251 (40)

222

Dress Accessories

and also one wom on the right on a lady’s effigy from Normandy (fig 139). Both of the fittings are depicted with a suspended purse and the latter also has a knife suspended from it (the sculptures are now in the Cloisters Museum, New York -Rorimer 1972, 31 fig 30, and Wixom 1988/89, 59 right; see also fig 10 this volume).

An omate example still on a belt was found around the body in the tomb of the Castilian Infanta Fernando de la Cerda (died 1275) in the royal mausoleum at the Convent of Las Huelgas near Burgos in Spain. This richly jewelled appen-dage, wom on the left side of the body, may, from the positions of the precious Stones, not have been functional (see fig 140, and Fingerlin 1971, 331-33 no. 61 & pis 368 left & 369). The Spanish mount could be a purely decorative, aristocratic version of the functional item.

A similar fitting with three arches is depicted on the girdle wom by Mary Magdalen in the Altarpiece of the Seven Sacraments (attributed to Rogier van der Weyden, c.1445). This one is wom to the left of the girdle fastening, which here takes the form of a roundel. Nothing is shown suspended from this example, perhaps because any accessory was removed indoors. The large, trapezoidal pendent mount referred to in the previous section, fixed by a single bar-mount to a Continental European belt (Fingerlin 1971, 362— 63 no. 126 fig 409, attributed to the early 15th century) has a straight horizontal rod instead of arches; this example could have been used with a vertical strap passed through the centre (thanks to N-K Liebgott at Nationalmuseet in Copen-hagen for allowing this object to be examined). A mid 13th-century effigy of a lady at St Thibault-

139 Purse hangers - details of mid 13th century French sculptures:

(left) ? King Clovis, from Moutiers-Saint-Jean (right) ? Margaret of Gloucester, from Normandy