Burgundian Noblemen's Underclothes c1445-1475

5. What is the shape of the codpiece?
6. What is the shape of the feet?
7. Where are the seams and how are the hose constructed?
I’ll take each of these in order:
1. Are the legs separate or sewn together across the butt?
Figures 5-9 obviously have one leg separate from the other (they can be removed
separately or rolled down. However figures 10-12 are just as obviously joined hose
(separate legs would fall down like in Figure 7 if the center back point was released).
Since figures 7 and 10 come from the same painting, I conclude that this time period was
a transition era between the styles and both could be found. I hypothesize that earlier in
this era the split hose were more common and later the joined hose were more common.
My reasoning is due to joined hose being predominate at the turn of the 16 th century, and
that there was an impetus towards the hose covering the butt due to the rise in the
hemline of the over-gown from mid-thigh to mid-butt between 1445 and 1475. If you
choose to do split hose, be aware that the underwear will show occasionally, as in this
Italian picture:
Figure 6.16
1452-66 Piero della Francesca, Battle
between Heraclius and Chosroes (detail)
2. Do the hose have attached feet?
Hose are worn with shoes in the majority of the pictures showing feet, making this
question difficult to be sure of the answer. I have found no pictures that show hose being
cut off at the ankle (although there are some in Italian art). Figure 12 shows a stirrup
rather then a full foot. If shoes are not worn over the hosen, then almost always the hose
have feet attached, as in Figure 5, 13, 14 & 15. There are a number of fragments of extant
hose (although I know of none from this period for northern Europe); most of the extant
pieces have feet (or the remains thereof). See Marc Carlton’s website for a summary:
18