Costume

It. Costume; Fr. Costume; Germ. Kostüm; Span. Disfraz.

Greek Theatre.

There are good reasons to believe that in the 5^th century BC public perception of theatrical action in Athens did not favor the actor, qua interpreter (the subject of the performance) as much as the interpreted character (i.e., the object of the performance). Costumes, as yet not codified into specific types, were considered primarily as immediate visual interfaces between characters and spectators. Used in combination with masks, costumes were suitable to instantly communicate the genre, status, role, and disposition of the characters represented. We can, therefore, argue that in ancient Greek theatre, costumes, as visual expressions of stage characters, were not considered merely ornamental, but as actual tools of communication (Green 2002). In this respect, the history of Greek theatre costume (specifically the Athenian theatre) is also a history of the acted and recited body (Valakas 2002), its interpretation, and its visual and symbolic perception among various dramatic genres: tragedy (characterized by naturalism), satyr drama (characterized by hybridism), and comedy (expression of the grotesque and deformed, subsequently mitigated by the partial return to naturalism).

The ancient Greek theatrical lexicon does not have a strictly technical term to define the stage costumes of actors or chorus members. The noun skeué, which the lexicographer Pollux (Onomasticon, 4.115 and 10.14) at the end of the 2^nd century AD explicitly shows as «the actor’s (hypokrités) outfit (stolé)», originally had the generic sense of garment or equipment, including clothing, but also all the other material components identifying external appearance, such as objects or equipment (see Le Guen-Milanezi 2013, p. 17). The few fragments dating back to the final decade of the 5^th century BC of a comedy by Plato entitled Skeuai are insufficient to confidently clarify the meaning of this title as referring to Props (Pirrotta 2009, pp. 272-83) or Costumes (Storey 2011, pp. 154-58). It was said of one character of the comedy, the tragic poet Sthenelus who was active in the late 5^th century BC and also remembered as an actor, that he had sold his «tragic garment» (tragikèn skeuén) after falling out of favor on account of his poor artistic skills (Scholia to Aristophanes, Vespae, 1312). In the 5^th and 4^th centuries BC, the term skeué could also define professional garments. This is testified in Herodotus, Histories, 1.24 and in Lysias, Orationes, 21.4, with reference respectively to the Kytharode Arion (Ercoles 2014, pp. 103-6) and comedy choruses. The philosopher Plato (Respublica 577 b) associates the tyrant’s public garments with a «tragic skeué», highlighting its pomp and solemnity. This was in line with trends in theatrical practice for costumes of high-ranking characters. The compound skeuopoiós, σκευοποιός (Ley 2005) is instead related to a technical meaning in Aristophanes (Equites, 232) to show the «maker of masks» (see Pollux, Onomasticon, 4.115) and, with the extension of the semantic sphere to the field of tools, in Aristotle (Poetica, 1450 b), to define the person entrusted with the overall care of the various visual aspects of a performance, from costumes (clothes, masks, and accessories) to scenic objects, scenography, and theatrical machines. A long list of names of clothing, associated with the different dramatic genres, of various derivation and heterogeneous chronology, and sometimes even of uncertain identification (Pickard-Cambridge 1996, pp. 279-80 and 315-16) should be attributed to Pollux (Onomasticon, 4.115-20). Added to the basic clothes, each of a distinctive kind (for tragedy, τὸ ποικίλον, the poikílon, a chiton decorated with various ornamental motifs; goat, fawn or panther skin for the satyr drama; for comedy, the exomís, ἐξωμίς, a short tunic with a single suspender, colored white and made of coarse fabric), are lists of terms relating to outer coats (e.g., for the tragedy, the light chlanís, χλανίς, the heavier chlamýs, χλαμύς, decorated with gold, the straight statós, στατός, hanging straight down, the purple-colored phoinikís, φοινικίς; for the satyr drama, the Dionysian cloak of wild beast skin, the flowery chlanís, the purple cloak, and the chortáios, χορταῖος, or hairy robe of the satyrs), and headgear (e.g., for the tragedy, the rigid and crested tiara of the oriental kings and, for women, the kalýptra, καλύπτρα, or veil and the mítra, μίτρα, a band wrapped several times around the head to keep the hair in place). For comedy, instead, the mises of the main types of characters are described (e.g., the elderly with cloak and curved stick; the younger ones with phoinikís or dark purple cloak; the inhabitants of the countryside with bundles, sticks, and skins; slaves with exomís and a short white coat). Most of these date from the transitional period between the “middle comedy” to the “new comedy”, i.e., between the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BC (cf. the cook dressed in coarse, white cloth; girls with elegant garments of fine linen; heiresses with white robes with fringed hems; prostitutes with scarlet bands tied to their head and their protectors with brightly colored chitons and straight canes; parasites with strigils and jars for perfumed oils, attributes of young athletes; country folk with round-tipped sticks used for hare hunting). Other special clothing items are indicated for the tragedy, such as the agrenón, ἀγρηνον, or the netted clothing dress of fortune tellers (Roscino 2008), the kólpoma, κόλπωμα, worn on the poikílon by the epic kings such as Atreus and Agamemnon or the saffron yellow krokotós, κροκοτός, worn by Dionysus together with a flowery shoulder strap and the thyrsus. Other women's clothes (the purple syrtós, συρτός, the long purple-edged parápechy, παράπηχυ, mentioned both for tragedy and comedy) refer to an era not preceding the advanced Hellenistic age. At the same time, the syrma or dress with train (Pollux, Onomasticon, 7.67) cannot be documented before the 2^nd century AD The range of footwear considered is limited to high-legged boots, a typology to which both the embádes (ἐμβάδες) of tragedy and the embátai (ἐμβάται) of comedy can refer; the mention of the kóthornoi (κόθορνοι) instead probably reflects the theatrical practice of the Roman age, in which the term, unlike the classical and Hellenistic age, referred to the high-soled shoes worn by the tragic actors.

Regarding theatre production, it remains uncertain who purchased the costumes of actors in the classical age. In Athens, the choregós had, among other duties, the duty of the cost of the costumes and masks of the choir (Wilson 2000, pp. 86-89) or, probably not before the Hellenistic age, the rental of second-hand clothes from the himatiomísthes, ἱματιομίσθης (Pollux, Onomasticon, 7.78). It is unknown whether the actors themselves provided for their costumes (as evidenced by Sthenelos’ later testimony on the skeué) or if, as hypothesized for the more demanding productions from the end of the 5^th century BC (Wilson 2008, pp. 107-8), there were public or private contributions for this purpose (the latter, for example, by the archons).

The information on stage costumes in literary sources coincides only partially with the theatrical iconographic documentation, which consists mostly of clay statuettes and masks of different typologies circulating between the 5^th and 1^st centuries BC throughout the Mediterranean basin of Greek culture and paintings on red-figure vases produced in Athens and Magna Graecia, (reference repertoires: Webster 1967; Webster-Green 1978; Webster 1995; for Magna Graecia and Sicily: Todisco 2002 and 2020).

Regarding tragedy (Roscino 2006; Wyles 2011), the limited number of scenes showing conventional performance indicators (choirs led by flute players, masks, stages) offer a general confirmation of the variety of clothes and combinations of clothes attributed to the depicted figures. Red-figure vases produced in Athens in the 5th century BC portray chorus members of tragedies (as the use of masks indicates). On a krater dated to about 490 BC (Basel, Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig, BS 415: BAPD 260, https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/1451C241-DD83-4763-AFB6-786C657896FA), short tunics (χιτονίσκοι, chitonískoi) of light fabric, bodices (thórakes) of embroidered linen and with fringed hems, diadems and long hair, all portray warriors as young, athletic, and aristocratic, similar, in physique and hairstyles to the late archaic statues of koúroi, and, like them, barefoot. On a later pelíke of around 440 BC (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 98.883, Phiale Painter: BAPD 214224; https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153834), the figures take on female features thanks to the use of kore («maiden») masks associated with the large chiton with the extended kólpos (κόλπος) at the waist and the high kóthornoi, low-soled and flared boots, without lacing, typically feminine in the Greek common use. In these, as in a few other cases of similar representations, the arms and legs appear uncovered (at least, according to the evidence, up to end of the 5^th century BC: see Kiev, Museum of the Academy of Sciences, fragment of Attic bell krater, from Olbia, Black Sea, about 430-420 BC: BAPD 9020329; https://www.academia.edu/11326489/Article_on_Fragment_of_Greek_Vase_from_Olbia; Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität, H 4781, fragments of Attic volute-krater from near Taranto, close in style to the Pronomos Painter, about 400 BC: BAPD 217516, https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/3DDC0D04-4E18-4B68-81CA-00F58E713966) even in the case of female characters, interpreted by both men and women, who could however cover the own virile features thanks to the use of cloaks (himátia), such as the one visible on the pelíke at Boston.

The use of long sleeves and tights (or wide-leg trousers), in bright colors or with showy geometric decorations woven into them, may initially have involved only characters of non-Greek ethnicity, characterized, not unlike the generic “Eastern barbarian”, in non-theatrical iconography, also by the kídaris (κίδαρις, the soft headdress with hanging flaps and a swollen top), as shown, for example, by the Attic fragments from Corinth depicting a choir led by an aulete. (Corinth, Archaeological Museum, T 620, T 1144, Leningrad Painter, about 470-460 BC: BAPD 206565; https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/C8B3BD8B-AD6A-40C9-AAE3-6F195E2984B4) and furthermore, despite the absence of explicit stage requirements, the Attic vase-paintings depicting the Andromeda exhibition (Roscino 2006, pp. 97-104; https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153843; https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1843-1103-24?selectedImageId=1240411001), concentrated in the 2^nd half of the 5^th century BC and thus considered to be inspired by the homonymous tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides. Wherever they can be perceived, the masks in the testimonies of this chronological phase (see Pickard-Cambridge 1996, pp. 261-70) are always of a naturalistic type and lack those features – the high rise on the forehead (ónkos [ὅγκος]) and the expression of terror – which characterized them in the Hellenistic and Roman ages.

