A Kirtle in the Style of Rogier van der Wyden
Constanza de Mendoza
sunny_buchler@sbcglobal.net
This is white wool gothic fitted dress circa 1445 in Flanders. It has short raglan sleeves
and a waist seam á la Rogier Van der Wyden’s Mary Magdalene in Decent from the
Cross, his portrait of Mary Magdalene in The Braque Family Triptych, and the red dress
in the central panel of the Seven Sacraments. For reference I also used the green
“fantasy” overdress from Wyden’s St Columbia Altarpiece, also the blue over-gown in
the background of the St. John Altarpiece, the blue kirtle in Petrus Christus’ The
Lamentation, and the green kirtle in Hugo Van der Goes’ Calvary Triptych.
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Decent from the Cross (circa 1435) by Rogier Van
der Wyden
The Braque Family Triptych (circa 1445-50) by Rogier Van
der Wyden
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Seven Sacraments (circa 1450) by Rogier Van der
Wyden
St Columba Altarpiece (circa 1455) by Rogier Van der Wyden
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St John Altarpiece (circa 1455-60) by Rogier Van der
Wyden
The Lamentation (1455-60) by Petrus Christus
Calvary Triptych (circa 1465-68) by Hugo Van der
Goes
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Waist seam and Skirt Pleating
Decent from the Cross
St Columba Altarpiece
This looks like a smooth waist seam, but there’s no
suggestion of pleats in the back. However, from this
angle, they might not be visible.
I don’t see a waist seam, but the pleats in
the back suggest that there is a waist seam
in the back panels. The front does not have
pleats.
Seven Sacraments
Calvary Triptych
This looks like a waist seam, with pleats in the back,
although the side is smooth.
There is pleating all around the waist seam
here.
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The Braque Family Triptych
I don’t see a waist seam at all here, nor is there a suggestion of pleating in the back.
Neither the Seven Sacraments, the St. Columbia Altarpiece, nor the Calvary Triptych
show a direction for the pleats which suggests that they are box pleats, cartridge pleats, or
organ pleats rather then knife pleats. I choose box pleats because they’re the flattest
option and I don’t think that the Seven Sacraments dress shows bulk at the top of the
pleats, which organ and cartridge pleats would have.
Bodice Seams
Decent from the Cross
Seven Sacraments
There is a very clear side seam under the arm
here. The dip in at the top of the back may
suggest a seam, but it is only suggestive.
There is defiantly a center back seam, there may or
may not be a side seam shown in the shadows on
her left.
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Neck Line
Decent from the Cross
The Braque Family Triptych
There is a self-fabric band or facing edging the
neckline. There is an angled seam where the
sleeve meets the neck in both the front and the
back of the dress.
There is a self-fabric band or facing edging the neckline.
There is a seam in this band where the sleeve meets the
neck.
Seven Sacraments
St Columba Altarpiece
There is a self-fabric band or facing edging the
neckline. I think there’s a seam in this bad at
the center back of the neck.
There is a self-fabric band or facing edging the neckline.
The shapes of all four of these necklines are quite different. I chose to copy the neckline
of the Decent from the Cross. All of these images show a self-fabric band along the
neckline. I used a bias-cut facing because it is much more conserving of fabric than a
shaped facing, plus it would go around the curves much more smoothly then a straightcut facing. Bias strips are easy to come-by if the skirt is cut in panels – when I cut the
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skirt, the left-over 2” between my skirt panels was a perfect bias strip; so it may not be as
wasteful of fabric as one usually thinks.
Decent from the Cross
Notice the line just inset from the edge of the neck. I’m not sure
what this indicates. I'm wondering if the lines at the neckline mean
that the thing we're looking at isn't a facing at all, but merely
decoration... or if it's the effect of inset stab stitching... more
experimentation needs to be done.
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Raglan Sleeves
Decent from the Cross
The Braque Family Triptych
This might show raglan sleeves; there is definitely a
seam in the neck facing at the corner. However, the
area beneath that seam (between it and the under-arm
folds) is too blurry to be sure there is (or is not) a
seam.
This might show raglan sleeves; there is definitely a
seam in the neck facing at the corner. However, it’s
not clear if the angled line coming from the bottom
of her armhole towards the seam in the neck facing
is a seam line or a fold. The seam in the neckline
facing doesn’t mean there must be a shoulder seam
beneath it.
St Columba Altarpiece
Seven Sacraments
This may actually show a raglan seam-line, but it
also might be a fold.
This clearly shows a standard, fitted armhole.
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I am not positive that the research images support raglan sleeves. Both the Decent from
the Cross and the The Braque Family Triptych are suggestive, but not conclusive. All the
other kirtles I’ve found (even in van der Wyden’s work) clearly show normal armhole
seams.
However, on the pro-raglan sleeves side:
 There is at least one houppelande painting that shows raglan sleeves
Portrait of a Young Woman (circa
1435) by Rogier Van der Wyden
Detail
The angled line on the right, suggests raglan sleeves to me. Especially
when combined with the heavy pleats over the bust but no pleating in
the sleeve

There are multiple pictures of the chemise-like fantasy over-garment (seen only
on saints) that have raglan sleeves. Therefore, I don’t think the raglan seam-line is
a completely foreign concept for this period.
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The Lamentation
The raglan seam is not depicted explicitly here,
but the drape of the chemise-like overdress is
highly suggestive.

Middelburg Altarpiece (1445-48) by Rogier Van der
Wyden
The raglan seam-line of the Virgin’s chemise-like
overdress is decorated with embroidery.
ALL of the dresses in this style seem to have a self-fabric trim around the neck.
This makes perfect sense if the sleeves are raglan – if you want to bring the
neckline at the shoulders further towards the neck without using a dart – you can’t
do it just by extending the top of the raglan sleeve; it would look like it was
flaring out from the body due to the shoulder point. A modernly obvious method
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
of achieving a closer fit over the shoulder is adding a bias strip. On the down side,
I have no evidence for using bias for facing or trim (or anything else for that
matter) in the SCA period…
The all three of the pictures that may depict raglan sleeves show necklines with
obliquely angled corners (the corners vary in angle, but they’re there). Corners
come naturally with raglan sleeves.
At best, I think raglan sleeves are an uncommon kirtle variation. But I think there is an
argument to be made for the construction. However, I am not happy with where the
raglan seam-lines fall on the dress I made. They don’t match the lines that might
hypothetically be raglan seam lines in the paintings. I need to try again and see if I can
move the seam-lines into the "correct" position or if that's impossible with raglan sleeves;
which would suggest that the questionable areas are folds rather then seam-lines...
Sleeve Length
The Braque Family Triptych
Seven Sacraments
The shift is sticking out beneath the pinned
over-sleeve, which suggests that the under
sleeve must be short to allow this to happen
A glimpse of the edge of the right sleeve
shows beneath the over-sleeve.
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The Lamentation
This sleeve is short, but it’s longer then the
other two.
Bibliography
Kemperdick, Stephan. Masters of Netherlandish Art. Rogier van der Weyden. Germany:
Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1999.
Frère, Jean-Claude. Early Flemish Painting. Italy: Finest SA/Éditions Pierre Terrail,
1997.
Vos, Dirk de. Rogier van der Weyden. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999.
Web Gallery of Art. Aug. 3, 2010. http://www.wga.hu/index.html
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