Upper Class Men

The most important item of dress worn by the upper class men was the toga, which had originally been the typical attire of all the notable Roman citizens. In a fresco from Pompeii, Campania, Italy depicting the parody of the Judgment of Solomon, the king wears a toga thus representing himself as a magistrate.

In the early Christian era, the garment that conveyed prestige was the himation, consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth thrown over the left shoulder and wrapped around the body. This may be why many artists depict biblical characters, such as Abraham and Moses wearing the himation than the toga; it conveyed a sense of dignity and importance.^F4

During the cold of the winter months the upper classes covered their clothing with a chlamys, a short, fine woolen mantle. It became the symbol of the upper classes and the rulers. Some, in the mountainous regions draped themselves with a lacerna, a rectangular woolen cloak with rounded corners and a hood. Surviving fragments were found in the Bar Kokhba Caves.

Lower Class Men

Early Christian artists depicted Jesus and the Apostles in the dress of the lower classes to convey the message that they were among the common people. In the artistic depictions of the Jesus as the Good Shepherd, His dress was of a simple nature. The main item of dress was the was a short sleeved tunic know as the colobium.

Other garments worn by the lower classes included the burrus, a rectangular cloak of thick coarse wool with a hood, and the paenula, a semicircular cloak, fastened in the front, often with a hood, used by men for traveling. A garment for formal wear was the abolla, draped over the clothing; it was rectangular, made of wool, fastened with a decorative pin, and worn in a double fold over the right shoulder.

Barbarian Costume

Another distinction during the Roman era was the between the civilized inhabitants of the empire and the barbarians who lived near the borders or beyond the realm. Though feared for their strange uncouth ways and their constant threat to Rome, they were also fascinatingly exotic in their dress.

In Gaul and Germany, although the upper crest of society adopted the Roman dress when attending their senate. Whereas the local peasantry retained their traditional Germanic and Celtic dress - for men it consisted of a bracae, long tight trousers, a long-sleeved tunic, and a cloak fastened by a fibula on their shoulders. Both the cloak and bracae were woven in checked patterns, similar to the Scots' designs of today.

In the East, some members of the upper class wore Parthian dress loose trousers inside half boots and long-sleeved tunics - the tunics of the upper class were usually embroidered in gold floral patterns on the front on the sleeves. A tall, cylindrical polos hat completed the dress. Roman artists continued to picture this dress to indicate the Eastern barbarian. In the contemporary version of Eastern dress, biblical figures such as Solomon sitting in judgment, is represented as an oriental ruler dressed in the 'bracace' and a long embroidered tunic.

Upper and Lower Class Women

Israelite women depicted by the early artists and historians were usually dressed in a simple chiton, an ankle-length tunic, with or without sleeves. The sleeves were generally fastened with a pin and the tunic was gathered in by a belt below the breasts. Over this women would wear a pallai or himation, a woolen mantle dyed in various colors or adorned with a pattern. It was used to cover the head, when walking in the streets, as a sign of modesty, or with men during religious ceremonies. Simple thonged leather sandals completed the dress.

The figure of Mary, is shown in artistic renditions, draped with this garment, modestly drawn over her head in the manner of the respectable matrona (upper-class women).

Jewish and Christian Costume

The main sources for our knowledge of the various types of clothing worn by the Hebrews of that era is through Talmudic literature; the Bar Kokhba archaeological finds of a thonged sandal, garments and textiles; and pictured on the Dura-Europos frescoes.

There was no specifically Jewish costume depicted. The patriarchs as well as rabbinical figures were pictured in the attire of Roman dignitaries. There were, however, some details that would depict an individual as a Jew - fibers such as wool and linen would never be mixed together according to the biblical edict (shaiatnez) forbidding the mixture of fibers in a single cloth. Also, men would have worn tsistsit, ritual fringes on the corners of their mantles.

In the Talmudic era a Jewish man would of worn a haluq, a short tunic, decorated with clavi, stripes, and a talith, a shaw-like garment of wool (or linen) with fringes at the four corners, worn during religious services. Jewish women wore long tunics and loose, sleeveless cloak or cape that resembled the pallai or ihimationi. Decoration was usually the gamma-shaped patterns, probably of the similar design of Roman Egypt.

The Christian clergy wore the collumbium and after the third century, the dalmatica and the stola was adopted (these ancient garments survive in Catholic and other Christian dress.)^F5 The stola has metamorphosed into the stole, a strip of silk or other material hanging from the back of the neck over the left shoulder and down to the knees. The dalmatica has become the dalmatic, a wide-sleeved, long-loosed vestment with slit sides, worn at religious rites. There is also the tunicle, derived from the tunica, Roman or Greek tunic, and a chasuble, worn by a priest during the celebration of Mass - from the Roman paenula or casula, a loose sleeveless outer garment. The pallium, a large rectangular mantle worn by men in ancient Greece and Rome, has shrunk into a circular strip of white lamb's wool, worn over the chasuble by the Catholic hierarchy.

Conclusion

One of the striking features of dress of biblical figures in early Christian art is its ordinariness; prominent personages from both the Old and New Testaments, were depicted in clothing similar to each other, be they be Christian, Jew or pagan. Military dress appeared in the paintings - worn by soldier saints such as St. Minas, or warrior kings, such as Herod or Nebuchadnezzar. Prominent figures like David and Saul or Moses were in the attire of contemporary rulers both Hellenistic and Roman; and notably eastern figures such as Daniel or Samson wore exotic barbarian dress.^F6

The early Christian artist did not develop the depiction of a recognizable sacred costume for biblical figures, as happened during and after the Renaissance. Did they avoid the iconographical path because of the distaste for the pagan world associated with hostile state officials? Or, did they feel particularly near to the biblical figures they pictured, regarding them as spiritual ancestors and models who could be truly imitated?

Whatever the reason behind the use of contemporary costume, this non-historical dress, to which we have been accustomed to in religious art, still has the power to surprise and delight us.

Bibliography

Cooper, Jean C., An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978.

A Lion Handbook: History of Christianity. Lion Publishing PLC, 1996.

Westenholtz, Joan Goodnick. "Images of Inspiration", Catalogue. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum, n.d.