"Paint guidancefor Italian troops in early 1500s" Topic

I have the wonderful blog from James Roach.

Does anyone have any other good references online or in print that would guide a novice in painting Italians in the Italian Wars of early 1500s.

Thanks

Make them colourful and entirely tasteless – not much more is really needed. This is before uniforms become the order of the day and soldiers want as much show and display as they can afford.

Machiavelli's Florentine militia in 1506 were uniformed in white doublets, white caps, and red-and-white hose (Hibbert's "Florence", quoting a witness of their first review).

There are also accounts of Venetian militia, including the Romagnol pikemen, in red and white.

Borgia colours were black and gold (yellow) for his guard at least.

Spanish favoured red, it seems.

I would advise you to avoid painting Black Bands in black. The evidence is, as far as I can see, inconclusive. It could just as easily refer to their flags, armbands, or the fact that anything called 'black' generally instilled fear – "The black bands are coming, run for the hills!"

From contemporary art, and except for the most punky extreme of society, it seems that colour was used in a fashionable, reasonable way. Two or three colours for a full 'costume' seems to be more usual than everything being a different hue.

BTW, glad you like my blog.

Thanks all

can you post a link to his blog?

link

Also see scenarios label, etc.

The "Black" in the Black Bands was usually considered some form of "Elite", like in "Black Legion" or "Black Guard". At Pavia the French had two "Black Bands", their Landsknechts and the Italians.
That said, I give them a core of dark grey Doppelsöldners in the first ranks, as a kind of understatement: "We do not need fancy colours to be the best"…

"White" was often used in the same sense. The Duke of Saxon, when creating his army for a campaign in northern Germany in 1513, created a "Black" and a "White" contingent. The Black one later found itself shoed into French service…

BTW: Sorry if that does not help with the painting of Italians. There is J.R.Hales "Artiss and Warfare in the Renaissance", comparing German and Italian illustrations and paintings of the time. Not too many colour plates in there, though, and you often wonder wether the colours are not used because they were available rather then depict original costume. On the whole I would paint Italians in clear, distinct colours that are used by units, as compared to the often more gaudy but also more drab style of Landsknechts or Swiss.