. But life has not been easy for her, when her parents got divorced her mum had no interest in her and she stayed with her father and step-mother and became the victim of psychological abuse. She ends up living with her cousin Kanade, a rather lazy and unfriendly person who doesn't care for much - but that arrangement actually works. In school she is rather average and often get picked on. Her greatest interest is watching the stars, which gives her comfort and strength to carry on.

Things take a strange turn for her when she meets Chihiro Aoi, a young man who suddenly appears in her life - actually at her very informal birthday party when she turns 18. She thought he was a friend of Kanade and Kanade had invited him thinking Chihiro was Saku's boyfriend. He is, of course, neither. The second time Saku meets Chihiro they talk about stars - and the whole conversation ends with Chihiro shouting at her that he hates her. And then they end up in the same class in school.

Chihiro doesn't have much to recommend him, but still Saku falls for him. She can see that he is a troubled person, and she tries to show him how you can find happiness in this world all the same. She tries to teach him about the singing stars. He is a very slow learner, but Saku has patience, and even when she learns about him having a girl-friend from before, Sakura, who tried to commit suicide and ended up in a coma, she can't give up on her feelings. She knows that it will make her unhappy, that she can never compete with the duty Chihiro feels for Sakura.

How it all ended? You can find the answer here! (I don't want to have too much spoilers on this blog - but I have no such scruples on my other.)

Roman hair-do, ca 350 A.D.

2011-01-10T20:27:00.001+01:00

Date: About 350 A.D.
Place: The Roman Empire
Exhibited at: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Photo: Mine
Description: This is a late Roman piece (late as in "everything of importance to the Roman empire happened in the first 150 years after the year 1 A.D.", not as in that the western Roman empire wouldn't survive for another hundred years) and it shows a hair-do quite as complicated as they could be earlier. Romans might not have heard of hair-spray or -gel, but they still managed to create some amazing coiffures - and some where you wonder how anyone could have worn it. This hair-do is rather easy to understand - the sculpture offering a clear view of it (though it does not reveal if she had hair extensions - which we know were sometimes used).

With or without the help of extra hair, the hair was gathered into two long braids which was curled around the head to form something not totally unlike a basket (though a crown might be a more suitable term, if you want to sound fancy). This meant that the top of the head (not seen here) was left exposed, but framed by braids, and the face, in turn, was framed by a curly fringe, going from ear to ear and leaving just a couple of slightly bigger curls at each ear. It is obviously a hair-do for the very rich - and only the very rich would have afforded to immortalize themselves in a piece of stone like this - but at the same time it might very well have been a hair-do that would survive day-to-day business quite well.

Fashion from 1845

2011-01-05T01:03:00.001+01:00

Date: 1845
Source: Unknown
Description: The colours of this plate have rather washed out, probably by too much sun but you can still trace a light green in the dress on the woman to the left and a light blue on the woman to the right. The colours were probably darker to begin with - and the dresses at this time were often in shades darker than these.

The dress to the left is a common day dress, worn in the daily life of most women at the time - complete with the bonnet of the married woman (or elderly women who were unmarried, but considered themselves off the marriage market). The woman to the right is wearing a walking dress, a little bit more formal than the day dress, meant for wearing when venturing outside - for example when paying a visit to friends. The dress is completed with gloves and a bonnet and a shawl. Shawls could be worn instead of a coat, and were rather big garments, matching the big skirts.

Woman with a stiff collar

2011-01-01T14:59:00.003+01:00

Date: Before 1909
Photographer: Nanny Ekström
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Vetlanda (Hvetlanda, with old spelling) - or possibly Wirserum (Virserum), Sweden.

This photo is possibly late 1890's, but more likely from the first years of the 1900's. There is no date on it (nor a name), but the photographer had changed her design of her own name on the photos by 1909.

The most striking thing about this portrait is the collar the woman is wearing. It has a rather male flare to it, very high and rigid - probably very uncomfortable to wear with a lot of starch (and I really mean a lot - these pieces could be so solid they had an almost cardboard-y feeling to them) and not entirely practical. It was not something you used as a woman if you were to run your household, do cooking and cleaning and look after your children. This was the time of housekeepers - if you could afford it - but that did not mean the woman was supposed to just sit back in a chair and not do anything, just that the odds of having to get your hands dirty was much lessened. This woman is not dressed for that - her attire has a formal feel to it which makes me guess (though, for obvious reasons, without knowing) that she either worked as a teacher or in an office of some kind. This is after all the time when women (unmarried women) were able to get out and get a job in a way that had never been possible before, without degrading herself in the eyes of society.

I unfortunately know precious little about the photographer herself - not much more beyond the fact that she was active in the late 19th century and early 20th, in a town in Småland, Sweden. She was obviously successful in her work because she could open a second shop in another, smaller, town. And she was herself a part of this new society where women had more possibilities of earning their own living - being a photographer was something that was considered possible for 'proper' women to do.

Fashion of the week - Daydresses, 1838

2010-02-18T15:17:00.005+01:00

This fashion plate appeared in the French magazine La mode in 1838 - founded in 1829 by Henri de Giardin (and not to be confused with all the other magazines named "La mode this" or "that". The setting is outside - but it is in this case a thin line between what would be called a day dress and what to label as a walking dress. It is also worth remembering that even though an ideal woman would have had both (and several of them too), in reality this seldom happened. A dress had to function as both, with another for Sunday church services. It is also worth noting this did not just apply to really poor people, clothes were expensive and rarely mass-produced at this time which kept prices high.

These dresses are very typical of the 1830's - the early Victorian silhouette with a really thin waist (of course achieved by a corset), a wide skirt and equally wide sleeves (though later on in the century they would get even wider), giving a plump hour-glass-figure to the wearer. This was even more evident in fashion plates than in reality with the shoulders being drawn as extremely slanting making the women look like fragile dolls.

The fabric of these dresses were in all probability cotton, which was easy to use and not too expensive - dyed in light, blue colours. The dresses in the 1830's were generally of some light colour, sometimes with a print - then often stripes or flowers. And then there was lace. Lace was really popular, but a luxury just for those who really had some money.

The accessories are the usual for a portrait like this: bonnets (because every lady had to have something to put on their head if they ventured outside - and bonnets were much more common than hats at this time), gloves and a parasol. You can also note some really pointy shoes, which seems to work the same way those impossibly thin waists did in these fashion prints - they were very popular to draw, but in reality it never did look that extreme.

Saint of the week - Monica of Carthage

2010-02-14T23:07:00.005+01:00

Name: Monica
Born: About 331, in Tagaste (now in Algeria)
Died: 387 in Ostia (Italy) - the exact date is not known
Patron of: Long-suffering wives and mothers, lapsed Catholics, and alcoholics.
Feast day: August 27

This is the saint most known as a mother, being the mother of the famous bishop and theologian Augustine of Hippo. In many ways she lived a typical life of the a woman of the Roman empire, even though she was born and bred, and spent most of her life, in Northern Africa. She was of Berber descent and raised a Christian - which still did not stop her parents from marrying her off to a pagan, Patricius, who held an official position in Tagaste as curialis. The couple had four children, Augustine being the eldest, and Monica's married life was far from simple - worrying about her son who cared for more worldly things than the state of his soul, having to deal with a mother-in-law who cared little for Monica, and a husband prone to drinking, adultery and violence. But Monica was a good Christian girl, she did not put up a fight but remained sweet and gentle and in time overcame the opposition of her mother-in-law and even turned her husband into a good Christian.

She had more trouble with Augustine. He wanted an academic career, he cared little for Christianity, and liked his wine and his women. When he was 29 he got an academic post in Rome - but Monica did not want him to go, fearing for what it might do to him. He sneaked away, anyway, and all she could do was to follow him. Which was exactly what she did. She followed him to Rome and then to Milan where she met his mentor Ambrose, a Christian bishop, who in the end was the one to baptise Augustine and give some peace to his mother. A few months after this Monica left her son, returning home - but she only made it to Ostia, the port town of Rome, where she died peacefully.

Woman of the week - Aethelflaed

2010-02-12T13:53:00.004+01:00

Name: Aethelflaed (alternative spellings: Ethelfleda, Aelfled)
Born: Early 870's (?)
Died: 918
Married to: Aethelred
Children: Aelfwynn
Occupation: Ruler of Mercia

Aethelflaed was born as the eldest daughter of king Alfred the Great of Wessex. Her mother was Ealhswith, and she had four siblings. She comes into history with the biography over her father, written by Asser, a text from about 890 - and at that time she had already married Aethelred, ealdorman (earl) of Mercia. He was not a de facto king, nor was she a queen, because there was a line of Mercian kings who held the right to the throne - but in anything but the name Aethelred did rule as if he had been one himself.

The couple had just one child, Aelfwynn, born shortly after the marriage. According to one biographer, William of Malmesbury, the birth was so complicated that Aethelflaed then chose to remain celibate. It is, of course, impossible to know if this is actually true, but there was no more children in any case.

At this time the land was having much problem with Danish Vikings, and a lot of effort went into defending land, people and property against these attacks. This was something Aethelflaed put much of her heart into, not leaving it all to her husband - she would be the ruler of Mercia after his death in 911, but she had in fact been taking care of things (in his name) before this. It is not known from what he died, exactly, but he was severely indisposed some time before his actual dying and it was Aethelflaed, his wife, who had to take care of all matters. This she did very well, and she worked together with her brother, Edward the Elder, king of the West Saxons, in doing so. After her husband's death she was given the title "Lady of the Mercians". She ruled until her death in 918 in Tamworth. She was buried in what is now St Oswald's priory in Gloucester - back then it was St Peter's church.

On a sidenote - her daughter, and only child, who was about 20 at the death of her mother, became the ruler after her mother. But she was soon overturned by her uncle Edward, and taken away from Mercia to Wessex three weeks before Christmas - according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. It is likely she was sent to a convent after this to be a nun, but no more is known about her, not even when she died - she just faded out of history when she had left the political stage.

No portrait of this lady has survived.

Pop-culture woman of the week: Leda

2009-07-26T19:29:00.004+02:00

Name: Leda (Λήδα)
First appearance: Greek mythology
Creator: Some Greek
Weapon/ability: Child-bearing
Race: Aetolian (Greek)
Age: Lived a normal lifespan

Leda was probably the daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius (Θέστιος) – as usual the Greek mythology is not completely clear on who is related to who, and how. Thestius was (probably, of course) a son of the god Ares and the human woman Epicaste (Ἐπικάστη), thus making Leda herself partly divine. Her mother was Eurythemis. She was the sister of Iphicles, one of the Argonauts – a band of heroes who accompanied Jason on his hunt for the golden fleece, Althaea, Eurypylus, Evippus, Hypermnestra, and Plexippus.

Leda was married to the Spartan king Tyndareus (Τυνδαρεύς – or sometimes Tyndareos Τυνδάρεως), but it was not that which was to make her famous. Instead it was the illicit meeting she had with a bird. The god Zeus got infatuated with the Spartan queen, and to satisfy his lust he turned himself into a swan and then seduced, or raped, her. The same night she slept with her husband – and the result was four children.

A common idea is that the queen laid two eggs, as a memory of the encounter. Who was in which egg differs between different sources, but it is generally believed that Helena and both or one of the twin-brothers Castor and Pollux were the children of Zeus. If it was just one of the brothers, it is generally believed to be Pollux who was the partly divine one. And in some earlier stories it seems like both brothers were mortal. On the other hand it has never been any debate on the second daughter, Clytemnestra, being mortal and the daughter of the Spartan king.

But Leda also had three other daughters by her husband, Thestius: Philonoe, Phoebe, and Timandra.

What happened to the Spartan queen later in life, the myths are less helpful with. But there are plenty of stories around her children, from the Iliad and such onwards.

Leda and the swan has been a motif in art, since ancient times – continuing into our own. The mosaic here can be found in the British Museum, it is Roman and dates to the later part of the second century A.D.

Photo of the week - Olga

2009-06-16T16:58:00.004+02:00

Date: 1900's
Photographer: B. Bolling
Sitter: Olga
Provenience: Vetlanda (Hvetlanda, with old spelling), Sweden.

This is a photo from the time when everybody went to the photographer, when everybody was handing out their photos to friends and family - and now you can find these pictures in the old photo-albums, not knowing anything about the person there. If you are lucky you have a name, something written down by somebody who knew who the sitter was. In this case all which is known of her is her first name: Olga - written on the front of the photo.

But more can be deducted if the photo is closely studied. The photo-studio was situated in a rural area of Sweden, and this is very likely a rural girl. Her dress is up to date, it has obviously meant quite a bit of work - and she is just as obviously not from the upper classes of the world. Her chequered blouse (you can see a hint of a dark skirt too, so it is certainly not a dress) is trimmed with lace, which makes it unlikely she was poor, but the fabric is a bit stiff and so is the lace. She is obviously dressed in fine clothes (you did that when you went to the photographer back then), but it is not the clothes of someone who could afford to buy whatever they liked - this is a time when flimsy materials were quite in vogue.

The only jewellery Olga is wearing is a brooch at the collar, it is small and rather simple - far from the daring, flowing styles of the art nouveau which were popular at this time. Her hair-do is just as simple, her hair is just pinned up in a homely fashion - still it is quite modern for the time, and looks quite beautiful that way.

After all, beauty is not just a matter of money.

Fashion of the week - Ladies dressed for a visit, 1874

2009-06-13T18:03:00.010+02:00

This picture was published in the French Journal des Demoiselles in 1874.

For once this fashion print does not show an odd mix of dresses for different occasions, but rather chooses to show different models of the same type of the dress - that is the dress for visits. This kind of dress was meant to be worn when leaving the house in the daytime to go and visit others, or doing other stuff in the daytime which meant you wanted to look your best

Of course this was not a luxury afforded by everyone, most women did not have a spare change of clothes for when they were going to call on others, but the fashion magazines did not have that kind of woman as their main audience either. For them the important reader was the well-to-do woman (often the kind with a well-to-do father or husband), and they could very well be persuaded they needed something like this.

The difference between these dresses and normal day-wear is, of course, that these are more fashionable, more over the top. There are trains, ruffles and mixes of different fabrics - light and dark and chequered and plain. Even the girl, wearing similar clothes (but with a shorter skirt, since she, after all, is not grown up), has different fabrics in her dress. At the same time you would not mistake these dresses for evening-wear. The colours are too sombre, the cut too modest for that - and you would not have had long sleeves. This was for showing off - in the daytime, which could be just as important, even though it might be more common with smaller gatherings then, than later at night. After all, a lady should always look her best.

Religious woman of the week - Catherine of Alexandria

2009-05-04T17:31:00.002+02:00

Name: Catherine of Alexandria
Function: Saint
Sphere of influence: Philosophers, students, preachers, libraries, and a lot of other things
Place of origin: Alexandria, Egypt

The actual existence of the person Catherine of Alexandria is debated. There does not exist any hagiography dated to any time near when she was supposed to have lived (late 3rd century-early 4th century), all mentions of her and her legend are from several centuries later. It has been suggested that she was created as a counterpart to the pagan Hypatia, also from Alexandria, and also a highly intelligent woman who debated with scholars and learned men, and who also suffered a gruesome death – but whose existence is not questioned.

According to legend Catherine was a good Christian girl, who was greatly upset with the Roman emperor Maxentius and his persecutions of Christians. To prove that she was right and he was wrong she entered a debate on the greatness of the Christian faith with a whole group of wise, but pagan, men. Of course she converted each and every one of them – and the wife of Maxentius, the empress Valeria Maximilla. The emperor did not like that and put Catherine in prison, but she still continued to convert people there, people who came to visit her. Then it was ordered she was to be put to death with a wheel – but the wheel splintered, and in the end she was beheaded.

Her importance grew after her death. She was regarded as one of “fourteen holy helpers”, that is the fourteen saints who could give the most help from heaven. And according to one legend, an angel carried her body to mount Sinai, where the emperor Justinian built a church and a monastery in her honour. The monastery still exists. But because of the nature of her legend, and the questionability of its reliability, the Catholic church chose in 1969 to remove her fest from the list of feasts to be universally celebrated by the church – but she remained an officially recognized Catholic saint (just as she is a saint in the eastern orthodox church). In 2002 her feast was kind of restored, the church saying it was “optional” to celebrate it. The feast day is 25 November, except in Russia where it is on the 24th.

