Though they were a heterogenous group, Enlightenment philosophers were united in their conviction that rational thought was key to understanding the world and improving the human condition. Originating in Europe, the Enlightenment was a dynamic movement that emerged from the Scientific Revolution and its emphasis on logic and reason. Titled “ The Great Divide: Footwear in the Age of Enlightenment,” the show assembles around 50 artifacts that tell a complex story of the Enlightenment era-at once a glittering age of reform and a period of pervasive, often violent, oppression. Appropriated to suit the tastes of a conquering power, the juttis embody the rapacious nature of European colonialism during the Enlightenment, argues a small but evocative exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum (BSM) in Toronto, Canada. Normally a flat style of footwear, the juttis’ soles were ripped out in the 1790s and replaced with a heel-a modification that aligned the shoes with fashions popular in England during the waning years of the Age of Enlightenment, a transformative intellectual movement that electrified the Western world in the 17th and 18th centuries.Īround this same time, an English trade corporation known as the East India Company dominated large swaths of India, operating as a “ de facto emperor” backed by a military force, according to sociologist Emily Erikson. But there’s something unusual about them. These toe-tapping artifacts embody the sumptuous flourishes of fine Indian craftsmanship in the 18th century. Green sequins made from iridescent beetles’ wings dot the pattern with shimmering brilliance. Known as juttis, the shoes have delicately pointed toes and are threaded with white and emerald beads woven into an intricate floral design. Inside a slender display case, a pair of luxurious shoes still sparkles some 300 years after adorning the feet of an upper-class woman in India.
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