At the Feet of the Gods: The art of footwear in ancient Rome, epic film and contemporary fashion" through April 19, 2020 at the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy

At the Feet of the Gods: The art of footwear in ancient Rome, epic film and contemporary fashion" through April 19, 2020 at the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy.
This exhibit features 80 works from sculptures and decorative urns to sandals ancient and new, many on loan from international museums. In ancient times, shoes acted as a sort of "identity card" for their owner. They could reveal a great deal of information about the wearer—such as their sex, profession or economic status. The prehistoric forerunners of the sandal date back as far as 10,000 years. This exhibit brings together massive feet in marble and bronze, the remnants of destroyed statues of gods and other delicate footwear on pottery dating back to the 5th century BCE. On one vase, Eros, the Greek god of love, helps a virgin change into the skin-exposing sandals she will wear as a bride. On an Etruscan urn, a nude courtesan laces up sandals whose nailed soles left impressions on carpets spelling, "Follow me". The remains of the hob nail-studded Roman caligae are displayed along with brown and gold boots worn by Charlton Heston in "Ben Hur" and Elizabeth Taylor's towering gold platforms in "Cleopatra."


Image: Ancient foot sporting a decorative sandal from the collection of the Museum of Costume and Fashion at the Pitti Palace, one of the Uffizi Museums, in Florence, Italy. Image courtesy of the museum.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women in ancient Assyria

Image
During the Middle Assyrian Period, the social position of women in Assyria became lower than that of neighboring societies. Men were permitted to divorce their wives with no compensation paid to the latter. If a woman committed adultery, she could be beaten, have her ears or nose cut off, her nipples torn off, her eyes gouged out, or put to death. It's not certain if these laws were seriously enforced, but they appear to be a backlash against some older documents that granted things like equal compensation to both partners in divorce. A law code dating from the reign of King Tiglathpileser I (1115 - 1076 BCE), a particularly misogynistic ruler, in which punishments were especially severe, especially for women, reveals a woman could be punished not only for their individual transgressions, but also for crimes committed by their relatives under the principle of ius talionis (an eye for an eye). ‘If a man forcibly seizes and rapes a maiden who is residing in her father’s house... the ...
Read more

The Mycenaean Dendra Panoply

Image
In May 1960 Swedish archaeologists discovered the earliest example of a beaten bronze cuirass at Dendra, dated to the end of the fifteenth century BCE (Late Helladic IIIA - about 1400 BCE). It forms part of the Late Helladic Dendra Panoply, which consists of fifteen separate pieces of bronze sheet, held together with leather thongs, that encased the wearer from neck to knees.  The panoply was found in tomb 12 of the Dendra necropolis and had been partially plundered at some point.  But in addition to the squashed armor, archaeologists were able to recover pottery fragments, a silver toggle pin (probably used to fasten an item of clothing), a bronze oinochoe (jug), as well as various other objects of bronze, including at least one knife and a dagger, a bronze mirror, a gold-plated ring, fragments of a silver cup, fragments of boar's tusk and a pair of swords inlaid with gold and ivory. The panoply, when restored, was found to include a back and breast plate and six bronze plate...
Read more

Part 2 of the 4th 30 minute segment of the "Pompeii Virtual Walk" video

Image
This segment of the Pompeii Virtual Walk video includes the House of the Faun, House of the Vetti (note - explicit frescoes - viewer discretion advised), the House of the Prince of Naples, the Castellum Aquae, and Samnite fortification wall and tower near the necropolis of the Vesuvio Gate. I was particularly thrilled to explore the House of the Vetti as it was closed when I was in Pompeii and it is one of those dwellings where the owners went rather "over the top" in adorning almost every inch of wall space with frescoes even though many scholars think the Vettii were freedman and not aristocrats at all.  I was also excited to finally "tour" the House of the Prince of Naples that I studied for months before writing the Wikipedia article about it. Surgical instruments were scattered in the debris of the house and a skeleton was found in the barrel-vaulted cubiculum to the left of the fauces. I thought these finds suggested the house may have been occupied by a physi...
Read more