Catherine’s attribute is first and foremost the wheel, preferably broken, which she is often to be recognized by. But other attributes are books, a bridal veil and ring, or a crown at her feet. The painting at the top of this post is made by Raphael, from about 1507, and is one of the many famous paintings of the saint.

Woman of the week - Fanny Elssler

2009-04-30T17:38:00.003+02:00

Name: Franziska, Fanny, Elssler (also spelled Elßler)
Born: 23 June 1810, Gumendorf outside Vienna, Austria
Died: 27 November 1884, Vienna, Austria
Married to: None.
Children: Franz (died in 1873)
Therese (1833-1870)
Occupation: Dancer

Fanny Elssler was one of the most famous ballerinas of the 19th century. She was the daughter of Johann Florian Elssler, who worked as copyist for the Kapellmeister Joseph Haydn. He was to eventually become a valet to the famous composer (and was present at his death). Fanny was trained in ballet from an early age and made her début before the age of seven. She was often performing with her two years older sister Therese (1808-1878). The older sister was to be overshadowed by the success of Fanny, but they continued to perform together – Therese finally leaving the stage when she had gathered quite a fortune and could look forward to a comfortable life, though in the end she chose to marry, at the age of 42 she became the wife of Adalbert Prinz von Preussen, the youngest brother of king Friedrich Wilhelm III.

The beginning of the great success for Fanny Elssler came at her performance in Berlin 1830 – with her sister. This was to mark the beginning of international travels and performances in Europe and the US. One of her most famous performances was doing the La Cachucha in the role of Florinda in the ballet Le diable boiteu, written by Jean Coralli and Casimir Gide. This was even to be captured on prints of the time, and even in porcelain. She was to stay on stage and perform until she retired, as her sister, having earned a fortune which could make it possible for her to have a comfortable life henceforth. She lived outside of Hamburg. But she died in Vienna, and was buried there at the Hietzing cemetery.

Her personal life was not quite as straightforward as her career. In 1827 she met Leopold of Naples-Sicily, prince of Salerno, and son of Ferdinand IV, king of Naples. With Leopold she had the son Franz, who was to commit suicide in 1873. In 1829 she met Friedrich von Gentz (1764-1832), a writer and politician who had to withdraw from public affairs in 1830 and lived the reminder of his life on his castle at Weinhaus, and Fanny stayed with him there – when she was not out performing. After the death of Gentz she was to get reacquainted with an old friend from her youth, Anton Stuhlmüller, with whom she in 1833 had the daughter Therese. Therese was later to marry into the prestigious noble family of Webenau, but she died in 1870.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Chun-Li

2009-04-24T21:39:00.004+02:00

Name: Chun-Li (チュンリー Chun-Rī, from the Chinese 春麗 Chūn-Lì)
First appearance: Street Fighter II (1991), from Capcom.
Creator: Akira "Akuman" Yasuda
Weapon/ability: Chuan Fa-fighting technique, her most famous attack is Hyakuretsu kyaku (百裂脚 Hundred Rending Kicks), commonly known as Lightning Kick.
Race: Chinese
Age: Born on March 1, 1968

Chun-Li was the first woman to appear in a one on one-fighting game as a playable character, when she entered the stage in Street Fighter II in 1991. She has since then appeared in every game in the series, as a playable character - but along the way had had the company of other women too (like Sakura, Rose and Cammy). She is sometimes referred to as "First Lady of Fighting Games".

Chun-Li's name means "spring beauty", with chun meaning spring and li beauty. She has no known last name.

In the game she is introduced as an Interpol-agent, working undercover, and searching for the one responsible for the murder of her father. It is revealed to her it is the crime-syndicate Shadaloo, run by the evil man M. Bison. But in this first game Bison gets away, and she swears vengeance. This continues in the following games.

In the games Chun-Li has two different outfits (and a third is added in Street Fighter IV, from 2008). The first one, the one seen in this picture, is a version of the qipao, also known as cheongsam, a Chinese dress from Manchuria - but open at the side to allow freer movement when fighting. In the second game she appeared, in this was changed to a blue body-suit and a small vest on top of it - though the qipao was later added as an alternative dress. In the Street Fighter IV game there is another dress available for Chun-Li to wear, available in a wide range of colours.

Chun-Li's hair-buns are known as "ox horns", a Chinese hair-do for children, and silk brocade and ribbons in her hair - this is to signify mourning for her dead father. Another feature in her appearance is her spiked bracelets.

Photo of the week - Ada Wennlund

2009-04-16T17:34:00.004+02:00

Date: Around 1900
Photographer: Anna Nordlöw-Björk
Sitter: Ada Wennlund
Provenience: Gävle, (Gefle with old spelling), Sweden

Ada was born in 1881 in Stockholm, the older sister of Ragnhild Wennlund - who is my maternal grand-mother's mother. She was in the family referred to as "Little Ada", to keep her apart from her cousin Ada von Böös. She was later to marry the brother of Ragnhild's husband and take on the surname of Ringholm.

It is not the best of scans, but the photograph in itself is quite nice and interesting - rather solemn in the depicting of the young woman. Her clothes are simple, but simple in cut only, there is no reason to suspect it was cheap in any way at all, she was a girl from a well off middle class home. The sleeves of the blouse are extremely narrow and contrast to the big ruffled collar. The collar seems to have been made of some kind of very sheer fabric, but probably not lace on the collar itself. On the other hand there is some lace hinted at the neck. It is also possible there are some kind of lace trimming at the end of the sleeves, hard to tell for sure, but there is something there. The skirt has nothing extra added, and seems to have had the same colour as the blouse - at least it is the same kind of lightness to the two pieces. To this clothing are added the extra touches of both a necklace - a medallion - and a thick bracelet.

The hair is the most extravagant part of the picture. The hair has obviously been curled to make those rather hard, formal shapes on the top of her head. A few curls are left to soften the frame of the face, but the rest is pulled back and up, making it look like the hair is almost trying to defy the laws of gravity - and since this was long before the use of hair-spray that is quite an accomplishment.

Fashion of the week - Day dresses of 1840

2009-04-15T22:12:00.004+02:00

This picture comes from the Austrian magazine Wiener Zeitschrift, printed in Vienna. This is from the issue for July 1840, and shows two women in day dresses - but the white one could possibly be described as a walking-dress too. It can be somewhat of a fine line between the two types of dresses since many women at the time hardly would have offered to have a specific dress for walking - though a day dress in good shape would have to be preferred if no such distinction was to be made in the woman's wardrobe; the walking-dress was what would be worn when visiting people in the day-time.

As we see here, the big sleeves of the 1830's had by now disappeared into something much more practical - and in the daytime long sleeves were always worn. But the shape of the skirt is much the same as previous years, as are the sloping shoulders, which is quite a contrast to the broad and straight shoulders preferred on men.

The checkered fabric on the woman to the left is also typical for both the 1830's and 40's - the clothing industry had made patterned fabrics a much cheaper commodity than it had ever been before, and it became widely popular now that anyone, or at least close to anyone, actually could afford it.

Another typical trait of the fashion in this example worth pointing out, is the ruffle at the end of the skirt, a very popular thing at the time - on skirts which otherwise were very plain in cut. These ruffles seem to have a corresponding thing going on at the top of the dresses too, over the bust - being straight out ruffles in one case and more of a folded fabric in the other - making it one of the more eye-catching part of the dresses. I doubt the aim was to make people stare at the busts of women, it is much more likely it was about making the upper part of the torso wider, which made the lower, corseted, part seem even smaller. A narrow-looking waist was about the most important thing on the silhouette of women at the time.

On Pause

2009-03-11T13:36:00.001+01:00

My lovely blog will have to be paused for a little while now, but I am to return to it and you within a month, sometime before the middle of April.

Love to you all!

Goddess of the week - Nike

2009-03-06T15:35:00.003+01:00

Name: Nike
Sphere of influence: Victory
Location: Greece
Famous portraits: Nike from Samothrace (but other portraits exist).

Nike (in Greek Νίκη) is the personification of victory. She was the daughter of Pallas and Styx, and the sister of Cratos, Bia and Zelus (other personifications). She enters the stage of classical myths in the service of Zeus during the Titan wars. Her mother has brought her and her siblings there and Nike was his charioteer. After the victory of Zeus, she and her siblings were appointed as senteniels, standing next to the throne of Zeus. This is the only time Nike is active in any mythological stories, but she is sometimes depicted as the god's charioteer from time to time.

She is generally portrayed with wings - one of the few gods and goddesses in classical Greece to be so. She could be seen with several different attributes, all to do with her role as the personified victory. It is the vessels needed for a libation (the ritual pouring of liquids as offerings to higher powers), a wreath to crown a winner, a lyre for playing a victory song, and so on. The list can be made much longer.

She is sometimes seen as closely related to the goddess Athena, and sometimes the two goddesses are merged so that Nike turns out to be nothing more than an aspect of the more prominent goddess.

Nike from Samothrace, the headless statue which can be seen here, is a prime example of Hellenistic art - found on the island of Samothrace. The exact date of the statue is not known, the classical assumption is somewhere 220-190 B.C., but dates from 250 to 180 B.C. have been mentioned too. The statue is now on display at the Louvre, Paris, where it has been since 1884.

Woman of the week - Eustochium Calafato

2009-03-01T19:11:00.003+01:00

Name: Eustochium Calafato - born as Smeralda

Born: about 1434, Messina, Sicily

Died: 1468, Montevergine, Sicily

Married to: None

Occupation: Nun

Eustochium was born as Smeralda (Italian for emerald); some sources say she was born on Good Friday, but the truth of the matter the exact date is not known and it might be a fact added later to further underline the holiness of the woman. She was born as the daughter of Bernard, a wealthy merchant and his wife, the countess Matilda (Macalda) Romano Colonna of Calafato – a very pious woman. Over all the upbringing of the girl was very centered around the Christian faith and it made a great impression on the young girl.

When her father died, in 1346, she entered a convent of Poor Clare – Santa Maria di Basicò – having experienced visions of the crucified Christ. Some legends claim the nuns were reluctant to receive her, her brothers having threatened to burn the convent down would she join it. Either this is another apocryphal fact, or they just did not follow through, whatever the reason she did become a nun, now with the name under which she would become famous, Eustochium, and the convent was not burnt down.

Eustochium was a very pious woman, and she soon found the convent far too lax for her taste. This made her ask for permission to found a new convent, nearby, with a stricter rule. This was granted in 1457 – and the new convent followed the Franciscan rule. The convent moved to Montevirgine in 1463 and the following year she was elected abbess. By now her mother and sister had joined her convent. She was very pious woman, being very influenced by the life of Christ and among other things writing a treatise on the Passion (though that text is now lost). But her life was hard and she was not very strong in body. She passed away in 1468, around thirty-five years old. She was buried at Montevirgine.

A cult soon developed, and her uncorrupted body was described by the archbishop of Messina in 1690. The cult was formally approved in 1782 and she was canonized as a saint in 1988. Her feast day is nowadays January 20, but earlier it was February 16. Her body is still venerated too. Her name is sometimes given as Eustochia, but it is not entirely correct and should have the ending of -um.

Fashion of the week - Dresses of 1879

2009-02-23T18:42:00.003+01:00

This is an example of dresses from the year of 1879. The picture is from the French magazine La mode illustrée and shows two women and a girl. One of the women is dressed in an evening dress, which you can just see the back of, while the other woman is dressed in more common day-wear and the little girl is wearing a coat, complete with cap and muff.

This is yet another example of how these fashion plates combine dresses shown in a way which can hardly be seen as a good example of how it would have acted out in reality.

The dresses, on the other hand, is more typical of the time, with a very slim and slender figure, following the silhouette of the wearer closely. The evening dress is in a light yellow colour and adorned with both ribbons and lace - evenings were not a time when you saved your money, if you had any to begin with.

The day-wear is more sombre, in a darker blue shade, and it looks like it could be meant to be in velvet (though basing such an assumption on just a drawing can be dangerous). Then there are a fringe in the same colour on the skirt - also indicating this really is a dress for the upper classes.

The little girl is wearing clothes which mimic the adult's, but with a much shorter skirt - as was the habit of the time, the length of the skirt was determined by the wearer's age and did not reach a full length until the wearer was deemed to be an adult herself.

Little My

2009-02-21T22:21:00.006+01:00

Name: Little My (Swedish: Lilla My/ Finnish: Pikku Myy)
First appearance: The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950)
Creator: Tove Jansson
Weapon/ability: Aggressiveness
Race: Mymble
Age: Born in the first book but eventually becomes an independent character in her own right

Little My is one of the most popular characters from the stories about Moominpappa and his family and friends, written by Tove Jansson from 1945 and onwards - even though she does not appear until the fourth book. She has a really bad temper, get angry and aggressive at the drop of a hat, but is also a determined person who gets things done and doesn't put everything off to the last minute. She is also quite loyal.

She is born as a daughter of the Mymble, a word used in Jansson's circle of friend to mean 'love', and is the sister of Daughter of Mymble and Snufkin. She is later adopted by the Moomin-family.

In the first books she is very small, just as her name indicates, sometimes even carried in the pocket of her older brother. Her older sister tries to raise her, but it does not go very well, and the project is eventually abandoned. She comes to live with the Moomin-family, learning to like winter and not being cast down by circumstances.

Her name is derived from the Greek letter μ (mu - which in Swedish is transcribed as 'my')

Photo of the week - Eugenia von Boos

2009-02-20T13:19:00.003+01:00

Date: 1880's
Photographer: Selma Jacobsson
Sitter: Ada Eugenia von Böös
Provenience: Stockholm, Sweden

The teenage girl posing for this photo in Stockholm, Sweden is one of the the approximately 1.3 million Swedes who left their native country for the US. The main reason for emigration was to avoid poverty, and even though this girl never worked in a field on the brink of starvation, it was the financial situation which forced the girl and her mother to leave for a new home.

The girl was born as Ada Eugenia von Böös, circa 1870 (I don't have her birthdate, but when she died in May 1966 she was 93 years old), and over in the new country she was generally known as the countess Eugenia von Boos - she was of noble birth, the title was not just a scam to sound more interesting. She would later marry and add the name Farrar to her own, a name she kept after the divorce from her husband. She was a great singer, her singing was what kept her and her mother fed and dressed for several years, and at the turn of the last century she was a well-known opera-singer in New York, famous for her charity (primarily aimed at families of convicts) and on friendly terms with, among others, Buffalo Bill (a.k.a. William F. Cody). But her greatest claim to history was she was the first person to sing on a wireless radio-broadcast, in New York in 1907 - she sang 'I love you truly'.

The photo must, considering the sitters age and the place the photo is taken in, be from the 1880's and I would venture a guess to the middle of the decade. She is wearing a dress in a sturdy material, probably wool, but she wears some jewellery - rather simple in design, but this was not a time when it was very common at all, and it says something about her position in life. Her hair is cut very short, like a boy's hair-cut, which was very uncommon. A young girl at this time most often had long (preferably curled) hair hanging down on their back and bangs - and Ada only has the second part right. A common reason for cutting a girl's long hair off was if the girl was ill and in bed, when the hair really could get in the way - but it's impossible to tell if that is the case here.

Ada, to the family known as 'Great Ada' (to separate her from her cousin with the same first name, but who was born a few years later), was my maternal great-grandmother's first cousin. She was to live the rest of her life in the US and died in New York.

Portrait of the week - The stolen kiss

2009-02-14T18:10:00.006+01:00

Few things are better for Valentine's day than a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a French rococo painter who did a series of very sweet pictures - preferably of young men and women.

This painting is called 'The stolen kiss' and is painted sometime 1786-1788 and depicts a young woman who has sneaked away from her company (hinted behind the half closed door) to have a small encounter through a door. The girl's dress is typical of the time, both in cut and colouring.

It is a part of a series of paintings he did on the subject of kisses. The painting does not depict any named persons, but the face of the girl is very like that of Fragonard's daughter Rosalie (1769-1788) who was a favourite model of her father.

For a better look of the dress you can go here.

The painting can now be found at the State Hermitage Museum, Russia.

