Painting, Sculpting and Modelling for Games.


Thursday 24 March 2011

The Metal Pack


Codpieces, not a 100% hobby related topic although there must be historical miniatures featuring them. I wanted to mention them as I stumbled on different articles on the subject. A codpiece is a covering flap or a pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers and usually accentuates the genital area. Although they can be traced way back to ancient history, they are known for being typically Renaissance items reaching their peak of size and decoration in the 1540s before falling out of use by the 1590s.

What I like about them is how they became fashion accessories and therefore completely ridiculous or outrageous. Every generation has its funny thing, think of dropping your pants so that your rear hangs out so you can hardly walk for example. I selected a few pictures of the ones I really like.

If you want to know more about them, there is a great interview on the following website. They talk about interesting side stories such as tour guides in the Tower of London reporting that the codpiece of Henry’s ceremonial armour on display there was often knocked off when women rub it for good fortune or how there is also a theory out there that says the development of the codpiece can be linked to the syphilis epidemic of the 16th century.

The Erection and Detumescence of the Codpiece.



La braguette, ou brague, pas vraiment de rapport avec le modélisme quoique il doit y avoir des figurines qui en portent. Je voulais en parler vu que je suis tombé par hasard sur plusieurs articles sur le sujet. La braguette est d'abord une pièce d'étoffe très colorée, souvent rembourrée, qui signale sur le corps la place de ce qui reste caché. Chez les militaires, la « brague » était la partie saillante de la cuirasse, située au-dessous de la ceinture. Bien qu’elles aient existées depuis l’histoire ancienne, elles sont généralement associées à la renaissance atteignant leur apogée en taille et décoration en 1540 avant de disparaitre vers 1590.
J’adore le fait qu’elles soient devenues des accessoires de mode et donc totalement ridicules ou outrancières. Chaque génération a son « truc », par exemple tomber son pantalon, exposer son derrière et pouvoir à peine marcher. J’ai sélectionné quelques images de mes préférés.
Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur le sujet, il y a un excellent entretien sur ce site. Il y a quelques histoires croustillantes telles celles sur des guides touristiques de la Tour de Londres se plaignant des femmes qui touchaient les braguettes pour se porter bonne chance ou encore comment elles sont peut être responsable d’une épidémie de syphilis au 16eme siècle.

6 comments:

  1. I´ve just bought some perry stuff (war of the roses)...28mm and some of the footfolk have got codpieces...the knights not.Bloody odd thing if you ask me...a bit "look at this matey" if there ever was. I mean...did it put the opponent off in a scrap!?
    Cheers
    paul

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  2. .....and usually accentuates the genital area. Well some people need the help, good post made me chuckle.

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  3. Perry stuff is quite accurate then since knights would never wear them as it was impossible too ride with them. It seems as well that they would not be worn to battle as chain mail was a better protection. Real poseur stuff!

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  4. Is there anything better than the Black Russian codpiece from Blackadder?

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  5. If you like codpieces, writers, artists and other trivia have a look at gayartz.blogspot.com xx

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