The image of the restorer leaning over the sleeveless dress is in this article: http://www.diariodeleon.es/noticias/afondo/el-tesoro-de-hija-del-rey-santo_273988.html
(This article links to a couple of others about these garments.) My forearm is16 inches. That would make the stripes about 2.5 inches apart making the whole dress around 38 inches in length if her arm is even close to my size. I could see making an infant dress really long for some dramatic draping while being held but this dress is not proportioned that way. I've seen several secondary sites that say she was an infant but I really think there is a bit of confusion about the Spanish word for princess, infanta. I'm aware of the bibliographical information about Maria and her family. While the proximity to the death of her mother could suggest complications in childbirth they both could have been felled by the same disease. There's an article in a parasitology journal about her and some other nearby bodies but still no mention of her age or even the size of the corpse. To further confuse matters the parasites could have stunted her growth. This transcript of the audio tour from the museum says she was 5 but this is the only place I've seen that mentioned. I don't know if they are getting this from biographical information or basing it on the size of the dress. http://museodeltraje.mcu.es/popups/audioguiaingles.pdf Having more specific data on Maria would be good but I mostly want to know how long the dress is. My longshot dream at this point is more detailed information about the textiles. Mary _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
