Random observation is random.
Sometimes I’m too modern for my own good and it takes me two or three tries to spot the weirdness in an image. That is, something that would be immensely weird and out of place to the medieval eye but is commonplace to the modern eye.
I just stared at this for a while. At first I thought it’s because her dress is orange.. I mean orange -is- an odd color for these things.. I think this is possibly the first orange short-sleeved kirtle I’ve seen (the other one I can think of may possible be a bad scan which has mucked up the colors of the image (now it’s orange), (now it’s not)). But.. even after identifying the odd color the image still felt weird to me. Last night I woke up with a gasp and realized what it is… I can see her bare arms.
There’s no hint of a chemise pushed up to elbow height.. it’s just skin as far as you can see. Aside from “bathing beauties” I think this is the first time I can remember seeing bare arm skin on a fully clothed medieval woman.
Scandalous… and right next to our Lord and Savior. Harlot.