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THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002

Liz James,
University of Sussex

Get your kit on! High Fashion in Byzantine Art

My paper hopes to raise a double issue: the consideration of images of clothed Byzantines as pictures, as illustrations of clothes, and the consideration of those garments as images. How far can we take images of clothed Byzantines as representing the garments actual Byzantines wore? Were the Byzantines dressed as they are shown dressed in art or is this an idealisation of Byzantine dress? Certainly at least one of the patterns shown on the garments of the waiting women in the Theodora panel from the mosaic at San Vitale in Ravenna, the motif of spades, is replicated in surviving Byzantine silks, but whether Theodora ever owned a robe like the one she is shown wearing in Ravenna is another matter. Is this merely the way in which one depicted an empress, making her recognisable as such? As Hero Granger-Taylor has pointed out, Theodora's dress is essentially male costume, a longer version of the male cloak and tunic worn by Justinian, pinned with a male brooch. Should we deduce from this that Byzantine imperial costume was therefore a case of cross-dressing? The 14th century mosaic from Istanbul depicts the donor of the church, Theodore Metochites, offering his building to Christ: can we assume that hats like the spectacular striped turban on his head were a high fashion item in the 14th century, or is this an idealised costume, a shorthand means of denoting the important imperial official? And when it comes to depicting heavenly beings, where do the ideas about costume come from, what exactly do angels and saints wear? In looking at clothed bodies in Byzantium, we have tended to stress the body under the clothes and consider issues relating to corporeality and spirituality in the depiction of the human forms. What might a consideration of what those bodies wear tell us: when we look at images of Byzantine clothes, do we see high fashion or wishful thinking?