Hair-do of the week - Louise, vicomtesse d'Haussonville, 1845

2009-02-11T17:06:00.004+01:00

This is a detail from a painting portraying vicomtesse Othenin d'Haussonville, done in 1845 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. She was born as Louise, Princesse de Broglie in 1818 (and she died in 1882). When she was 18, in 1836, she married the vicomte - who was both a historian and a member of parliament. Louise herself was known for her liberal views and published several books - including a biography over Byron. This portrait of her was very popular among family and friends.

Due to the way she is painted it also gives a close to perfect view of how her hair is made, the back of her head being reflected by a mirror. The 1840's was the time of the soft impression when it came to the hair. It was parted in the middle and then shaped in soft curves around the upper part of the face, being very smooth and without curls. But as can be seen here, the hair at the back was not forgotten. The hair was long and braided. It is impossible to tell by looking alone the number of braids, but considering the thickness, two seem to be a likely number. The braids were then gathered and pinned up at the back of the head - and kept in place with a comb. As extra flair a red bow is then added to the side of the head, giving it the perfect finished touch.

Goddess of the week - Gaia

2009-02-10T20:01:00.003+01:00

Name: Gaia
Sphere of influence: Earth
Location: Greece
Famous portraits: A few - mosaics, vase paintings and reliefs

Gaia is the first goddess of the Greeks. She comes from the god Chaos, and she mothered a few children without having a father for them, all by herself (parthenogensis). One of these children was Uranus and with him she got even more children - despite her being able to pull it off herself at first, it would seem. This union brought about, among others, Cronos - the son who would eventually castrate his own father with a sickle his mother gave him. Uranus had done some evil things to their children and Gaia could not forgive him. The son cut his genitals off and Gaia got impregnated with the semen which fell to the earth.

All this according to Hesiod in his Theogony.

Gaia was very much a mother goddess, she was the personified Earth, and a nurturing life-giver. She had numerous children - so many it is hard to keep track of them all - with many different men (and as mentioned, some by herself too). These motherly attributes were also present in depictions of her - like this one.

Woman of the week - Helena Snakenborg

2009-02-07T14:41:00.003+01:00

Name: Helena (Elin) Snakenborg; Helena, Marchioness of Northampton

Born: c. 1549 in Sweden (probably in Fyllingarum, Ostrogothia/Östergötland, where the family had land and estate)

Died: 10 April 1635 at Redlynch, Somerset, England

Married to: 1. William Parr, 1st Marques of Northampton (married 1571)
2. Thomas Gorges (married 1576-1610)
Children: Elizabeth (1578-1659)
Francis (c. 1579- before 1600)
Frances (1580-1649)
Edward (c. 1582 - before 1653)
Theobald (1583-1647)
Bridget (1584-c 1634)
Robert (1588-1648)
Thomas (1589 - after 1624)

Occupation: Maid of honour

Helena was born in Sweden, daughter of Ulf Henriksson, a High Councilor of Sweden, and his wife Agneta Knutsdotter. At the baptism she was given the name Elin Ulfsdotter (i.e. daughter of Ulf). She was a member of the best circles of the country, being on friendly terms with the royal family. When the princess Cecilia Vasa left for England, Helena was one of the ladies to accompany her. She was then about 16 years old. When arrived in England she caught the eye of William Parr (the brother of Katherine Parr, the last queen of Henry VIII) and though he was much older, she encouraged him, and wrote letters home about his high rank and the beautiful gifts she received from him. The only problem was that the man was already married. Despite this, Helena stayed in England when Cecilia was forced to flee the country in 1566 - it was not just the matter of a rich suitor, she was also a favourite with the queen, Elizabeth I, who made her a maid of honour.

She was to remain a friend of the queen throughout Elizabeth's life, despite a couple of bumps on the way. Her first marriage, when William Parr finally was widowed in 1571, was not a bump, though. The couple married in May 1571 - but Helena was widowed in October the same year. The couple had no children and she returned to the queen's service. As Parr left no children and no heir to the title Helena got to keep her title of Marchioness for life. What was a bump, on the other hand, was Helena's second marriage, to Thomas Gorges, who was 'just' a gentleman. The couple married secretly in 1576 when the queen refused to giver her consent to the match. When Elizabeth found out she was furious, Helena was exiled from court - and her husband incarcerated in the Tower, in London. Eventually the couple was forgiven and could continue with their lives as before. Thomas was knighted in 1586.

Now Helena shared her time between her family, the couple had eight surviving children, and the court. She had her hand in the diplomatic connections with Sweden, due to her connections with the royal family. She and her husband were granted the estate of Sheen, close enough to the court for them to be able to both be at home with the family and serve the queen.

Elizabeth passed away in 1603 and Helena was the chief mourner at the funeral procession - a great honour indeed. After this, with a new king and queen, Helena was no longer one of the highest ranked maids of honours, but retired for the most part to the country, but both she and her husband served at court from time to time. Sir Thomas passed away in 1610 and after this Helena mostly kept away from the public eye. She died herself in 1635, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

It is not a hundred percent certain this portrait really is of Helena Snakenborg, but it is not unlikely - that some portrait of her should have been made is likely and the age of the girl is correct. The portrait also matches descriptions of her looks, being red-haired and brown-eyed, fair skinned and a general beauty.

Fashion of the week - Daydress, 1790

2009-01-31T14:32:00.003+01:00

This is a French drawing showing the fashion right after the onset of the French Revolution (began in 1789). The French Revolution was not an episode that can be understood as just one event, it was not just the storming of the Bastille, or the execution of the king and queen.

The fashion that you mostly connect to the French Revolution is the regency fashion with high waists, thin fabrics (though 'Regency fashion' in itself might be a dangerous title to adopt when talking about French fashion - it is an English term, tailored for English circumstances. In France the styles are referred to as directoire and empire). The fashion of 1790 had nothing to do with the fashion that was to come.

To put it a bit bluntly, the fashion was what it had been before the start of things. It was wide skirts and slim waists - requiring a corset. It was an overdress in one material, a robe - here in blue, and in the front it gave way so that you could see the skirts worn under. It would be wrong to say that you showed your petticoats, these skirts were meant to be seen and it was not just any old under-garment you had in your closet you put on.

The first thing that happened after the onset of the Revolution, fashion-wise, was a restriction in the already existing fashion, fabrics chosen were simpler, there was not as much ornaments to the dress - and quite frankly this dress is not a good example, being covered in quite a lot of lace. But bonnet, gloves and fan were still accessories very much needed and worn by any upper-class woman - even in France in 1790.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Celes Chere

2009-01-27T18:20:00.004+01:00

Name: Celes Chere (セリス・シェール Serisu Shēru)
First appearance: Final Fantasy VI (1994)
Creator: Tetsuya Nomura
Weapon/ability: Rune knight
Race: Human (but with Magitek infusion)
Age: 18 years old

Celes in one of the two main female characters of the video-game Final Fantasy VI (the other being Terra). She is a former general of the imperial army - the same army that the player has to fight in the game. But she is introduced into the game when she has been jailed for treason and is to be executed the next day. Locke, another of the main characters and a thief, rescues her and despite her background she turns out to be a valuable member of the party.

Despite her background, despite having been involved in the killing of innocent people while she was a general, she has a pure soul and really pulls her weight to save the world from destruction. But there are still moments when the rest of the party doubts her sincerity to the cause - it is hard to forget who she was. At the same time she has to battle with herself too, turning away from being a general with a clear purpose (but perhaps not always with a clear conscience), to a human being interacting with others, and with all the feelings that comes with that. Final Fantasy VI is not a game that centres around love, it is much more about friendship, but even so it won't be totally forgotten either.

Photo of the week - Ragnhild Wennlund, 1907

2009-01-25T15:16:00.002+01:00

Date: 1907
Photographer: Esther Eklöf
Sitter: Ragnhild Wennlund
Provenience: Gävle, Sweden

This is a photo in a set of wedding-photographs, dated to the year 1907. It is from the wedding of Ragnhild Wennlund, and after that she would take on the name of Ringholm. On the other photo, which shows her with her husband, she is sitting down so this one shows the dress much better.

Gävle is situated rather far up north in Sweden, but close to the capital of Stockholm, and if you are a member of the upper classes the influences from the latest fashion could be clearly seen on its inhabitants. This is the case here, this bride is dressed quite intricate and not even a good a close up of the dress can reveal all the details - but it is well worth a try anyway.

The upper part of the dress is hanging loose, like a blouse, around the female shape. It has a turtle-neck in a different material, and a T-shaped front with thick embroideries. The material from the turtle-neck comes again in the sleeves of the dress, sleeves that are widening up around the glove-dressed hands, and here are also some lace - real, expensive lace. Lace that also can be seen with the flowers she is holding in her hand. The upper part of the dress is also decorated with some fresh flowers - like fresh jewellery.

The skirt has a rather narrow cut, just to spread when it comes close to the floor and make a real train. The skirt is also decorated with embroidery, the same as can be seen on the upper part of the dress. And even the dress is ornated with flowers, or more exactly a sprig with leaves.

All this is framed by her long veil, going all the way from the head and down to the floor, thick and airy at the same time and with flowers keeping it in place on top the head. This is, by all accounts, an upper-class wedding, but the bride does not wear any jewellery.

The woman, by the way, is my maternal grand-mother's mother - and on this day she was 24 years old.

Goddess of the week - Nut

2009-01-23T22:29:00.003+01:00

Name: Nut
Sphere of influence: Sky
Location: Egypt
Famous portraits: Several

The goddess of the sky is often portrayed as a woman bent over the world - sometimes the earth, personified by the god Geb, and sometimes just as an arc of sky, like in this picture.

Nut was viewed as the mother of five of the main gods of Egyptian mythology: Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephthys and they were all known as "The children of Nut". She was also the goddess who made the sun disappear every night - she swallowed it, and every morning she gave birth to it - it had then travelled through her body.

Like all older Egyptian gods and goddesses the mythology concerning Nut gets a bit complicated fairly quickly. She is said to be the wife of both Geb and Re, alternatively the daughter of Re, or his mother, or a combination. She was also sometimes portraied as a cow, and when Re, as a representation of the sun travelled to get to the next day he is said to have ridden on her back.

Portrait of the week - The dream of the nun

2009-01-12T16:29:00.004+01:00

This historical painting is called The dream of the nun, painted by Karl Brulloff in 1831.

This highly idealized picture shows a young nun fast asleep and the mother superior checking in on her. She really ought to, because the girl is dream of a romantic love between her and some fair young man. Hardly suitable for a girl with a religious calling.

To distinguish what time it is that the picture is trying to convey is actually quite hard. The girl in the dream is wearing clothes and a hair-do that could suit the time the picture was done - but the man is less so. This is not the place do discuss male clothing, but let us just note that no man (perhaps except on the stage) would wear something like that man has put on.

But historical paintings were rally popular in the 19th century, and many times the artists knew very little about how things looked like in the era they portrayed and had to guess, imagine and use what they saw in their own time to make something that could pass for correct. After all, the buyers and viewers seldom knew more about it.

The painting is currently owned by the Russian museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Hair-do of the week - English women of 1869

2009-01-10T13:16:00.003+01:00

This picture is from the English magazine Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, and shows some models for both hats and hair in the year of 1869. It is from the May issue and thereby it can be determined that it is late spring-summer hats.

The difference between summer and winter is actually more in the colours than the models of the hats - since when have people bothered about practical fashion?

The difference between coiffures in the beginning of the 1860's and the later part of the same decade is actually quite great, though not many years differ. Earlier the hair had been very straight and tied back from the face in a rather severe fashion, any curls were at the back of the head, and in the day-time most of it was hidden by the bonnet. This was not the case any more.

The hair was still kept away from the face, but even there some waves in the hair was allowed, to give a softer look. Then the hair was gathered high up on the back of the head and long locks were hanging down there. It was definitely pinned up, as grown women were supposed to have it, but still more resembling how girls would wear their hair than it had in ages.

The hats and bonnets that came with these hair-dos were made to sit on top of these creations, without hiding them. Small hats and equally small bonnets were placed on the top of the head, sometimes even in front of the pinned up curls. This was more a symbol of head-wear than something that actually protect from the weather, which had been it's initial goal. But the head-wear had to be always present - pretty much without regard to the shape and size of the thing.

Woman of the week - Dame Ellen Terry

2009-01-07T11:28:00.007+01:00

Name: Dame Ellen Alice Terry

Born: February 27 1847, Coventry, England

Died: July 21 1928, Small Hythe, Kent, England

Married to: 1. George Frederic Watts (1864-1877)
2. Charles Kelly (1878-1883)
3. James Carew (1907-1909)
Children: Edith Craig (born 1869)
Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966)

Occupation: Actress

Terry came from an acting-family, born as the third of eleven children, and it was only natural that she did not go to school but instead went on the stage at the age of just 8. She played several roles, including Puck in A midsummer night's dream. She moved around quite a lot, already at this tender age, and worked in both London, Bristol and Bath. In 1864, right before she turned 17, she married the much older painter George Frederic Watts. Ten months after the marriage she was returned home - she always claimed their relationship was amiable, despite the separation, and his letters to her, later on, seems to prove this. The "interference" (as she puts it in her memoirs, written in 1908) was brought about by her parents and some others. She returned to the stage, after some persuasion, in 1867. She did not stay long, this time.

Terry had some years prior met the architect and designer Edward William Godwin, and would live with him in the country in Hertfordshire. They had eloped and at first the family would think that she had actually died, but she could put an end to all rumours by being very much alive. They had two, illegitimate, children - Edith and Edward Gordon and they were given the last name Craig. During the six years the relationship lasted she did not act at all - and would not return to the stage until their relationship ended, through economic difficulties and Godwin getting a new mistress.

With the return to the stage Terry would soon also begin a long partnership with the actor Henry Irving in his theatre-company at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in 1878. Her first role was Ophelia, and she would soon be known as the leading Shakespeare actress of the period - a position she would keep for a long time. One of her roles was as Lady Macbeth, portrayed by Sargent, a picture that can be seen here. She also played a lot of other major parts and was a very well-known actress. 1878 was also the year she married Charles Kelly, mostly to have a father to her children. He died five years later.

Terry continued to have a great success as an actress, both during her second marriage and after it. In the 1880's she also toured the United States with great success. In 1889 she got a house at Barkston Gardens (number 22 - now Burns Hotel) in London where she lived with her children and pets. It was a good choice since it kept her close to friends and colleagues, many lived in that area. She would keep the house till 1902. Two years before that, in 1900, she had gotten herself a house in Smallhyte, Kent, which would be her final home.

In 1906 Terry celebrated her 50 years on stage with a five hour show which featured all the main acting stars of the time. The queuing started some 24 hours before the actual performance. But of course this was not end of her acting. That continued just as it had before. In 1907 she married the American actor James Carew - some thirty years her junior. The marriage lasted just two years, but they kept being on good terms after thier divorce. She acted all the way through the First World War , in many benefit shows too. In 1917 she made her debut on the silver screen - in the end she would partake in seven films, between 1917 and 1922.

Terry retired from acting in the theatres in 1920. She was made a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire in 1925. Her last years were marred by a failing eye-sight and dementia. She died from heart-failure in 1928 and was buried at St Paul's at Convent Garden, London.

On a side note, it is worth noting that Terry's son, Edward Gordon Craig, was the father of the daughter of Isadora Duncan.

Fashion of the week - Evening wear of 1830

2009-01-01T15:35:00.006+01:00

This evening costume dates to the year 1830 – and was first shown in the French fashion magazine Costumes Parisienne. It is actually just one dress, and supposedly it is the same girl too, shown in different angles. It is the same hair-do and the same jewellery on both figures.

Typical of this time are the very broad sleeves and the very slim waist – there were a lot of women who would never have managed to squeeze themselves into something like this. But since it was a drawn picture, it was quite easy to show off an ideal of a woman-figure. And the fact that it was a drawing did not stop women from trying to look as close to pictures like this as absolutely possible. This is, after all, the time of the corset – in a way that it had not been just ten years earlier.

The picture shows off the dress quite clearly, after all you can see both back and front of the dress – it happens on fashion-plates from time to time, but it is not that common. The dress in itself is quite typical of the day both in model and colouring. Bright and light colours on eveningwear (for women, of course) were a common theme throughout most of the 19th century. A few other common themes for parties and what to wear to them are also the long gloves, the deep neckline that showed quite a lot of skin, the fan and the ballet-like slippers. What is less common for the 19th century in general is the hair-do. It is high and complicated and must have been quite headache-inducing (if it was ever worn like this in real life, it is quite possible that the reality made women wear something inspired by this picture – but at least somewhat more practical).