At the end of the 5^th century BC, the change of clothing used for tragic performances in the direction of a greater taste for decoration and luxury for the costumes of the main characters seems to go hand in hand with the emergence of actor professionalism, if not of forms of real prima-donna behavior, as expressed by Callippide (Csapo 2002), the owner of an exquisite stage costume (skenès stolé: Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 12.535d). On the famous Attic Krater known as the Pronomos Vase (Naples, National Archaeological Museum, 81673, from Ruvo di Puglia, Pronomos Painter, about 410-400 BC: BAPD 217500; http://tls.theaterwissenschaft.ch/atm/orte/ region05 / m69_napoli / 02kera_01.php # 1) the side A depicts a ritual tribute to Dionysus after a victorious performance by the entire cast of a satyr drama, a genre associated with tragedy as the final part of the dramatic tetralogies and in the which the main actors wore the tragic costume. The interpreters of the King and Heracles, who are beside the klíne (κλίνη, a ‘sofà’) on which the god sits with Ariadne, having taken off their masks to reveal themselves as actors and no longer as mere characters, exhibit costumes appropriate to the respective parts (the ruler with long chiton and cloak; the hero with chitonískos, χιτονίσκος, armor and club), distinguished by both the refined and colorful processing of the fabrics (Wyles 2010, pp. 248-52), typical of the tragic poikílon mentioned by Pollux, and the long sleeves (Roscino 2006, pp. 104-11).

In both cases, these are clothing details of oriental and ionic derivation (see Miller 1997, pp. 153-87; Wyles 2010, pp. 241-52), introduced in Athens, even before in élite women’s clothing, in the exhibition outfits of kitharodes and auletes (also the famous auleta Pronomos, represented seated at the bottom of the scene and from which they take their name the vase and the vase-painter, wears a decorated dress with sleeves, like that of the actors) and also attested in the representation clothes used in the ritual setting (e.g. by the celebrants of the Eleusinian rite, for which see the torch bearer on the Ninnion pínax in Athens, National Archaeological Museum, A11036, about 370 BC: BAPD 231; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninnion_Tablet). In this sense, the tradition according to which Aeschylus was the inventor of costumes “full of decorum and solemnity” (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 1.21d), fully adapted to the “high” register of the tragic genre (Philostratus, Vitae sophistarum, 1.9.11K), reflects, the noble and serious character of the sty of the playwright and the tragic performances of the first half of the 5^th century BC in the scenic data and especially noticeable in appearances attributed to divine figures or high-status characters such as heroes and heroines (cf. Aristophanes, Ranae, 1060-62; Philostratus, Vita Apollonii, 6.11.219K). The two principal actors represented on the vase wear high-fitting boots (laced up in this case), similar in shape to the embádes mentioned by Pollux (Onomasticon, 4.115) for actors of tragedy.

According to the limited number of iconographic evidences available for evaluation, the use of different length garments continued to be associated with the greater or lesser dynamic role of the interpreted character during the 4^th century BC The actor depicted at the end of his performance on a fragmentary Tarentine bell-krater in the Gnathia style (Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität, H 4600, Konnakis Group, about 350 BC: Todisco 2003, pp. 434-35, n. Ap 95; Roscino 2009; https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol7no1/coldiron/image05.html), as well as the elderly pedagogue-messengers represented on two Siceliote Kraters by the Painter of Capodarso (Siracusa, Museo Archeologico Regionale, 66557; Caltanissetta, Museo Civico Archeologico, 1301bis, about 340-330 a.C.: Todisco 2003, p. 496, nn. S 13, S 14; http://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=3303) all wear short chitons and boots, both laced and unlaced, and suitable for fast movement. The first interprets an old warrior (as shown by the kind of mask and sword) whose royal rank is indicated by the purple color of the garment and a fringed hem indicating refinement and high status, while the other two characters wear heavy cloak tunics made of stiff fabric whose only decorative element is a lateral pair of woven purple bands, and conical leather caps typical the humblest classes. On the same Siceliote Kraters, both male and female characters represented during performances referring to the subject of Oedipus Rex (Syracuse) and that of Hypsipyle (Caltanissetta), wear long chitons with attached sleeves made of textile materials covered with decorations which differ according to rank, and cloaks (himátia) or various items draped over their bodies – shorter and fastened to the chest by a buckle in mise similar to that found on a fragmentary attic votive relief for a female tragic actor part (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, IN 465: Moltesen 2010; https: //www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/ancient_theater/slideshow.html) – or, to the traveler's chlamýs. On the vase in Caltanissetta, the women wear ependýtes (ἐπενδύτης), short tunics superimposed on the chiton, tightened at the waist by the belt. All characters wear low-soled footwear. The combination of textual and figurative sources thus confirms the understanding of the costume of Greek tragedy as substantially naturalistic, although subjected over time to a gradual increase in tone and formal stylization. The body of the tragic actor-character, entirely covered by a costume, generally tends to adhere to the principles of composure and control deemed appropriate to the behavior of the model citizen (Green 2002, pp. 105-6).

Satirical choir costumes, as evidence from both Athenian (Paris, Musée du Louvre, MNB 2774, fragment of bell-krater, Painter of Woolly Satyrs, about 450-440 BC: BAPD 207106; https://bees.art.rmngp.fr/v1/images/17/418302?t=eRV-x49XzXmF4D3xVddqPA) and Tarantine vases show (Sydney, Chau Chak Wing Museum, Nicholson Collection, 47.05, Apulian bell-krater, Tarporley Painter, around 395-380 BC: Trendall-Cambitoglou 1978, p. 48, n.15; https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/ancient_theater/slideshow.html), differ in so far they tend to highlight forms of partial deviation from the social norm, representing hybrid man/animal and mythological beings, figures transitioning between the wild and the civilized world. This is achieved by presenting the young athletic nude bodies with a leather or fur thong, an attached horse tail, and an erect artificial phallus which has a naturalistic appearance in order to emphasize outrageousness and absence inhibitions among the satyrs who make up Dionysus' entourage (Foley 2000, pp. 278-81; Voelke 2001, pp. 53-90). The Pronomos Vase, in the scene already described above, also offers a clear testimony of the chitón mallotós (χιτὼν μαλλωτός) or chortáios (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, 7.72), the garment being sprinkled with tufts of wool simulating the hairy body, typical of the elderly choir leader of the Satyrs (cf. Pollux, Onomasticon, 4.118).

Finally, in comedy the body portrayed on stage is clearly and intentionally shown in its artificiality, rendering the reversal of reality key to the critical eye on the contemporary life of the pólis (on the comic body: Foley 2000; Piqueux 2006, pp. 37-43; on the costume of the comedy: Stone 1981; Pickard-Cambridge 1996, pp. 289-316; Hughes 2006; Compton-Engle 2015; Compton-Engle 2019). Full nudity is also fictitious, as some representations of comedic actors on red-figure vases produced in Attica and Magna Graecia between the end of the 5^th century BC and the first decades of the following century clearly show: for Attica, see e.g. the oinochóe in Athens, National Museum, Vlastos - Serpieris Collection, 518, Perseus Dance Group, around 420 BC: (BAPD 216566; https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/22ADD8D8-10C6-4E4A-865D-0BF7BE3EA394) for Magna Graecia, cf. e.g. the Metapontine calyx-krater in Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antikensammlung, F 3043, Amykos Painter, about 425-400 BC (Trendall-Webster 1971, p. 132, no. IV.15; https://smb.museum-digital.de/singleimage?resourcenr=613229) and the Apulian bell-krater in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 69.951, close in style to the McDaniel Painter, about 380-370 BC (Trendall-Cambitoglou 1978, p. 100, no. 251; https://collections.mfa.org/objects/154104). The costume were first and foremost a padded garment, with puffy swellings on the chest, belly and buttocks (the somátion or “little body” mentioned in in Plato comicus, F 287 K.-A. = Photius, Lexicon, 926 Theodoridis; the same term is used in Pollux, Onomasticon, 2.235 and 4.155 to generally define the actor's costume, with the extension of this practice to tragic actors according to Roman imperial practice), equipped with a huge phallus, rolled up on itself or left to hang freely (Green 2002, pp. 104-5, 111-21; Hughes 2006). The heavy, swollen, clumsy, deformed and ridiculous body which the grotesque masks correspond to (on this typology: Webster-Green 1978, pp. 13-35; Webster 1995, pp. 1-51; see also Marshall 2019; Roscino 2019, Masks), is the antithesis of the model of classical beauty. It is the ugliness that inhabits a world of opposites, and thus freer to express itself. An interesting testimony, the Tarentine bell-krater called «Choregói vase» (Naples, National Archaeological Museum, 248778, Choregos Painter, about 400-380 BC: Trendall-Cambitoglou 1991, p. 7, n. 124; http: / /www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol5no1/beacham/image07.html), significantly depicts the external contrast between the solemnity of the tragic character (Áigisthos / Egisto, dressed as an aristocratic military commander) and the awkwardness of the comic characters, equivalent, in visual performance, to the differentiation and contrast between the “high” and “low” stylistic registers of the two genres. When covered, even in comedy, the body-costume wears common clothes, tunics (chitón / chitonískos with two braces or exomís with the only left brace for manual workers and slaves) and cloak (himátion), strictly short for the male characters (so as to leave the emblem of the phallus in full view), long and opaque for females (see Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum, 96.AE.113, Apulian bell-krater, Cotugno Painter, about 370-360 BC: Trendall-Cambitoglou 1992, p. 564, n.46a; https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/29680/attributed-to-the-cotugno-painter-apulian-red-figure -bell-krater-greek-south-italian-apulian-370-360-bc /), while the feet are bare or covered by closed shoes. Among other things, these mises are documented for “ancient” and “middle comedy” in the Attic terracotta figurines of male and female comic characters in the so-called "New York Group" (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 13.225.13-27, late 5^th century BC: Trendall-Webster 1971, pp. 126-27, n. IV.9; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248773; on comic terracotta statuettes see Roscino 2019, Figurines; Roscino 2019, Masks, with previous bibliography) as well as the substantial number of comic subject vase paintings produced in Magna Graecia and Sicily from the end of the 5^th to the 4^th century BC (Trendall 1967; Trendall-Webster 1971, pp. 117-44; Todisco 2002, pp. 55 and 89-94; Green 2012; Roscino 2012, pp. 287-95; Todisco 2019; Todisco 2020). It is no coincidence that with the development of the comic genre and the progressive transition from the "political" themes of "ancient comedy" to "mythological" themes, followed by the everyday ones of the "middle" and "new” comedies, comic costumes gradually lessened their distinctive anti-naturalistic tone (Trendall-Webster 1971, pp. 145-47; Green 2002, pp. 114-21). They did, however, preserve this structure significantly for iconic characters such as the elderly and the slaves, the custodians of the original buffoonish spirit (see Siceliote calyx-kraters in Messina, Soprintendenza, 11039, Manfria Painter, 340-330 BC: Green 2002, pp. 114-15 and 126, n. 42; and in Paris, Musée du Louvre, CA 7249, Lentini-Manfria Group, about 340-330 BC: Pasquier 1998; https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010263745).

Successive history shows a progressive standardization of costumes and masks following the general change in performance conditions (Green 1994, pp. 105-71). During the Hellenistic age the separation of the actor’s performance space from that of the public was the result of the raising of the loghéion (stage) and the interruption of direct communication with the orchestra. With this increase in physical distance between actors and audience the need to make their external appearance and character more perceptible arose. This was achieved, not only through the redundancy of the acting and gestures, but also through the marked deformation of the masks with high ónkos (ὄγκος, for the tragic ones) and wide-open eyes and mouth and bodies (comic and tragic) burdened with padding and supported by thick-soled shoes. This is what appears with iconic evidence in later reproductions of masks, statuettes and in representations of actors and theatrical scenes dating between the Hellenistic and Roman imperial age (see Green 1994, pp. 105-71; Webster 1995; Savarese 2007), and on which the conventional nineteenth-century conception of the costume of the ancient scene was formed, but understood today in the context of a more correct historical and documentary contextualization.

[Carmela Roscino]

Latin Theatre.

The information we have on the costumes worn by actors in theatrical performances is somewhat scarce since costumes, even more so than other scenic elements such as theatre buildings or written texts, are subject to deterioration over time and have received relatively little critical attention accordingly.

Yet, the fact that at least four theatrical genres, comedy and tragedy with Greek and Latin themes, had their names derived from a characteristic part of their costumes (see below), and that four comedy titles by Naevius alone (Clamidaria, Personata, Triphallus, Tunicularia) took their names from costume parts, shows that this scenic element must have had some relevance, at least for the visual impact it had on spectators. While, on the one hand, the discrepancy between scant documentation and the importance of the costume as a key communicative element between the actor and his audience frustrates any attempt to integrate our knowledge, overcoming this lacuna on the other remains a fundamental necessity.

For the costume of the palliata, the Roman comedy with a Greek theme, we are somewhat better informed than for the other genres of theatre thanks to the greater amount of documentary material at our disposal. This material is both literary and artistic. To the former, we refer to hints in the texts of playwrights, especially in the fully surviving comedies of Plautus and Terence; the references to the scene in Donatus’ commentary on Terence, in the two treatises de comoedia (one commonly attributed to Donatus, the other to Evanthius), in Pollux’ Onomasticon (4.115-20 and 143-54), and scattered references in other works. Concerning the artistic material, we refer to some Pompeian wall paintings, Campanian reliefs, statuettes and terracottas of Roman origin, and the illustrative miniatures contained in some manuscripts of Terence’s comedies (Vaticanus latinus 3868 [C] and Parisinus latinus 7899 [P] of the 9^th century, Ambrosianus H 75 inf. [F] of the 9^th or 10^th century and Oxoniensis Bodleianus Auct. F 213 [O] of the 12^th century).

All this material is, however, open to doubt: the late dating of the treatises de comoedia (4^th-5^th century) detracts from its value; the work of Pollux may not reflect the uses of the Roman scene; there is no certainty that the terracottas depict the typical characters of the palliatae; the Pompeian wall paintings and the Campanian reliefs belong to a geographical area where Greek influence was strong and perhaps predominant, and therefore cannot constitute reliable evidence for our argument; as for the miniatures of the Terentian manuscripts, there is a tendency today to consider their archetype to be datable to the end of the 5^th or beginning of the 6^th century (contra, e.g., Leo 1883, pp. 341-44, who assumes an archetype dating from an unspecified period between 39 BC, the date of the publication of Varro’s Imagines, and AD 79, the date of the destruction of Pompeii). However, even if the artist had tried to represent the costumes as they were worn in the palliatae, his copyists certainly partly misunderstood his illustrations, and it cannot be excluded that he himself, out of simple ignorance, did not succeed in his intention of reliability. However, it must be said that the material acquires significance and a certain value when supported by the evidence in the comedies, which remain the most valuable source for the reconstruction of the costumes.

On the basis of the documentation provided, we can state the following. The actors of the palliatae, like the Greek actors of the Nea from which they had been inspired, wore the typical Greek dress of everyday life, the Ionic χιτών (tunica), consisting of a linen or woollen tunic with openings for the neck and arms, sometimes with sleeves (Plaut. Pseud. 738 in a joking context); it was slipped on from the head and fastened by a belt (innkeepers and women – i.e., male actors playing female parts – were allowed to wear a long tunic, see Plaut. Poen. 1298-303). Over the tunic was worn the ἱμάτιον (in Latin pallium, from which the palliatae take their name; cf. also Plaut. Curc. 288), a long woollen cloak of rectangular shape that was wrapped around the body and fastened in various ways, but most often with a hook at the shoulder; women wore a variant of it called palla (Plaut. Men. 197 and, for a list of fashionable clothes and colours, Epid. 229-35). Instead of the pallium, soldiers, some travellers, some foreigners, and even some young men wore the chlamys, a sort of cloak of Thessalian origin, typical of young Athenians doing their military service in the cavalry, lighter and shorter than the pallium and often in bright colours (especially the expensive purple) and also fastened at the shoulder with a buckle. The footwear for men was usually the soccus, a low-soled slipper without laces or fasteners (Plaut. Bacch. 332; Cist. 697; Epid. 725; Pers. 124; Trin. 720; Ter. Haut. 124), which, in literature, became an identification of comedy as opposed to the typically tragic cothurnus (see below); women and some young men wore low, light sandals (soleae or crepidae) fastened to their feet by straps and laces (Plaut. Cas. 709; Most. 384; Truc. 363; 367; 479; 631). These were substantially not very different from the socci themselves. The head tended to be uncovered; wayfarers or those about to travel could wear the wide-brimmed circular headdress (petasus) of Thessalian origin and typical of young Athenian knights (like the chlamys); this had a webbing to fasten it and a strap under the chin that could be used by those who wanted to let it hang behind to keep their hands free (Caligula imposed it in both theatres and spectators as protection from the sun). A Macedonian version of this hat, particularly associated with soldiers, was the causea, while the pilleus, a Roman felt cap similar to the conical πίλος, was typical of freedmen.

Whether actors wore masks from the very beginning of Latin theatre or only from the end of the 2^nd century BC is a controversial question and is still debated by critics; the traditional thesis (for which see e.g. Saunders 1911; Von Boehn 1921, pp. 54-56; Chiarini 1989) assumes the introduction of the mask in the Terentian age and is based on a series of literary testimonies (Cic. de orat. 3.221; Fest. 238.12-20 L.; Don. ad Ter. Eun. praef. I 6 and ad Ter. Ad. praef. I 6; Diom. GLK I.489.10); the analysis of this is, however, not without problems: while only one of the passages mentioned (that of Diomedes) seems to incontrovertibly deny the use of the mask in Plautus’ time, we cannot exclude that this too is the result of a misunderstanding by the grammarian of what is stated by Cic. de orat. 3.221 and nat. deor. 1.79 (for details, I refer to the observations of Gow 1912 and Beare 1939). On the other hand, the comedies seem to point towards the opposite thesis, i.e. that of the use of masks from the very beginning of theatre: thanks masks, in fact, even small theatre companies would have been able to stage a considerable number of characters whose identity remained hidden; the typical (and exaggerated) configuration of somatic features would have allowed the spectators to distinguish the features of a character even from a distance; men could have more easily supported female parts, and the appearance of the characters would have corresponded precisely to the requirements dictated by the drama (cf. e.g. Plaut. Asin. 400-1). References to facial expressions in Ter. Phorm. 209-12 do not invalidate this thesis, both because they should be understood as addressed to the spectators’ imagination and because in Greek theatre, where there is no doubt concerning the use of masks, passages of this kind are very numerous. Two passages of Plautus (Amph. 458-59 and Capt. 39) further strengthen this understanding. Here the exchange of imagines between the two characters is easier if it assumes the use of masks; the fact that the use of persona in the sense of stage character must have already been known to Plautus (Curc. 192; Pers. 783), and above all, in my opinion, the fact that without the masks the representation of the so-called comedy of errors in Amphitruo and Menaechmi would have been more problematic even though the examples inspired by them in Shakespeare’s time did not provide for them. The mask covered the actor’s entire head as in the Nea (Gell. 5.7), and was topped by a wig (galear), the colour of which varied according to the role played and the actor’s age. Because of its very morphology, the mask, to which the quality of expression was entrusted, greatly encouraged the predominance of body gestures and voice inflexion, to which the quality of expression was entrusted, and this would be the case to an even greater extent with pantomime in the imperial age.

Because of its very morphology, the mask greatly encouraged the predominance of body gestures and voice inflection, to which the quality of expression was entrusted, as would be the case, to an even greater extent, with pantomime in the imperial age.

Finally, in some cases, the use of artificial padding is evidenced under the costume. This is corroborated not only by the written sources but also by the representations of some terracotta statuettes; some characters are described as ventriosi, “belly-bound” (Plaut. Merc. 639; Pseud. 1218; Rud. 317), and also pregnant Alcmena in the Amphitruo will have used the same scenic means (ll. 633-53). Of course, the purpose of the padding was to arouse hilarity by swelling the anatomical parts related to sex: the mammae of a flautist in Plaut. Poen. 1416 or of a man disguised as a woman (played by a man!) in Plaut. Cas. 769-70; 814 ff.; 848 and, above all, the penis still in Casina at ll. 902-15 (the reference in Most. 324-31 is less certain). It is likely that the artificial phallus was worn under the tunic but over the subligaculum that protected actual genitals from accidental exposure and perhaps hung from a leather rope tied around the hips.

