Amazing updates, Adrian! It's nice to see progress on this project.
Speaking of research, are there any particulars to her dress, that is, not just her robe, but the robe, sandals, hair? Are there things that were specific to her rank, position, class, etc, that you had to take into account? I'm just curious about the scope of your work, the research we do is much of the fun of projects like this.
Prost!
Brad
Hi Brad,
Thanks for commenting.
Yes, I spent considerable time researching het dress, hairstyles, etc. Up to a point I started to become a bit fed up actually! As with many things, when you dig in you find out how many details are relevant and how little you know about them. But the internet is a tremendously useful resource and I spent many many hours browsing.
One useful source of info were classical sculptures. There are so many statues, alrge and small. Challenge with these is that most of the pictures of them are of one angle and without multiple views I found it hard to determine how the clothing layers were draped exactly. Some instructions can be found, but most of these are lacking details, and some are incorrect or impossible.
Funny thing is I found some of the simplest statues the most insightful. Perhaps because the sculptor simplified the drapery, focusing on the basics, rather than all details.
Then there was a most useful publication by an amateur researcher on roman dress.Will try to post it here later. This was particularly helpful in interpreting different clothing layer on statues and on learning about dress of different ranks and eras.
Another source were the paintings from the 19th century, but these are not the most reliable it turned out. These painters were struggling with the same questions I was and sometimes made assumptions....and they copied each other.
Reenactors also helped shape views, but this source has the same issues as the paintings.
Last source were roman murals, many from Pompeii or Herculaneum. I will refer to these when choosing colours for painting later.
In the end there were some uncertain areas, and on these I made my own assumptions and simplifications. I did my best and at least it looks roman I hope!
I agree with you. Research is part of our thing and I love doing this in ‘lost moments’...waiting during my son’s swimm class, during the after-dinner-dip, etc.
So, up next is choosing colours and the actual painting...!
Cheers,
Adrian
