Long description

This image shows eight line drawings of a standing man. The aim is to show, one step at a time, the way the toga way draped. The figures are labelled A-H. A: The man (who also wears a short-sleeved, knee-length tunic belted at the waist) has the semi-circular toga draped around his body such that the straight edge (labelled ‘2’) is at the top and the curved edge hanging down. One corner (labelled ‘1’) hangs down his front on the left to just above his feet. It is then draped over his left shoulder and around his back. He holds the right side of it with his right hand. The other corner is also labelled ‘1’. B: The man has pulled the right side of the toga under his right arm. C: The man is throwing the right side of the toga over his left shoulder with the straight edge (‘2’) diagonally across his chest. D: The man is now standing with his toga draped in the correct way for the late Republican period, with the straight part of the toga (‘2’) draped around his back and diagonally across his chest, and the right side of the toga thrown over his left shoulder, with his left arm carrying the bulk of the folds (although his hand is free) and leaving his right arm completely free. The left corner (‘1’) hangs between his legs. E: This is a repeat of image C, signalling that the viewer return to this stage to understand the steps to follow, which is a second style of draping from the imperial era. F: The toga has been thrown over the left shoulder as above, but this time a bit of the toga underneath has been pulled out over the outermost diagonal (‘2’) and there is a second, shorter layer of cloth hanging down (labelled ‘3’). G: This is the finished imperial toga, which is similar to image D except that there is a pouch of cloth protruding over the diagonal (‘2’) across the chest. This is labelled ‘4’. There is also the second, shorter layer of cloth hanging down (labelled ‘3’) over the main drooping fold of the toga. H: shows the back of the man in his fully draped toga, showing the side that was thrown over the left shoulder hanging down the back all the way to the feet.