Matter of the visible. Costume and drapery in painting

In the portraits of the Renaissance monarchs and their courts, silk stockings invariably tightly fit their legs - in real life this will become possible only in the 20th century, with the advent of elastic synthetic tissues. These are just one example of how artists correct the daily imperfections of a fashionable costume, bringing it closer to the ideal. The paintings show us how the outfit should have looked (and not what it really looked), fully revealing its aesthetic and sensual potential. The book of Ann Hollander "Matter of the Visor is devoted to this kind of idealization and stylization of the human figure - processes in which fashion and painting participate on a par, inspiring and feeding each other. The effect of fashion on painting is most noticeable in the fact that even the naked figure on the canvas acquires the proportions that are currently relevant at that time. On the other hand, painting invents poses that become an integral part of a fashionable vocabulary: so, coquettishly emerging from folds of fabric, a naked shoulder from the baroque images of the repentant Mary Magdalene through a long chain of intermediary images over time passes into the photograph of Hollywood actresses. A separate exciting plot is associated with the role of picturesque draperies, which, starting with the work of Michelangelo, completely obey the artistic idea, ignoring the laws of physics.
The Hollander book will help to look at both well-known works of art and modern fashion and those methods of stylizing the body that it offers