Fans

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This page has divided Renaissance images of fans into categories by style: feather fans, flag fans, folding fans, and straw fans.

For additional information on the history of fans and their manufacture, see these links.

Now was ther of that chirche a parissh clerk,
The which that was ycleped Absolon.
Crul was his heer, and as the gold it shoon,
And strouted as a fanne large and brode;
Ful streight and evene lay his joly shode

The Miller's Tale from
The Canterbury Tales, ll. 204-207

LATE MEDIEVAL SECULAR FANS

Aspic (fol. 65v) and dreams (fol. 89v) Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673), c. 1390-1400
Assembly, Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Latin 9333, fol. 99v), early 15th century
Cockade fan/flabellum, France, 15th century

FEATHER FANS

Portrait of a young woman in a blue dress with a fan by Jacopo Negretti, c. 1512-1514
Seven Albani Portraits by Giovanni Carani, 1519
A lady with a fan, part of the frescos at the Castello del Buonconsiglio by il Romanino, c. 1531-1532
Portrait of a lady in white by Moretto da Brescia, c. 1540
Portrait of a young woman, 1540s
Portrait of Laura da Pola by Lorenzo Lotto, 1544
Gilt brass handle from a feather fan, c. 1550
Portrait of Isotta Brembati Grumelli by Giovanni Battista Moroni, c. 1550
Portrait of Lavinia by Titian, c. 1560-1565
Portrait of a woman by Bernardino Campi, late 1560s
Usati in Venetia 1550 (dress worn by the women of Venice in 1550), Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il mondo, 1590
Design for a fan-handle by Francesco Salviati
Portrait of Joanna of Austria by Francesco Terzi, 1565
Portrait of Pace Rivola Spini by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1570
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1570-85
Three children with a dog by Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1570-1590
The Darnley Portrait, c. 1575
Drawing of Elizabeth I by Federico Zuccaro, 1575
New Year's Gifts to Queen Elizabeth, 1577-8:
By West, a fan of fethers of sundry collors, with a handill of silver.
Nobilis Neapolitana in Jost Amman's Trachtenbuch von Nurnberg, 1577
A Neopolitan noblewoman and another Neopolitan noblewoman, Habitus Praecipuorum Populorum, 1577
Illustration from Johann Posthius’ Anthologia Gnomica by Jost Amman, 1579
Design for a fan-handle by Lelio Orsi
Ein Fraw von Senis, Ein Edelfraw von Padua, Ein ehrliche Matron von Neapolis, Ein fürneme Fraw auß Italien, and Ein Edelfraw zu Meyland, from Im Frauwenzimmer Wirt vermeldt von allerly schönen Kleidungen, 1586
Portrait of Elizabeth I c. 1580
Engraving of Elizabeth I by Jan Rutlinger, c. 1580-85
The Welbeck or Wanstead Portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, c. 1585
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1585-88
Where fannes, and flappes of feathers fond,
to flit away the flisking flies,
As taile of mare that hangs on ground,
when heat of summer doth arrise,
The wit of women we might praise,
For finding out so great an ease.

But seeing they are stil in hand,
in house, in field, in church, in street,
In summer, winter, water, land,
in colde, in heate, in drie, in weet,
I judge they are for wives such tooles
As bables are in playes for fooles.
Pleasant quippes for upstart newfangled gentlewomen, 1596
Portrait of Elizabeth I attributed to John Bettes, c. 1585-90
New Year's Gifts to Queen Elizabeth, 1588-9:
By the Countesse of Bath, a fanne of swanne downe, with a maze of greene velvet, ymbrodered with seed pearles and a very small chayne of silver gilte, and in the middest a border on both sides of seed pearles, sparks of rubyes and emerods, and thereon a monster of gold, the head and breast mother-of-pearles.
By a Gentleman unknown, a fanne of sundry cullored fethers, with a handle of aggets garnished with silver gilte.
The Armada Portrait, c. 1588
Another version of the Armada Portrait attributed to George Gower, c. 1588
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1590
Portrait of Mary Kytson, Lady Darcy of Chiche, later Lady Rivers, c. 1590
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1590-92
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1590-92
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Jan Rutlinger, c. 1590-1600
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1592
Portrait of a girl with a fan, 1594
Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1595

I saw there three Ostriches … The feathers of their wings and tailes, but especially of their tailes are very soft and fine. In respect whereof they are much used in the fannes of Gentlewomen.

Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities
(Observations of Fontainebleau), 1611

The masquerades by Jacob de Gheyn II, 1595-1596
Portrait of a woman, c. 1600
Portrait of Queen Anne by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c. 1605-10
Portrait of Pocohontas, 1616
Portrait of Frances Howard
Margaret Graham, Lady Napier by Adam de Colone, c. 1626

Here will I mention a thing, that although perhaps it will seeme but frivolous to divers readers that have already travelled in Italy; yet because unto many that neither have beene there, nor ever intend to go thither while they live, it will be a meere novelty, I will not let it passe unmentioned. The first Italian fannes that I saw in Italy did I observe in this space betwixt Pizighiton and Cremona. But afterward I observed them common in most places of Italy where I travelled. These fannes both men and women of the country doe carry to coole themselves withall in the time of heate, by the often fanning of their faces. Most of them are very elegant and pretty things. For whereas the fanne consisteth of a painted peece of paper and a little wooden handle; the paper which is fastened into the top is on both sides most curiously adorned with excellent pictures, either of amorous things tending to dalliance, having some witty Italian verses or fine emblemes written under them; or of some notable Italian city with a briefe description thereof added thereunto. These fannes are of a meane price. For a man may buy one of the fairest of them for so much money as countervaileth our English groate.

Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities
(Observations of Cremona), 1611

FLAG FANS

The Birth of Mary by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1342
Flag fan with white lacework in parchment and silk, Venice, 16th century
Portrait of an unknown lady (The Lady in White) by Titian, 1560
Mars Undressing Venus by Veronese, 1570s
Detail from Visit of King Henry III of France to Venice in 1574 by Andrea Vicentino
A Genoese noblewoman, a Venetian dogaressa, a noblewoman from Padua, Habitus Praecipuorum Populorum, 1577
Venus and Adonis by Veronese, 1580-1582
Ein Jungfraw auß der Fugger Geschlecht, Ein Edle Matron zu Leon, Ein Edle Fraw von Ferrar, Die Hertzogin von Venedig, Ein Geschlechterin von Venedig, and Ein Venedische Braut von Geschlechtern, from Im Frauwenzimmer Wirt vermeldt von allerly schönen Kleidungen, 1586
Spose in Sensa (brides at Ascension), Nobile Ornata (noblewomen at public festivals), and Meretrici Publiche (prostitutes in public places), Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il mondo, 1590
Woman in a green dress, Album Amicorum of Jan van der Deck (Rawl. B. 21, fol. 25r), after 1592
A fan from Venice, c. 1600
Portrait of an unknown princess with a parrot
Courtesan by Giacomo Franco, early 17th century (?)
Habiti delle donne veneziane by Giacomo Franco, 1610
Portrait of Elizabeth, Lady Style of Wateringbury, c. 1620
More at Fans of the 16th century

FOLDING FANS (including brisé fans)

Fan, Italy or France, 16th century
Portrait of a young woman by Giovanni Battista Moroni, c. 1560-1578
Portrait of Juana of Austria with a young girl, 1561
Portrait of a lady with a fan by Alonso Sánchez Coello, 1570-1573
Drawing of a woman by Johannes Wierix, 1584
Ein Weib von Placentz and Camilla deß Türckischen Sultans Tochter from Im Frauwenzimmer Wirt vermeldt von allerly schönen Kleidungen, 1586
Portrait miniature of a woman (Penelope, Lady Rich?) by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1590
The Ditchley Portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c. 1592
Portrait of Mary Rogers, Lady Harington by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1592
Portrait of Jeanne de Bourdeille with one of her daughters attributed to François Quesnel, c. 1593
Portrait of Lady Eleanor Herbert, 1595
Portrait of Lady Eleanor Percy, afterwards Lady Powis, aged 13, 1595
Portrait of a woman (thought to be Mary Fitton), c. 1595-1600
Portrait of a lady, possibly Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Charles, 1st Earl of Nottingham, c. 1595-1605
Portrait of a lady, possibly Catherine, Countess of Nottingham, or one of her daughters, c. 1595-1605
Portrait of Doña Leonor Gonzaga, late 16th century
Portrait of Mary, Countess of Dorset
Portrait of a lady, possibly Lady Denman
Portrait of the Princess Royal, 1603
Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria by Peter Paul Rubens, 1606
Portrait of Lady Diana Cecil by William Larkin, c. 1614-18
Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie attributed to Paul van Somer, c. 1619
Portrait of an unknown Spanish princess by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1615

STRAW FANS

Portrait of a lady (La Dama in Rosso), perhaps Contessa Lucia Albani Avogadro by Giovanni Battista Moroni, c. 1555-1560
New Year's Gifts to Queen Elizabeth, 1578-9:
By Mr. Beinedicke Spenolle … two fannes of strawe, wrought with silke of sondry collours.

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