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Landsknecht Hair Styles During the Golden Age
By Craig Shira
hen I first started looking at images of Landsknechte, the gross extravagance of their clothes and the deadly elegance of their weapons caught my eye. Such attention grabbers are hard to ignore, making it easy to over-look the more subtle elements of the Landsknechte style. Strip a person of clothes and accessories and you will find that the trends of the period are still evident: hair styles can define an era just as much as clothes.
After four years of studying woodcuts, etchings, engravings, and paintings of Landsknechte, it was only recently that I noticed their hair styles. Examining the faces of Landsknechte made me realize trends I had not noticed previously. If one should ever wonder if a style existed, revisiting the imagry will confirm one way or an other: it is either there or it is not. For that reason, provided here are detailed examples of what styles were commonly worn by Landsknecht soldiers.
It is worthwhile to note that this article discusses hair styles worn during the "Golden Age of Landsknechte," which existed between the 1520's through the 1540's. The woodcuts depicted on this page are from this era and were taken from the German Single-Leaf Woodcuts book.
Hair Length
Being a mercenary soldier, a Landsknecht's hair was kept simple and short: his hair never grew much longer than just below the bottom of his ear. Similarly, his hair was cut so that it would not obstruct his eyes. Bangs were cut so that they were far from his eyes; at their longest, bangs were shorter than half the height of his forehead. The woodcuts below provide examples of this style.
The woodcuts show a variety of hair styles worn by Landsknechte. To say that the Renaissance soldier wore the uniform buzz-cut of the modern military would be false. In fact, by modern military standards, a Landsknecht's hair could be considered quite long. Worn by many Landsknechte was the style popular among the nobility: hair that covers the ears and is cropped just below the bottom ear lobe. This hair style is not one that people normally associate with Landsknechte, but it is quite common.
Facial Hair
Facial hair is another defining aspect of the typical Landsknecht. Much like the clothing of a Landsknecht was large and flamboyant, these mercenary soldiers often wore large beards and long mustaches. There is a lot of variety in the beard in that some cover the entire face, some are shaved only at the chin, some parted in the middle and pulled to the side, and others grow straight down. While the beards got big, they did not often grow long. Seldom do we see Landsknechte with beards that extend much farther than below their neck, though it is depicted in a couple woodcuts.
A goatee was not a style worn by Landsknechte, but it is quite common to see a soldier wearing a full beard without side-burns. The beard reaches as high as the bottom of the ear lobe and then ends. This fashion is frequently depicted in woodcuts that depict multiple soldiers in addition to portraits.
Side-burns, unless they were part of a beard or mustache, were not typically worn by Landsknechte. When examining period imagry, it is evident that any clean-shaven or mustache-wearing Landsknecht did not have side-burns at all. It is a rare Landsknecht who adorns his face with mutton chops, depicted in the two images below. It is more common to see a beard with the chin area clean-shaven (third image).
A long mustache was commonly worn in place of extravagant beards. The tips can usually be seen curled upward, even when the mustache as a whole slopes downward, though a few woodcuts demonstrate otherwise.
While many extravagant styles of facial hair were worn by Landsknechte, there was one style that still remains popular today. It was quite common for a Landsknecht to be clean shaven. While the stereotypical Landsknecht wears the big beard, many men removed all their facial hair. This is clearly demonstrated by the woodcuts previously shown and those below:
While there may be two main popular hair styles worn by Landsknechte and three main methods of dealing with facial hair, the amount of variety within those choices creates a broad spectrum of appearance that is starkly different than what is commonly seen today. This spectrum is best exemplified by the following woodcut that demonstrates each style.
All six men have hair that does not extend below their ear and it is cut clear from their eyes. The first Dopplesoldner on the left wears a beard with a clean-shaven chin; the second Dopplesoldner wears mutton chops that extend down to his chin, the third has the longest hair, which has short-cut bangs and trimmed at the bottom of his ear; the third represents clean-shaven Landsknechte and he also wears ear-length hair; the fifth soldier has parted his beard and pulled it to the side; and, the final Dopplesoldner in the rear exemplifies the lack of sideburns.
Clearly, there is a lot of variation that was created with these simple stylistic building blocks. These trends are but one more element that flesh out the overal ambiance of this period, making it all the more different than our own.
Below are a few more pictures of Landsknechte in groups, each one depicting the main styles described above.
Bibliography
Cranach, Lucas. Judith and Holofernes.
German Single Leaf Woodcuts 1500 - 1700. CD Rom. Berlin: Directmedia Publishing, 2002.
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