500 Years of Dürer’s Irishさんのイラストまとめ

@hiramjmorgan hypothesises that a key source for Dürer’s Irishmen was the account of Burgundian chronicler Laurent Vital, whose ship harboured in Kinsale co. Cork during a storm in 1518. His account of the locals & their “strange” dress is full of juicy ethnographic details …

Dürer’s drawing of the Irish falls into a category of artworks known as costume images, which in 16thc Europe were a popular way to visualise diverse populations.

Contemporaries believed dress could be national: hats, hairstyles & weapons might be ‘English’, ‘French’, or 'Dutch'

In medieval Ireland, many Irish lords imported skilled mercenaries from the West Highlands. These Scots-Norse “Gallowglass” were elite warriors who achieved privilege in Irish society. By Dürer’s time, many were from powerful families who'd acquired their own estates in Ireland.

Despite being a luxury commodity, Ireland’s love of saffron dye was mocked by foreign critics who associated its use with lice and a lack of hygiene.

A Venetian ambassador to England in 1530s reported that the Irish “wear a shirt steeped in saffron on account of the lice”.

Albrecht Dürer’s stylish drawing of Irish soldiers turns 500 this year.

Follow us over the next month as UCC historians @Hiramjmorgan & @DrKLBond celebrate the quincentenary of this important representation of Renaissance Irish

@IrishResearch #LoveIrishResearch @UCCHistory