

Portrait of a Man in White, 1574
Monogrammist LAM (French, active 1568–74)
Oil on wood
Monogrammist LAM (French, active 1568–74)
Oil on wood
16 1/8 x 9 1/2 in. (41 x 24.1 cm)
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931 (32.100.119)
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, certain styles of breeches gave the illusion of skirted garments. Trunk hose, for instance, covered the upper part of the leg with balloon-like magnitude. Moralists attacked the stuffed trunk hose on the grounds of effeminacy, arguing that they echoed the curves of female hips. Indeed, by the early 1560s, trunk hose were so large that proclamations were passed to reduce their size.
This work of art also appears on Connections: White







