French hood

Common card · No. 348833

French hood is the English name for a type of elite woman's headgear that was popular in Western Europe in roughly the first half of the 16th century. The French hood is characterized by a rounded shape, contrasted with the angular "English" or gable hood. It is worn over a coif, and has a black veil attached to the back, which fully covers the hair. Unlike the more conservative gable hood, it displays the front part of the hair. In France it was known as a cape Bretonne ("Breton hood"), after Anne of Brittany, Queen of France from 1491, and also the last reigning Duchess of Brittany. She wears it in portraits, including one in her Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany of 1503–1508, and her ladies are often also depicted wearing it. The French hood had a complicated and varied construction, with several layers of fabric, as well as jewels, wire, and perhaps metal bands. No examples survive, so aspects of its construction remain uncertain.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Hans Holbein the Younger, Public domain