wet drapery

Examples of wet drapery in the following topics:

• Stelae in the Greek High Classical Period

  • She is elegantly dressed in long flowing drapery.
  • This style, known as "wet drapery," also appears on the Temple of Athena Nike in Athens.
  • Like the women on the Grave Stele of Hegeso, the child's clothing assumes the "wet drapery" style to accentuate the contours of her body while allowing her to maintain "feminine" modesty.

• The Temple of Athena Nike

  • Her clothing appears transparent with deep heavy folds in a style known as wet drapery.

• Gothic Sculpture

  • The figures, with their fully modeled bodies and wet drapery, demonstrate how sculptors in the Gothic period were familiar with classical references and were able to employ them in their works.  

• The Acropolis

  • Their drapery, especially over their weight-bearing leg, is long and linear, creating a parallel to the fluting on an Ionic column.
  • While they stand in similar poses, each statue has its own stance, facial features, hair, and drapery.
  • This style, known as "wet drapery," allows sculptors to depict the body of a woman while still preserving the modesty of the female figure.

• Fresco

  • There are two forms of fresco painting, "buon" (meaning wet) and "secco" (meaning dry).
  • The buon fresco technique involves painting with pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh lime mortar or plaster.
  • With this method, a binder is required since the pigment does not mix with the wet plaster.

• Watercolor

  • Three important approaches include washes, wet-in-wet and dry brush painting.
  • Wet-in-wet painting involves wetting the paper before paint is applied.

• Wiligelmo and Other Forms of Architecture

  • A significant motif of Romanesque design is the spiral, a form applied to both plant motifs and drapery in Romanesque sculpture.
  • An outstanding example of its use in drapery is the central figure of Christ on the outer portal at La Madaleine, Vezelay.

• Ceramics in the Greek Early Classical Period

  • Both the figures and their drapery began to appear more plastic, and the scenes often depicted a single moment within a mythical story or event.
  • He pays particular attention to the details of the body and the drapery of each figure, and allows both figure and drapery to express emotion, space, and movement.

• Painting in the Late Byzantine Empire

  • While the Virgin Mary still appears to be a mass of robes, her drapery is more subtly rendered.
  • The drapery is still reliant on deep folds, but the folds are no longer contorted and are less schematic.
  • In the following examples by El Greco (1541-1614) and Emmanuel Tzanes (1610-1690), we can see the transition from the Late Byzantine style (in which the contours of the body were acknowledged beneath the drapery and attempts at realistic perspective were still evolving) to the Post-Byzantine style, which depicts a realistic recession of space and dynamic bodily poses.

• Objects of Worship in the Middle Byzantine Empire

  • The saints are elegantly draped, and their bodies are distinguished by the folds of their drapery and not any type of modeling.
  • Except for Christ's upper body, which is unclothed, the bodies of the figures are defined by their rigid drapery.
  • The figures painted in these scenes have bodies with mass and drapery that conforms, not shapes, their bodies.
  • The clothing is still rendered with bright, contrasting colors and the folds of the drapery are stylized and dark.