Elsa Beata Brahes begravningsdräkt

• Elsa Beata Brahe was the eldest daughter of the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, Per Brahe the younger. She died when she was only 23 years old in the spring of 1653. She was interred in extremely costly clothing made of thick silk satin, covered in decorative embroidery of metal thread with lace metal edgings of gold and silver thread. During the seventeenth century, various types of burial costumes occurred. Elsa Beata’s burial clothing displays several signs of having been a fashionable dress of the period, reused for the interment. Such a costly and fashionable gown was an important part of the visual manifestation of power displayed by the nobility during the Swedish Era of Greatness, exhibiting the social standing of the bearer. Only the absolute top classes of society wore such an exclusive gown as Elsa Beata’s burial clothing. The gown is comparable to the costumes, entirely covered with embroidery, bought from France for the coronations of Queen Kristina and King Karl X Gustav in 1650 and 1654.The burial clothing of Elsa Beata Brahe became known during the documentation work that was carried out when the coffins of Brahe Church were investigated in 1932. The dress was examined again during preservation work on the coffins, in the summer of 2011. In the present state, the clothes consist of a two-piece gown, shoes, shoe roses, stockings, a neckerchief and a cloth for tying around her hair, like a small cap. In the text of this article, the preserved costume is set into its cultural context of the seventeenth century society.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Elsa Beata Brahe

baroque

burial clothes

fashion

Elsa Beata Brahe

barock

begravningskläder

modedräkt

Textile Studies

Textilvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)