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A zibellino, from the Italian for “sable,” is a pelt from one of the mustelids  (sable, marten, ermine) worn draped at the neck or hanging at the waist, or carried in the hand; a women’s fashion accessory popular in the later 15th & 16th centuries. Some zibellini were fitted with faces & paws of goldsmith’s work with jeweled eyes & pearl earrings, while unadorned furs were also fashionable.  Although it had been suggested that the furs were intended to attract fleas away from the body of the wearer, that appears to be merely urban, or perhaps, feudal legend.

The sartorial taxonomy represented by the codification of sumptuary laws (sumptuariae leges), especially during the Renaissance, preserved the demarcations of class distinction.  We wouldn’t want just anyone to wear a zibellino! And so we find the likes of Mary Queen of Scots & Elizabeth I of England wearing their sable zibellini, while those of lesser standing could wear fur pieces more suited to their station, de facto.

Cremonese court painter to Philip II of Spain, Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625), includes several zibellini in her works.  The detail from the painting above is from a portrate of Bianca Ponzoni, Anguissola’s step-mother, painted in 1557. Perhaps the most famous is her portrait of Queen Elisabeth of Valois with the pelt of a marten set with a head & feet of jewelled gold.  (It was the most widely copied portrait in Spain; copied by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens).

Although carrying zibellini as a fashion statement died out in the 17th century, fox & mink pelts were worn in similar fashion in the 19th & 20th century.  But be not dismayed.  You too may carry a zibellini (although preferably not to a PETA meeting), as advertized by The Society for Creative Anachronism

‘Your zibellino will be made to order. You get to choose your:

• Type of fur: I always have mink or marten on hand.  Also, I will occasionally I have fox and sable pelts available as well.

• Color of “metal”:  My zibie’s heads and feet are made of a durable polymer clay, which is much lighter weight and economical than real gold or silver.  You have your choice of gold, silver, copper, black, or pearl.  Other colors available upon request.

• Decorations: Gold or silver filigree & your choice of crystal colors for the collar, eyes & overall ornamentation.  (Actual layout of decoration will be up to my discretion.)

Included is a photo of my own personal zibellino.  Actually, it’s a mink’s head from a stole I purchased at a “flea market,” then mounted on a small 3×5″ plaque in order to parody a relative’s trophy room.

Sherrill, Tawny  “Fleas, Furs, & Fashions: Zibellini as Luxury Accessories of the Renaissance,” in Robin Netherton & Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, Medieval Clothing & Textiles, Vol 2, p. 121-50

Basic Chart of Tudor Sumptuary Laws for Dress

Grant DeVolson Wood (1891–1942) — long before his “American Gothic” became iconic,  Wood’s forays into “formal” art education included occasional night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago.  However like other Americans of the era, he studied at the Academie Julien (Reginald Leslie Grooms was a fellow student).  While in Paris he became captivated with Impressionism & Post-Impressionism [Les Nabis] as reflected in some of his works below.
In spite of this lack of formal training, he became an associate professor of fine arts at what is now the University of Iowa.  During his tenure this led to continual confrontations with the guild of “academic” professors.  One of Wood’s detractors was H. W. Janson, then a young professor in Iowa City, whose textbook History of Art has been the default standard in classrooms.  Friction between them prompted Janson’s criticism of Wood & Regionalism in the 1940’s & 1950’s. The latest edition excludes any mention of Wood, Regionalism, or “American Gothic”.  Nevertheless, Wood received a number of prestigious honorary degrees.  In his lithograph, Honorary Degree (1937), Wood, somewhat “short” on formal training, is honored with a “gothic” hood by his taller & more pretentious academic colleagues. Wood is basking in the glory of the Gothic arch, his symbol for Regionalism & American Gothic, his claims to fame.  This is one of the few self-portraits he completed.

As an aside: Although it’s common knowledge that the models for  the oft-parodied “American Gothic” were Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham (1900-90), & his local dentist from Cedar Rapids, Dr. Byron H. McKeeby (1867-1950), interestingly, both sat separately & never in situ in front of the Carpenter Gothic style house (Sears, Roebuck & Co. used to sell them as kits) which still is standing in Eldon, Wapello County, Iowa

Dan Ellis-Killian

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• In 1893, architect Louis Sullivan personally asked Frank Lloyd Wright to leave his Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan after he discovered that Wright had been moonlighting.
• Later, his son, John Lloyd Wright, was fired from his father’s architectural firm over a financial disagreement, only to go on to invent the iconic “Lincoln Logs”
• There’s a small brass marker outside a nondescript house in Fiesole (above Florence) Italy, where Wright & Mamah Cheney continued their open ‘liaison,’ though both were married to their respective spouses at the time. The scandal that erupted over this affair (not his last) virtually destroyed Wright’s practice in the States. On August 15, 1914, while Wright was in Chicago, a servant set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin & murdered seven people as the fire burned; among the dead were Mamah & two of her children.
  
  

Gaudí began work on the Sagrada Familia in 1883, at age 31, his work on the project ended when he was hit by a trolley in 1926.  He is buried in the cathedral’s crypt