Matter of the visible. Costume and drapery in painting. Hollander E.

In the portraits of the Renaissance monarchs and their courts, silk stockings invariably tightly tighten their legs - in real life this will become possible only in the 20th century, with the advent of elastic synthetic fabrics. 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 was supposed to look (and not what it really looked), fully revealing its aesthetic and sensual potential.

The book of Ann Hollander “Matter of the visible” is devoted to this kind of idealization and stylization of the human figure - processes in which fashion and painting participate along, inspiring and fueling 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 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 crosses in 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 the modern fashion and those methods of stylizing the body that it offers.