Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network

Episode: Elizabeth Currie, "Street Style: Art and Dress in the Time of Caravaggio" (Reaktion, 2025)

Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Currie

Date: November 2, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves into Dr. Elizabeth Currie’s new book, “Street Style: Art and Dress in the Time of Caravaggio,” which investigates the visual and social history of lower and working-class clothing in early modern Italy. Dr. Currie discusses how clothing, identity, class, gender, and material culture were represented in art and daily life during Caravaggio’s era. Moving beyond the focus on elites, the conversation uncovers what everyday dress meant for ordinary people and how these meanings filtered into visual arts, social policy, and even moral anxieties.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Motivation and Method (02:13–04:08)

• Dr. Currie’s Background: Historian and lecturer at Central Saint Martins, specializing in textiles and dress in early modern Italy.
• Genesis of the Book: From elite menswear in Florence to the streetwear influences on court fashion—uncovering unexpected “trickle up” fashion.
• Approach: Each chapter centers on a different social group—soldiers, sex workers, servants, etc.—using clothing and appearance as a way into their stories.

2. Sources for Studying Everyday Dress (04:08–05:59)

• Artworks as Evidence: Paintings, prints, costume books, and sketches. Recognition that these could be authentic or symbolic and frequently reflect the observer’s moral or social agenda.
• Archival Records: Sumptuary laws, household inventories, secondhand transactions, and trial records inform certain groups (e.g., sex workers).
• Challenges: Evidence for laborers and other marginalized people is scant and often filtered through the perspective of elites.

3. Why Artists Painted Everyday People (06:30–08:16)

• Shifts in Subject Matter: From royalty and nobility towards artisans and commoners, reflecting a democratization in art.
• Influence and Trend: While Caravaggio is seen as a pioneer, the trend was gaining ground from the early 16th century (e.g., Bruegel).
• Caravaggio’s Innovation: Bringing everyday people into religious art—an unusual and sometimes controversial move.

4. Art Market and Controversies (08:40–11:37)

• Who Bought These Works?: Both elite and less wealthy consumers purchased art depicting everyday scenes; from expensive paintings to affordable prints.
• Artistic Reception:
  • Some praised Caravaggio’s realism, others (e.g., Giulio Mancini) criticized him for using “normal people” and, allegedly, prostitutes as models for religious scenes.
  • Quote (Elizabeth Currie, quoting Mancini, 10:30):
    “He calls the model a dirty prostitute from the Ortaca…”
    (Referencing rumors about Caravaggio’s "Death of the Virgin.")

5. Recurring Tropes and Identities (12:07–14:06)

• Stereotypes and Theatrical Types:
  • Romani fortune tellers, young adventurers, pilgrim imposters; influenced by costume books and popular theater (commedia dell’arte).
  • Quote (Currie, 12:54):
    “They wanted to know how to situate them and how to kind of read them… and those kinds of printed works had an impact on paintings as well.”
• Role in Society: These visual types influenced public perception and crossed media (art, literature, performance).

6. Romani Women in Art (14:28–17:21)

• Origins and Representation:
  • Romani people in Italy from the early 15th century—often visually distinctive.
  • Artistic liberty in depicting foreignness with bright colors and theatrical costumes.
  • Romani women were tied to tropes of magic, fortune-telling, and biblical narratives (e.g., "Flight into Egypt").
• Caravaggio’s Influence:
  • His “Fortune Teller” solidified the visual shorthand for these figures—seductive, expensively dressed, central to narrative action.

7. Soldiers—From Trendsetters to Rogues (17:34–20:41)

• Fashion Influence: Soldiers’ brightly colored, ostentatious uniforms contrasted with elite men’s preference for sober black; certain elements (slashing, codpieces) entered broader fashion.
• Complex Masculinity:
  • Soldiers as both style icons and, over time, as symbols of debauchery and social anxiety.
  • Quote (Currie, 20:41):
    “They look as though they’re about to break out into a fight at any point. Half of them, yeah.”

