In yesterday's post, we observed how a single figure in a Lamentation painting, Mary Magdalene, captured the attention of the viewer with her gesture of grief and despair, along with the details of her attire, nearly overshadowing the other characters.
Actually, in depictions chronicling the passion of Jesus Christ, secondary details and characters often emerge as visually striking elements.
For instance, in Pieter Bruegel The Elder's "The Way to Calvary," amidst the chaos of hundreds of figures, one can still spot a man, likely a soldier, clad in a red and white hose, pushing Simon of Cyrene to bear the cross.
Not far from this scene there is also another soldier in a striped white and blue hose, while a man in a diagonal striped coat and a hat, portrayed in the centre of the painting, is just minding his business, walking steadfast while around him there's chaos.
Vibrant stripes also appear in "Christ before Pilate" by the Master of Cappenberg (Jan Baegert?).
In this panel from The Liesborn Altarpiece, Roman governor Pontius Pilate, reluctant to condemn Christ to death, but fearing the crowd, washes his hands saying that he is not to blame for Christ’s death. The woman behind Pilate is his wife, who told her husband not to get involved in Christ's fate because of a dream she had about him.
Christ, next to Pilate, appears weary and dejected, the crown of thorns piercing his forehead.
His humble tunic contrasts with the sumptuous clothing of Pilate and his wife and with the deep red patterned textile which backs the throne (in all the panels of this altarpiece there are vibrant fabrics).
Christ's gilded halo shines bright, but it's the striped hose worn by the soldier next to him that grabs the attention.
According to Michel Pastoureau's analysis in "The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes," striped clothing often indicated societal outcasts or wicked characters throughout history.
In his work Pastoureau analyzes the negative connotations of vertically or horizontally placed colors in fashion in Western societies, reminding us that striped clothes were often used throughout history to mark people outside the social order, at the margin of society - from jugglers to prostitutes, slaves, servants and criminals. The stripes indicated condemnation, infirmity and transgression of the social order, while in Medieval paintings the devil himself is at times depicted wearing stripes.
This concept aligns with the negative characters depicted in these paintings: indeed in the two paintings the three soldiers in striped garments contribute in some ways with their actions to Christ's death, executing orders and exerting their powers, while the peasant in the striped coat seems to be even indifferent to the chaos surrounding him.
In both the examples, the stripes created a visual discrepancy, especially in the second painting: the eye is naturally drawn towards the characters in striped garments, something that contrasts with the scene around them (it was a common trick of Flemish painters to put a figure in striped clothes in a painting or panel, to attract the viewers' attention). Stripes in these works of art represent a visual priority, what is striped is indeed seen before what is plain, Pastoureau reminds us.
In contemporary fashion Harri London's inflatable latex trousers from his 2020 graduate collection at the London College of Fashion offered a modern interpretation of visual discrepancy through brick red or mint green and white stripes and an exaggerated and distorted silhouette (the soldier's silhouette in "Christ before Pilate" was seemingly distorted, but elongated).
Fitted at the waist but ballooning out to double the width of the wearer around the thighs, before tapering in again towards the ankles (this is possible thanks to a trouser-integrated air pump with an inflation valve at the bottom). The striped motif in Harri's collection was also replicated in the tank tops with matching shorts made from micro hand-carved wooden beads created in an artisan community in Channapatna, India.
The designs made for a playful rather than fetishistic take on latex and were also donned by Björk's musicians in the video for "Atopos" from the album "Fossora".
Fashion design students, here's a final exercise for you: characters in striped clothes are not rare in paintings depicting the passion of Christ, try and spot them and observe if their attire defines their roles, reflecting on how the stripes contribute to crafting an unconventional silhouette.
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