Bums, Codpieces, and the Uppity Women of the Renaissance
By Liliana Leopardi
Admit it — you know you've stared and gawked. They are hard to miss, considering how proudly they're emphasized and displayed in 15th- and 16th-century male portraiture. I am speaking, of course, about codpieces.
Your teenage kids have surely snickered at them. But have you stopped and thought about the purpose these cloth sacks stretched over the male crotch served during the Renaissance? Why do they seem to get bigger and bigger in statues and paintings through the centuries, only to disappear around 1575? And have you ever wondered what Renaissance women thought of such saucy displays of virility?
A codpiece has nothing to do with fish. In Middle English, codd meant "bag" and "scrotum." And pece meant... well, just that. Clearly, name and form directly referred to the function of this interesting fashion accessory. Its use seems to have come about when men's jackets, or doublets, started getting shorter and shorter. Since men's hosiery was usually open at the crotch level, the family jewels were left rather free and only covered by the length of the doublet. As the jackets shortened, men were faced with a modesty conundrum; thus, the invention of a little, triangular, flat piece of fabric to cover the slash and contain the genitalia.
But the line between modesty and exhibitionism soon became blurred, and by the 16th century, these functional pouches had become a fashion accessory. The codpiece was padded and used to call attention to a man's virile assets. Some scholars of fashion claim that the codpiece slowly fell out of style after 1575 thanks to Queen Elizabeth I of England, who decided that she had not much use for a man's virility since she would not marry or bear children.
But what did other Renaissance-era women think of men's sense of fashion? Not much evidence survives, but I recently rediscovered and translated the following 16th-century letter:
"Hear, Hear, Messeres: In your short clothing, to show off a pair of fine stockings you wear jackets and doublets so short that you show all the buttocks and the whole bum and rear, and not only from the rear but also in front you show off big, long, and thin codpieces that point upwards. This is to be considered horribly dishonest and in truth we can no longer bear to see it."
The letter was written by two women to the city council of Ascoli Piceno as a response to the continuous accusations against women's fashion. These uppity women certainly weren't afraid to share their opinions — which is fortunate, since there was no Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in Renaissance Italy to keep men's fashion sense in check.
Looking for the best codpieces in Rome? Check out Bronzino's Portrait of Stefano IV Colonna (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte) and Bachiacca's Life of Joseph: The Search for the Stolen Cup (Borghese Gallery). In Florence, don't miss these works in the Uffizi Gallery: Bronzino's Portrait of Guidobaldo della Rovere, Georg Pencz's Portrait of a Young Man, and Francois Clouet's Portrait of Henry II.
Liliana Leopardi, Ph.D., is a professor of art history at Colorado College and a docent for Context Rome.