8. Sex Workers and the Policing of Dress (21:05–27:40)

• Sumptuary Laws: Primarily targeted at women and notably sex workers; aimed to suppress display and maintain status distinctions.
• Regulations:
  • In Rome, sex workers were forbidden from wearing “abiti alla romana” (Roman clothing), especially the prestige item of the long lensuolo veil.
  • New laws even assigned special under-veils to distinguish sex workers, a form of visible “branding” meant to mark dishonor.
• Enforcement and Blurred Boundaries:
  • Laws were often ignored and ineffectively enforced.
  • Items like the “zimara” became associated with both sex workers and elite women, confusing distinctions.
• Deserving vs. Undeserving Poor:
  • Attempts to differentiate worthy beggars with certificates and specialized clothing seldom worked; many categories blurred in reality.

9. Servants and the Circulation of Clothes (28:20–31:55)

• Clothes as Payment:
  • Outgrown or worn clothing from elite households often passed down to servants, underscoring both family honor and hierarchy.
• Quality Markers:
  • Even plain, secondhand items carried subtle class signals (e.g., difference between types of wool).
• Liveries:
  • Uniforms designed to identify servants with a household, but could end up on the secondhand market, undermining their intended exclusivity.
  • Quote (Currie, 31:45):
    “…even the livery itself, it should be a really sort of stable sign, gets played around with and there’s some confusion about it.”

10. Recycling, Sustainability, and Secondhand Markets (32:17–34:22)

• Cloth as Asset:
  • Textile recycling was universal, not just moral but essential; garments were repurposed multiple times.
  • Secondhand markets for finished clothes and fabric scraps thrived, powering a circular economy.
• Sumptuary Laws and Reuse:
  • Some laws encouraged repurposing banned clothing for children’s wear.
• Sustainability Parallel:
  • Implied lesson for modern sustainable fashion.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Artistic Innovation:
  “Although Caravaggio is seen as very innovative in that he depicts everyday people in kind of new and in unusual ways, it was a trend that had become popular ever since the beginning of the 16th century.”
  (Currie, 07:10)

• On Failed Social Control:
  “There were lots of ways that the authorities tried to distinguish between moral and immoral people… but it was definitely kind of a losing battle.”
  (Currie, 27:28)

• On Clothing Literacy:
  “People were very tuned in to very small differences in clothing… that’s a very small difference… but at the time people were very much more aware of those things.”
  (Currie, 29:30)

• On Modern Implications:
  “Potentially some things we could be more mindful of today, perhaps. So I think a clear link there and lots of food for thought.”
  (Melcher, 34:22)

Timestamps for Notable Segments

• 02:19 – Dr. Currie discusses her motivation and initial area of research
• 04:28 – Methods for reconstructing the dress of ordinary people
• 06:30 – Why artists painted everyday people and how this trend began
• 08:40 – Art market dynamics and contemporary controversy around Caravaggio
• 12:07 – Common tropes and characters in early modern Italian art and popular culture
• 14:28 – The role of Romani women in visual and literary tradition
• 17:34 – The shifting representation of soldiers in art
• 21:05 – Regulation and complexity of sex workers’ clothing
• 27:40 – Circulation of secondhand clothing and challenges of class distinction
• 32:17 – Textile recycling and secondhand economy
• 34:54 – Currie’s current research focus

Guest's Current Work and Closing

Dr. Currie is now working on a multi-author volume about women textile designers in the 20th century, emphasizing contemporary collections and oral history methods—a distinct shift from early modern archival work. (34:54)

Key Takeaways

• Ordinary people’s clothing is both a personal possession and a social flashpoint, subject to regulation, suspicion, and artistic fascination.
• Visual tropes—such as the fortune teller, the soldier, and the sex worker—blur lines between reality and stereotype, spilling across art, theater, and legislation.
• Garments circulate widely between classes through gift, inheritance, and robust secondhand markets, undermining attempts at sartorial control.
• Efforts to police identity and morality through dress frequently failed, revealing both the messiness of social life and the limitations of sumptuary law.
• Sustainability and recycling were embedded in early modern textiles culture, offering lessons for today.

For Listeners

Dr. Currie’s “Street Style: Art and Dress in the Time of Caravaggio” offers an accessible yet nuanced look behind the surface of Caravaggio-era canvases and city streets—a timely meditation on how what we wear shapes, and is shaped by, culture and class.