Cap | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published by Reblogs - Credits in Posts, June 28th, 2023

The Costume Institute

Cap

ca. 1790

During the French Revolution, headdresses played a vital role in marking political affiliation and national identity. Hats adorned with a tricolor ribbon cockade became symbols of patriotism, while the liberty cap or bonnet rouge, became a symbol of the Revolution. The bonnet rouge resembled a floppy woolen cap commonly worn by working men, but its shape was drawn from the ancient Roman pileus, a cap given to freed slaves to mark their liberation, and the Phrygian cap, a curved cap associated in antiquity with the people of Phrygia, located in present-day Turkey. This rare example of a revolutionary cap represents a type known as the bonnet de police worn by members of the National Guard, which was typically adorned with Revolutionary imagery. The band of this cap is embroidered with a Phrygian cap mounted on a pike, and fasces, or tied bundles of wooden rods, a symbol of unity and authority in ancient Rome.

Artwork Details

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Overview

Title: Cap

Date: ca. 1790

Culture: French

Medium: wool, cotton, linen

Credit Line: Alfred Z. Solomon-Janet A. Sloane Endowment Fund, 2015

Accession Number: 2015.568

Learn more about this artwork

The Costume Institute at The Met

The Costume Institute's collection of more than 33,000 costumes and accessories represents five continents and seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children.

Timeline of Art History

Chronology

France, 1600-1800 A.D.

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