"Italian Wars - Regimental Uniforms? " Topic

I'm currently in the mood to paint some minis from the Italians Wars, and I was wondering about paint schemes. I know there are no real uniforms for this period (aside from the common filth and blood). However, I've read that some regiments in the English civil war had colors unique to them, such as a green regiment with green coats, or a blue regiment with blue coats. I want to say that I've observed a few instances of this phenomena in the Thirty Years War as well. I know it's a 150 year difference, but has anyone seen this amongst units in the Italian Wars? The closest to this I've heard is that an Italian city-state issued red and white cloth in it's first payment to it's mercenary troops, which they then took to tailors to fashion into a "uniform." Mind you, I can't recall where I heard this- it may be false.

Apart from the liveries used by some troops such as the French Ordonnance companies there was not much resembling uniforms in this period. A lot of the troops, Swiss and Landsknechts in particular regarded their highly individual mode of dress as a mark of pride. That is why the period is so colorfull but also such a pain to paint.

That said many wargamers (myself included) probably made it harder than it had to be by using too many colours and too bright colours. A carefull study of the pictorial evidence suggests that even Landsknechts were not as extreme as some misleading evidence would have you believe at first glance.

GARS,

You need to be careful with ECW regiments (and possibly TYW units, too) as a colour reference normally refers to the flags and not the coats. Whilst it was not unknown for the flags and coats to be the same colour, it was far from normal.

As regards the Italian Wars, a few units appear to have been uniformed in a city's livery colours (I think red and white was Venice), but there were no uniforms as such outside of special units, such as bodyguards, and most troops just wore a sign or badge.

As Daniel says, keep the colours few and muted for the rank-and-file.

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Hope these links help.

So, pretty mixed colors, but keep the pallet muted? Browny reds, drab greens, greyish blues, golden yellows and creamy whites? With maybe some black for fun.

So Condottieri bands often wore uniforms?

I am no specialist of the period, but I found this contemporary painting which seems to imply that at least French royal troops were fairly uniformed:

Great image!

I believe those are "guards" of the King of France, so probably more uniform in appearance than typical soldiers of the period.

Haven't seen that image before.

Love the porcupine banner.

GARS1900 -- I'm not sure I would use the term "uniform" to describe condottiere dress. Instead it's more like they wore similar colors.

See this website, for a picture of infantry at Piombino. The Malatesta forces are wearing mostly red, white, and green, but it various configurations and with other colors occasionally thrown in:

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So, the closest to "uniforms" in this period is that some troops wore various costumes in similar colors?

Yeah, that's probably a good way of describing it. Only "royal guards" and the like might be literally uniformed. In theory, and often in practice, the soldiers were required to provide and procure all of their own clothing and equipment. Sometimes, however, they were *paid* (partially) in cloth -- so often they ended up with the same colors, but would have the cloth made up into clothes in a variety of styles (to suit personal taste). Some city militias also had certain colors associated with them: red and white for Venice (and Florence).

(NB: This is my understanding of it anyway.)

My approach, when painting a unit with common colors, is to pick two or three colors, and work with those -- with an extra color thrown in from time-to-time. I occasionally make units where everybody is individual -- but that really taxes my limited creativity. ;-)

I have seen paintings that seem to show that members of the same Lance had a uniform (same style of clothes with same colors) -- with perhaps the lance leader (man-at-arms) dressed slightly differently. But we are talking about 3 – 5 people.

More use of Louis XII's livery can be seen here
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Including French archers in a uniform costume while Stradiots are dressed individually from Illustrations by Jean Bourdichon from The Journey to Genoa by Jean Marot, 1510-1520

Druzhina
16th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers