VECELLIO, Cesare. Costumes anciens et modernes Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il Mondo di Cesare Vecellio..., vol. ΙI, Paris, Firmin Didot Frères Fils & Cie, M.DCCC.LIX [=1859-60].

Cesare Vecellio (c. 1530-1601), Italian painter and engraver, was born in the Veneto region and died in Venice. He was a cousin of the painter Titian, whom he accompanied on his trip to Augsburg in 1548. Cesare probably worked as an assistant to the great Renaissance painter and was aware that many of his works were attributed to Titian. There is a small "Trinity" by Cesare Vecellio in the Pinacoteca of Milan. Vecellio also published "Corona delle nobili e donne virtuose" (1591), a book of lace patterns.

Vecellio became famous with "Habiti antichi et moderni...", which was published for the first time in 1590 and again in 1598 with additional material. The wood engravings are probably the work of Christopher Krieger from Nuremberg. The work depicts about six hundred male and female costumes, mainly from Europe but also from Asia and Africa, sometimes with added fictitious elements or completely imaginary. The wood engravings with the accompanying texts were republished in the mid-seventeenth century, which is also the last edition. Vecellio never travelled himself and many of his drawings of portrait types are influenced by previous illustrations by Nicolas De Nicolay and Pierre de Coeck.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou