Shoes, Slippers, and Sandals

Feet and Footwear in Classical Antiquity

Sadie Pickup, Sally Waite, Sadie Pickup, Sally Waite

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429946691
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Ancient History

This edited volume groups research on the significance of ancient feet and footwear, much of which was presented, discussed and reviewed at the conference: Shoes, Slippers and Sandals: Feet and Footwear in Antiquity, held at Newcastle University and the Great North Museum from 29 June–1 July 2015.

Ancient dress and adornment have received significant consideration in recent scholarship, though, strikingly, feet and footwear have featured relatively little in this discussion. This volume aims to rectify this imbalance through its fifteen chapters covering a wide range of aspects associated with feet and footwear in classical antiquity. Contributions are grouped under four headings: 'Envisaging footwear', 'Following footprints', 'One from a pair' and 'Between representation and reality', reflecting the broad range and interdisciplinary nature of the approaches undertaken.

Part 1

Envisaging footwear

1 Sandals on the wall

The symbolism of footwear on Athenian painted pottery^*

Sally Waite and Emma Gooch

An unpublished, oversize cup in the Shefton Collection (Figure 1.1), attributed to the Splanchnopt Painter and dated between 470 and 460 BC, forms the starting point for this chapter.¹ At 36 cm in diameter, the size of the Shefton cup is noteworthy.² The function of these large-scale cups has been debated. In Greece the majority were unearthed in sanctuary contexts.³ Athena Tsingarida (2009, 195ff.) argues convincingly for a link between late archaic large-scale cups and the Theoxenia festival,⁴ where a table and banqueting couch is laid out for a heroic or divine guest who, larger than life, would require an oversize drinking cup.⁵ In such a setting the cups could be displayed or handled to intimate the presence of the gods or heroes (Tsingarida 2011, 59ff.). The Etruscan provenance of a number of these large-scale cups indicates their appeal to an Etruscan audience; here in a funerary context they can be seen to be indicative of status but also perhaps to honour the underworld gods or ‘heroise’ the deceased (Tsingarida 2009, 198; forthcoming).⁶ The Shefton cup has no known provenance and its iconography, composition and execution are not suggestive of an intended audience of heroic or divine status. Rather, it seems more suited to the generic symposion (drinking party).⁷ Oversize cups do appear in use in a sympotic context⁸ but their exaggerated size may be symbolic rather than realistic.⁹ Certainly these large-scale cups would be difficult to hold and drink from without spillage (Tsingarida forthcoming) but that may have been part of their appeal.¹⁰

Figure 1.1 Red-figure cup, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great North Museum, Shefton Collection 53, 470–460 BC.

Photo: © Newcastle University/Great North Museum: Hancock.

The iconography of the Shefton cup

The enigmatic tondo image (Figure 1.2) is bordered by meanders and represents, to the left, part of an altar with ovolo frieze and volute. A woman, in chiton (tunic) and mantle, with her hair bound up by a band, stands facing a youth, wearing a cloak, leaning on his stick with his legs crossed. Between them in the background hangs a small pouch, often identified as a purse.

Figure 1.2 Red-figure cup tondo, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great North Museum, Shefton Collection 53, 470–460 BC.

Photo: © Newcastle University/Great North Museum: Hancock.

The scene is unusual and has few parallels amongst the known oeuvre of the Splanchnopt Painter¹¹ or indeed other painters.¹² It is especially noteworthy in the association it draws between the purse and an altar. Though conversation or courtship scenes of this type are common, the presence of an altar is rare, especially combined with a purse.

The exterior of the Shefton cup has a lower border of stopped meanders and conversation/courtship scenes to both sides. On the obverse (Figure 1.3) a woman faces a youth. In the background there is a pair of hanging sandals. A second woman, wearing a sakkos (hair covering), holds an alabastron in her left hand. A second youth leans on a stick with legs crossed. Another pair of sandals hangs in the background. A third woman holds an indistinct object and looks back at a third youth, wearing shoes, with arm outstretched. A fourth woman faces to the right.