Depending on the occasion, all these garments and accessories were included in Plautus and Terence under the definition of vestitus, vestis, vestimentum, ornamenta, and ornatus. While vestitus and ornatus were very often used generically in the sense of dress (vestitus: Plaut. Amph. 443; 866; Ter. Haut. 968; Ad. 63; ornatus: Plaut. Amph. 116; 1007; Bacch. 125; Merc. 910; Mil. 899; 1177; 1282; 1286; Pers. 463; Poen. 283; Pseud. 935; Rud. 293; Trin. 840; 852; Ter. Hec. 9), the difference between vestis and vestimentum given by Fest. 506.8-9 L. is valid. Here vestis is understood to mean a dress in general and vestimentum as a specific part, such as the pallium or tunic, although there are exceptions to the rule (vestis: Plaut. Capt. 37; Cist. 487; Epid. 229; Stich. 350; Ter. Haut. 248; Eun. 1015; vestimentum: Plaut. Asin. 92; Bacch. 482; Rud. 528; 573 and perhaps Pers. 669; uncertain use in Ter. Haut. 141). The technical word is instead ornamenta (Plaut. Amph. 85; Capt. 615 in reference to the tragic costume of Ajax; Cist. 784; Men. 804; Mil. 981; Most. 248; 294; Poen. 425; Pseud. 756; Stich. 172; Ter. Haut. 837); the term is also used in connection with the figure of the choragus, the person who, on commission from appointed government officials, was responsible for the supply of costumes and accessories and was perhaps also a stage manager in his own right (Don. ad Ter. Eun. 967; contra Marshall 2006, p. 27).

The actors of palliatae, therefore, wore these costumes, which we could define as “fundamental”, but differently according to the role they played on stage, a role based on three parameters: social (free or enslaved person), age (young or old) and gender (male or female). This criterion, which entailed a particular visual variety, simultaneously allowed the immediate recognition of the character by the spectators, thought of in an open space and at a certain distance from the scaena. Therefore, from the sources in our possession, it is possible to assign, at least in principle, a standard costume to each typical character of the palliata. However, we should always bear in mind that this was subject to exceptions dictated by the particular circumstances of the plot and that the description of a costume in a drama was almost always motivated by exceptional circumstances.

The young man (adulescens) usually wore the pallium (Plaut. Trin. 624; Ter. Eun. 769), which was made of rich material which was light and with varied colours (Don. de com. 8.6), but, in any case of fine workmanship (Ter. Ad. 63); sometimes, instead of this, he could wear a red or dark purple chlamys (Polluc. 4.119 ff.; Don. de com. 8.6), even if the latter seems to have been more suitable for military expeditions (eloquent is the comic skit by Carinus in Plaut. Merc. 851-54; 857-65; 910-12; 921-27). The hair of his wig was presumably dark or black (Diom. GLK I.489.11), although this is inferred rather than explicitly stated. The old man (senex) may have worn an ankle-length, long-sleeved undergarment, and certainly, the pallium (Plaut. Cas. 237; 246; 637; 945; 975; 978; 1009), which must normally have been white (Don. de com. 8.6), although other colours such as yellow or yellow-brown cannot be ruled out (the exception is the Menedemus of the Terentian Heautontimorumenos, who wore a goatskin because he was engaged in rustico opere: Varr. rust. 2.11.11); on his feet he wore socci (Ter. Haut. 124) and his appearance had to reflect that of a man in old age; hence the wig had to have white hair (Plaut. Asin. 934; Bacch. 1101; 1208; Cas. 239; 518; Merc. 305; 639; Mil. 631; Most. 1148; Trin. 874; in the case of Epid. 616 we may assume a bald senex) and in some cases also a white beard (Plaut. Bacch. 1101; Men. 854). His usual accessories were a kind of stick, the scipio (Plaut. Asin. 124; Cas. 975; 1009; Men. 856), and the marsuppium (Plaut. Cas. 490; Epid. 185; Rud. 547-48). The slave (servus) was distinguished from the free-born man not by the costume he wore but by the way he wore it; the tunic (Plaut. Amph. 368-69) was of varying length, sometimes extending down to the ankles, sometimes encircling the knees or even higher; the pallium (Plaut. Amph. 294; Aul. 646-47; Cas. 934; Epid. 1; Pseud. 1275; 1279; 1281; Ter. Phorm. 844; 863) was wrapped high on the back or shoulder like a scarf (pallium collectum) in order to allow the vigorous gesticulation and rapid movements that distinguished the character (servus currens: Plaut. Capt. 779; 789; Epid. 194; fr. 178 L.; Ter. Phorm. 844-45); at his feet he had socci (Plaut. Trin. 720; an exception, instead, was the condalium, the ring of the servus: Trin. 1014; 1022). The general appearance needed to be perceived as grotesque; this was reflected, for example, in a prominent potbelly and red hair (Plaut. Asin. 400-1; Pseud. 1218-21; for red hair see also Ter. Phorm. 51; Polluc. 4.149-50; Diom. GLK I.489.11). For this last peculiarity, we do not really have documentation to make us believe that it was a norm, but rather the spontaneous reference to anecdotal figures such as Cato the Censor, who has notoriously reddish hair (and, in more recent times, to characters such as Rosso Malpelo and Pippi Longstocking, or the Tuscan saying “di pelo rosso ’un è bono manco il capretto”), would suggest a link between the red colour and a crafty person (catus, in fact: Plut. Cato mai. 1.3-4 and the epigram ad loc.) and impertinent, certainly out of the ordinary. Typical accessories of the servus, who often carried money with him for the sake of the plot, were the crumina, a bag worn around the neck and filled, not with coins, but with lupins (Plaut. Asin. 590; 653; Epid. 360; Pers. 265; 317), and the marsuppium (Plaut. Men. 265; 384-86). The costumes of matron, mulier and uxor, superimposable onto each other, were generally difficult to determine, especially for the details; generally they had to wear a long tunic with long or short sleeves and, on top, a palla, not infrequently wrapped around the head (in this especially they were distinguished from the maid and the anus, the old woman). Their hair, if shown, had to be styled with great care (cf. wedding hairstyles in Plaut. Mil. 790-93 and Most. 226). On their feet they wore soleae. Compared to the other women, maidservant (ancilla) had a simpler costume, certainly a palla (Iuv. 3.94-95; Mart. 9.32.1; 11.27.8) over a dress that extended from the neck to the feet, usually fastened by a belt. However, the level of simplicity of the clothing varied according to the taste and economic means of the mistress, as some examples of handmaids of prostitutes show, Astafio in the Plautine Truculentus (l. 272: bronze bracelets; l. 287: elaborate hairstyle; ll. 290-94: cosmetics) and the maidservant of Erotius in the Menaechmi (ll. 541-42: earrings). Prostitute (meretrix) must understandably have taken great care of her appearance (cf. Filematio in Plaut. Most. 248-49; 258-59 and 261-64; 282; 294; Poen. 210-32; also, Mil. 791-93; 871-72 for the eloquent comparison with the matron); she wore the palla (Plaut. Most. 282; Truc. 536), perhaps predominantly saffron-coloured (to symbolise her greed, according to Don. de com. 8.6; but other colours were undoubtedly also used, as attested by the Pompeian wall painting commented by Helbig 1868, p. 354 n. 1472); sometimes she wore an amiculum, a cape (Plaut. Cist. 115); on her feet, soleae (Plaut. Truc. 479; 631). The hair was very elaborate (Plaut. Most. 254) and often encircled by a diadem (Polluc. 4.153-54). The soldier (miles), as mentioned above, wore the chlamys (Plaut. Curc. 611; 632; Epid. 436; Mil. 1423 and Carinus’ skit in the Mercator for which see above), usually purple (Don. de com. 8.6; cf. also Polluc. 4.116); under it a long-sleeved tunic fastened by a belt at knee height. He could have a beard and moustache, and his hair should not be particularly long but bushy, topped on occasion by the petasus (Plaut. Amph. 145; Pseud. 735) or by a tall, cylindrical turban. The characteristic accessory was the machaera, a sabre perceived by the actors as real and by the spectators as obviously fake, perhaps much larger or much smaller to arouse hilarity (Plaut. Bacch. 887; Curc. 567; 574; 632; Mil. 5; 1423; Truc. 506; 613; 627; 927-29); another rarely mentioned accessory was the clipeus, the round shield of Greek origin (Plaut. Curc. 574; Trin. 596; 719; Truc. 506). The pimp (leno) wore, like most male figures, a tunic and pallium; Don. de com. 8.6 classifies this as being of bright and variegated colours (cf. also Polluc. 4.120), but the only description we have of the dress, in the Plautin Rudens, would suggest a rather poor attire (ll. 488; 528; 549-50). He was depicted as unpleasant looking, mostly corpulent and with a shaggy beard, unkempt (Plaut. Pseud. 967; Rud. 125-26; 317-19; 769; 1303). His usual accessories were the stick, smooth and straight to be distinguished from the gnarled and curved one of the senex, and the bags of those accustomed to receiving money, the crumina and the marsuppium (Plaut. Poen. 782-84). For the parasite (parasitus) the pallium is always attested (Plaut. Curc. 355; Mil. 59; Stich. 257; 350; Polluc. 4.119), often rolled up in the manner of the servus currens (Plaut. Capt. 779; 789; Don. de com. 8.6), under which he wore a sleeved tunic. His typical attributes were the strigilis, the curved-bladed strigilis of the frequenters of the thermae, and an ampulla (Plaut. Pers. 124; Stich. 230; Polluc. 4.120). In addition to these recurrent characters there were many others, only occasional, whose costume was studied according to the specific role they had in the plot as well as in society; I am referring, for instance, to the ship captain (gubernator: Plaut. Mil. 1177-83), the merchant (mercator: Plaut. Truc. 954-56), the fisherman (piscator: Plaut. Rud. 294-305; Stich. 289; Quint. inst. 11.3.112), the Poenus Annon (Plaut. Poen. 975-76; 1008; 1298; 1303) and the peasant (rusticus: Plaut. Truc. 655; 956). A few more words can be said about the cook (cocus), often hired for special events; he wore an apron (Polluc. 4.119) and his specific attributes were the sacrificial knife (culter: Plaut. Aul. 417; Mil. 1397; 1406-8), the obsonium, food of various kinds (Plaut. Men. 219-20; 273-74; 320), and the vasa, the kitchen utensils (Plaut. Aul. 446; Merc. 781). Extraordinary figures were then the divinities of Plautin Amphitruo, Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as their “originals” Amphitryon and Sosia and probably distinguishable from them only through small devices, the pinnulae on the petasus of the messenger god (l. 143) and a torulus aureus (a golden braid) under the petasus of the father of the gods (ll. 144-45). Moreover, the scenic convention required that these insignia be visible only to the spectators and not to the other actors on stage, with important effects also on the level of comicality. Finally, the costume of the man who recited the prologue, a member of the troupe who had no other function in the drama than that of introducing it, and for this reason considered by critics, not implausibly, to be a personification of the Prologue itself, deserves a separate mention. His costume is not easily deducible from the information at our disposal; in fact, considering by now unlikely the hypothesis of Fabia 1888, ch. 2, according to which he would have been an adulescens (cf. Ter. Haut. 1-2), today, given the lack of uniformity, we tend only to recognise a certain variety of presentation (Plaut. Amph. 117; Aul. 1-3; Rud. 3-4 etc.).

