ABSTRACT
The clothes worn in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy were significant enough to merit frequent, detailed description by contemporary diarists, letter-writers, diplomats and bureaucrats, but there is little evidence that considerations of beauty played any part in their expositions. Concepts of beauty were thus influenced by strongly expressed social conventions and expressions of personal taste were clearly subordinated to the demands of etiquette. Depending upon rank, enhancement of dignity was admirable in male dress but in female attire a restrained beauty was desirable. The views of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian writers on etiquette are very similar, and contemporary evidence suggests that most people showed considerable sensitivity to the nuances of meaning in dress. In the hierarchical society of Renaissance Europe, the conventions of dress and etiquette were founded upon a belief that outward beauty symbolized an inner grace. Anyone of lower status had to conform to more mundane expectations, exercising a limited personal choice in apparel.