Figure 1.3 Red-figure cup exterior side A, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great North Museum, Shefton Collection 53, 470–460 BC.

Photo: © Newcastle University/Great North Museum: Hancock.

On the reverse (Figure 1.4) a woman faces a youth. A second woman raises her hand holding an indistinct object and a second youth leans on his stick with legs crossed. There is a sash hanging in the background. A third woman faces a youth whose upper body is missing and a fourth woman faces to the left. All the women wear chitons and mantles and all the youths have a cloak and stick.

Figure 1.4 Red-figure cup exterior side B, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great North Museum, Shefton Collection 53, 470–460 BC.

Photo: © Newcastle University/Great North Museum: Hancock.

The exterior image, traditionally labelled as a conversation or courtship scene, shows an interaction between youths and women who are generally identified as hetairai (courtesans) or prostitutes. There are no obvious indicators of setting and few attributes. It is difficult to determine which figures the two pairs of hanging sandals belong to; their symbolism is unclear but surely significant.

Objects in the field

Athenian vase painters relied on a shared system of representation and adhered to a limited repertoire of formulaic figures, gestures and attributes. As such, the images are self-referential rather than realistic: vase paintings do not offer us snapshots of everyday Athenian life. The meaning of the image lies in the combinations that the painter selects or rejects from an already existing repertoire.¹³ Since painters were bound both by shared conventions and a collective cultural consciousness, representations select and juxtapose not only individual elements from the visual repertoire but also sets of ideas; as such, they encode an ideological meaning (Beard 1991, 20; Goldhill and Osborne 1994, 5; Sourvinou-Inwood 1991, 11; Rabinowitz 2011, 123). The vase painter chooses and combines a number of spatial signifiers and attributes, perhaps intentionally or perhaps unconsciously, in such a way that they become symbolic, often providing a key to the meaning of an image. Hence there is a need to understand the individual representations in the context of a larger network of surviving images. This approach cuts across the oeuvre of a single artist by looking instead at a typological series (Bérard and Durand 1989, 25). Objects in the field may serve as a spatial signifier or link to the identity of the figure to which they refer (Hosoi 2007). Whilst hanging objects are often gendered, sandals clearly are not. Moreover, the meaning of an attribute is not constant and may vary according to the scene-type and/or viewer (Williams 1993a, 96; Stansbury-O’Donnell 2011, 189; Bundrick 2012, 14). The polysemic nature of attributes can result in ambiguity, one that is perhaps deliberate on the part of the painter. This is the context in which we must interpret suspended objects, which the artist may or may not mean to represent something hanging on a ‘real’ wall (Smith 2016, 155).

Representing sandals

Sandals in the field are, with very few exceptions,¹⁴ represented as a pair. Most commonly, one sandal is shown in profile and the other as flat, outlining the shape of the sole (Figure 1.5a);¹⁵ far less frequently both are represented as flat (Figure 1.5b)¹⁶ and very occasionally both are shown in profile (Figure 1.5c).¹⁷ It is not unusual to find more than one pair of sandals in the same scene; interestingly, different types occasionally appear combined in the same representation.¹⁸ Sandals are generally represented hanging together high in the field, or sometimes positioned lower down in the scene with one sandal above the other;¹⁹ sometimes this is simply due to the constraints of space, particularly within the tondo.²⁰ Occasionally sandals are separated within an image, represented on either side of a figure’s head²¹ or between another hanging attribute.²² In one image a single sandal is incorporated within the athlete’s bundle.²³ That we are to envisage at least some of these sandals as hanging on the wall is made explicit on the tondo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction: Surveying shoes, slippers and sandals
• Part 1: Envisaging footwear
• Part 2: Following footprints
• Part 3: One from a pair
• Part 4: Between representation and reality
• Glossary
• Index