The costume of the Roman togata differed from that of the palliata almost only in the fact that instead of the pallium, the actors wore the toga, the classical cloak that the Romans wore over the tunic in daily life, and that gave its name to this kind of theatre. From the few fragments of togatae that have come down to us, we find hints, besides toga and tunic (Titin. com. 24/25; 44; 138; 167-68 R.³), of special patrician shoes (Titin. com. 116 R.³) and sandals (Afran. com. 105 R.³); prostitutes and matrons wore different clothes (Afran. com. 133; 182 R.³; Atta com. 3 R.³), the former a short dress, the latter the typical stola; the young women were distinguished by a long cloak (supparum: Afran. com. 123 R.³), and even foreigners had their own characteristic dress (Afran. com. 284 R.³).

A genre similar to the togata, of which almost nothing is known, was the trabeata, founded by Maecenas’ freedman Melissus; it took its name from the trabea, the typical dress of Roman knights, who were supposed to be the protagonists of this form of entertainment.

Relatively less than for comedy, again due to the fragmentary state of tradition, is the documentation for the costume of the cothurnata, the tragedy of Greek theme. It took its name from the cothurnus, the high footwear usually worn by women in Greece, which the Romans extended to include male theatrical characters and, in time, became identified with the tragedy itself. The term does not in itself indicate a high shoe; the first references to it date from the Augustan age (Ov. am. 3.1.63; cf. also Plin. nat. 7.83; Iuv. 6.506; Plin. epist. 9.7.3), and it is only with the imperial age that we can speak with certainty of a small leather boot with a rectangular wedge of coloured wood up to 15 cm high, which served to transfigure the actor into a “superman” imbued with dignitas and solemnity, with results that entailed, however, an excessive stylisation and rigidity of movement, when not openly arousing ridicule (cf. the significant description of the tragic actor given by Lucian. salt. 27), leading to the consequent decline of tragedy in favour of pantomime (see below). The costume in general should not have differed much from that of the palliata, if Varro with this term identified also the tragedies of Greek argument (Diom. GLK I.489.14-18), but it should not have been the same if the prologue of Plaut. Capt. 61-62 had stated that a comic apparatus would be inappropriate for the performance of a tragedy. The actors wore a long-sleeved tunic topped by a pallium, both of which varied in colour according to the character, as the Pompeian wall paintings discovered in 1879 and the famous ivory statuette of a tragic actor from the Antonine age discovered in Rieti, now in the Petit Palais Museum in Paris, inform us. Some characters have typical accessories that allow their immediate recognition, such as the pilleus for Ulysses, the diadem for Achilles and Neoptolemus to highlight their relative independence from Agamemnon, and the sceptre for the latter. However, references to costumes in general, as for the palliata, are derived from particular situations; thus, for example, we know that characters who had suffered a bereavement or misfortune appeared on stage in rags or draped in clothes (the syrmae: cf. Afran. com. 64 R.³; Valer. mim. 1 R.³), following the Euripidean model (Enn. trag. 285; 287 R.³; Pacuv. trag. 9; 20ab; 274-75; 276; 301; 313-14 R.³; Acc. trag. 613-16; 617 R.³; Trag. inc. inc. 189-92 R.³); in other cases, a costume is mentioned when it is unusual or characteristic, as for the Bacchic groups (Naev. trag. 32; 43; 54 R.³; Enn. trag. 345-46 R.³) or shepherds and supposed shepherds (Pacuv. trag. 121 R.³; Acc. trag. 391-402; 403-6; 407; 409-10 R.³), or ghosts (Ps. Acr. ad Hor. sat. 2.3.60). Even in tragedy, especially in Pacuvius, there was no lack of “doubles”, with different purposes from comedy (cf. Chryses or Dulorestes, Iliona and Medus). The mask was certainly worn, as in Greek tragedy (cf. Cic. off. 1.114); in accordance with the generally unnatural appearance of the tragic costume, it was meant to confer grandeur, with its gaping mouth and elongated forehead topped by the high wig (ὄγκος); each mask also had specific characteristics that allowed for clear identification of the mythical character (cf. Quint. inst. 11.3.73 for Aerope, Medea, Ajax and Hercules), a guarantee that Nero enjoyed demolishing when he took care to represent gods and heroes with masks having his features and goddesses and heroines with the features of his mistresses of the moment (Suet. Nero 21).

As with comedy, the choice of costume for Roman tragedy (praetexta or praetextata) was dictated by the proud claim to a national element, in this case, the special, purple-rimmed toga (praetexta), usually the preserve of Roman magistrates and children (Diom. GLK I.489.26-28). Unfortunately, however, there is no information about this from the few remaining fragments.

In Atellana, the farce of Italic origin transplanted to Rome and assimilated by the Romans, the characteristic element was the mask, and it was also the one that, above all, allowed it to be told apart from mime (see below). It was present from the origins of the genre, so much so that its actors were called personati (mask-bearers: Fest. 238.12-20 L.), and its use made expressiveness through gestures more important (Iuv. 6.72; Tert. de spect. 17); it was grotesque and exaggerated (on the terror it instilled in children, cf. Sen. dial. 4.11.2; Epist. 24.13; Iuv. 3.175-76; Mart. 14.176), like its owners, who were fixed characters: Pappus (the old man), Maccus (the clown), Bucco (the fool), Dossennus (the wolverine) and Manducus (the ogre), whose chewing jaws made a noise (Paul. Fest. 115.20-24 L.) and suggest an internal mechanism of the mask; from the fragments of the Atellanae we do not find much for our purposes; we know of two bald characters, a fisherman (Pompon. com. 119 R.³) and a messenger (Pompon. com. 135 R.³), and of an occasion when Maccus was disguised as a girl (Pomponius’ Maccus Virgo).

Mime was distinguished from Atellana ‒ but also from any other theatrical genre ‒ by the absence of a mask (despite those who assume the contrary, in sporadic cases, based on Athen. 10.452-3 on the mimaulos Cleon); wearing a mask would have interfered with the essential feature of the performance, mimicry; instead, the face was painted in order to widen the range of expressions (Sidon. epist. 2.2.2). The absence of a mask allowed for another unique aspect of this genre, namely the performance by real women, the mimae, whose graces were open to the eager and amused spectators. The costume of the mime was usually the one that the character would wear in everyday life, for the sake of realism, so that innkeepers, sausage makers, masters and slaves, soldiers, young men, cuckolded husbands, and women would appear on stage in their ordinary clothes; a characteristic garment, probably typical of the stupidus, was a jacket made of multicoloured patches, the centunculus, of which we have a possible vague memory in Harlequin of the Commedia dell’Arte (Apul. apol. 13); we have a valid representation of this type on a funerary painting from the Baietti tomb in Corneto, where the stupidus also wears a short skirt and, usually bald (Non. 10 L.), with a tall, pointed cap with vertical stripes topped by a tassel (the tutulus). Another recurrent dress, mainly among women, was the ricinium (hence the name riciniati to sometimes indicate mime actors: Fest. 342.20-25 L.; Serv. ad Verg. Aen. 1.282; Non. 869 L.; Arnob. nat. 6.25.2), apparently a square hood that could be pulled backwards or forwards to hide the head, e.g., in times of mourning. Worn under the tunic was also a kind of tights from which, according to the Aristophanic and later Phliacic tradition, an outsized phallus could protrude (Arnob. nat. 7.33.5; schol. vet. in Iuv. 6.65); indecency was also found in the use of very tight clothing for this purpose, especially among women, who could wear tights with artificially represented pubic hair or even be naked (nudatio mimarum: Val. Max. 2.10.8; Sen. epist. 97.8; Lact. inst. 1.20; schol. vet. in Iuv. 6.250). Christian writers then targeted this indecency as corrupting the mores and as pompa diaboli. By the reprimands of John Chrysostom and the juridical provisions of the Codex Theodosianus on the one hand and writings such as the Apologia mimorum of Coricius (beginning of the 6^th century) on the other, we know that in the imperial age the mimae still enjoyed much favour (one of them, Theodora, became empress), and they wore (when they dressed!) very expensive silk dresses on stage, adorned with gold, silver and pearls (the actress Pelagia in Antioch was nicknamed by the people Margarita). Finally, mime was also called planipes perhaps because it was a humble genre or because it was recited in the orchestra and not on the pulpitum, but more likely because it was recited barefoot (Sen. epist. 8.8; Iuv. 8.191; Macr. Sat. 2.1.9; Diom. GLK I.490.3-7).

