oa On seventeenth-century gowns and women’s lives: An examination

This paper aims to outline future collaborations between material culture researchers and museums in women's clothing and silk textiles in early modern Europe. Case studies from Venetian colonies in the Mediterranean and the Dutch Republic will be used to address the question of the comparability of materials in seventeenth-century garments that have either survived or have been extensively described in archival documents (inventories). Examples like De Jurk (exhibited in Texel Kaap Skil Museum) and the ‘Venetocretan Silk Gown’ (still being 'locked' in the marriage inventories of Venetian Crete) will set the stage for a discussion around questions relevant to the fields of cultural heritage and material culture. For example: how do we make hidden fragments of cultural heritage, such as the ‘Venetocretan Silk Gown’, visible? How do we deal with the gaps in archival documents or fragmentary archaeological finds? How do we give women a voice through the study of their clothing? How do we make similar cases of seventeenth-century European dress comparable? Ultimately, solving the puzzle of female dress and gender in early modern Europe is necessary if we wish to explore what kind of stories can be told about the seventeenth century when we focus on the perceptions of women from different social backgrounds.