Belt for a Lady's Dress (c. 1375–1400): Art, History and Details

Belt for a Lady's Dress (c. 1375–1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Because of its extraordinary richness, this belt (also known as a girdle) was both an ornament for the body and an object of great personal luxury. Almost eight feet in length, belts like this were at the height of fashion for both men and women. After being passed around the waist and through the buckle, one end of the belt would fall to the hem of the garment. The belt's many colorful enamel plaques are worked in translucent enamel over decoration engraved into the silver beneath (an enameler's technique known as basse-taille). Within the plaques and cast into the buckle are scenes of courtly love, musicians, and fantastic animals. A large number of translucent enamels were made for secular objects during the late Middle Ages for use on jewelry, cups, garment clasps, and similar objects. This belt is a rare survival among these now scarce objects.

Object facts

• Title: Belt for a Lady's Dress
• Date: c. 1375–1400
• Culture: Italy, Siena(?)
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: basse-taille enamel and gilding on silver, silver thread, gilt-silver buckle, cast and chased
• Dimensions: Overall: 236.5 x 2.9 x 0.6 cm (93 1/8 x 1 1/8 x 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1930.742

A detail from the museum

Look closely at the tiny scenes of courtly love on the plaques that adorn this belt. Given their size, these scenes were designed for the enjoyment of the woman who wore this belt over a sumptuous dress rather than an admirer from a distance.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• W. M. M. “Girdle of the Fourteenth Century.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 3 (March 1930): 35–41.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.