Cake Spanish Girl circa 1650
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
This is another one of the cute dresses I drew. In Spain, during the baroque period it was common for princesses to dress like today’s modern date cakes. I went through a lot of trouble in rendering the small details. I also added a little bit of makeup on the maiden. I had just gotten some pastel pencils, and I wanted to try them out. The pastel pencils were Derwent, as well as the pencils I used to decorate most of the dress. The pen sections were drawn with Staedtler pens. The skin lines were drawn with a Prismacolor pen. They were real thin and the like.
The original dress was all shimmering and pretty. I think it was made of silk, or maybe satin. Another thing that was popular was the wigs. Still, this was the true hair of Spanish maidens. You can tell in Las Meninas. All the Spanish maidens have terrible, large hairdos. Just dolling them up is really hard. I have hair just like it. It takes like forever to straighten, so I just gave up on it. My mother says a look a lot like those old Spanish princesses. Well, I am descendant of Royalty. This doesn’t matter much, since nobody cares. The monarchs of today are just hanging by a thin rope.
Took the pomp aside, and they are not a big deal. Then again, monarchies have been around longer than democracies. For the most part, they managed to keep their countries from falling apart. It all goes down south, due to the weakest link. Just think of all the historical artifacts and glories left by the monarchs. Still, it only works well for the kings and not the people they run. Then again, this is more like historical revisionism. It was only very late in the game when Kings and Queens stopped caring. I always found it more interesting to read about them and their colorful lives. The best stories were those of the Chinese Monarchies. I studied them while I was in University. Their monarchies always ended rather violently. The Roman Emperors also had colorful lives as well.
There is usually a lot of detail about royals. This is because they are the fellows mostly visible. Both in their courts and outside, there is a ton of people writing about them. This is because they are the bane of everyone’s existence. Most of the official tales are over embellished. The historians either talk great things about them, or terrible things. One can rarely get a complete picture. Histories are all political. They never tell it how it is. There is always an agenda behind them. So, if you read a history, take it with a grain of salt. There is usually a lot of facts omitted, while others are exaggerated. If you ask me, histories are also a type of fiction. People of today don’t know the true history of history books. Well, there you have it. History books are all political propaganda, even the ones you read in public schools.