Pop-culture woman of the week - Rinoa Heartilly

2008-12-22T21:38:00.003+01:00

Name: Rinoa Heartilly (リノア・ハーティリー Rinoa Hātirī)
First appearance: Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
Creator: Tetsuya Nomura
Weapon/ability: Blaster edge
Race: Human
Age: 17 years old

Rinoa is the out-spoken, head-strong, emotional female protagonist of the eighth Final Fantasy game to hit the market. She is the obvious opposite of the male protagonist - Squall Leonhart (a sure sign that love will develop).

She enters the story at the SeeD celebration party, coming to the school were the other main characters get trained for combat - an event she participates in to get a chance to speak to the head-master. She wants to hire some SeeDs to help her with her task of helping out the Timber Owls - a resistance group which she is leading (though not very successfully - and things get even worse once they try to help out).

But in spite of her short-comings in this episode, she is willing to learn and to help were she can, so she tags along for the rest of the adventure - which is not always such a good thing as she gets possessed, and at one time almost get thrown into outer space and has to be saved from time to time.

Rinoa spends most of her time wearing black shorts with a short, blue denim skirt on top of, a halter-neck top and a knitted, long, sleeveless blue duster sweater - with white wings on the back. But the first time Squall meets her she is wearing a light yellow cocktail-dress.

(She is actually the daughter of the woman that Squall's father had a crush on - before he met the woman that would become the mother of his child.)

Photo of the week - Marie Jensen

2008-12-20T23:31:00.003+01:00

Date: 1907
Photographer: Emil Clausen
Sitter: Marie Jensen
Provenience: Copenhagen, Denmark

This is a photo of the Danish woman Marie Jensen, taken in 1907, at a Copenhagen photo-studio. The somewhat unusual shape of the photo is due to it being cut - probably to suit a frame (the most common reason for old photos being 'resized').

The sitter makes a rather simple, but very neat, impression. Her hair is combed up, but not into such big waves as could be popular at this time. Her blouse has a high collar and is decorated with hem-stitching in a quite intricate pattern. She does not wear any visible jewellery.

On the back of the card is written, with a pencil, in Danish "Til min søster Stine fra Marie 1907." [To my sister Stine [probably short for Christine] from Marie 1907.] A later writing adds "Marie Jensen Datter af [daughter of] N.P. Jensen Thisted [a town on the Danish peninsula Jutland], born in 1882.

If anyone should happen to know anything more about this woman I would be very happy to know - so far my research has given no results. For example it could be interesting to know how it is that this photo was taken in Copenhagen when she came from a small town many miles away - if it is, as is most likely, that she had moved to the Danish capital for some reason. She does not seem to be married, at least not at the time of the when the picture was taken, since the second note on the back most likely would have mentioned that - and whoever made that note was not her sister Stine but some third party who knew who she was, but who was not an immediate family.

Hair-do of the week - French women in 1900

2008-12-18T16:12:00.004+01:00

This picture is from the French publication "La Coiffure Francaise Illustrée", from 1900. This Victorian and Edwardian magazine showed the hair-dos done by different French (or perhaps more correctly Parisian) hair-dressers. In this case the creator is Georges Girard - of course working from Paris.

The hair-dos of the late 19th century and early 20th century could be quite intricate. When looking at photos from the time they often come across as much simpler though, all the hair combed up to make a big bun on top of the head, but when the time, money and occasion allowed it things could get much more artistic - with curls and ornaments all over the place (which must have made them quite heavy and cumbersome to wear).

But they all have one thing in common - even with much simpler hair-dos of the time - and that is that they were based on the idea that the hair should be up, as up as it could possibly be, and as little as possible should be hanging down. At the bottom pictures (that shows the same hair-do from different angels) you can see some curls hanging down at the back of the neck, but that is all. It was much more alright for the hair to hang down around the forehead - and the hair-dos were not really made for wearing a hat. Hats were still a must for all proper ladies, so this could be seen as a sure sign that the coiffures shown here were made for either special hats, suitable for the occasion (as in the upper left corner) or made for evening-wear when hats were not present. The more ordinary hair-dos were, on the other hand, perfect for placing a big hat on top of.

That again

2008-12-08T10:43:00.000+01:00

December is always a month when much to do and little time for blogging - and things will not get better this coming week since I will be going to London. But I will return, and so will the posts on this blog.

Take care!

Portrait of the week - Woman in the green dress (Camille)

2008-12-07T14:42:00.004+01:00

This is the painting Woman in the green dress by the painter Claude Monet, done in 1866. It is also known as Camille.

The painting is one of the Monet's earlier works, and the one that would grant him national fame - though the style of the painting has little to do with impressionism and the technique that would make him famous.

The woman is dressed in a dress striped in green and black, with a train and of a rather light fabric - that looks like silk, but considering the financial situation in which it was painted it is not that likely the original was made in that material. Over the dress she is wearing a jacket with fur trimmings. On her head she is wearing a small hat - just as if she was ready to walk out the door at any moment.

The woman is Camille Doncieux, Monet's first wife. She was born in 1847. She met the painter in 1865 and became the artist's mistress and model. She was from a poor background and Monet's father refused to let them get married for just that reason. In 1867 she gave birth to the son Jean. In 1870 the couple got married anyway. In 1877 she gave birth to the couple's second child, the son Michel. But by now Camille's health was deteriorating, and she died in 1879 - just 32 years old. Her husband had probably started a liaison with the woman that was to become his second wife, Alice Hoschedé, before Camille's death.

Goddess of the week - Sif

2008-12-05T19:58:00.002+01:00

Name: Sif
Sphere of influence: Relationships
Location: Scandinavia
Famous portraits: None contemporary

The name Sif means "in-law-relationship" and in all probability her function as a goddess could be found in that name - though it is not entirely clear, she is not that frequent in the Nordic sagas.

The goddess Sif is the wife of the thunder-god Thor in Norse Mythology. With him she has the daughter Thrud (Þrúðr - meaning "strength" and "woman") and from some previous relationship she has the son Ullr ("glory"). The father of that child is unknown, and Thor is referred to as being a step-father - that is all we know on that subject.

Sif is mentioned in both the Poetic Edda (written in the 13th century - but based on elder sources) and the Prose Edda (written in the 13th century by Snorre Sturluson).

Sif's hair is golden - the god Loki cuts it off once when the goddess was sleeping, but he is caught (and threatened) by her husband Thor, and Loki promises to replace her hair, and commissions a net of pure gold to be made for her head. When she put it on it the golden hair got stuck to her head - and replaced her own hair so that she actually had hair made of pure gold.

The talk of her golden hair, and the golden hair being cut, has made some scholars talk about Sif being some kind of fertility goddess - and her hair being a symbol for the growing fields, cut down when ripe. But this is a rather modern theory that has little to do with actual evidence from ancient sources.

The portrait here of Sif is made by Jenny Nyström.

Women of the week - Sigrid Storråda

2008-12-02T21:31:00.007+01:00

Name: Sigrid Storråda

Born: Circa 955(?), Sweden

Died: Circa 1010(?)

Married to: 1. Erik Segersäll
2. Svend Tveskägg (Fork-beard)
Children: At least three sons

Occupation: Queen

To be quite honest, the authenticity of this woman has been disputed, and the jury is still out on whether or not she really existed - but today's historians generally seem to believe there might be some truth to her existence.

Sigrid is mentioned in the Icelandic sagas, but not Adam of Bremen who lived closer in time (but perhaps could not always keep straight the complicated family relations among the Nordic kings) - but how much of what is written there is a historical truth is open for debate.

She is supposed to have been the daughter of a local noble man, Skoglar Toste, but her birth-date is unknown. Somewhere around 975 she married the Swedish king Erik Segersäll (the victorious) and with him she got a couple, or so, children - among them Olof, who would later get the epithet Skötkonung (the meaning of this word is unclear). But Erik was not happy with his wife and divorced her - for unknown reasons, it was obviously not because she could not have children. She would later remarry, this time the king of Denmark Svend Fork-beard, and is supposed to be the mother of Canute the Great.

A couple of legends connected to Sigrid includes one that says that she was engaged to be married to Olav I of Norway. But things came to an end when she told him that she refused to become a Christian. He then hit her and said he refused to marry a heathen. After this she became a bitter enemy of the man and persuaded both her second husband and her son Olof to go to war against Olav - which would eventually end with the death of the Norwegian king. It is unclear if it should be seen as a twist of irony or a sign that the story really can not be true, since her own son was the first Swedish king to become Christian (and remain that till his death). Another story tells about how Sigrid, after being divorced from her first husband, got courted by minor kings - which annoyed her and in the end she had a couple of them killed through burning down the house they were staying in. That kept unwanted suitors away from her - though obviously not Svend.

Her epithet 'Storråda' means the one that makes great plans. In English she is often referred to as 'the Haughty' - based on her actions.

Fashion of the week - Evening-wear of 1877

2008-11-30T01:45:00.004+01:00

This is a picture from the French magazine Journal des Demoiselles, from January 1877, showing the back of two ladies in evening-dresses - and a young girl, also with her back turned to the spectator.

The 1880's had its bustle era, as can be seen here, and so did the 1870's, but there were a few years in between when the bustle was gone - or at least almost so. These dresses are from this period and instead the skirts are very slim and narrow (but note that the bustle is not completely gone from the little girl's dress). Whether there was still a bustle or not on the dress in 1877 was different from gown to gown - a matter of taste and how daring the wearer chose to be. And it is also worth remembering that fashion seldom is very clear-cut, with one day the dresses looking one way and the next day completely different. Instead it is a gradual change.

Some things that really did not change was how to choose accessories for the evening-dress - like it had been twenty years earlier and would be twenty years later there were the long gloves and the fans. The hair and the dresses were adorned with artificial flowers and the dresses of a cut that would mimic the current fashion - and take everything one step further, the trains being longer, the neckline being lower (just like evening-wear is today - though trains are not that common).

What is more enigmatic is the black-dressed girl. It almost looks like she is in mourning - why would she otherwise be dressed in black? A girl in black seems like a strange companion for women in party-clothes - but mixing different kinds of dresses on these fashion plates was quite common so perhaps it is not that surprising, even the subjects seem to be an ill match.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Haruhi Fujioka

2008-11-28T21:05:00.004+01:00

Name: Haruhi Fujioka (藤岡ハルヒ Fujioka Haruhi)
First appearance: Ouran High School Host Club (manga in 13 volumes - still ongoing - and anime - 26 episodes)
Creator: Bisco Hatori
Weapon/ability: Stubbornness
Race: Japanese
Age: 16 years old

Haruhi is a student at the very prestigious Ouran High School. She is a commoner, able to go there through a scholarship. By accident she walks in on the Host club - a club kept by six male students at the school to keep the ladies entertained. She breaks an expensive vase, and since there was no way she could repay it she had to work off the debt. Her sex was not viewed as a problem, because they did not know she was a girl. She could not afford to buy the school-uniform so instead she had borrowed clothes from her father - and she had gotten gum in her long hair so she had cut it off. The truth is soon revealed, but she stays on, posing as a boy (something that she had little problem with, being of the opinion that gender makes little difference).

Haruhi is a blunt person, intelligent and a good student, a popular host - and blind to the verge of down-right stupidity when it comes to relationships. There are quite a lot of guys who falls for her, like the successor in a yakuza family Ritsu Kasanoda (who has some serious problems with that when he first thinks that she is a he), the twins Hikaru and Kaoru of the Host club (though it is only Hikaru who actually confesses to her - and he is turned down) and the president of the club, Tamaki Suoh (though he is very slow at realizing that himself - making them a good match in that respect).

Haruhi lost her mother when she was young and lives alone with her cross-dressing father who works in a bar. Their life is very ordinary and the upper-class boys of the Host club is fascinated by that - though it annoys her. She does have one friend form outside of school that shows up in the manga, Mei - the daughter of another cross-dressing man. She has very little problem seeing what Haruhi is feeling - even when she does not know herself.

Photo of the week - Lady from Vienna 1903

2008-11-27T16:34:00.006+01:00

Date: 1903
Photographer: Carl Pietzner
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Vienna, Austria

(Please click on the picture to get a better view of it - Blogger does not fully appreciate the unusual form of the photo and that is why the resolution is a little bit off.)

There is no hint on the photo who the sitter is, but the photo is dated, by the photo-studio, to 1903. This is the only photo of the lady in question that I own, but according to the notes from the photo-studio, this is one photo in a set of two (and thereby giving more information than can generally be found at the back of an old photo, when someone who knew the sitter, or the object herself, has failed to make notes).

The photo is taken in Vienna, in the atelier owned by the photographer Carl Pietzner (1853-1927, he died from committing suicide, but until then he had had a very successful photographic business and on the photo you can read both K.u.K. and Kais.u.Kön. [Imperial and Royal] which is to say that he was someone the Austrian royalty went to to have their pictures taken).

The woman has curly hair pinned up in a rather simple hair-do, but that is the only simple thing about her - that and the line of her clothing, she is wearing a blouse and a skirt, clothing items that were generally simpler than the dresses of the time (though that does not seem to be the case this time, which will soon become evident). She wears quite a lot of jewelry - considering that it is day-wear she has on and this is a time when a lot of jewelry was quite uncommon, even when dressed up to go to the photographer. She has ear-rings, a medallion, a bracelet and an engagement ring - but no wedding-band.

Her skirt is simple, but not overly so. It is has extra seams and ribbons - in colour with the skirt, but still clearly visible. But what is really exquisite is her blouse. It has a high collar and sleeves that can only be described as 'special', hanging loose around the cuff that has the same fabric as the collar - both the stripes and something that looks very much to be hemstiching, a quite common way to adorn clothes at the time. But that is not all that is done to the blouse (which must have been quite expensive - though perhaps that should not be surprised since she after all was the customer at a royal photo-studio). Both the upper part of the sleeves and the front of the blouse is adorned with lace in a floral pattern. Still, this must have been an item of everyday wear, you did not attend parties (generally) in a blouse.

Hair-do of the week - English women of 1828

2008-11-27T15:18:00.005+01:00

This picture is taken from the English magazine La Belle Assemble, the June issue in 1828. It shows five possible ways for women to have their hair at the time.

The woman in the middle of the picture represents the evening-wear - but the rest is supposedly inspiration for ordinary days (though perhaps not this exaggerated, most women had to be able to perform everyday, practical tasks, even if they had servants).

At parties you were at liberty to have quite fanciful hair-dos, which did what it could to work against laws of gravity and the natural fall of the hair. The hair was then adorned in every possible way - here with pearls and other jewellery - and often flowers and ribbons.

Almost all coiffures at this time, and four out of five in this picture, had the curls that worked as a frame for the face. The curls were thick over the ears and upwards, but seldom reached below. The hair was really meant to be up.

When you were not attending a party the back of the hair was generally kept away from too extravagant stuff. The reason was simple, you were always supposed to be able to put some head-wear over it. It would cause havoc to anything too stylish, and anyway it would be hidden from general view - which was also a good reason to not spend too much time on it. The most important thing was to keep stylish that part you actually showed off.

The head-wear at the time came in a wide variety, like the bonnets that hit it big time with the regency fashion, and turbans that also became big at that time. But this was also a time when the ordinary hats had their revival and could be seen again. It was all a matter of taste and inclinations of the wearer.

Portrait of the week - The young martyr

2008-11-25T20:52:00.004+01:00

This painting is called The Young Martyr, or the Young Christian Martyr, or A Christian Martyr Drowned in the Tiber during the rein of Diocletian, painted by Paul Delaroche in 1855.

Delaroche was a French painter who had a great liking for painting historical motives, for example The execution of lady Jane Grey and The princes in the Tower (he seemed to have a special liking for English motives, despite his nationality). This portrait of young, dead woman is not English, though, but set in Rome, 1700 years ago.

The dark silhouette of a man can be seen against the darkening sky and the sunset, but the main focus is on the dead, young girl. Her hands are bound and her eyes closed - and her features are lit by a halo over the face. She is dressed in light fabrics, totally soaked but still floating.

