A Day at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library: Part II — Cloth as Authority

Funerary Effigies of a Man & Woman, 1640s, painted wood

See Part I, Part III

On display in the Museum’s grandiloquent Renaissance courtyard, Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminates, 1550–1700 reframes clothing not merely as ornament, but as structure—moral, political, and theological. The weight of black silks, the discipline of line, and the severity of form speak to a civilization that understood conspicuous restraint as power.

What struck me most was how fashion here functioned as a visual grammar of order. These garments were not designed to flatter individuality, but to subordinate it to hierarchy, duty, and role—an idea largely alien to the modern eye.

A closer look at the effigies

The museum's Renaissance courtyard

Isabel of Bourbon, Queen of Spain, ca. 1627-1639, oil on
canvas, by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) and workshop

(L) Mariana of Austria, Queen of Spain, ca. 1650-1651, oil on canvas,
unknown Spanish painter. (R) Infanta Maria Anna of Austria,
ca. 1620s, oil on canvas, unknown Spanish painter

(L) Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1665, oil on canvas, unknown Spanish
painter. (R) Portrait of Maria de Haro y Guzman, Duchess of Pastrana
and Duchess of Infantado, 1665-75, oil on canvas, anonymous.

(L) Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, 1797, oil on canvas, Francisco de
Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). (R) Portrait of a Woman, ca.
1670-1675, oil on canvas, unknown Spanish painter

(L-R) Infanta Anna Mauiricia, future Queen of France, ca. 1612-1615,
oil on canvas; Prince Philip, future King Philip IV of Spain, ca.
1612-1615, oil on canvas, unknown Spanish painter

(L-R) Bull charging a picnic; Two seated women and a girl with three men, ca.
1650, oil on canvas, attributed to Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1612-1667)

Dalmatic, ca. 1500-1700, black cut silk velvet embroidered
with colored silk and gold/silver metal thread

(L) Virgin Mary, ca. 1825, polychromed wood with glass eyes; lamé dress and embroidered velvet cape with metal lace. (R) Binding of red velvet with silver mountings; lead seal of Philip IV attached with colored silk cords

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Luis Gonzalez de Molina, resident of Mantiel, Granada, 1581, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Don Pedro de Vadillo y Salas, resident
of Écija, for Himself and His Son, Juan de Vadillo y Góngora,
Valladolid, 1694, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Don Alonso de Rivera y Vargas, resident of Torres de la Alameda, Burgos, 1604, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Diego de San Juan, native of the Kingdom of Aragon, Madrid, 1641, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Third Issue of a Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Francisco and Don Luis
de Ortega Vallejo, Brothers and Residents of Valdepeñas (Jaén),
Granada, 1601, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Don Sebastián Carreño, Chief
Constable of Madrid, Native of Manzanares, Madrid, I68I,
illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility of Don Gabriel Ortiz, Chief of San Juan Bautista de
Coixtlahuaca of the Upper Mixtec, and His Sons, Puebla de los Ángeles
(Oaxaca), Mexico, 1695, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility of Alonso, Juan, and Francisco de Vilches Tamariz,
Brothers and residents of Carmona and El Viso, Granada,
1591, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility of Don Juan Ramirez de la Trapera for Himself and His
Sons, Don Francisco and Don Fernando Ramírez de la Trapera, residents
of Villamayor, Granada, 1633, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Alonso de Castro, resident of Santo Domingo
de Silos, Valladolid, 1553, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by the University Graduate, Pedro
Moriano, resident of Fuente del Maestre, Granada, 1570,
illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Gaspar Guerra del Cañamal, resident
of Seville, Granada, I610, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Second Issue of a Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Don Antonio
de Contreras, resident of Barajas, Valladolid, 1651,
illuminated manuscript on parchment

Letter of Nobility Petitioned by Don Francisco Roque de la
Nueva y Tapia, resident of Casarrubios del Monte, Valladolid,
1668, illuminated manuscript on parchment

Family tree of Don Juan de Rivas Castroviejo. Letter of Nobility
Petitioned by Don Juan de Rivas Castroviejo, resident of Espejo,
Granada, 1699, illuminated manuscript on parchment