04-03-2014, 02:02 PM
And just like Victorian antiquarians who cut off the orbiculi and clavi from Coptic tunics destroying the rest of the garment, modern picture editors often show only the interesting figure from a painting or mosaic rather than the whole scene! 
The Coptic tunics are of course supported by many surviving archaeological examples as well as their appearance in contemporary Roman art. However as Christian states you also find earlier fashion styles depicted alongside the later ones. This can be taken as evidence for earlier garments still surviving into later periods or that the ancient artist thought it acceptable to copy an earlier fashion into a later scene for whatever reason unknown to us.
As I often say whenever reconstructing anything, it is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle when you don't have all the pieces, no straight edges and no picture on the front of the box!
Graham.
The Coptic tunics are of course supported by many surviving archaeological examples as well as their appearance in contemporary Roman art. However as Christian states you also find earlier fashion styles depicted alongside the later ones. This can be taken as evidence for earlier garments still surviving into later periods or that the ancient artist thought it acceptable to copy an earlier fashion into a later scene for whatever reason unknown to us.
As I often say whenever reconstructing anything, it is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle when you don't have all the pieces, no straight edges and no picture on the front of the box!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