The persecution of Christians during the rein of Diocletian (reining 284-305) was all to real, and at their height at 303-304 - a time that would bring forth a great set of saints, people executed due to their faith. But even though he was a determind man the persecution was not a great success - Christianity survived after all, without a great slump of numbers of members - and even a great number of non-Christians were against the persecution. The laws prohibiting the Christians to live out their faith would last for another 25 years, but they were not acted on for the most part.

The motif is walking the fine line between being creepy and overly sweet - but perhaps more on the eerie side of things when you take into account that the woman has the same face as Delaroch's wife. She had died in 1845.

The painting can now be found in the Louvre, France.

Fashion of the week - Ladies in walking dresses, 1883

2008-11-24T16:25:00.007+01:00

(Yes, my last three posts, this included, has been in the wrong order - I hope you can forgive me. Sometimes I'm not more than human!)

This is a picture from the French fashion magazine La mode illustrée, printed in 1883, which shows two ladies in walking costumes - even though they are, for some odd reason, in an indoor setting.

These dresses are a part of the bustle-era, the time when the shape of the dresses were rather slim and narrow, except for the upper part of the skirt where the bustle made them wider than any other part of the clothing. This was achieved through both the skirt and its folds and excess fabric, but also through the undergarments that had special support to hold this up - literally. Later on the skirt would be somewhat wider, but they are at this stage still narrow, and could be somewhat hard to walk fast in - but since all proper ladies should walk in a proper pace it was not considered a real problem.

That it is walking costumes shown here is clearly shown by the cut of the upper half of the clothing, they are wearing jackets and head-wear that definitely signifies outdoor-wear. They are also wearing gloves, as any lady venturing outdoors should (well, there and when going out to parties too - as can be seen in one of the earliest chapters of Little Women when two young ladies are going to a party, but only have one proper pair of gloves between them - that scene was set earlier than this, but the habit had not died out).

Goddess of the week - Sekhmet

2008-11-24T14:52:00.003+01:00

Name: Sekhmet
Sphere of influence: War and the sun, among others
Location: Egypt
Famous portraits: Too many to count

Sekhmet was a prominent deity in ancient Egypt, originating in Upper Egypt, a female with a lion's head or sometimes even portrayed as a whole lion. She was a fearsome goddess, it was even said that her breath had created the desert.

She was a warrior goddess and very closely linked to the Egyptian Pharaohs, not just in some dynasties but all over the line. She protected the Pharaoh in battle - which of course made her very important. Her name even means (one who is) powerful. She was also an early sun-goddess in her own right. She would later on be identified as a daughter of the sun-god Re, and sometimes be referred to as The eye of Re.

Sekhmet was dressed in red, the colour of blood, and on her head she wore the sun-disc. This association with blood also made her an important goddess for women, and their menstrual cycle. She was also connected with sickness - and their curing. This connection was so great that her name would be used to signify physicians in the Middle Kingdom. Her priests were also considered to be able to give medical care.

Her cult was very important, both in war and peace. At the end of a war a festival was held, to bring the angry goddess to peace and make sure that the killing was over. In peacetime it was just as important to keep her calm and quiet (till she was needed again). This was done through festivals with a lot of participants -both priests and ordinary people. In her temples the cult was also very important, and the priests were supposed to worship a different Sekhmet statue each day of the year (one reason to there being so many preserved statues of her).

Since she was an important goddess during such a long time in Egypt it was inevitable that she would be connected in different ways with different gods and goddesses during the process. The mythology changed after all. Apart from being made daughter of Re, she was also at one point identified with both Hathor and later on Mut. She was also said to have been the mother of Nefertum - and when it became popular to make even couples of all the gods she was said to be the consort of Nefertum's father, Ptah.

Her worship continued into the time of the Greek rulers of Egypt.

Woman of the week - Elizabeth Gaskell

2008-11-23T01:20:00.005+01:00

Name: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, born Stevenson

Born: 29 September 1810, London, England

Died: 12 November 1865, Holybourne, England

Married to: William Gaskell
Children: Five daughters and one son

Occupation: Writer

Gaskell was a Victorian author of novels dealing mostly with social issues in the industrial northern England - but she is also very well known for her biography on Charlotte Brontë, who was a close, personal friend.

Gaskell was born the youngest child of the civil servant, and former minister, William Stevenson, and his wife Elizabeth, née Holland. She had seven siblings - but only her older brother John and she would survive into adulthood. Her brother went missing in 1828 when travelling to India. Her mother died just three months after the birth of Gaskell and she was sent off to her maternal aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, Cheshire. Gaskell was brought up as an unitarian and would remain one for the rest of her life.

Aged eleven she was sent to boarding-school, in Stratford-upon-Avon, and remained there until 1827. When she finished her education she returned home to her father, who by now was remarried and had two children by his new wife. But his health was failing and he died in 1829. Gaskell continued to live among relatives until she met the unitarian minister William Gaskell (born in 1805), whom she married on the 30 August 1832 in Knutsford. They moved to Manchester where William was made minister of the Cross Street Chapel.

The new surroundings would mean much to Gaskell, working as a minister's wife and taking care of the needing since the poverty was great in the city and social work was an important part of the couple's work-load. Gaskell also gave birth to six children: a still-born daughter (1833), Marianne (1834-1920), Margaret Emily (1837-1913), Florence Elizabeth (1842-1881), William (1844-1845) and Julia Bradford (1846-?). It was after the death of her son she began to write novels - though she had before that written poems (sometimes together with her husband) and short stories. Her first full-length novel was Mary Barton - A tale of Manchester life (1848), which painted a rather grim picture of the living conditions in an industrial town - something she knew quite a lot about first hand. The book was published anonymously, but her identity was soon discovered. Charles Dickens greatly approved of her writing and she became a contributor to his magazine Household words.

Her second novel Ruth (1853), which fought for the rights of unmarried mothers, caused a lot of controversy and she was criticized for her views on the topic. Her later fiction did not take on such hot topics, but could still portray the harsh reality for the poor - though they also showed a more genteel side of her which the public appreciated more. Among these works can be mentioned Cranford (1853) and North and South (1855).

Gaskell met the fellow writer Charlotte Brontë in 1850 and they became very good friends. After Brontë's death in 1855 her father and husband asked Gaskell to write a biography. She did a very thorough job of this, researching quite a lot - but also mixing fact with fiction. When The life of Charlotte Brontë hit the market in 1857 it was a great success (and meant a lot to make Brontë more famous), but Gaskell was soon criticized for it by people who did not like the way they were handled in the book. Brontë's father was not pleased either. The second edition was withdrawn, and it is the third edition that is now the standard text of that book.

Gaskell died in 1865 from heart-failure. She is buried in the graveyard at Knutsford. Her husband survived her until 1884 - and was then buried next to her.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Gwendolyn

2008-11-20T22:32:00.005+01:00

Name: Gwendolyn
First appearance: Odin Sphere (オーディンスフィア Ōdin Sufia), released in 2007.
Creator: George Kamitami
Weapon/ability: Spear and psyphers
Race: Valkyrie
Age: Adult

Gwendolyn is one of the five main characters in the video-game 'Odin Sphere'. She is the younger daughter to the demon lord Odin and the one who has to lead the Valkyries in battle after the death of her older sister, Griselda. She is willing to do just anything to gain love and recognition from her father - but he spends most of the time ignoring her, or just using her.

When she tries to do the right thing and prevent the execution of her half-sister Velvet, he ends up putting a spell on her and marry her off to a stranger and enemy to the Valkyries, an ally of the fairies - Oswald, the Shadow Knight.

But even after she is married and has left her home her loyalties are tried on several occasions when her father still expects her to act as his daughter - even when it would mean betraying her husband - and at the same time battle the feelings she starts to develop for Oswald, which in the end results in her taking her spear to save his life when he gives up his will to live and is dragged down to the Netherworld.

Gwendolyn and the characters around her are obviously inspired by Norse mythology - but very, very loosely.

Photo of week - Danish woman, 1898

2008-11-19T18:06:00.003+01:00

Date: December, 1898
Photographer: Joh. Crone
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Copenhagen

This is a photo of a young woman - or even possibly a girl. You only see her from the front but it looks like she does not have her hair up, but just braided and hanging down on her back.

Her dress is of a modest cut - high collar and rather small sleeves with little frills, in a way that can only be described as fashionable (as can be seen in this fashion picture of children's clothing from 1899 - especially on the girls to the upper left). The collar seems to be of some sort of printed fabric, which at a first (though admittedly quick) glance looks like lace, but obviously is not. Since lace was quite expensive and it is a whole collar it would probably have been quite out of the question - even if the girl came from a rich home. If she isn't that old it is also possible that it would not have been seen as quite proper for her to wear something like that.

She does not wear any jewellery.

I do not know who the girl is, but the photo is dated on the back to December 1898 - which would seem very likely. The date seems to be written in ink and in a hand typical for the time around 1900.

Hair-do of the week - Hats, 1811

2008-11-18T18:07:00.005+01:00

To the Regency woman what she was wearing on her head was just as - if not more - important as how she had her hair. All proper ladies covered their head when venturing outdoors and any proper married lady always wore something on her head when indoors too.

This is a page from the French fashion magazine Costume Parisienne, from 1811. This was when the Regency fashion era was at it's height, before later fashion trends would start to influence the look. Regency fashion can be said to have lasted from 1793 to circa 1820 and all that time the fashion was accompanied by this form of head-wear.

Hats as we would see them were never worn, hats with brims on all sides of the hat-crown. Instead the thing that everybody wore was the bonnet. The more formal ones, the ones in colour in the picture here, often had the same crown as an "ordinary" hat would have had - made of straw and adorned with ribbons and feathers and plumes. But the brim was made to frame the face and a ribbon was tied under the chin. They were made to protect the wearer from winds, rain and sun.

The other form of bonnet shown here, in white, with less of a sharp shape, are the bonnets supposed to be worn indoors by married women. They were generally of a rather soft material, often adorned with lace and/or ribbons (if only the economy would allow it - if not, a light bonnet would still be worn, but with no trimmings).

To be wearing something on the head was a sure sign of a woman being proper - and the hair was kept to suit the head-wear. This bonnet-fashion would last for the better part of the 19th century, but they would eventually get competition from ordinary hats.

Portrait of the week - The Cupid Seller

2008-11-17T18:45:00.002+01:00

This is the painting The Cupid Seller, made by Joseph-Marie Vien, in 1763. This is a very typical product of the neoclassicism of the 18th century - a movement that will culminate after the French Revolution with every woman wearing dresses reminiscent of the classical sculptures.

In the 1760's the fashion was not yet influenced by neither Ancient Greece nor Imperial Rome, but it was a popular theme in art, sculpture and furniture. This painting is a part of that movement.

The painting shows an interior with a lady sitting down, probably the matrona, and a young woman standing behind her (daughter, servant, friend? it is not clear). Kneeling in front of her is a woman showing some live cupids that she is trying to sell to the seated woman. Cupids were popular in 18th century, adorning both paintings and furniture, though it seldom looked as macabre as it does here.

The matron is clearly meant to be of the upper classes. She is pale and dressed in fine fabrics with bracelets. She looks somewhat indolent, but also interested in the wares presented to her. Her interest is shared by her companion - also dressed nicely with a bracelet. The woman in front of them, the one with the basket, is obviously of more humble origin. Her dress is simpler, her skin is darker - she is obviously a working woman. Her head is wrapped in a shawl and she looks very much like a 18th century peasant woman, if you look beyond the the dress.

Looking at historical paintings gives away a lot about the time it was painted in, and with just changing the clothes the women are wearing you could have a very lifelike portrait of three women from the 1760's.

Goddess of the week - Eris

2008-11-16T16:50:00.004+01:00

Name: Eris (Greek: Ἔρις)
Sphere of influence: Strife
Location: Greece
Famous portraits: She appears on some vase-paintings but not sculptures

This goddess is the personification of strife in classical Greek mythology, and as such her background is a bit shady. Different classical sources give different explanations to her, her background and her personality.

The oldest text to say much about Eris is the Work and Days, by Hesiod. According to him Eris was the daughter of a son of Cronus and her mother was Nyx. Her role was to cause strife among people - which, Hesiod stresses, was not necessarily a bad thing. It made man work harder to be better than his neighbours and generally prevented people from slacking off. Hesiod is less kind on Eris in his other work, Theogony. There he makes a long list of all those terrible children Eris gave life to, including Hysminai (combat), Neikea (quarrel) and Dysomnia (Lawlessness). Who the father was supposed to be is not known.

Homer on the other hand mentions her in the Iliad (book IV) but there calls her the sister of Ares (which would make her the daughter of Zeus and Hera). Some has taken this as a sign that there are two different goddesses, both named Eris and with the same function - to cause discord among men. A more likely explanation is that her lineage was not exactly written in stone - a common thing among lesser gods and goddesses - and might have changed over the years and with different traditions.

Eris is perhaps most famous for causing the Trojan War. She had not been invited to the wedding of Thetis and Peleus and as a revenge she came anyway and threw a golden apple into the crowd. On it she had written 'To the most beautiful' and of course the goddesses started to quarrel who was to recieve it. They decided on letting Paris choose among them, trying to bribe him with different gifts. Aphrodite, offering the fairest woman in the world (Helena), won - but since Helena was already married a war broke out (or so the story goes anyway).

This painting is from some Athenian painted pottery, dated to 575-525 B.C. - and even has the goddess' name written out.

Woman of the week - Sophie von Knorring

2008-11-12T17:07:00.004+01:00

Name: Sophie Margareta von Knorring, born Zelow

Born: 29 September 1797, in Gräfsnäs, Sweden

Died: 13 February 1848, in Skålltorp, Sweden

Married to: Carl Sebastian von Knorring
Children: None

Occupation: Writer

von Knorring was born into the Swedish nobility, her father, Krister Göran Zelow, was a marshal at the Swedish court and her mother, Helena Sofia Gripenstedt, was also of noble blood. She spent her first thirteen years growing up in the country and then her mother took her daughters to Stockholm to give them a better education - and to marry them off.

She married Carl Sebastian von Knorring, a major and later colonel, who was a distant relation to her, in 1820. I can find no indication that the couple had any children. In 1827 she got a severe case of pneumonia that would make her sickly for the rest of her life - and also ended her life when she was far from old.

Her writing began in 1829 when she started a novel to comfort a sister who had been widowed. That book would be published in 1834 as The Cousins (Cousinerna - or Kusinerna as it would be in modern Swedish). The book was published anonymously. She would write another dozen or so novels and essays in her life, the two most famous being The Illusions (Illusionerna - 1836) and The peasant and his landlord (Torparen och hans omgivning, 1843). The last book to be published was A court clerk (En kunglig sekter) which was published posthumously in 1861. It was only the story The fairytale of the princess Rosalinda, that actually had her name on it.

von Knorring was a conservative, she was not a speaker for women's emancipation, but very much an upper-class lady with the common values of such a person. Still, her novels became quite famous for her ability to portray young women in a very believable manner - and her novels also included dialogue in dialect, something that was quite new at the time.

Fashio of the week - Mourning in 1841

2008-11-11T22:05:00.003+01:00

This picture shows the contrived scenes that can be seen in 19th century fashion plates - here a woman in evening-wear, ready for a party, is talking to a lady in mourning clothing (hardly a lady likely to go anywhere near a party). But after all, these pictures were made to show the different aspects of fashion and not real life-situations, so we should not worry too much about it.

The picture is from the French fashion magazine 'Petit Courrier des Dames', dated to 1841, and shows the typical look of the 1840's.

The lady in blue is dressed for an evening out, with a very low neckline, lined with lace and three-quarter sleeves, also with lace. The blue colour of the dress is rather light and the fabric striped. Her hair is carefully curled, in a way that was extremely popular at this time, and adorned with a white ribbon. Her accessories includes, of course, both gloves and a fan, but also a brooch.

