Recently, I was puttering around on the internet, following increasingly
unrelated links.  You know, as one does.  Anyway, I ran into several images
from the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome.  The catacombs date from the 2nd
to the 5th centuries, but what caught my attention were a couple of
frescoes dated to around the middle of the 3rd century.
This is the first one that caught my attention:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fiery_furnace_01.jpg
which lead me to quickly find this:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/20/article-2510473-1983CD8200000578-7_634x415.jpg
detail:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/20/article-2510473-1983D8F200000578-248_634x402.jpg(It's
the sleeves/sleeveheads that are getting me here.)

Now, 3rd century Italian is definitely not my era/area, but... am I the
only one whose reaction is HUH?!  Early 17th century ain't my period
either, but I'd have a lot easier time believing that was what I was
looking at than -=3rd=- century.

Is anyone particularly familiar with this era/area?  I'd love to know more
about these garments, or anything even vaguely resembling them during this
time period.  Yes, these are religious frescoes, making them automatically
questionable as costume reference pics.  But where would they even come up
with the ideas?  I haven't managed to see images of every other fresco
dating to around the same period in the catacombs, but I've seen many of
them; the clothing in them is much more what my not-my-period eyes would
have expected.  You know, like this:
http://catholicphilly.com/media-files/2013/11/CATACOMBS-GOOGLE1.jpg

Anyway.  Someone please either tell me I'm imagining it.  I mean, I don't
really think I'm looking at the 3 musketeers caught in the act of time
travel; I expect it's probably even possible to kirtle up a tunic into this
silhouette.  But I'd really like to know more about the clothing of this
era/area, and exactly how much they knew about fitting sleeves in Italy in
the 3rd century.

-E House
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