A number of artworks never previously displayed in Scotland will go on show as part of a new exhibition documenting the opulent fashions of the Tudor and Stuart elite.
Paintings, drawings and jewellery from the Royal Collection will be displayed alongside rare pieces of clothing from the 16th and 17th centuries in the show at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Gallery.
At the heart of the exhibition will be portraits of three generations of Scottish kings and queens – James V (1512-42), his daughter Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-87), and her son James VI of Scotland and I of England (1566-1625).
Anna Reynolds, the Royal Collection Trust’s curator of paintings, said: “Portraits of the 16th and 17th centuries show that this was a time when luxurious clothing and extravagant jewels were hugely important components of court life and the Stuarts were at the forefront of this fashionable world.”
For the wealthy Tudor and Stuarts, garments and accessories and the way in which they were worn, conveyed messages about wealth, gender, age, social position, marital status and religion.
A portrait shows James V in his late 20s, wearing clothes that leaves no doubt about his wealth and royal status.
He is pictured dressed in a gown with sleeves made of cloth of gold, a fabric woven with expensive gold-wrapped thread, and a red collar encrusted with hundreds of pearls.
In a painting by French artist Francois Clouet from around 1560, Mary, Queen of Scots is pictured dressed in white aristocratic mourning clothes known as “en deuil blanc”.
The exhibition, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, will run at the gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse from today until July 20.