This is Eleonora di Toledo, one of the great ladies of the Renaissance, wearing one of the most important dresses in the history of art made from a fabric that was extremely hard to make (it required six different processes to make it), expensive (real gold thread amongst other fine raw materials) and politically significant; the epitome of a 'statement dress' if ever I knew of one.
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| Eleonora di Toledo, Bronzino portrait |
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| A dress recreation. Picture via |
I have loved that portrait and that dress since I was very young when I used to see it in a book my uncle had given me from the Uffici Gallery in Florence. I saw the portrait again recently and really wanted to recreate part of the design on my nails. The end result is not fantastic, it looks a bit tribal instead of soft and organic, but I am pleased with it since it's only the second time I've used brushes and acrylics and going from cats'whiskers to a renaissance pattern is a giant leap. I've also learned a lot about the sort of brushes I need to get/make. I am really enjoying the learning process and a difficult pattern like this is a pleasant challenge.
With my non-dominant hand I tried to make a netting with pearls like the one she had on her hair and at the top of the dress.
I also managed to pleat a 5-strand braid!
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The breakdown
Base colour: OPI Skuls and Glossbones
the black colour is acrylic
Golden colour: Ciate - Gold Digga
Pearls: one drop of Jessica - 687 Au Natural and one drop of OPI - Kyoto Pearl on top.
