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Codpiece
Portrait of Antonio Navagero (1565), oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, by Giovanni Battista Moroni
A codpiece (from Middle English: cod, meaning "scrotum") is a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men's trousers and usually accentuates the genital area. It was held closed by string ties, buttons, or other methods. It was an important item of European clothing in the 15th and 16th centuries, and is still worn in the modern era in performance costumes for rock music and metal musicians and in the leather subculture while an Athletic cup protects in a similar fashion.
2 In contemporary culture
2.1 Subcultural attire
2.2 Heavy metal fashion
2.3 Pop music
Metal codpieces, 16th century
From the ancient world there are extant depictions of the codpiece; for example, archaeological recovery at Minoan Knossos on Crete has yielded figurines, some of which wear a codpiece.[1] Most of what is objectively known about the cut, fit, and materials of Renaissance clothing is learned from realistic portraits, clothing inventories, descriptive receipts for payments of artifacts, or tailors' cutting guides.[2] In the 14th century, men's hose were two separate legs worn over linen drawers, leaving a man's genitals covered only by a layer of linen. As the century wore on and men's hemlines rose, the hose became longer and joined at the centre back but remained open at the centre front. The shortening of the cote or doublet resulted in under-disguised genitals, so the codpiece began life as a triangular piece of fabric covering the gap.
As time passed, codpieces became shaped and padded to emphasize rather than to conceal, reaching their peak of size and decoration in the 1540s before falling out of use by the 1590s. Armor of the 16th century followed civilian fashion, and for a time armored codpieces were a prominent addition to the best full harnesses. A few of these are on display in museums today: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has one, as does the Higgins Armory[3] in Worcester, Massachusetts; the armor[4] of Henry VIII in the Tower of London has a codpiece. In later periods, the codpiece became an object of the derision showered on outlandish fashions. Renaissance humorist François Rabelais jokingly refers to a book titled On the Dignity of Codpieces in the foreword to his book The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel.[5]
Through the same linguistic route, cods became a modern slang term for the male genitalia.
In contemporary culture[edit]
Leather codpiece
Subcultural attire[edit]
Resembling codpieces, jock straps made of leather can be worn in leather subcultural attire to cover and confine the genitals of a man, sometimes while wearing leather chaps. Rather than accentuating the male genitalia through exaggeration of the size of the wearer's endowment, attention can be drawn through decorative adornment such as metallic studs.
Heavy metal fashion[edit]
Oderus Urungus of metal band GWAR wearing a codpiece in a 2004 concert
The codpiece crossed over from the leather subculture to become an established part of heavy metal fashion performance costume when Rob Halford, of the band Judas Priest, began wearing clothing adopted from the gay biker and leather subculture while promoting the Killing Machine (AKA Hell Bent for Leather) album in 1978.[6] Ian Anderson, frontman for Jethro Tull, wore a codpiece during his performances in the mid-1970s. Gene Simmons of the American rock band Kiss often wore black and silver costumes with codpieces. Shock rock performer Blackie Lawless, leader of the group WASP, wore a codpiece that featured a saw blade. Heavy metal singer King Diamond has been known to wear a codpiece as part of his performance outfits. Electric Six lead singer Dick Valentine can be seen wearing a brightly flashing codpiece in the music video for the band's 2003 hit single "Danger! High Voltage". Metal singer Till Lindemann of Rammstein occasionally wears codpieces on stage.
Black metal musician and Satanist Infernus wore a codpiece as part of his attire during the Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam era of Gorgoroth. William Murderface from the cartoon series Metalocalypse also wears a codpiece on several occasions. Alice Cooper regularly wears bright red codpieces in concert. GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus wears a codpiece called The Cuttlefish of Cthulhu.
Pop music[edit]
Tom Jones wore codpieces during concerts, and the lead singer of 1980s music group Cameo Larry Blackmon wore a large, bright-red codpiece in all of his performances, which was his trademark. Cameo's frontman sports a codpiece in his videos "Word Up" and "Candy". Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose wore a codpiece for most of the Appetite for Destruction Tour.
Koteka
Willy warmer
1500–1550 in fashion
^ C. Michael Hogan. 2007. Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian.
^ Grace Q. Vicary, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb., 1989), Visual Art as Social Data: The Renaissance Codpiece, pp. 3-25.
^ John Grabenstein, http://www.higgins.org .
^ David Edge, Arms and Armor of Medieval Knights: An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages.
^ "Worlds of the Renaissance 2000 - Dina McArdle Project". Albertrabil.com. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500–1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5.
Ashelford, Jane. The Visual History of Costume: The Sixteenth Century. 1983 edition (ISBN 0-89676-076-6), 1994 reprint (ISBN 0-7134-6828-9).
Edge, David: Arms and Armor of Medieval Knights: An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages.
Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X.
Bodemer, Brett: "Pantagruel's Seventh Chapter:The Title as Suspect Codpiece."
Media related to Codpieces at Wikimedia Commons
Components of medieval armour
Armet
Barbute
Bascinet
Burgonet
Cervelliere
Enclosed helmet
Close helmet
Great helm
Frog mouth
Hounskull
Lobster tail pot
Mail coif
Nasal helmet
Sallet
Spangenhelm
Kettle hat
Falling buffe
Nossel
Aventail
Bevor
Gorget
Pixane
Plackart
Hauberk
Lance rest
Loin-guard
Coat of plates
Jack of plate
Ailette
Besagew
Rerebrace
Spaulder
Greave
Poleyn
Schynbald
Tasset
In tournaments
Tonnlets
Gousset
Sleeveless shirt (A-shirt / singlet / tank top)
Briefs (slip / Y-fronts)
Fundoshi
Jockstrap (athletic supporter)
Long underwear (long johns)
Breechcloth
Loincloth
California Muscle
Diesel S.p.A.
Joe Boxer
Saxx Apparel
John Smedley's
Stanfield's
XTG Extreme Game
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16th-century fashion
Western plate armour
Medieval costume
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