The lady sitting down is dressed in mourning clothes - though not full mourning, the first stage after the death of someone close, then she would not have worn the flowers on the veil, nor had the broad, black band on the dress, nor was she supposed to show any skin at all and this lady exposes her wrists. But half mourning, the stage after full mourning in clothing, was still a serious affair. It was always good to wear a little, black veil, a little mantilla also in black lace - and matching black gloves (which here actually look like they also have some lace attached to them). Full mourning was the time to show sorrow - half mourning was a good opportunity to show off the latest fashion, in sombre black.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Aerith Gainsborough

2008-11-07T20:20:00.004+01:00

Name: Aerith Gainsborough (エアリス・ゲインズブール Earisu Geinzubūru)
First appearance: Final Fantasy VII
Creator: Tetsuya Nomura
Weapon/ability: Staff and magic
Race: Cetra
Age: 22

Aerith is the flower-girl that the hero of the game Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife, meets when he falls through the roof of the church where she tends to her flowers. She is a friendly, and somewhat flirtatious, young woman who joins the group on their quest to save the world from the madness of Sephiroth. Things will not turn out well for her in doing so.

She is the last of the ancient race of the Cetras, her mother being a Cetra herself and her father, professor Gast, being a human. Her father is killed and mother and daughter is captured by the evil professor Hojo - but they manage to escape. The mother died and Aerith was raised by Elmyra Gainsborough in the city of Midgar. The Turks, the Investigation Sector of the Shin-Ra company, keep an eye on her - but she is actually on quite friendly terms with their boss Tseng and they mostly leave her alone.

Some more back-story to her character is given in the game Crisis Core, set five years prior to the original game, where Aerith gets to know the main character of that game, Zack Fair - who shares some traits with Cloud, which she will note when she later meets Cloud. It is Zack that buys her her trade-mark pink ribbons and also talks her into selling flowers.

For obvious reasons Aerith doesn't partake much in the film Advent Children - which instead deals a lot with the guilt Cloud feels as a result of her death. But there is still an opportunity to show up long enough to ease his suffering, telling him that she does not blame him for her death.

Her name was at first translated into English as Aeris, in the first game, Final Fantasy VII. But the truth is that Aerith is much closer to the original idea of her name (though it was hard to put into Japanese writing - hence the misunderstanding) and the following appearances of her (Final Fantasy VII - Crisis Core and Advent Children) she is more correctly named as Aerith. Her last name should, according to the katakana, be pronounced more as the French singer than the English painter, despite the spelling.

Photo of the week - Lady with cape

2008-10-31T23:07:00.002+01:00

Date: 1860's
Photographer: Chr. Neuhaus
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Copenhagen

As a commenter to this post was kind enough to point out, Chr. Neuhaus was really Christian Neuhaus and he had a photo-studio in Copenhagen from 1862 to 1894. That means that this photo cannot be older than 1862 - but that is quite old that too.

Who the sitter was is unknown - there is no helpful writing at the back of the photo, no date, nothing but the name of the studio and the price that I paid when I bought it. The lady is middle-aged, turning old - her face has started to get a bit shrunken and her hands are wrinkled. It is hard to tell if she looks mean or not. Her piercing gaze should, however, not be over-estimated. Someone has, with a steady hand, actually painted the pupils with black ink to make them more distinguished.

The lady in question must be someone from quite a wealthy background. This was long before going to the photograph was something for everybody, this was when it still was for the upper classes. And even if that was not the case her appearance clearly states her circumstances. Her weddingring is rather broad and she has ear-rings - at a time when jewellery was not at all that common, not even in photos. Her dress is mostly hidden by her cape, but the cape has a broad trimming made of lace. The collar is also trimmed with lace - and this at a time when lace was something really expensive. She wears a cap, suitable for a married woman, trimmed with both lace, frills and ribbons.

She might be unknown to us - but 140 or so years ago she was someone.

Hair-do of the week - Lute-player in 1610

2008-10-31T20:31:00.004+01:00

This is a detail from the painting "The Lute Player", done circa 1610 by the Italian painter Orazio Lomi Gentileschi. It shows a young girl, holding a lute - with her back mostly turned to the viewer, which gives a good glimpse of her hair-do.

This is at the same time as Elizabeth I of England and the women around her could show off very contrived coiffures with artificial curls and a general air of unnaturalness about it. This Italian girl shows nothing of that. Instead, her hair is really simple and natural - and it shows that when we talk about "17th century fashion" or "typical hair around 1600" we have to be very aware of that it differed quite a lot. It was due to where people lived, how they did it, what circles they moved in - and what part of fashion influenced them. There were not just ONE type of fashion going around. There were several.

She has long, blond hair that has been braided and the braids are then pinned up in big loops, leaving her back free. Her hair is parted at the top of her head and she has no bangs. It is a simple hair-do that you could do yourself, that did not require a maid - and hardly even a mirror (good mirrors did not exist at this time). It is a hair-do that peasant-girls could have had - but this is hardly a peasant-girl. No peasant-girl would sit down with a lute, for that you needed to be at least a part of the middle class (and if it was not to paint a religious motif this was long before the 18th and 19th centuries habit of going to the country to paint rustic motives of peasant girls 'au naturell' so to speak).

Portrait of the week - Lady with squirrel and starling

2008-10-29T23:31:00.005+01:00

This portrait is by Hans Holbein the younger, circa 1527, and it is generally referred to as "Lady with squirrel and starling" since it is a portrait of a lady with a squirrel and starling. The starling is in the background, just like the leaves there and not that much of an eye-catcher.

The squirrel is another matter. It sits in the lady's arms, obviously chained in some manner, and the lady is holding the chain. This was a time when people kept pets that we would consider right out strange - but then again, the difference between having a squirrel and a bunny might not be that great. It is after all a matter of habit.

The lady herself is somewhat of a mystery. As late as 2004 it was suggested that she would be Mrs. Anne Lovell - which would fit with the date of the painting and the squirrel was a common symbol for the Lovell family and was used in other depictions. Holbein often had animals depicted in his portraits.

The lady, Anne Lovell or someone else, is dressed in a rather sombre dress. It is black, or possible dark blue - it is a bit hard to tell just from pictures of the painting, but in any case it is not mourning clothes. Over her shoulders she wears a white shawl, probably of linen, and over the hair she is wearing a white cap. The form is one that reminds you very much of the typical Tudor-cap, with the angles at the back of the head - but the thick structure is not quite so common. Is it perhaps something for winter-wear?

In 1992 the painting was bought by the National Gallery in London.

Goddess of the week - Ereshkigal

2008-10-28T14:21:00.006+01:00

Name: Ereshkigal
Sphere of influence: The Underworld
Location: Mesopotamia
Famous portraits: The portrait on the left is quite famous - but it is not a hundred percent certain that is a portrait of Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal was the goddess of the land of the dead for Sumerians and Akkadian, Irkalla. She is described as dark and terrifying - befitting her role. She is the daughter of Anu and sister of Ishtar.

She appears in the texts of Ishtar's descent to the Underworld - one of the more famous Mesopotamian texts there is - but also in another that describe her meeting with the plague-god Nergal.

There are different versions of this story, but the main theme is that Nergal comes to her domain and a mutual attraction arises. When he has to leave her realm she gets really upset and threatens to let the dead return to earth and the living if Nergal is not returned to her. He comes back and rules Irkalla together with the goddess - in some later versions he just takes her as his wife and rules himself.

As a goddess of the dead she received offerings made to the dead. Her main shrine was located to Cuthah.

Woman of the week - Elizabeth Báthory

2008-10-26T18:47:00.006+01:00

Name: Elizabeth (Erzsébet) Báthory

Born: 1560, Nyirbátor, Hungary

Died: Before 21 August 1614, Čachtice, today's Slovakia

Married to: Baron Ferenc Nádasdy (1555-1604)
Children: András (unknown dates)
Pál (1593 or 1597-1633 or 1650)
Anna (ca 1585-1625)
Katalin (ca 1594-?)
Miklós(unknown dates)
Orsolya (unknown dates)

Occupation: Baroness and murderer

Báthory is one of those women were fact is hard to separate from fiction. She lived a long time ago, in a time when information that was not partial was hard to come by, and her actions have made people's imagination run wild. I cannot vouch for everything being true, just that it is likely - it is hard to do anything else.

She came from a noble lineage, both her parents were Báthorys and her mother was the sister of a king of Poland. Aged 13 she was married to the five years older baron Ferenc Nádasy. She moved to his castle in Čachtice, that is located in today's Slovakia. There she gave birth to their children and took care of the usual business that would befell a noble-woman of the times. Her husband were gone a lot of the time, fighting in the Thirteen Years War (against the Ottoman empire) as a chief commander of the Hungarian troops and that meant that Báthory was left in charge of the castle and the villages connected to it. In that she differed little from other noble-women of the time. Her husband died in 1604 - probably due to injuries sustained in battle.

What is perhaps less common of noble ladies of the time is to accuse them of murder and sadism. Nobles who were their own law at their own estates, but there was a limit to how much you were allowed to get away with - and it is obvious that Báthory crossed that line. It took almost a ten years of talk for the authorities to start looking into the matter, in 1610 the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias decided on investigating the matter and after some months Bárthory and four of her servants were arrested. Matthias wanted her dead after reports of dead and dying and badly tortured girls having been found at her castle - but György Thurzó, Palatine of Hungary, who investigated the matter, persuaded him to leave her be - she came from a very influential family. She would never appear in court and she never got a proper sentence. But she would spend the last four years of her life in house-arrest in her castle, in a set of rooms behind a wall so she could not escape.

What is known of her atrocities come from the testimonies of her four servants, who were all tried and convicted for taking part in the crimes. According to them, and other witnesses that were heard, the crimes had started early on when Bárthory wanted girls from the local villages brought to her and she had the girls badly beaten and tortured and eventually killed. But since she was a noble and they were just daughters of peasants she could get away with it. Things escalated and she went after daughters of the lower gentry that came to her to learn the way of the nobles and the authorities could no longer look the other way. The exact number of victims are unknown - her servants talked about around 50 (at least during their time of service) and others of hundreds upon hundreds. We do not know if there is any truth in the number of 600+ that are sometimes mentioned - nor if she ever bathed in the blood of her victims, thinking it would stop her ageing, nor if she took part in Satanic rites.

She was found dead on the 21 August 1614, but found with several plates of untouched food so the exact date of her death is not known.

Fashion of the week - The yukata

2008-10-24T00:31:00.002+02:00

Japan is a country with a lot of old traditions still preserved in today's society. This is also true for the different types of kimonos that are in existence. Unlike what some might think there are different types of kimonos, with different names, different meanings and different purposes - worn by both men and women. This is the yukata (浴衣), perhaps the most common and simple version of the kimonos.

The name is really a abbreviation of yukatabira, which means bath underclothing. The origin of the garment can be traced back to at least the Heian era (794-1185) when noble women wore yukata, made of linen, after taking baths. It is still a favourite garment when visiting Japanese inns and spas for recreation.

Today the yukata is first and foremost the informal kimono of the summer. It had a big revival in the 1990's and the popularity still stands. Girls and women are wearing it as casual wear, and to festivals (a very popular theme in shoujo-manga - manga for girls). They are made out of light cotton and can be worn with an ordinary sash, like on the picture, and not just the much more complicated obi - which means that it is possible for a woman to put it on herself.

The yukatas are available in almost any pattern, but there are general rules that most people adhere to. The younger the wearer the more bold both patterns and colours. Grown-up women generally have a much more sober ones, in dark colours with geometrical patterns, children can have really daring fabrics and young girls often have a floral pattern and softer colours.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Ophelia

2008-10-23T23:05:00.002+02:00

Name: Ophelia
First appearance: Hamlet (ca 1600)
Creator: William Shakespeare
Weapon/ability: None
Race: Human
Age: Old enough to marry

Ophelia is a character in the play Hamlet, and apart from Hamlet probably the most well-known character in the cast. She is the daughter of the adjunct Polonius and also the sister of Laertes. She is also the love interest of prince Hamlet himself. But it comes at a great cost.

Early on Ophelia is warned that it might not be such a good idea to fall in love with Hamlet, he will inherit the throne of Denmark and is not free to marry whoever he likes. Ophelia might run around in the royal castle as freely as any, but she is hardly noble enough to be a royal bride. The exact nature of her relationship with the prince is hard to discern. The original play does not give any clear evidence of whether they have actually had a sexual relationship or not and it is left to the viewers interpretations. The relationship is very rocky, much due to Hamlet and his bouts of madness (real or acted – they are clearly discomforting for Ophelia who don’t know what to make of it).

At one moment he tells her to go to a nunnery (a play on words since it does not only mean a convent, but is also slang for brothel) and Ophelia has plenty of opportunity to wonder over the sanity of the man she loves. But things will get worse – when her father is killed by Hamlet himself. She then completely looses it and sings songs about women being used and abandoned by their lovers and hands out flowers to the other characters.

The next time Ophelia is mentioned in the play is when queen Gertrude speaks of Ophelia’s death. The girl was said to have climbed up in a willow-tree and when the branch broke she fell into a brook and drowned there – not having the mental capacity to save herself. But the exact circumstances of her death are a bit mysterious. If she had died that way it would have been an accident but at her funeral she is not given the proper ceremony, a clear indication that she had committed suicide.

Ophelia is a popular figure in art, especially among the pre-Raphaelites, especially the scene of her drowning. Who played the role back in the time of Shakespeare’s own time is not known – but it was in all probability a boy since they generally played the roles of women back then, it was never women who played the roles of women in any case. The play has also been filmed several times and among others the role has been played by Jean Simmons and Helena Bonham-Carter.

Photo of the week - Alma, 1916

2008-10-21T21:40:00.003+02:00

Date: 1916
Photographer: Staffan Sjöberg
Sitter: Alma
Provenience: Sweden

It is always nice when a photo has both a name and a date written on it, something that will reveal at least something about the sitter - even though it is mot much. The name of the photographer is written right under the portrait, in very fine print - the first name is Staffan and the last name is Sjöberg (but there is something in between that is impossible to read even when looking at the picture in close-up). But Sjöberg is a name only in existence in Sweden which makes it obvious that it is a Swedish photo.

Who the sitter is is of course hard to tell, more than that she was called Alma and that she went to take her photo in 1916 (even though there was a war going on then, much went on as usual too - and neither did Sweden participate in it to begin with).

Her hat is typical of the time, broad and with a lot of flowers, artificial flowers, to top it off. She wears a light, perhaps white, blouse, with a small collar and a medallion in the front. She wears a necklace, with a metal heart, and ear-rings with pearls. She is quite fancy - and she smiles, showing her teeth (in a way that was very unusal at the time - most people had bad teeth and were not eager to show them).

Hair-do of the week - Hats and heads, 1910

2008-10-20T18:21:00.003+02:00

These are some hats advertised in an American magazine in 1910. Ads can be quite informative when it comes to be subject of what was worn by 'ordinary' people. They were not just meant to be inspirational - like many of the fashion magazines - these were meant to sell actual products to actual people, and this is what the available models looked like.

The greatest difference between these hats and those in fashion-magazines of the time (and on pictures of fancy people) is the size of the hat. The time between the death of queen Victoria and the first world war was the time of the ridiculously big hats. These are much less so, and the reason is of course that it is not very practical to have a hat that looks like that, if you have work to do, a household to look after you still want to have a hat on your head (any proper lady had her head covered when venturing outdoors), but it is a must that it does not get in the way.

The ad shows a whole range of hats, also stating material and price. For example is the corduroy hat just 79 cents, while the hat in genuine beaver is $2.49. You could also get a hat in 'cotton beaver' $1.29 as a cheaper alternative. The more fancy hats, with bows and feathers could be anything from under $2, simpler models even less, to close to $3. This ad was clearly aimed at a rather broad audience - made up of people who would not go to a millinery shop, mostly due to lack of funds.

Portrait of the week - Saint Agnes

2008-10-20T17:40:00.005+02:00

Saint Agnes, painted by Domenico Zamperi (also known as Domenichino) in 1620.

This is a portrait full of symbolism. Some of the more obvious are the halo at the saint's head and the crown given to her by the putto (the chubby baby with wings, in plural 'putti'). That is the crown of martyrdom handed to the young girl. At her feet is another putto, holding on to a lamb. Lamb is agnus in Latin and often shown as her symbol - it both reminds of her name and the lamb of God, all wrapped into one neat package. The palm-leaf, also held by the flying putto, is another sign of martyrdom, and of martyrs overcoming death.

