On clothing of Saints and Angels

[sstormwatch]

I just found this quote while reading my book "Dress in the Court of King Henry VIII".
"The idea of conspicuous waste or the use of excessive fabric in garments, either through pleating or lengthy trains, has been considered by a number of authors. Anne Hollander has linked the excessive use of fabric in the Renaissance period clothing to the fact

Comments

[tattycat]

Not about clothing, but about textiles in general: I believe the Hardwick Hall books talk about the huge amount of textile and linen goods that Bess of Hardwick bought, and notes that conspicuous consumption of textile goods (such as table carpets and bed suits and so on) was one of the most visible markers of wealth. If you have enough money to pay more per year for table linens than you pay your head footman (as Bess did), it would definitely send a message to anyone seeing it.

I don't think it's that much of a stretch to think that these ideas would creep into paintings, especially allegories. I would still be careful of taking such paintings too literally, but most material culture scholars do believe that even the most outlandish paintings say something about the culture which produced them.

[aeddie]

You mean we're not supposed to cram 5 widths of 60" brocade into a waistband of a dress?

[tattycat]

One of these days, I'm going to recreate some outrageous allegorical painting and wear it to an event, and then I'm going to clock how long it takes for *that* trend to start.

[hsifeng]

A group of friends and I are seriously considering making a number of outfits from the various Bosch and Breugel ‘feast/carnival/fables’ images and wearing them out to a faire as a mini-parade.

“What, they had fish with legs and human faces in the 16th Century: I have my documentation right here!”

*grin*

See, even history snobs have a sense of humor. It’s just that most folks don’t get it.

Personally, I want to go as ‘Mad Meg’ with a tin pot on my head and a stick for a sword…

[docryder]

In Ancient Peru, people were mummified by being placed in caves high in the mountains. The bodies basically freeze -dried. They were always found wrapped in yards and yards of fabric. The more yards around the body, more gold and other precious materials found with the body. Thus, the higher the status of the interred. All of this fabric was hand-woven on looms that amounted to little more than a couple of sticks suspended between neck and feet. I've mentioned this before: In a pre-industrial society, the amount of work that goes into making fabrics makes fabrics very valuable. So, the idea has a basis.

However, the statement in another post by hsi_feng that St. Ursula could be wearing a German style pleated apron could also hold up. St. Ursula has a number of links to Germany, and so for her to be depicted in German fashions is not unreasonable.

[docryder]

Whoops! Got the user link wrong. You know who I mean. :-)

[hsifeng]

*chuckle*

Yeah, how many freaks out there are sporting a name from a 3rd century Chinese manuscript? Besides, its correct spelling is *with* the space...

[florentinescot]

and this was why angels and saints were often painted dressed in the styles favoured by the elite.

This makes sense to me. The idea for the clothing had to come from *somewhere* and (for all of it's weirdness) most of the time, the clothing does fit properly. You were to give your best to God -- so it makes sense that they would be dressed in their best.

LOL. Wouldn't it be funny if we were really wearing the "jeans and t-shirts" of The Period (tm) instead of the Sunday Best! *giggle*

[sstormwatch]

Yeah, that would be funny indeed.