Shoes fit for the Gods goon display at Italy’s Pitti Palace

FLORENCE: As sandal season fast approaches, a new exhibit on ancient footwear at a top Italian museum seeks to remind today´s well-heeled that when it comes to fashion, do as the Romans did.

The classics are always in, as evidenced by the new show in Florence´s Pitti Palace, which traces the humble sandal´s outsized influence in contemporary fashion and film, while astonishing the modern eye by the elegance of the ancients.

“At the Feet of the Gods: The art of footwear in ancient Rome, epic film and contemporary fashion,” features 80 works from sculptures and decorative urns to sandals ancient and new, many on loan from international museums.

The show — which promises to satisfy the curiosity of both shoe fetishists and wearers of plastic Crocs alike — runs through April 19.“With this show, we´ve tried to make the shoe, commonly thought of as an accessory, instead the protagonist,” Fabrizio Paolucci, one of the curators, told AFP.

In ancient times, shoes acted as a sort of “identity card” for their owner. They could reveal a great deal of information about the wearer — such as their sex, profession or economic status — even more so than today, when the choice of a pair of red-bottomed Christian Louboutin stilettos, Nike swooshes or orthopaedic (but now trendy) Birkenstocks is loaded with meaning. The humble sandal, whose prehistoric forerunners date as far back as 10,000 years, flourished under the ancient Greeks, whose deities were their best models. Massive feet in marble and bronze, the remnants of destroyed statues of gods and others, are brought together in the show, all adorned with “krepides” — sandals fastened via an intricate web of laces covering the foot. The delicate footwear is also seen on pottery dating back as far as the fifth century BC. On one vase, Eros, the Greek god of love, helps a virgin change into the skin-exposing sandals she will wear as a bride.

On an Etruscan urn, a nude courtesan laces up sandals whose nailed soles left impressions on carpets spelling, “Follow me”. Greek footwear paved the way centuries later for the “caliga” worn by Roman soldiers, authentic examples of which can be seen in the show, their leather still intact. The low sandals with exposed toes, reinforced by iron studs hammered into the soles and sometimes worn with socks, were ideal footwear for Roman armies, who often marched as far as 35 kilometres (22 miles) per day.