The dress Saint Agnes is wearing is not the fashion of 1620 but how people in the 1620's imagined that people living in antiquity might be clothed. It was important to show that this was not a modern lady - but it was also important to show that she is a really important figure and therefor she is adorned in the style of royals. Note that her mantle is lined with ermine, something that was usually reserved just for royalty.

Saint Agnes is one of the popular saints, and has been so both in the East and the West. Her legend (written in the fifth century) tells that she died sometime around 305, at the tender age of thirteen. She had taken a vow of chastity to please the Lord and refused to marry - for this she was executed by having her throat cut. Later on this legend got expanded and included how she was put in a brothel so that she could be raped and her chastity thereby taken from her (a common theme in female saints' legends - and it always back-fired). But a man who saw her naked went blind on the spot.

Her fest-day is on 21 January and in Rome lambs whose wool are used to make the archbishops' pallia are blessed.

Goddess of the week - Clíodna

2008-10-17T23:02:00.004+02:00

Name: Clíodna
Sphere of influence: Realm of the dead
Location: Ireland
Famous portraits: None

Clíodna is said to be the daughter of Gebanh, the last druid of Ireland, and one of the Tuatha te Danann. Sometimes it is said that her sisters were Aife and Edain. At one time she fell in love with a man, Caoímhin of the curling locks, and ran away from the other gods and into the world of the living. This could not be forgiven or over-looked so they sent a big wave after her and she was drowned. After that her place was in the realm of the dead, the Otherworld, looking after things there.

That was not a sad place, but rather a happy place where there was feasting and beauty, music and happiness. She was even known to lure people into the Otherworld - people that was never heard of again. But she was also a guardian goddess of the O'Keefes and had a strong connection to the sea and the waves - there was a saying that every ninth wave were an incarnation of the goddess and therefore much more powerful. She is also known as the Fairy-queen of Munster.

She was known as very beautiful and she could shape-shift into a bird. She was also known to have three birds and their song could sooth sick people so that they could wake up refreshed and healed.

Woman of the week - Queen Christina of Sweden

2008-10-16T17:42:00.003+02:00

Name: Christina (Kristina) Augusta
after her abdication sometimes known as countess Dohna

Born: 18 December 1626, Stockholm, Sweden

Dead: 19 April 1689, Rome, Italy

Married to: None

Occupation: Queen

Christina was born as the third daughter of Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg - the two earlier were dead at Christina's birth. The couple never had a son so Christina was raised as the heir to the throne, in spite of her sex. This got even more important after 1632 when her father died. She was of course too young to rule but she was brought up strictly as an heir to a throne should be and was taught a myriad of things, all the way from bookly wisdom to riding and fencing. The family situation at home was rather disheartening for the child-queen. Her mother was close to the edge of insanity after the loss of her husband (which included postponing the funeral well over a year) and did not wish to leave her only child in the hands of others - while the king before his death had ordered that Christina was to be brought up not by her mother but by her aunt, Catharina of Pfalz. So she was until Catharina passed away when Christina was 12.

In 1644 Christina ascended the throne and she would rule for ten years. She did so with mixed results. She clearly had a knack for political negotiations, Sweden was a European super-power at the time, and she continued to work for it to remain as such, negotiating peace with the arch-enemy Denmark with good terms for Sweden and such. Her knack for economical questions was less impressive though. She cared little for the financial angle of things, she loved to give titles and land to people she thought was deserving - and there were far more of them than the state finances really could cover. The country was hurrying towards bankruptcy. Christina showed little interest in that and instead spent her time devouring all knowledge she would come across, she was genuinely interested in both science and the arts - and even invited the philosopher Descartes to stay with her in Stockholm (he got a pneumonia and died there).

Another aspect she took no interest in was marriage and getting an heir. Her whole life she would be opposed to the thought of marrying someone. Instead she chose her cousin, who would later become Karl X, as her heir and she raised the question of abdicating. She would take the final step, after having talked about it for some years, in 1654. One of the reasons was a change in religion, she wanted to be a Catholic, but that was probably not the only reason - she was not all that interested in taking on the role of a typical woman of the time, something that most people expected of her (queen or not), the country had clear financial problems and she took a greater interest in other things than ruling. In her autobiography she stated that 'women should not reign' - but it is not clear if this was because she thought women unsuited for the task or if she did not think the world would give them a fair chance.

After the abdication she left Sweden, taking with her some of her most priced possessions, and she stayed in Brussels where she converted to Catholicism. Not officially though, out of fear of loosing the money the Swedish state was to pay her for her up-keep. The following year she went to Rome, and stayed there under great jubilation and on great terms with the pope. She was not good with her money though and she continued on to France where she was a guest to Louis XIV. She had to leave the country after the execution of a servant of hers that had betrayed her plans on going for the throne of Naples - she had the legal right to execute a servant, but it was still viewed as a murder by the French and she returned to Rome.

She tried to return to Sweden and the throne after the death of Karl X in 1660, but she was not welcomed back and she would stay in Rome in intellectual pursuits. She died in 1689 and her sole heir was Cardinal Decio Azzolino, who, according to the surviving correspondence, she had a platonic love for. Little else is known about her love-life, if she was attracted to both men and women, or if the love she expressed for women were more in line with how women generally expressed themselves back then. The truth is that we do not know.

Christina was buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and there is also a monument in her honour - that even when it was newly made was famous for being hidious.

Fashion of the week - Evening wear, 1823

2008-10-15T15:53:00.005+02:00

This is an evening-dress from the English fashion magazine La Belle Assemble - a magazine which obviously took it's name to sound more French, since everyone knows that France is the place to go to get the latest fashion (or at least Paris).

The evening-wear clearly shows the transition from the regency era fashion to the phase that followed. It is to early to be Victorian, but it is not impossible to imagine the skirt growing even bigger in just a decade or two.

The regency elements that still can be spotted is most obviously the high waist. It is not just below the bosom, but still well above where most women naturally have their waist. Another element still left is the pillar-like silhouette. The skirt is getting bigger, that is true, but it still rather narrow, like it had been for the last 30 years. The turban-like head-wear, the one with all the plumes, is also a detail that had been popular for quite some time.

But there are also elements that really are not regency. The most obvious being the colour. Bright purple was not a colour that was popular earlier on. The classical regency dress had a very light colour, but even when darker colours started to creep into the wardrobe it was generally in the day-wear and the light colours (and white of course) stayed in the evening-wear. So is not the case here. The trimming, pompoms and all that is still kept white though - light colours were never far away from evening-wear (and continued to be popular with evening-wear throughout the 19th century).

The lady also wears the typical attributes to evening-wear, apart from the head-wear, there is also the long, white gloves - a lady would never dream of going to a ball without gloves; and note that she wears a bracelet, over the glove - and a small fan and a shawl.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Purim

2008-10-14T17:59:00.005+02:00

Name: Purim
First appearance: Secret of Mana (聖剣伝説2 or Seiken densetsu Tsū)
Creator: Koichi Ishii
Weapon/ability: Magic (mostly healing)
Race: Human
Age: Old enough to marry

Purim is the female lead character in the Super Nintendo game Secret of Mana. She hangs around with the two other, male characters: Randi och Popoi.

Purim's father is the servant to the king of Pandora and she is in love with the head of the royal guards, Dyluck. In short this is not a game where the leading lady spends the whole game chasing after the male lead. She enters the game running away from home when her father has decided that it is about time for her to marry - and she is not interested, she just wants Dyluck.

She meets Randi who is close to become a goblin dinner, but she runs away from him without having told him her name. Their paths cross again and she joins the party - for which the player is eternally grateful since she possesses healing spells and is generally handy. She is a good fighter and a good comrade, but when it comes to her love-life she really has no luck. Dyluck is kidnapped by the witch Elinee and handed over to the big, bad boss Thanathos who does his best to take control of Dyluck's body. Dyluck ends up dying to do what he can to save the world.

Then it is up Purim and her two friends to do the rest of the world-saving.

Photo of the week - Woman in white

2008-10-13T18:56:00.003+02:00

Date: 1911
Photographer: Unknown
Sitter: Unknown
Provenience: Probably Denmark

On this lovely photo of a woman dressed in a white, or at least very pale, dress is written the year 1911 - which fits well with both clothing and hair - and a name I can not read. The first letter is obviously an I (or possibly a J) but apart from that it is a mystery. The photo has been cut, in all probability to fit in a frame, so it is no longer possible to figure out where the photo is taken. But I found it in Copenhagen so there is a good chance it is Danish (though you can never be sure - photos were sent all over the world to friends and family).

The woman is wearing an evening gown in a light and bright material, accentuated by both tassels and beads. The dress is somewhat shapeless around the figure, but that was popular at the time, the era after the Victorians and before the first world war - when it comes to fashion also known as La Belle Époque.

In a time when many who went to the photographer did not wear any jewelery at all, or maybe just a ring, she can show off quite a few. She has a bracelet of some twined metal, a small necklace hanging on a thin chain and earrings. Her hair is long, kept flat on the skull and made into thick buns at the sides of the head. She also has a small fringe, slightly curled.

Hair-do of the week - Girl in 1716

2008-10-13T18:38:00.002+02:00

There is actually a boy present in this picture, but let's just ignore him and focus on the girl. This is a head-study from 1716, showing a French girl who is probably not that old but a teenager (though that is a termed that would have meant nothing at the time).

The female hair-dos of the rococo are very, very flat - an interesting contrast to the rather voluminous dresses of the time. The hair was not cut short, but it was not that long either. It was kept flat on the head, not a lot of curls and waves, just very simple. The back of the head was often adorned in some way, with a ribbon, a little cap or something else that was light and frilly - in this drawing it is actually quite hard to see what that would be. It is obviously a study of the same girl (with the same coiffure) from different angles, but the back is kept somewhat sketchy. The focus is obviously the face and how that is perceived and the hair is just a frame to the face with no particular interest in itself. Considering how the hair was generally shaped at the time it is easy to imagine that was not just the view of artists studying young girls.

The boy is interesting as a contrast, he actually seems to have more hair than the girl - something that is not very common in era, except this one (well, you might include the baroque in that statement too).

Portrait of the week - Mary Magdalene and Madeleine de Bourgogne

2008-10-13T15:42:00.003+02:00

This is a portrait of Mary Magdalene with, in all probability, Madeleine de Bourgogne, painted by Jean Hey (also called 'Maître de Moulins) circa 1490-1495, that is just at the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

More about Mary Magdalene can be read here. Madeleine de Bourgone was not a saint though. She was on the more shady side of the nobility - she was the natural daughter of Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon), that is a daughter he had with a mistress. Phillipe was the duke of Burgundy and he had quite a few children with different women. We know next to nothing about Madeleine, not when she was born or when she died. We do know that she married in 1486 to Bompar Seigneur de l'Aage, Baron d'Ales.

That she is married, and wealthy is very obvious from this portrait, showing the lady in a velvet gown of the latest fashion, adorned with gold and pearls, and trimmed with ermine - a sign of royalty. Ermine were for those at the top of the social hierarchy, not just any rich noble that happened to fancy it. Her hair is covered as any good wife would do. Her forehead is bare, though, because a high forehead was all the latest craze at the time.

The saint is marked by the halo at the back of her head. Her clothing is much more fancy than that of Madeleine, with bright colours - green, red and orange. She also wears quite a lot of jewelery - and she also has her hair completely covered and clearly plucked eye-brows. This was not a fashion that was too fond of showing hair of any kind.

Goddess of the week - Hestia

2008-10-13T00:17:00.004+02:00

Name: Hestia (Ἑστία)
Sphere of influence: The hearth
Location: Greece
Famous portraits: None - she was rarely shown in pictures and made into sculptures, though it did happen.

Hestia was a goddess of the hearth in ancient Greek religion. She was supposed to be the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, though the stories differ on the point of whether she was the oldest or youngest of their children. She never did have the distinction of many other of the Greek gods and was just a minor deity, in spite of her role. The hearth was very important to the classical Greek household - the source of warmth, where they did their cooking and an offering place for libations (pouring liquids as an offer to the gods).

The hearth is connected to the household, and so was Hestia. She is even said, in Plato's Phaedo, to have stayed away from the gods' processions, bound as she was to the hearth. Of course she was then neither a part of the scandalous stories of the gods. Several of the gods still wanted to have her as their bride, but she remained a virgin, unmarried of course.

But she still was very important to the Greeks in her own way. In the Platonic polis (Plato's version of the ideal order of the world) the acropolis has a sanctuary to Hestia, next to Zeus and Athena, showing the importance of the hearth in the Platonic mind - as Vesta in the Roman religion, who had a significance that Hestia never had in the Greek world. Vesta and Hestia were both goddesses of the hearth - but they were not the same goddess and must be kept apart.

Woman of the week - Idina Sackville

2008-10-07T21:32:00.004+02:00

Name: Myra Idina Sackville

Born: 26 February 1893, in Bexhill-on-sea, England

Dead: 5 November 1955, Mombasa, Kenya

Married to: 1) David Euan Wallace in 1913 - divorced in 1919
2) Charles Gordon in 1919 - divorced in 1923
3) Josslyn Hay in 1923 - divorced in 1929
4) Donald Haldeman in 1930 - divorced in 1938
5) Vincent Soltau in 1939 - divorced in 1945
Children: David John Wallace (1914-1944)
Gerard Euan Wallace (1915-1943)
Diana Denyse Hay (1926-1978)

Occupation: Farmer

Idina is a woman that in many ways gives a face to the sinful ways of the roaring 20's - living a life that can only be referred to as scandalous.

She was the eldest child of Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl de la Warr and Muriel Brassey. Later came the sister Avice, called Avie, (1897-1985) and brother Herbrand, called Buck, (1900-1976). Idina's father was of old English nobility, but her mother came from a middle class family that had made a lot of money. The couple was a part of the highest nobility, and so were their children. her father was notoriously unfaithful and eventually moved in with a cancan dancer. Muriel chose to divorce him - being unfaithful was common, leaving the family was quite another matter. This happened in 1902 and the children came to live with their very politically active mother.

In spite of this blemish Idina could be presented at court and join the debutantes, looking for a suitable husband. She would catch the eye of one of Britain's most eligible bachelors, David Euan Wallace and they married in 1913. They had two sons, David and Gerard, and everything should have wonderful. But there was the small matter of the First World War, and their inability to stay faithful. They were brought up in a culture that saw no problems with liaisons of this kind but it still meant the end to their marriage. At the end of the war Euan returned from France where he had been stationed, but the marriage collapsed when he showed no interest in his wife and turned to other women. Idina saw no reason to wait for her husband to leave (like her mother had). She left him, their children (that she would not see again till they were both grown up men) and their home. She married Charles Gordon as soon as she could, a man who happened to be available for the job at the right time and they moved to Kenya, the place that would henceforth be her home.

The second marriage soon fell apart. Idina had a great sexual appetite and had a hard time, not to say it was impossible for her, being with just one man - and in this case it was not even one she cared that much about to begin with. But she stayed in Africa, being a part of the 'Happy Valley Crowd' which the press had labelled her and her friends - people who spent far too much time partying, sleeping around and taking drugs. At the same time Idina worked hard on her farm (though the press did not report that). Idina was known to be not a great beauty but very charming and a great hostess and companion.

Her third marriage, to Josslyn, Joss, Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, in 1923, had better chances of succeeding. Neither expected fidelity and they both liked to party. They had the daughter Diana, always called Dinan (who was sent to live with Avie in England when she was 12 to get a proper education - she would not meet her mother till she was an adult, married and had a child of her own). But Joss still left her for another woman.

Idina would move on from that in her constant search for her happy life. She married Donald Haldeman, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake - he was not prone to take lightly on infidelity and he threatened, several times, to shoot her lovers. The marriage ended in yet another divorce.

Idina's last marriage was to Vincent Soltau - it was the last time Idina would marry, and after that she took her maiden name back and once more became Idina Sackville. Life had been pretty good to Idina between the two world wars, though her family life was not the best she had her friends and her farm and her parties and her lovers. With the second world war, age and general decline this dwindled. Several of her friends passed away, through suicide, drugs and so on. Joss, still a part of the same crowd, was murdered. Idina also met both her sons, but even though they had some fun together, they were never reunited as a proper family, and they both died in the war.

