Well-Fashioned Image

Fashion – the question of what to wear and how to wear it – is a centuries-old obsession. Beyond superficial concerns with personal appearance, the history of dress points to deep preoccupations surrounding the social order, national identity, and moral decency. Produced in conjunction with an exhibition at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art (running from October 23, 2001 through April 28, 2002), "A Well-Fashioned Image" investigates clothing and the representation of clothing from these various perspectives. This richly illustrated catalogue, the fourth in a series sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, features an introduction by co-curators Elizabeth Rodini, the Smart Museum's Mellon Projects Curator, and Professor Elissa B. Weaver of the University of Chicago's Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, which is followed by essays addressing the topic from a variety of perspectives. Also included are a substantial bibliography on the topic of costume in art and an exhibition checklist.


Contents:

Foreword and Acknowledgments
Color Plates
Introduction: Fashioning the Image in Art and Literature – Elizabeth Rodini and Elissa B. Weaver
Dressing the World: Costume Books and Ornamental Cartography in the Age of Exploration – Kristen Ina Grimes
Debating Women's Fashion in Renaissance Venice – Jennifer Haraguchi
"Almost a Man Already": The Female-to-Male Cross-Dresser in Shakespearean Imagery – Margaret E. Kern
Bodies Concealed and Revealed in Ariosto's "Orlando furioso" and the Visual Arts – Sarah Patricia Hill
"The Hat of the Jew": Fashioning Religious Identity in Northern European Imagery – Jessen Kelly
Vestments and Vows: Religious Costume in Some Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Engravings – Meredith Kennedy Ray
Fashion as Folly in Eighteenth-Century Caricature and Satire – Rachel Walsh Urquhart
The Revival and Relevance of Medieval Costume in Early Nineteenth-Century German Art – Sabine Wieber
Checklist of the Exhibition
Bibliography: Clothing and Costume in Art and Literature