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The placket : From theories to facts

Detail from a portrait of Maria Portinary

As you may have often noticed, the color that you see through the burgundian "V" neck openings and unerneat kirtles, doesn't always match the color of the kirtle that can be seen underneat the skirt. Like many people, my first theory was that this was in fact  either a triangular or a squarish piece of fabric pinned onto the kirtle, perhaps to hide the front lacing or, worn underneat the kirtle to hide the chemise than can be sean through the lacing. Here was my theory based on the following images ; And the italian fashions sorta confirmed this theory as well at the time...

The italians...

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My old speculation on how the placket could be displayed underneath the gown

This clearly shows a short sleeve underneat the kirtle.

Another exemple of the black section not covering the intire opening of the kirtle's lacing

Here it's possible to see that if the black part is indeed an additional kirtle and not a placket, then it's obviously sleeveless.

-Image one is an illustration by Grace Vibbert
-Image two is a detail from "The Stark triptych" 1480 (National gallery of art)
-Image 3 is from a flemish painting at the "Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts" (Brussels) I'll track the info down when I get a chance
-Image 4 is a portrait of Costanza de Medici Caetani by Fra Bartolommeo 1480-1490
-Image 5 is the portrait of an unknown girl by Agnolo or/ Donnino del Mazziere

But then I came across this image posted by "Willemyne van Nymegen" AKA "Michaela de Bruce" on a discution group, and it obviously got me thinking ; OK, OK, so the image is german but what if the placket was in fact a breast-band such as those that can be seen in german painting like those of Lucas Cranach ? ...

After all, such a band can also be seen in a few flemish paintings such as these ;

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-Image one is totaly unknown. If you have any info on this please let me know.
-Image 2 is from a painting called "The saxon princesses" by Lucas Cranach.
-Image 3 is from King Rene's book of love.
-Image 4 is from Anne of France's book of hours 1473

But than, EUREKA !!! I came a cross this image from one of the many versions of "Le roman de la rose", which depicts the story of Pygmalion, who wants to create the perfect woman. He later falls in love with his own sculpture and dresses her up as if she was human. The images below are from the same manuscript, depicting the same story, representing the same statue and are only one page appart. I now strongly believe that this is the ultimate answer to the riddle. There are actualy 2 kirtles being worn underneat the "V" neck gown and this would also explain the short sleeve sean in the "Stark triptych". One with a straight or slightly roundish neckline with or without short sleeves and another one with a wide opening being worn over it ; On the first image she's in her "undies" and on the second one she'll all dressed-up...

This could also explain the double collars seen on this painting by Dierick Bouts ;

Here are other cool exemples of this type of kirtle. Both images are from Boccace's "De muileribus claris" (around 1490). Here you can see that the black section is indeed an additional kirtle ;

I hope that this helps shed some light onto the numerous placket-theories out there so that we can all better understand what was going on beneath those beautiful burgundian gowns.

For more details and information on these kirtles, please visit my Front-laced kirtles' theory page here ;
http://cadieux.mediumaevum.com/frontlaced-kirtles.html