Fantastical Masked Female Heads 1525 - 1600

This print showing 'Fantastical Masked Female Heads' was created by René Boyvin, in France, sometime in the second half of the 16th century. The image shows two women in profile, facing one another. The visual codes of dress, jewelry, and hairstyle denote the women's status, but also signal a departure from the norms of French courtly life at the time. The fashionable, yet overtly elaborate, quality of their appearance can be seen as a commentary on the nature of courtly display. To further understand this image, we would need to research the history of fashion and costume in 16th-century France, and explore how prints functioned at the time. As historians, we try to get a sense of the social norms, in order to understand how artists of the time responded to them. In this way, we can start to see the politics of imagery.