Zingarella, Boccaccio Boccaccino, 1504-1505Uffuzi Gallery, Florence
Inventory of 1890 item number 8539
Apparently Zingarella is an Italian word for Gypsy. This leaves me wondering about the connection between Zingarella and Cinderella. Was she actually a Gypsy? Were her step-family merely trying to insult her...perhaps for being poor and dirty (a conventional prejudice about gypsies)?
If Cinderella were an abusive nickname what was her birth name? And why didn't she use it later in life? Or did she, and perhaps that's why we think of Cinderella as a myth?
I am at home sick today and it's clearly leaving me too much time to think.
Like, what is the connection between brazziarie (sp?)--the Italian name for partlet--and brasserie/bra. I've read in numerous books that 'the origin of the name bra is unknown' but the connection seems pretty plausible/obvious to me!
I know that a lot of the Flemish (Aertsen and Beuckelaer specificly) paintings seem to show their partlets ending right under their breasts. If some of the theories are correct (like Kass of reconstructing history) then the partlet is what is providing most of the support to the bust. I have tried it before, and it is definately possible to get a fair amount of bust support from a partlet. I think the connection is quite plausible.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry i missed this comment until now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your personal experience with partlets. I don't know anyone localy who wears them and I find most on-line info is rather reticent about the actual mechanics of getting a partlet to fit and behave as desired. Its good to hear there is hope!
As to the bra connection I hope to someday read a definative answer in the work of a serious costume resercher. Who knows, it might even be me!