From the middle of the 1^st century onwards, in the wake of the gradual decline of tragedy (see above), the pantomime genre became established. This is the only theatrical genre for which artistic evidence provides more information about the costume than the literary evidence; thanks also to the so-called six “pantomime” medallions, datable between the 2^nd and the 5^th centuries, the famous Trier ivory relief depicting a pantomime dancer and some Pompeian wall paintings (e.g. at the House of Apollo and the House of the Four Styles), we can deduce the following. The dancer’s dress was usually soft and of translucent silk (Lucian. salt. 2; 63), ankle-length and long-sleeved (tunica talaris), with fringes or gold embroidery (cf. Clem. Alex. Paed. 2.11 which combats its alleged feminising power; contra Liban. Or. 64.52 in response to attacks by Aristides; cf. also Choric. apol. mim. 10.4), perhaps saffron-coloured (Apul. apol. 13.7). Above the tunic was worn a cloak (pallium) that descended over the shoulders, whose function was multiple, depending on how the dancers moved it or placed it over themselves during the performance. It could take on a different meaning and even transform the role impersonated by the dancers themselves (pallium dance); from Fronto in ad orat. 5, which establishes a comparison between pantomime and oratory (cf. also Quint. inst. 11.3.144-49), we know that this same stage accessory could be adapted to represent the tail of a swan (in the myth of Leda?), the tresses of Venus, or the scourge of a Fury (in the myth of Orestes or Alcmeon?). Much therefore depended on the ability of the dancers to make use, without speech, of their minimalist costumes to establish adequate communication with the spectators. For this reason, even the mask, which was good-looking and not deformed like the tragic mask, had its mouth closed (Lucian. salt. 29 and 63) because the stage was silent. If a dancer was very good, he could change it five times on the stage to play different roles without annoying the audience, or even not change it at all and still play many different roles (it is difficult to believe that facial features such as the eyes were visible through the mask or that the mask was not worn on some occasions, despite Aug. doctr. christ. 2.4.5 and Nonn. 19.201). In some cases, the dancer wore a headdress, which could vary depending on the circumstances (see e.g. the one on the Trier ivory, which is different from the one on the terracotta mask now in the Agora Museum in Athens T 1818). The use of padding, e.g., to recreate the female breast (Jacob of Sarugh hom. 2 f. 4), and specific accessories (the bow of Hercules in Macr. Sat. 2.7.16-17 and all the identifying features of the mythical figures of Paris, Juno, Minerva, Venus and the Dioscuri in the Judgement of Paris in Apul. met. 10.30-31). On his feet the dancer seems to have worn sandals that might have had a metal band (scabellum) designed to produce a noise that defined the rhythm of the dance (Lucian. salt. 27; 83; Liban. Or. 64.96-97), similar to today’s tap.

If for all other theatrical genres costume was not so important, the popularity of pantomime in the imperial age was, on the contrary, relied mainly on costumes. This was a sign of changing times and the passage from a society more interested in the substance and content of drama to one focused almost exclusively on form and visual spectacle. Horace was already aware of this when he wrote, ahead of his time: «has he said anything? :: Not a word. :: Why all this noise then? :: It is his woollen suit, dyed purple according to the fashion of Tarentum!» (epist. 2.1.206-7).

[Marco Filippi]

Modern Theatre.

The Italian term il costume [kosˈtume] refers to a set of clothing specific to certain places and times, characteristic of a role or condition, a profession, a popular folkloric or historical tradition, comprising the clothing itself and its accessories, the main ones being belts, bags, watches, linens, hairstyles, socks and shoes, hats, gloves, jewellery and fans. From clothing worn in the Roman Empire from the 1^st century AD, to the development of fashions in European courts and cities between the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries, the history of clothing became the history of il costume. Models, shapes and materials took on symbolic value, thus identifying social positions, roles and habits in male and female costumes of the nobility and the common people. Over time, il costume, has borne witness to aesthetic canons, social dynamics, economic and market situations, and modes of expression in various public situations.

Theatre (or film) costume indicates clothing created and worn for stage performances, and identifies a stage role. Theatre costumes can be historical, a faithful or reinterpreted reproduction of a costume for a specific role in a specific age, or a fantasy costume according to the choices of the costume or dress designer, with adaptations to modern trends or free symbolic creations.

Etymology.

From the Latin consuetudo, -dinis, with a suffix change, or from the form of the vernacular Latin *costumen (DEI), ‘consuetudine’ (custom) was transformed into costume, understood as a person’s usual way of acting, thinking and behaving (Laude cortonesi, ‘the habitual behaviour of a person’, around 1260). The traditions and customs of a people or a social group involve the garments and styles that identify it: the word costume identifies the characteristic clothing of a community (before 1294, B. Latini), and came to also refer to the garments that one ‘wears for a specific purpose or activity’ (Bernardoni, 1821, in DELI).

The latter meaning, recorded in 19^th-century Italian, was acquired via French influence (the linguistic comparison reported here is with the French language, but it could be extended to many other languages.), which, in truth, had appropriated the term from Italian in the 16^th century following this etymological path: from the Italian costume – costume was known in the sense of ‘custom’ according to Bembo’s writings (Battaglia, s.v.) – it was adapted in the form ‘coutume’, or ‘coustume’ with the meaning of ‘clothing prescribed by custom’ (17^th century); from here, it entered usage as a “way of marking differences of age, condition and epoch of the characters” in the 18^th century. In a letter to Madame de Chantelou, dated 7 November 1641, Poussin wrote: «Celuy qui est né grand seigneur et ne fait rien de conuenable à sa naissance, qu’il se restitue le coustume qui doibt à soy mesme» (He who is born noble but fails to act according to his costume [the condition], deserves the situation he finds himself in) (Brunot, 1930, t. VI, p. 720). In 1665, Poussin himself reverted to the Italian form costume, based on the spelling adopted by his friend De Chambray in the 1662 work Idée de la perfection de la peinture: Roger de Piles (1673, p. 178) wrote: «C’est ce que M. de Chambray appelle, Faire les choses selon le Costume» (This is what M. de Chambray calls “Doing things according to Costume) (quoted by Brunot, 1930, VI-2, p. 721). The term thus spread in this new form, with the Italian pronunciation, and sometimes preceded by the Italian article, il costume. Félibien (1685, p. 251) notes that ‘costume’ was a term familiar to the arts and letters, understood as «Tout ce qui regarde cette partie de bienséance, que Castelvetro nomme dans sa Poétique il costume, et qui doit estre commune aux grans Poëtes et aux sçavants Peintres» (Everything concerning this part of decorum, which Castelvetro calls il costume in his Poetics, and which must be common to great Poets and wise Painters).

Using the word costume in a context exclusively related to painting continued in the 18^th century. In its 1787 edition, the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française indicates that costume is a «word taken from Italian, and which means the uses of different times, of different places to which the Painter must conform». However, the meaning of costume as a way of dressing according to social condition and epoch was recorded as early as 1747 as applied to the comedian and actor. In the work Le Comédien (p. 193), Pierre Rémond de Sainte-Albine mentions in a note the need to represent the characters with clothes appropriate to the time, roles and places, characterising the meaning of stage costume as follows: «Non seulement les Comédiens ne doivent point heurter de la sorte les convenances, mais ils sont assujettis, ainsi que les Peintres, à suivre ce qu’on appelle le costume, Alexandre & Cesar avec des chapeaux ne choquent pas moins la raison au Théâtre que dans un tableau» (Not only should Actors not offend propriety in this way, but like Painters, they are obliged to follow what is called the ‘costume’. Alexandre & Cesar with hats do not offend reason in the Theatre any less than in a painting). The comparative analysis conducted with the French language could reveal other points of interest when compared to other European languages.

Italianisms regarding clothing.

There are many examples of Italianisms referring to clothing in French, including integrated Italianisms and peregrinisms (Deroy 1956). Among the integrated and completely assimilated Italianisms is soutane: the Italian term sottana, a long woman’s dress worn under a cloak, synonymous with ‘gonna’ (skirt) since the 16^th century (Rey 2012, s.v.), spread successfully across Europe in the sense of ‘(priest’s) cassock’. Crinoline, which replaced the overlapping petticoats used to make dresses fuller, is from the Italian crinolino, a fabric woven from horsehair and linen, and was first detected in French in 1929 (Rey 2012, s.v.). If we consider roles that know how to showcase costumes, the diva and the prima donna are perfect symbols of clothing choices that have often made history. The term indicating the ecclesiastical garment originated in Italian, and integrated itself phonologically into French. Mitra, mozzetta, zucchetto are only some of the terms that spread from Italian into the European lexicon, with or without adaptations, (Boucher 1996: p. 146).

Here is a list of some Italianisms with the date of their adoption in French (Rey 2012 and TLFi): caban (gabbana, from the Sicilian cabbanu, 1448); caleçon (from calzone, 1563); the aforementioned crinoline; the colours cramoisi (from cremisi, 1315) and sépia (from sepia, 1804); baldaquin (from baldacchino, 1352); cappa, 1460 which became cape in 1671; from cappuccino, we get capuchon (1542) and capuce (1606); escarpe (from scarpa, 1549, Rabelais) and escarpin (from scarpino, 1534); mousseline (from ‘mosolino’, brocade made in Mossul, 1298); ombrelle (from ombrello, 15^th century) and parasol (from parasole, 1540); tombolo (1909); and escoffion (from scuffia, 1797). The history of the Italianisms of words for clothing in European languages highlights the contributions of Italian to historical, folkloric, popular and theatrical clothing and costumes.

Among the foreignisms, i.e. occasionally used loan words that refer to an Italian reality that does not exist in the French encyclopedic and experiential world of the time, we can find Italianisms introduced to add local colour or exoticism which are suitable, above all, for expressing emotions, feelings and aesthetic reactions. The use of the foreignisms is part of the cultivated language in the case of costume vocabulary: for example, the “il tabarro” is well-known thanks to Giacomo Puccini’s opera Il Tabarro – a title that remains untranslated in French, unlike titles of other works.

Characteristics of ‘il costume’.

Documentation on il costume has been carried out over time, and consists of studies on the images, paintings and engravings of il costume (clothing) of a people or a particular century; it spans a long period of history and extensive geographical diffusion, and tracks the multiple transformations of past and present costume through a multitude of different interpretations.