Idina herself died in 1955, only 62 years old, from cancer. By her side was her last lover James, Jimmy, Bird. Her brother flew down to bury her, next to her son Gerard. Her rather outrageous behaviour would make her known as 'The Bolter' in novels by Nancy Mitford, and her great granddaughter, Frances Osborne, would write her biography with that name - it came out earlier this year.

Fashion of the week - Coats from 1787

2008-10-05T17:10:00.004+02:00

Fashion plates were a really big thing in 19th century Europe, but it did not start there. The phenomenon was firmly rooted in the 18th century - a time when magazines were spreading like wildfire fashion was also a part of the repertoire, giving the growing middle class good ideas on what to wear the coming season. France was a leading country of fashion at the time, and so was there magazines with bright pictures of how the clothing was supposed to look like.

This example is from 1787 and the Magasin des modes (Magazine of fashion) and shows three examples of out-wear. The lady on the right is by far the most clothed, with a long coat, a thick scarf and a big hat that covers what is left of her. She seems to be ready to face both rain and snow. She is wearing a big muff too, something that the other two also have - but in their cases it seems to be close to the only thing to protect them from the weather, and at the same time it must be remembered that muffs were only worn in the winter. We have to suspect some artistic freedom here, taken by the drawer - to show off more of their clothes and not cover everything up.

The lady in the middle wears a dress over another one, the one beneeth can only be seen at the front of the skirt, in a way that was very common at the time. But it is definently a winter-dress, longsleeved and rather thick. The lady to the left is wearing a dress that does not show any dress underneath, and instead she wears a jacket over it, a jacket that does not give the impression of being very warm at all. But she still wears a muff to show that it is winter.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Emma Woodhouse

2008-10-04T13:42:00.003+02:00

Name: Emma Woodhouse
First appearance: Emma (1816)
Creator: Jane Austen
Weapon/ability: Match-making
Race: Human
Age: 20

Emma is the heroine of whom her creator said that she, the author, would be the only one to like her. She was not altogether right, there are plenty of readers through the years that has taken Emma to their hearts - but there are also many who really dislike her.

These different feelings are perhaps not that strange when dealing with a character of this type. Emma is somewhat spoiled, rich, rather full of herself and has a tendency to meddle in things she really ought to stay out of. She thinks she is great at match-making, after the marriage of her governess, miss Taylor (now Mrs. Weston).

This marriage is the starting-point of the novel. Emma, who lives alone with her father (her mother is dead and her sister is married and lives in London while they live in the small town of Highbury), is by now too old to have a new governess to keep her company. So to make up for it she takes the orphan Harriet Smith under her wings and tries to help her in the world - preferably through match-making. Her first try is with the vicar, Mr. Elton, who is really attentive to the girls - but everything back-fires when it is discovered that he has not interest what so ever in Harriet but is instead aiming at the wealthy heiress Emma, herself. Emma is disgusted by the idea and turns him down.

This book is a comedy and though it deals a lot with match-making and liasons it is not really a romantic story. Emma goes through most of the novel totally uniterested in anything romantic, the thought of marrying herself is far from her mind - she has her own money and therefore sees no need to have a man in her life. Eventually she will mature enough to realize that sometimes it is best not to meddle in other's affairs and comes to understand something about the nature of romantic feelings.

The story has been filmed several times. Two versions, and very different from eachother, worth mentioning are: Emma from 1996 by Miramax, with Gwyneth Paltrow as the lead, and Emma from the same year with Kate Beckinsale as the lead - made by A&E. The film Cluless (from 1995) is based on the same story, but set in modern day Beverly Hills.

The picture above is from C.E. Brooks illustrations to the book and shows Emma (the dark-haried) and Mrs. Elton (the lady the vicar eventually marries after having been snubbed by Emma).

Photo of the week - 'Mummy'

2008-10-03T15:32:00.003+02:00

Date: 1890's
Photographer: Wilbur Portraits
Sitter: 'Mummy'
Provenience: Third Avenue, New York

I am the proud holder of two old albums with photos of friends and family. Many of them are unknown to me, and the albums have no information on names or relationships. But they are still very nice pictures, and this is one of them.

Most of the photos are from Sweden, since they were owned by my paternal grandmother's paternal grandfather, who lived there. But some are of those relatives that went over to America to make a new life there - a common theme in Sweden in the late 1800-hundreds. This is one of these photos.

This is clearly a portrait of someone who wants to show the world that she is successful in her new home. The hair is curled and pinned up in a little bun on top of the head in a fashion that would not have suited when working hard in the old country. The clothes are even more flashy - perhaps even a little bit over the top. The collar is broad with a very bold pattern, a pattern that is echoed on the blouse, a blouse with a high collar and a bow in the neck. This was not how people were dressed back home in poor old Sweden at the time.

Both the hair-do and the broad, very broad you might even say, sleeves makes it very clear that this photo was taken in 1890's - though a closer date can not be determined. Nor can it be determined who the sitter is, more than that she must be one of the Swedish emigrants of the time. But it is one of the few photos in the batch that has some writing on it - on the back it is written 'mamma' (Swedish for 'mummy'). However, it is not known who wrote that.

The slight oval that can be seen around the motif is clearly the traces of the portrait once being set in a photo-frame before being put into this album where it is now.

Hair-do of the week - The crown of St Margret

2008-10-03T14:52:00.005+02:00

This is not exactly a 'how you had your hair'-post, but it is without a doubt true that sometimes your coiffure was accentuated by some kind of ornament - a veil, a hood, a hat or, as in this case, a crown. These were just as important for how your head was perceived (if not more so) than how you had your hair.

This crown comes from the tomb of St. Margret of Hungary who died in 1270. She was the daughter of king Bela IV of Hungary - which made her a princess. She did not live at court though, but instead in a convent. Just aged 3 she was sent to a Dominican convent and when she was 12 she moved to a newly opened convent of the same order in Budapest. Her father eventually wanted her to leave the convent to marry, he even got a papal dispensation for her - but she refused. She continued her godly life and was renowned for it even in her own lifetime. She was beatified just six years after her death - and made formal saint in 1934.

The crown is clearly a sign of her status as a royal princess and not of that as a nun. Nuns did not usually get buried with crowns. This crown was made of silver and then gilded. It is not round but made out of eight pieces that are put together in an octagonal shape. Each piece is then decorated with colourful stones and pieces of metal shaped like leaves. It is a rather fanciful head-wear - really suitable for a royal princess to wear on her hair-do.

Portrait of the week - Mary Magdalene

2008-10-02T14:04:00.003+02:00

This painting portraying a sleeping Mary Magdalene was done by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (perhaps better known as just Caravaggio), sometime around 1595 in Italy.

Mary Magdalene, from the Bible, is a woman that it has been said quite a lot about - but the facts from the actual scripture are somewhat less vivid. She is mentioned in all four gospels. Jesus meets her and frees her of seven demons that had given her some form of physical problem. It is also stated on all four gospels that Mary was present at the crucifixion of Jesus. She was also one of the women that went to the tomb on Easter Day to find it empty and according to John Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus showed himself after his resurrection.

Many of the intellectuals of the Christian church have tried to interpret her and somewhat change her role from that originally stated in the Bible. In the early church Mary Magdalene was distinctly separated from Mary of Bethany and an unnamed women who's sins Jesus absolved after anointing him with oil. It was the pope Gregory I (the Great) who clearly identified Mary with these two other women, thereby making Mary Magdalene a woman of sin who was saved by Jesus and led from her wicked ways to a good Christian life. The theme of the repentant sinner became very popular in Western Europe - but modern scholars do not agree with this view since there is no scriptural evidence to back it up.

Another legend makes Mary Magdalene the apostle of Provence and that she spent her last 30 years in a cavern - and yet another legend makes her the wife of the apostle John. But these are just popular legends that never has been supported by the church.

The view of Mary Magdalene as the sinful woman can be clearly seen in this portrait. Her hair is loose, as is her rich garment - she is a woman with far too much money and not very much in the way of decency. A decent, unmarried woman would not appear in this fashion. Another tell tale sign of her lack of moral is the jewelery that is laying next to her on the floor. Normal women would of course not dream of having expensive stuff laying around in such a manner. And next to it is the jug with oil, ready to anoint the feet of Christ.

Goddess of the week - Sequana

2008-10-01T17:54:00.003+02:00

Name: Sequana
Sphere of influence: The River Seine - healing
Location: France
Famous portraits: The one to the left here in this article

Sequana was a local Celtic goddess connected to the river Seine, and more specifically its source in Burgundy, the Châtillon Plateau near Dijon. A shrine dedicated to the river-goddess was erected in the second or first century B.C., and the Romans would later build a more impressive and monumental temple at the same place in her honour.

Sequana is for once a goddess that we have a statue of that is done by the people that worshiped her. As can be seen in this image she was portrayed as a young woman in draped clothing. The diadem on her head shows her high status. She is standing in a boat in the form of a duck - a clear connection with her role as a river-goddess.

As in many other cases to be river-goddess meant that you were strongly connected to a role as healer (see also for example Sulis). This is clearly shown at Sequana's shrine, where masses of votive-gifts have been found. These gifts can be split into two groups: images of body-parts and limbs, and portraits of pilgrims that came to the shrine to pray for help. The images of the body-parts could be made of either stone or wood and could be anything from internal organs to limbs, heads, and even whole bodies. These were offered in the hope of cure. A common theme was problems with the eyes and it is reasonable to believe that Sequana was thought to be especially good at healing such sufferings. The portraits offered to her of pilgrims show people in simple clothing and it is probable that she was a goddess that the general population turned to with their problems. At her shrine there was also a lot of coins and jewellery - probably offered as a thank you to the goddess.

Woman of the week - Matilda of Flanders

2008-09-30T12:15:00.005+02:00

Name: Matilda (sometimes also known as Maud)

Born: c. 1031

Dead: 2 November 1083

Married to: William, duke of Normandy, later king of England
Children: About 11

Occupation: Duchess of Normandy, queen of England

Like many other medieval figure it is sometimes hard to discern what is legend and what is the actual historical truth about Matilda. Much is of course due to the fact that the sources do not say that much and when there is a lack of sources the imagination can run more freely, filling in the gaps.

We do not even really know what she looked like since no contemporary portrait of her survived - she is not portrayed on the Bayeux tapestry, like her husband was. This statue was made in 1850 by the artist Carle Elshoecht (and can be found in Paris).

But if we try to discern history from later legends a good outline of her life can be drawn. She was the daughter of count Baldwin V of Flanders and Adèle, a daughter of the French king - which made her descendant also to the English king Alfred the Great. She married William, duke of Normandy, in c. 1053. He had yet to conquer the English throne and he was a bastard son which would make her more noble - but the duchy of Normandy was a very strong province only loosely attached to the French throne so the difference of birth should not be stretched too far.

By all accounts it was a happy marriage, William was a faithful husband (!) and they had about eleven children in 14 years. They had four sons, but the exact number of daughters is a bit unsure. They were probably somewhere between five to seven. Two of her sons would live to be kings of England, but not her oldest who was made duke of Normandy but rebelled against his father and therefore lost his place in the succession - this was a time when first-born did not automatically meant you was first in line to the crown.

Matilda was a capable ruler, not just a pretty plaything for a king. She took care of things in Normandy when her husband went to England to rule over there - though he spent quite a lot of time in Normandy too. It was long believed that it was Matilda that was behind the Bayeux tapestry, that tells the story of the conquest of England (and in France it is still known as 'La tapisserie de la reine Mathilde' [Queen Matilda's tapestry]), but know it is generally believed it was commissioned by William's half-brother, bishop Odo.

Matilda died when she was about 52 years old, and she was buried in L'abbeyae aux dames in Caen, France - one of the two churches she and her husband founded as a penance when the pope opposed the marriage, the two were related by blood.

Fashion of the week - Evening wear of 1913

2008-09-26T00:49:00.005+02:00

These two evening-dresses from the French magazine Journal des demoiselles (the issue of December 1st, 1913) is a great example of the fashion of the Belle Époque, the time of beauty and soft lines, not altogether natural shapes of the women wearing and a general excess of everything - the time that would come to a grinding halt with the First World War. This is from the year before and to most people it was a time to act like nothing would change in this world - especially if you were a member of the upper classes, the classes that could afford dresses like this.

The blue dress is both more daring and artistic with it's irregular shape and form, the adding of the fur trim and the deep neckline that must have revealed quite a lot of the bosom of it's wearer. The yellow dress is more girly with it's flounces all along the skirt and even around the neckline - both in back and front (as can be seen in the little drawing next to the big version of the dress). The dress does not reveal as much skin as the other does either.

Both women have obviously long hair, but pinned up and it gives both women a rather flat coiffure, in spite of the curls and waves. The blue-dressed lady has her hair-do topped by some feathers while the other one has left her hair unadorned. On the other hand doesn't the lady on the left wear any jewellery, while the yellow-clad one shows a long string of pearls - a type of necklace that would be very popular indeed in the time after the great war.

Pop-culture woman of the week - Tifa Lockhart

2008-09-24T19:44:00.004+02:00

Name: Tifa Lockhart (ティファ・ロックハート)
First appearance: Final Fantasy VII
Creator: Tetsuya Nomura
Weapon/ability: Martial arts (and a glove)
Race: Human
Age: 20

Tifa is the childhood acquaintance of the video game Final Fantasy's main protagonist Cloud Strife. They both grew up in the small town of Nibelheim and though they lived next door they were not really close - especially not since the time when the two of them were involved in an accident which gave Tifa a concussion and she remained unconscious for some time and her father blamed Cloud. Cloud then decided to leave Nibelheim to become an elite soldier, before he leaves she asks of him to come and rescue her if she ever would get into trouble.

But Tifa is not a sweet girl just sitting around at home, doing nothing. She learns martial arts from the expert Zangan and acts as a guide in the mountains. All is going well for her until the main villain of the game, Sephiroth completely loses it and decides to burn down Nibelheim. He succeeded and many of the inhabitants, Tifa's father included, is murdered. Tifa is enraged by this and tries to take Sephiroth down herself - and is nearly killed herself in the process. Cloud is there and saves her - but this she doesn't remember herself.

Having lost both home and family (Tifa's mother died when she was little) she moves to the big city of Midgar and opens a bar there, 7th heaven, with an underground resistance-group in the vicinity too, the Avalanche. It is after this she was more meets Cloud, who apparently has left his elite force after becoming one of the first ranked. He is somewhat disoriented and confused and Tifa is worried about him and persuades him to join Avalanche. This is the beginning of their adventure to safe the world - though they are not aware of this to start with.

Tifa appears in several of the follow-up games to the massive hit Final Fantasy VII. This includes the movie Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children, set two years after the game - in which Tifa once more has a bar, but also takes care of children orphaned after the near-destruction of the world.

Tifa was designed by Tetsuya Nomura with concept art by Yoshitaka Amano - as can be seen here. She was not included in the first drafts of the game, but was later added as a key-figure and a contrast to the other main female character, Aerith. This is shown both in clothing (Tifa has a short skirt, initially there was a debate if she was to have a skirt or shorts, and Aerith a long dress) and their personality - Tifa has a lot of emotions too, but she spends most of her time hiding them and is rather shy.

Photo of the week - Augusta Schack

2008-09-23T22:36:00.004+02:00

Date: 1870's
Photographer: Chr. Neuhaus
Sitter: Louise Augusta Schack, nee Olivarius
Provenience: Copenhagen

The sitter of this photo is Augusta Olivarius who in 1876, on June 7th 1876 married the vicar Albert Schack. She was herself the daughter of another vicar, C.A. Olivarius, from Aagerup-Kirkerup, Denmark. By the time of their marriage he was working in Raklev and the following year he took a position in Bredstrup. That is to say that even though the photo is taken in Copenhagen, they never lived there - not as a couple and it is doubtful that she did before. The photo is not dated, but it is likely that it is from the time of the marriage, or thereabout.

She is dressed according to the latest fashion, both in dess and hair, she wears a band as a necklace around her neck and her hair is carefully curled. It is impossible to discern from this picture if she is yet married, or even engaged, but it is at least obvious that looking fashionable was not thought as unsuitable for the daughter of a country vicar.

The couple had at least two sons, Tage (born 1892) and Egede (born 1895) - who both became vicars.

Augusta died in 1922. Her named is scribbled at the back of the photo.