Chapter 4 2. The devil in striped clothes-3

saint joseph's leggings In fact, from millennia ago, Western iconography has been accustomed to retain the derogatory features of striped clothing.The first figures to be dressed in striped garments—first in miniatures, then in frescoes, and later on other vehicles—were biblical characters: Cain, Delilah, Saul, Saul Rice, Judah.Like brown hair, striped clothing is a common trait of biblical traitors.Granted, they don't always wear stripes, like Cain and Judas, just as they don't all have brown hair, but they wear them more than any other character in the Bible.The presence of these stripes is enough to accentuate their disloyal character traits. [19]

From the mid-13th century onwards, the list of "bad guys" who so dressed lengthened markedly, especially in secular miniatures.In addition to biblical traitors there are the narrative and literary traitors mentioned in the previous paragraph—the most famous example being Canelon, the traitor in the Song of Roland—as well as a large variety of The socially excluded and God-forsaken are mainly those social groups I mentioned when I was talking about the dress codes of the late Middle Ages, from which both iconography and urban society were based on common laws of representation.In portraits and on the street, striped clothing or signs are often used to denote those who are outside the social order, either because of a sentence (forger, counterfeiter, perjurer, criminal) or because of Defects (lepers, hypocrites, simple-mindeds, madmen), or from lowly jobs (servants, servants) or dishonorable occupations (charlatans, prostitutes, executioners, and three more Disgraced occupations: blacksmith, wizard, butcher, who were bloodthirsty, and miller, who hoarded food to starve), or because they were not or no longer Christians (such as Muslims, Jews ,pagan).In their view, all such people disrupt the social order as stripes disrupt the order of colors and dress.

Because stripes never appear alone, for stripes to 'function', to acquire their full meaning, they must be combined or contrasted with other surface structures, especially monochrome and small floral patterns, but also bisected patterns [20 ], checkered pattern, pattern with many small spots, diamond pattern.In a portrait, a striped garment always signifies difference, distinction, and highlights the person wearing the striped garment through the garment.Such prominence often signifies negation.Sometimes, though, the rules are more nuanced and less clear-cut, and the stripes contain emotionally ambivalent or even ambiguous meanings rather than being outright pejorative.Joseph's portrait is one such example.

For a long time, Joseph was a lowly figure in the West, a silent supporting character who was annoying.In the medieval religious dramas he was even ridiculous, and he was thought to have a lot of ridiculous things not found in the Gospels: stupidity (he couldn't count), clumsiness, miserliness, and above all alcoholism.Likewise, in processions, the role of Joseph was often played by village or parish fools, and this was sometimes the case throughout the eighteenth century.[21]His image, whether painted, carved or engraved, until the end of the Middle Ages was nothing more than a bald and trembling old man, never appearing alone on the picture, never occupying the first place (even at birth. the same in day scenes).Compared with the Madonna and Child, even with the Three Kings, the St. Anna, and the St. Elizabeth, he takes a secondary place.In fact, it was not until the Renaissance that Joseph's status was really improved. Nevertheless, this also has some connection with the improvement of the status of St. Joseph's family[22].He gradually changed from an old fool to a more respectable person, in his prime, the figure of a grandma or a carpenter.For a long time, though, his image remained vague (the idea that Jesus was illegitimate was a heresy).In fact, starting with the Counter-Reformation, St. Joseph's status was finally elevated thanks to the Jesuits and Baroque art.However, it was not until 1870 that he was declared the patron saint of all churches.

As far as the stripes are concerned, the most interesting period for portraits of Joseph is the 15th and early 16th centuries.Since then Joseph is no longer as contemptuous as he was in the first half of the Middle Ages or the feudal era, but he has not completely turned over and is not so respected.Therefore, several devices and signs are used in his portraits to emphasize this special status, one of the most common ways is to dress him in striped skinny trousers.This clothing symbol appeared in Mozana and the areas along the Rhine at the end of the 14th century, and gradually became popular in northern Germany, the Netherlands, the Rhine Valley and Switzerland, until 1510-1520, in stained glass windows, small paintings and wainscoting Considerable evidence is left in the drawings above.There have since been fewer, but a few isolated examples can still be seen in seventeenth-century engravings [23].

Stripes on tight trousers are less noticeable than stripes on narrow clothing.Dressing Joseph in a striped tunic, gown or overcoat would obviously discredit him.Dress him in striped leggings just to accentuate his character.Here, the stripes are primarily used to indicate ambiguity rather than shamelessness.Joseph was neither Cain nor Judas, he had nothing to do with betrayal.He is only "miscellaneous", as the 15th century French said, he is not holy like the Madonna, not like ordinary people, noble in some ways, humble in others, father and not father, neither necessary Few and embarrassing, his special status, his delicate situation, his distinctiveness, everything that Stripe amply expresses in his fifteenth-century portraits is present in him.In fact, stripes can not only represent the violation of social order or moral standards, distinguish between servants and masters, executioners and victims, lunatics and normal people, people who go to hell and God's chosen people, it can also make people feel more delicately. Then certain nuances and special aspects within a well-defined value system.Stripes, therefore, seem to be both a rule of portraiture and a rule of visual perception.Its dual nature deserves our study.