On November 17, 2018, for our series Voices on Art, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Art This Week Productions recorded this talk by Helga K. Aurisch, curator of European art, “Riffling (or Rifling) through the Royal Wardrobe.
From the MFAH website–“This lecture explores the many ways British royals have been—and continue to be—at the epicenter of new styles in fashion.
The use of clothing and jewelry as symbols of British royal power, authority, and wealth certainly predates the emergence of the painted portrait. However, it is portraiture that offers clear visual evidence of the ways elaborate clothing could represent royal power.
As seen in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol, portraits of the Tudor era (1485–1603) depict their royal subjects’ clothing in minute detail, ensuring that the viewer is well aware of the expensive fabrics, metals, and precious jewels on display. Clothing, particularly significant at this time because of the sumptuary laws that dictated which colors and fabrics people could wear based on social status, was also highly symbolic. For example, Elizabeth I adopted black and white as her colors, an association with constancy and purity highly appropriate for the Virgin Queen.”
Thanks to Dr. Aurisch, and the MFAH for allowing us to film the talk. Thanks also to MFAH staff, especially Trey Ferguson, for their help in recording this talk.
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