05-10-2010, 04:14 PM
I'll use William Hogarth's engraving, "Moses Brought Before Phaoroe's Daughter" from 1752 to illustrate my point.
![[Image: hogarth_william_moses_pharaohs_daug.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/JohnMcDermott/hogarth_william_moses_pharaohs_daug.jpg)
The subject is a well known biblical story whereby the child Moses is brought to Pharoe's daughter. Please note how Hogarth dressed the subjects in contemporary clothing, even though he may have had some knowledge of what ancient Egyptians looked like. He didn't bother. He wanted his audience to instantly recognize the characters, so he dressed them as people in the 18th c. would have seen them. The tall man on the right is a Jew and is pictured as a Jew of the 18th c. and not as a Hebrew of Moses' time. Pharoe's daughter is shown wearing 18th c. dress, not clothing from hyroglyphics.
So, one can discern evidence of dress from art. In fact, the paintings of ships of the Dutch artist William Van del Velde are so intensely accurate that they were used for intelligence purposes at the time.
John
The subject is a well known biblical story whereby the child Moses is brought to Pharoe's daughter. Please note how Hogarth dressed the subjects in contemporary clothing, even though he may have had some knowledge of what ancient Egyptians looked like. He didn't bother. He wanted his audience to instantly recognize the characters, so he dressed them as people in the 18th c. would have seen them. The tall man on the right is a Jew and is pictured as a Jew of the 18th c. and not as a Hebrew of Moses' time. Pharoe's daughter is shown wearing 18th c. dress, not clothing from hyroglyphics.
So, one can discern evidence of dress from art. In fact, the paintings of ships of the Dutch artist William Van del Velde are so intensely accurate that they were used for intelligence purposes at the time.
John
"In war as in loving, you must always keep shoving." George S. Patton, Jr.
