Interdisciplinary study of 16th-century Spanish court woman fashion, gemstones, and Virgen del Rosario dress

Abstract

Woman clothing and gemstones of the Spanish court of 16th and 17th-century symbolized the power through the fashion. The Virgen del Rosario’s dress, compared with portraits of queens and infantas of this period, provides a crucial visual record of period attire and adornment and serves as a basis for investigating the originality and later interventions. This study applies an integrated historical, artistic and material approach, combining non-invasive techniques such as Raman, FTIR, XRF and SEM-EDS analysis. Comparative analysis links the observation of clothing and jewelry in portraits with the morphological and chemical examination of the gemstones set in the 17th-century metallic Virgin’s dress. Results indicate at least three historical phases of interventions on the dress: gemstones contemporary with the original manufacture featuring mounted on their crowns and modified dutch cuts; doublet or triplet stones with brilliant cuts; and more recent, emerald-cut glass, providing insights into the dress’s restorations and modifications.