In this generously illustrated book, Anne Hollander examines the representation of the body and clothing in Western art, from Greek sculpture and vase painting through medieval and renaissance portraits, to contemporary films and fashion photography. First published ahead of its time, this book has become a classic.

Clothing appears in all forms of figurative painting, often taking up two thirds of a frame; yet it can often go unnoticed. Far more than a simple means of identifying the status or occupation of a figure, clothes and cloth are used creatively by artists to hint at ambiguities in character, adjust the emotional temperature, direct the eye or make subtle allusions. Drawing on works by artists over a period of six centuries, from Giotto to El Greco, Matisse to Cindy Sherman, the author reveals through paintings, fashion plates, photographs and film stills how drapery in art evolved from Renaissance extravagance to Neoclassical simplicity at the end of the 18th century, and has extended to infinite uses in all genres of Modern art. First published in 2002 to accompany an exhibition of the same name at the National Gallery, London, this beautifully illustrated - and beautifully written - book by pioneering art historian and critic Anne Hollander, is reissued with a new Foreword by Valerie Steele. As penetrating and insightful as when it was first published, it remains a must-read for today's generation of students and anyone with an interest in art and fashion.

Gen Doy investigates the hitherto neglected meanings of drapery and the draped body in visual culture. The baroque and the classical are her subjects, as are Freud's "Gravida", Clerambault's writings and photographs of draped figures, the fetishistic play between veiling and revealing and the meanings of drapery in recent art, from Christo's wrapped Reichstag to the impact of the modern women's movement on fine art practice. Yet she also finds and focuses on the draped body now in places like Algeria and Kosovo where drapery's connotations are no longer those of purity and civilized elegance but of barbarism, poverty, and savage death.