Easter is coming and if you celebrate this religious festival (or if you're visiting a country where they celebrate it) you may be busy at the moment taking part in some of the events scheduled for Holy Week and leading to Easter Sunday. Yet specific religious celebrations, events and artworks can be inspiring also for people who may not be interested in religion and who may be working in fashion (well, fashion has a history of being inspired by religion, or simply using it for commercial purposes…). An example? Take this altarpiece from the Victoria & Albert Museum collection representing Christ and the Apostles.
The altarpiece was considered in Northern Europe as a key type of sculpture: winged altarpieces featured a central panel called "corpus"; wings carrying relief carvings, figures or narrative paintings, and the "predella" often containing busts of apostles or saints. The crowning superstructure was usually decorated with finials and small figures. On certain days and during Lent the corpus and the predella were closed from view.
Dating from around the 1500s, the piece in this picture probably comes from Ulm, a city in Swabia in Southern Germany, where there was a flourishing tradition of producing altarpieces for over a century. The piece was made using painted limewood, so it could be inspiring to discover further the materials and techniques employed to make it, but if you look closely you will also discover more interesting inspirations.
Each apostle is characterised by a different hairstyle or look and some of them carry specific symbols linked with their lives (Judas is the keeper of the money bag, but he also betrayed him for 30 silver coins; Saint Andrew carries an X-shaped cross, Saint Peter is the keeper of the keys…). Where could the fashion inspiration be? Well, individuality appears not just through someone's appearance, but also via symbols that may be hinting at their personality, life or profession.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Related articles
