Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/247

 POPULAR LIFE AS REFLECTED BY ART 235 turned up behind, or vice versa. There were beaver, felt, or cloth hats of various colours and designs, trimmed with feathers, gold ornamentation, or ribbons that hung down to the ground. Long curls were considered a great adjunct to manly beauty, and much time and care were bestowed on the arrangement of them. When the son of the wealthy patrician, Jerome Tscheckenburlin, of Basle, became disgusted with the vanities of the world and joined the Carthusian order at the age of twenty-six, he had his portrait painted in the Court dress in which he entered the monastery. Long curls encircled his forehead and fell over his shoulders. In the portraits of the youthful King Maximilian we always notice his beautiful wavy hair falling low over his neck. Even Albert Dtirer, the son of the plain goldsmith, seemed to delight in his ringlets. Sometimes, even, we see men with their curls encircled by an enamelled band, fastened by buckle and heron's plume, or even with a bunch of ivy or flowers. Instead of flowing curls the women wore thick braids of hair behind the ears, which gave rise to the reproach that ' the women wear the hair of the dead.' The young girls wore their plaits in gold or jewelled nets, to which were attached golden aiglets. Diirer's well-known picture of the espousals of the Virgin gives us a good idea of the favourite dress of the young fiancees of the Middle Ages. Over a short velvet dress, which Mary holds in one hand, she wears a richly fur-trimmed robe with train and hanging sleeves. On her head is a small cap and veil. Amongst her companions is a Nuremberg woman of good position, who wears a full mantle and a piled-up linen cap.