DRATERY, in sculpture and paint ing, the representation of the clothing of human figures; also hangings, tapestry, curtains, and most other things that are not flesh or landscape. Although it is the natural body, and not some append age added by human customs and reg ulations, that sensibly and visibly rep resents mind and life to our eyes, and has become the chief object of the plastic, arts, yet the requirements of social life demand that the body be clothed; the artist fulfils this obligation in such man ner as shall prove least detrimental to his aim. Drapery has, of itself, no de terminate form, yet all its relations are susceptible or beauty, as it is subordinato to the form it covers. This beauty, which results from the motion and disposition of the folds, is susceptible of numerous coin bina-tions very difficult to imitate; in deed, casting of draperies, as it is term ed, is one of the most important of an artist's studies. The object is to make the drapery appear naturally disposed, the result of accident or chance. In an cient Art, the feeling and enthusiasm for corporeal beauty was universal, yet the opportunities for representing it were comparatively rare. Only in gymnastic and athletic figures did nakedness pre sent itself as natural, :Ind become the privileged form of representation to the sculptor ; it was soon, however. extended to statues of mate deities and heroes. Garments that concealed the form wore universally discarded; it was sufficient to retain only the outer-garment, and even this was entirely laid aside when the figure was represented in action. In scant statues, on the contrary, the up per g,arment'is seldom Mid aside ; it is then usually drawn around the loins ; it denotes, therefore, rest and absence of exertion. In this way the drapery, even
in ideal figures, is significant, and be comes an expressive attribute. Ancient Art, at the same time, loved a compendi ous and illusive treatment ; the helmet denotes the whole armor ; a piece of the ehlamys the entire dress of the Ephehos. It was customary at all times to repre sent children naked ; on the other hand, the unrobing of the developed female body was long unheard of in Art, and when this practice was introduced, it re quired at first a connection with life ; here the idea of the bath constantly pre served itself until the eyes became ac customed to adopt the representation with out this justification. The portrait sta tue retained the costume of life, if it also was not raised above the common neces sity by the form being rendered heroic or divine.—The draperies of the Greeks, which, from their simple, and, as it were, still undecided forms, for the most part only received a determinate character from the mode of wearing, and, at the same time, furnished a great alternation of smooth and folded parts, were espe cially calculated from the outset for such purposes; but it also became early an artistic principle to render the forms of the body everywhere as prominent as possible, by drawing the garments close, and loading the skirts with small weights. The striving after clearness of represen tation dictated to the artists of the best period a disposition into large masses, and a subordination of the details to the leading forms, precisely as is observ ed in the muscular development of the body.