Skirt (probably from the wardrobe of Orsolya Dersffy)

The skirt is made out of seven full material widths. The buttoning parts of the front are smooth, and all round it is densely pleated to fit the bodice, but the depth and direction cannot be determined because of the poor condition. The motifs and composition of the embroidery draws on Renaissance sources. Pattern books from the first half of the sixteenth century contain a great many patterns of motifs strung along an undulating stalk, including the pattern of rosettes and acanthus leaves on the skirt. The embroidery is arranged into bands surrounded by four-strand plaits of gilded silver thread. Parallel to the hem and down the front on each side of the closure is a broad band of continuous-pattern embroidery between two narrower bands. The narrow band is a ribbon of raised embroidery stitched geometrically with gold thread, upon which is an alternating row of rosettes and tulips in opposite orientations. In the wide band, growing out of an undulating stem embroidered in gilded silver wire (skófium) are silver tendrils, closed gold pomegranates, green-spoked rosettes, gold tulips and green vine leaves sewn on in a zig-zag arrangement. The stems turn back on themselves to embrace three motifs: gold-centred silver split pomegranates, red or green acanthus flowers and rosettes of concentric circles. All of the decorative elements are bordered with gold-thread embroidery. A Hungarian-shoulder skirt of similar adornment is worn by Orsolya Esterházy (1639–1682) in a painting in Fraknó Castle, now held in the Hungarian National Museum and she is wearing the same in her funerary portrait by Jacob Hoffmann and Jacob Hermundt.