Renaissance lace patterns from the 16th century

In the 16th century, several lace pattern books were produced in Europe for the skilled amateur working from home. Cesare Vecellio, a Venetian painter and designer who was a relative of the painter Titian, produced four volumes of these patterns. The first, entitled 'Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne' (Coronet of the noble and virtuous [skilful] ladies) was published in 1591 and dedicated to the wife of the ‘most illustrious lord procurator’ of Venice. 

All these books were dedicated to wealthy patronesses, who presumably had the leisure time to make these laces, or more likely, to organise and pay for their production by a skilled female workforce. Each design is accompanied by a caption highlighting its function or exclusivity, for example this image is labelled ‘Elegant Flemish style patterns used in Italy by duchesses and other noblewomen’ in the same way modern magazines advertise high end fashion.

Other captions are very specific, such as ‘Patterns for collars on little boys’ first dress clothes’, below this image of small patterns for children’s clothes. No instruction are given in the books, but the laces are variously labelled as punto in aria, cutwork, reticella, Flemish style needlework or rosettes. Santina Levey notes that Vecellio used all these terms interchangeably and all the patterns in this book are for needle lace. By the time of publication, needle lace no longer depended on a geometric woven background (like cutwork) and a technique based on outlining cords had been developed (punto in aria) which allowed the production of more free-flowing patterns of any shape. Basically the lacemaker could use whatever needle-lace technique she preferred, for example the image at the top of this blog is based on a square geometric design and could be worked in a reticella style or more freely as punto in aria.