The way il costume is perceived revolves around the female or male figure that it must represent:

- male costume: overgarments, shirts, trousers, underwear, gloves, headgear, footwear, and accessories (scarves and ties, collars and belts, braces and canes, etc.);

- female costume: dresses and overcoats, petticoats, collars, bustiers and corsets, headgear and hairstyles, all kinds of accessories (gloves, handbags, fans, umbrellas, jewellery, shawls and veils, to mention the main ones);

- characteristics of fabrics: drapes; fabric thickness; colours; weaving features; animal hides and skins: types of hides and animals; place of origin and parts; and types of fur;

- decorations: gold and silver, gems and metals, which come to represent elements of the mineral, vegetable, animal and religious world.

Il Costume identifies the diversity and identity of places, times and characters, combining tradition with originality, uniqueness with repetition, and the history of dress-making techniques with social, ritual and institutional functions. As the symbol of the classical ballet dancer, the tutu appeared for the first time in France in 1832 when Marie Taglioni wore one in the ballet La Sylphide: a flowing soft dress, composed of a tight bodice, a skirt made of white voile, or tulle, that evoked the evanescent features of the dancer en pointe. The linguistic denomination that identifies this garment comes from the childish alteration of cucu, an adaptation derived from the doubling of the word cul. From this familiar designation, it first specialised to indicate a leotard (1860), and then a short flared dance skirt made of tulle netting (1881), losing all reference to the infantile evocation from which it originated (Rey 2012: s.v.). Adapting to the needs of dance technique, the tutu is shortened in the classic form (at the knees), all’italiana (shorter), whereas the romantic tutu covers the ankle (Zanola, 2016).

Each costume has its own morphology, depending on the shape, style and the dimensions of the costume, along with the presence or absence of linings, and the number and positioning of linings, splits, and folds. The technical-artisanal components determine its uniqueness. Indeed, it is difficult to find a costume that is replicated, in particular, among those created for theatre and cinema. There is an endless variety of length of a costume: mid-leg, short, fairly short, touching the feet, the ground, with a train, etc.; the hemline can be straight, rounded, asymmetrical, scalloped, edged, with flounces, ruching or frills etc. There are countless ways of describing the folds of a costume: by number (the different modes of pleating); by type, ranging from tucks to inverted pleats and false hem pleats, from box pleats to drapes, to folding crafted with mechanical or chemical systems; and by shape (with or without basques, with gusset inserts and inlays, with pockets, etc.). Each part of the costume can be completed with various trimmings and decorations, such as fringes, lace and crochet, borders and edging, types of slits and fasteners (see the Lemmario-guida per la catalogazione dell’abito e degli elementi vestimentari of the Istituto Centrale del Catalogo e della Documentazione del Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo).

Historical and contemporary theatre costumes include the following:

- single items, complete outfits and elements of clothing, relating to men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, and connected to the main purposes of use and various occasions of private and social life; clothing and items relating to underwear and hosiery;

- elements of modeling and enhancement of the female shape from the 18^th century to current fashion; structural and decorative components; and different tailoring processes;

- lacing and/or fastening systems in addition to the applied or inserted elements that determine them;

- textile decoration and technique, main techniques and applications of lace and embroidery.

The history of theatre costumes.

Here we can only briefly mention the history of theatre costumes while referring the reader to some of the main studies on the subject: Celler, 1859; Jullien, 1880; D’Amico, 1954-1968; Angiolillo, 1974; Bignami, 2005; Bignami - Ossicini - Bonora, 2010; Butazzi, 1976; Guardenti, 2000; Monteverdi, 1973; and Viale Ferrero, 1980 and 1984.

Each historical age addresses the issue of theatre costumes. In Greek and Roman theatre, the costumes were adapted to the genre represented: from the pallium to the toga, from the socci to high shoes or buskins (cothurni), costumes were used to make characters immediately recognisable. The garments of Medieval performances in the mystery plays and the costumes for jesters, the embellishments for tragedy or pastoral drama between the 15^th and 16^th centuries, humanistic theatre, and academic plays all represent the theme. The magnificence of Baroque clothing expresses a desire for exotic entertainment, and is a metaphor for what is known about Baroque culture, based on literary and iconographic sources. While the use of masks in tragedy allowed for distancing between the individual and the character and the dalmatic was widely used in the Middle Ages as a costume for all roles, in Renaissance court life, costumes became more elaborate, culminating in the appearance of the costume-character in the Commedia dell’Arte.

The typical costumes of the Commedia dell’Arte contributed to the international lexicon – just think of Harlequin. In the Museo Teatrale del Burcardo in Rome, the model of an 18^th century Harlequin is on display – Carlin Bertinazzi, who was the protagonist of the Théâtre Italien scene in Paris for decades; his costume comprises a jacket and cloth trousers with coloured patches, a wooden sword and a black leather mask. The Harlequin maintained the characteristics of this costume over time: the costume worn by Marcello Moretti and then by Ferruccio Soleri in the Goldonian Arlecchino servitore di due padroni at Giorgio Strehler’s Piccolo Teatro is particularly famous. The costume always includes a jacket and cloth trousers with many coloured patches, a floppy headdress, a wooden sword—now in red and white—socks, leather shoes, a black cloth pouch and a leather mask. Pulcinella has enjoyed similar European popularity, wearing a white loose-fitting blouse and wide-legged trousers like a bellman, a spatula hanging from his belt, and a bicorne that later became a sugar loaf hat. Goldoni helped to clarify the characters of these masks with the following four types: the sensible Pantalone de’ Bisognosi, a rich but stingy Venetian merchant; Dottor Balanzone, a know-it-all and conceited Bolognese; Brighella, a clever servant and often a thief too; and Arlecchin Batoccio, the foolish servant (Pisetskj 1964, vol. IV, pp. 325-28. On the role of the mask, see its use in the 16^th-17^th centuries in Ibidem, vol. III, pp. 253-66 and pp. 452-53).

In the mid-18^th century, Henri-Louis Caïn, known as Lekain, proposed a serious reform of the costumes used in the Comédie française. These, he argued, had to be rigorously respectful of the epoch of the character represented; Voltaire, complimenting him, wrote (in Jullien, 1880, p. 136): «Puisque vous osez enfin observer le costume, rendre l’action théâtrale et étaler sur la scène une pompe convenable, soyez sûr que votre spectacle acquerra une grande supériorité» (Since you finally dare to observe the costume, render the theatrical action and spread a suitable pomp on the stage, you can be sure that your show will acquire great superiority).

The example was followed, and philology became a theatrical necessity over the course of the century: without incurring the excesses of pomp criticised by Diderot in the Paradoxe sur le comédien, the actor François Joseph Talma (1763-1826) adapted make-up, hair, and clothes to the realities of the age in which the play was set. The discussion in France on the need to represent people truthfully in painting moved to the stage. Truth in art also had to lead to the truth of the costume, age differences, conditions and historical ages of the characters represented. The scrutinising gaze of the painter, seen as the one who portrayed a subject’s behavior, and studied their passions and external manifestations, became the gaze of the costume-maker, whose job it was to reproduce each element of the dramatic art on stage.

Whereas in theatres, coordination between stage, costume and text was lacking, and the idea of unity on stage seemed a utopia, Pierre Rémond de Sainte-Albine (ch. XIII, p. 231) hoped for authenticity in theatrical action, and, in this, the costume had a key task: «Du moins ne peut-on disconvenir qu’une observation plus exacte du costume ne rendît la Représentation plus vraie. Outre que cette attention de la part des Comédiens donneroit plus de vérité au Spectacle, elle y jetteroit plus de variété» (At least it cannot be disputed that a more exact observation of the costume would make the Representation more real. In addition to the fact that this attention on the part of the Actors gives more truth to the Show, it throws more variety into it).

While theatre costumes are a fundamental part of the faithful reconstruction of the historical-temporal context of the scene, there was a wide-ranging debate on the extent to which this should be exact and whether directors and scenographers should interpret the costumes in a modern or imaginative way. There were numerous writers who wrote treatises on theatrical topics during the 18^th century (see Bianconi - Pestelli 1988, vol. 5).

In his Ragionamento intorno alla foggia degli abiti teatrali – discussion on the styles of theatre costumes – (1771, in Viale Ferrero 1980, vol. 3, pp. 567-68), Leonardo Marini denounced improper uses introduced into theatres, requiring stage clothing to «conformarsi rigorosamente alle usanze di quel luogo in cui si suppone sia passata l’azione, e trasportare per così dire la mente di chi assiste nell’Europa, nell’Asia, nell’Africa, o nell’America» (strictly conform to the customs of the place where the action is supposed to have occurred, and, so to speak, carry the minds of those who see the performance to Europe, Asia, Africa or America). Marini also recommended theatres should have «un disegnatore particolare, e fisso per gli abiti; tanto più che l’unità si necessaria nelle belle arti consiste nella uniformità intorno alle parti di un bel disegno, cioè nell’essere tutto di un artefice medesimo» (a specialized and permanent clothes designer; especially since the unity necessary in fine arts consists in uniformity of the parts of a beautiful design, that is, in being all crafted by a single hand). In France, before the Revolution, only the directors of Parisian theatres provided their actors with costumes, offering them clothes of the disgraced nobility.

Therefore, until the 18^th century, attention to the appropriateness of the costume to the role played had to adjust to the resources of the theatre; however, the Romantic school introduced a taste for historical veracity, resulting in the idea of costume as we know it today. In Milan and Naples, where the theatre was becoming increasingly important, portraiture of great singers in costume also became popular. Costume creations circulated in the art world, and in 1843 a commission of experts from Accademia di Brera and Teatro alla Scala took office: Francesco Hayez and Alessandro Sanquirico were among the members of Accademia di Brera that examined sketches and models prior to stage production (Biggi 2010). The second half of the 19^th century saw further discussion on appropriate stage costumes which embodied the time, habits, tastes, characters and clothing of theatre setting. Costumes embody the spirit of the performance insofar as they recreate text and music in their entirety and purity. An indissoluble and two-way bond is established between costumes and performance. The scenes where actresses, singers and dancers perform have become venerated for famous characters and Italian costume designers (see reference works on the history of costume, such as Colas 1933, Leloir 1951, Levi Pisetsky 1964, Varese-Butazzi 1995, Boucher 1996, Mafai 2011).

