In the classical world, the shape of footwear was often a typical connotation of very specific social categories. The spiked caligae, for example, were mainly used by soldiers because they were ideal for long marches, while the calcei, similar to low ankle boots and often brightly colored when worn by women, connoted the upper classes (patricians, senators and emperors). Sources hand down that courtesans, on the other hand, used to wear sandals that bore nails on the underside of the sole arranged in such a way as to leave an imprint on the ground with the words “follow me”.
Seduction, after all, has always been an innate aspect of this garment which, not surprisingly, played a leading symbolic role even in the ancient wedding rite. And already in the ancient world, the shoe was the protagonist of fables such as that of Rhodopes, Cinderella’s direct ancestor, told for the first time by Herodotus and then by Strabo. Since then, footwear has also been the protagonist of sayings. Cicero, in one of his Philippics, uses the expression “mutavit calceos” to declare the change in the social rank of a personage, who became a senator, since the calcei of the senators differed from those of the patricians.
A walk among the sturdy caligae of Roman soldiers, the seductive sandals of Greek courtesans, the refined sandals worn by the gods or by the Roman aristocracy; without forgetting the rich variety of footwear worn by the stars of the colossals dedicated to antiquity, from Ben Hur to Gladiator, and the most recent fashion creations, inspired by the style of footwear from the classic world and made by protagonists of contemporary fashion such as Emilio Pucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Yves Saint Laurent.
It is “At the feet of the gods”, an exhibition that was held some time ago, curated by Lorenza Camin, Caterina Chiarelli and Fabrizio Paolucci, at the Museum of Fashion and Costume of Palazzo Pitti.
The exhibition, focused on a theme as fascinating as it is unprecedented, recounted the infinite roles that the shoe has played in the West from ancient times to the present day. The real protagonists of the exhibition, consisting of about 80 works (some of which have been on loan from important international museums such as the Louvre), are the specimens of the main types of footwear used in the period between the fifth century BC and the fourth century AD. and in the original, such as the exceptional finds from the Roman fort of Vindolanda in northern England.
The ancient has been put in direct comparison with the contemporary. Shoes by some of the greatest designers (such as Genny, Céline, Richard Tyler, Renè Caovilla, Donna Karan) were exhibited together with the original models made by the most famous Italian manufacturer of footwear for the cinema, the Pompei shoe factory, for some of the peplum films that have become real cults: here are the sandals of Liz Taylor-Cleopatra, the shoes of Charlton Heston-Ben Hur, those of the Gladiator Russell Crowe, the calighe of Alexander-Colin Farrell. ‘At the feet of the gods’ finally found its natural completion in multivision, conceived and directed by Gianmarco D’Agostino (Advaita Film) to immerse the visitor in a universe of images in which archaeology and fashion merge with the myths of the big screen.
