Whose Sleeves? Tagasode Screen

Posted on by February 24, 2019

The garments draped over the racks in the golden scene depicted on this screen raise questions about the woman who left them there. The late seventeenth century kosodes are energetic in their designs of fans and wheels and riotous in color. It’s the beginning of a story, of a search for answers. Unlike so many drawings depicting festivals, dancing, parties, and processions there is no activity in these panels. The viewer waits for the wearer to emerge and claim those things she’s left behind.

29.100.493, .494 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

29.100.493, .494 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Posted in Art, Dress History, Gender Tagged , , , , , , , permalink

About Becky Fifield

Becky Fifield is a cultural heritage professional with 25 years experience in institutions large and small. She is currently Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections of the New York Public Library. An advocate for preventive conservation, Ms. Fifield is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Chair of the AIC Collection Care Network, and former Chair of Alliance for Response NYC. She is also a scholar of 18th century female unfree labor and dress. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in the Hudson Valley.

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