Famous stage costumes.

As an element of both art and theatre, stage costumes have several phases of creation: depending on the stage project, starting from rough drawings and sketches, the shapes, fabrics and components are defined. Sartorial intervention determines cutting and assembly techniques, calculates sizes, and often a costume model in cloth is produced, based on the actor’s measurements, for fitting rehearsals and useful retouching. At the end of the 19^th century, an inseparable and two-way link was established between fashion and entertainment. The scenes in which actresses, singers, and dancers perform became special catwalks for the creations of couturiers: theatrical performances which, in the panorama of late 19^th century entertainment, were a genre that attracted particularly large audiences, offered an opportunity not to be missed to show off the latest fashions and admire the costumes created by couturiers specifically for actresses.

Collaboration between couturiers and theatre costume designers began between 1860 and 1890. For example, Mariano Fortuny designed the delphos tunic-dress worn by Eleonora Duse and Isadora Duncan. During the Belle Époque period, he reconstructed a nostalgic character from classical antiquity, with the famous plissé soleil, light silk pleats imitating the classic pleats (Sisi 2009). Diaghilev met Coco Chanel, who created the costumes for Le train bleu, staging her jersey swimwear. Picasso, Fernand Léger, Sonia Delaunay, Marcel Janco renewed the dynamics of the designer profession, permeating it with their artistic qualities, and turning Russian, Swedish or Dada ballets into unique events.

Theatre costumes were created by Italian artists, including: the magnificent costumes for the first edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1933; Verdi’s Nabucco, with scenes and costumes by Pietro Aschieri; La Vestale by Gaspare Spontini and scenes and costumes by Felice Casorati; Lucrezia Borgia by Gaetano Donizetti with scenes and costumes by Mario Sironi; I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini, scenes and costumes by Giorgio De Chirico.

The creator of costumes interacts with costume and dress designers, sometimes embodying all the different roles. Thus, several crafts merge into the role of the dress designer, which boasts illustrious Italian, Oscar winning personalities in the film industry: Piero Gherardi, for La dolce vita (1962) and 8½ by Federico Fellini (1964); Vittorio Nino Novarese, for Cleopatra (1964, with Irene Sharaff and Renie Conley) and Cromwell (1971); Danilo Donati, for Romeo e Giulietta by Franco Zeffirelli (1969) and Il Casanova by Fellini (1977); Franca Squarciapino, for Cyrano de Bergerac (1991); Gabriella Pescucci, for L’età dell’innocenza (1994); Milena Canonero, for Barry Lyndon (1976, with Ulla-Britt Soderlund), Momenti di gloria (1982), Marie Antoinette (2007) and Grand Budapest Hotel (2015).

Interacting with Toscanini, Luigi Sapelli, known as Caramba (1865-1936), created the famous costumes for Don Pasquale, worn by Papi, Pareto and Ruffo, and those for Salomè, Elisir d’amore, the historic 1923 edition of the Tristano directed by Toscanini, and the famous premiere of Turandot, also directed by Toscanini in 1926. Caramba established the criteria for creating costumes as the result of careful historical study of specific sartorial skills, to obtain the best effects in terms of setting, scenography, lights and spaces.

Pier Luigi Pizzi (1999, p. 51) recalls what happened in the late 1940s: «In Italia la scenografia ha avuto un’evoluzione significativa grazie al contributo di artisti che non erano propriamente scenografi ma che hanno determinato cambiamenti di tendenza. De Chirico, Savinio, Casorati, Sironi hanno fatto esperienze teatrali in modo assolutamente nuovo, trasferendo il proprio universo pittorico sul palcoscenico. […] Visconti volle Salvator Dalì per “Come vi piace”, di Shakespeare, messa in scena nel ’48: il surrealismo di Dalì si innestava sulla pittura barocca cui si ispiravano le scene e i sontuosi costumi realizzati da Marta Palmer» (In Italy, scenography underwent a significant evolution thanks to the contribution of artists who were not, strictly speaking, scenographers but nevertheless introduced changes in trends. In transferring their own pictorial universes to the stage, De Chirico, Savinio, Casorati, and Sironi turned theatrical experience into something totally new. [...] Visconti wanted Salvator Dalì for Shakespeare’s “As you like it”, staged in 1948: Dalì’s surrealism was grafted onto Baroque painting which inspired the scenes and the luxurious costumes created by Marta Palmer).

The tradition of producing stage costumes in Italy.

Producing stage costumes boasts an illustrious tradition in Italy: priceless archives and collections of costumes document the history of some of the most important European costume designers and tailors. The most notable is Casa d’Arte Cerratelli, officially established in Florence in 1914, although documents testify its activity also in the very early years of the 20^th century. To avoid chromatic and stylistic confusion resulting from a lack of proper coordination, the world of theatre, especially that of the opera, needed specialised and exclusive costume workshops which could create costumes for all the characters of the show (Niccoli 2013 and 2019; Benedettini et al. 2016, p. 95; D’Achille-Nesi 2016). To supply this need, the baritone Arturo Cerratelli set up a business that soon became the official costume supplier to the most famous Italian and international theatres. The tradition of stage costumes created from the sketches by Felice Casorati, Mario Sironi, and Giorgio De Chirico continued well into the 20^th century thanks to the intense activity of Casa d’Arte Cerratelli: in 1933, the production of costumes from De Chirico’s sketches for I Puritani, while in 1936, it was Gino Carlo Sensani’s work on the costumes for Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. Prestigious collaborations with artists include the works of Felice Casorati, Renato Guttuso, Corrado Cagli, Primo Conti, Mino Maccari, Emanuele Luzzati, and Mario Sironi. In the 1960s, big names such as Piero Tosi, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Mauro Bolognini, Anna Anni, Danilo Donati, and Franco Zeffirelli were clients of the costume makers.

The Tirelli tailoring business specializing in theatre costumes, was established in November 1964 with the name of Sartoria teatrale artigiana Tirelli, and earned numerous awards for both cinema and theatre costumes. With his first work – the costumes for Tosca designed by Anna Anni, the direction by Mauro Bolognini for the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome – Umberto Tirelli (Gualtieri 1928 - Rome 1990), a passionate collector of antique clothes, launched his costume-making business for both drama theatres and opera houses. His creations were very inventive and imaginative through the influence of Pier Luigi Pizzi; regarding the philological reconstruction of costumes for film productions he followed in the footsteps of Piero Tosi and later Gabriella Pescucci.

The costume tailoring business Costumi d’Arte is also worthy of mention; it was first established sometime around 1815 under another name by Angelo Pignotti, an old Napoleonic soldier who started his small business in Florence as a small antique dealer. Among his merchandise, he had dresses from the late 17^th century and 18^th century, and they were of relevant documentary interest. Following the requests of many painters who used these authentic garments for models in their paintings, in effect, Pignotti ran a costume rental business. By mid-century, Egisto Peruzzi, who had married Pignotti’s daughter, inherited the business and changed the name to Casa d’arte – Firenze: on request and using drawings from painters and theatre actors he produced new creations. The company, which was continued by his sons, first Ruggero and later Giuseppe, turned its attention to opera around 1920. Costumi d’Arte Peruzzi took over other theatre tailoring enterprises including, in 1985, Giuditta Maggioni Roux’s Sartoria Teatrale S.A.F.A.S. which had produced costumes for Luchino Visconti’s theatrical and cinematographic works.

Some visual sources for the history of theatre costumes.

A costume establishes the specific characteristics of a character, regarding the social function and the period of time. Visual sources for the study of theatre costumes refer to the study of the history of costumes (drawings and prints, inventories, fashion magazines and photographic repertoires). In particular, images of costumes from various countries in collections of engravings from the 16^th century onwards have provided extremely rich evidence: «Enea Vico, Pieter I Coecke d’Allost, François Desprez, Ferdinando Bertelli, Jost Amman, Jean-Jacques Boissard, Bartolomeo Grassi, Guillaume Le Bé, Pietro Bertelli, sono i nomi più famosi degli autori o solo raccoglitori di stampe di questi disegni e incisioni»(Enea Vico, Pieter I Coecke d’Allost, François Desprez, Ferdinando Bertelli, Jost Amman, Jean-Jacques Boissard, Bartolomeo Grassi, Guillaume Le Bé, Pietro Bertelli are the most famous names of the authors, or only collectors of the prints of these drawings and engravings) (Guérin Dalle Mese 2002, p. 11).

When, in 1590, Cesare Vecellio published the book Degli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo (on old and modern clothing from different parts of the world), interest in clothing and what it represents had already a long tradition, and was further enriched with the diffusion of prints and xylographic engravings. In the 1598 edition, Vecellio organised this knowledge and, starting from Venetian costumes, catalogued numerous countries, including American garments. His contemporary Giacomo Franco, instead, celebrated Venetian collections only, launching Venetian costumes worldwide in 1610. Vecellio’s great merit lay in associating text and image, allowing for the creation of a summa on the garments of the time. The engravings mainly show the garments of the nobility and clergy: they served as models for exotic clothing for the noble class, as sources for fashion engravings, and were purchased as souvenirs by foreign travellers.

In 1813 Antoine-François Sergent-Marceau – a police commissioner during the Revolution, later exiled to Italy, and a pupil of Augustin de Saint-Aubin – published a collection of coloured aquatints on the costumes of various peoples, accompanied by observations on the styles of the clothes. This work was designed for comedians and scene painters. Auguste Racinet’s 500 commented tables describing historical costumes (1876-1888) followed in the wake of the patrimony of descriptions and representations of costumes of the previous centuries. From antiquity to the European costumes of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, until the late 19^th century, Racinet reconstructed a detailed map of il costume, accompanying the collections of splendid tables with very accurate captions in which we find quotes of the Italianisms used at the time, also thanks to the revival of the terminology that Vecellio had reported. Besides these important collections of reference, it is not possible to reconstruct the entire range of visual references, to which also the pictorial and artistic documentation developed over the centuries belongs.

[Maria Teresa Zanola]

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Teatro greco

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