The Art of the Shoe by Marie-Josèphe Bossan

Author:Marie-Josèphe Bossan [Bossan, Marie-Josèphe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783107339
Publisher: Parkstone International

195. Jean-Etienne Liotard. Turkish Woman and Her Slave, 18th century. Art and History Museum, Geneva.

196. Persian miniature: Khosrow organizes a reception during a hunt. Folio 100, The Five Poems of Nizgâmi, 1620-1624.

197. Portrait of Fath’ Ali Shah, attributed to Mihv’ Ali Iran, c. 1805, oil on canvas.

Persia

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Iranian culture entered a period of dormancy. The breakdown of the Sassanian and Byzantine empires paved the way for Islam’s takeover.

During the golden age of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736), Persian still dazzled western travellers. The French painter Chardin (1699-1779), who spent ten years in Persia around 1660, was among those impressed. According to Chardin, even the poor were well dressed and wore silver ornaments on their arms, feet and neck.

Unlike shoes in the Hellenized West, the shoes of oriental countries exhibit a continuity of forms whose decorative grammar was transmitted from one century to the next. For example, 17th- and 19th-century ceremonial boots from Persia display on their soles the same stylized floral motifs found on garments worn by Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BC. The motifs are visible on a narrative relief from Ashurbanipal’s palace entitled, “The King killing a lion,” now in the British Museum.

Another significant example of continuity is the similarity between the 16th-century heeled shoes with raised tips now in the International Shoe Museum, Romans, and the mules worn by the Persian Emperor Fath’ Alî Châh in his portrait painted around 1805, now in the Louvre Museum. These shoes were worn to best advantage with stockings richly embroidered with gold motifs based on those shown on Ashurbanipals’s clothing.

According to Jean-Paul Roux, the babouche, a slipper without a rear quarter or heel worn by men in the orient, probably originated in Iran. The Persian word papoutch comes from the words pa (foot) and pouchiden (to cover). This form of footwear was especially suited to the Islamic custom of removing shoes before entering a mosque or a private home.

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