Spain, ever tenacious of ancient ideas, appears to have preserved
longer than other countries the ancient classic traditions in
regard to the foot as a focus of modesty and an object of sexual
attraction. In Spanish religious pictures it was always necessary
that the Virgin's feet should be concealed, the clergy ordaining
that her robe should be long and flowing, so that the feet might
be covered with decent folds. Pacheco, the master and
father-in-law of Velasquez, writes in 1649 in his _Arte de la
Pintura_: "What can be more foreign from the respect which we owe
to the purity of Our Lady the Virgin than to paint her sitting
down with one of her knees placed over the other, and often with
her sacred feet uncovered and naked. Let thanks be given to the
Holy Inquisition which commands that this liberty should be
corrected!" It was Pacheco's duty in Seville to see that these
commands were obeyed. At the court of Philip IV. at this time the
princesses never showed their feet, as we may see in the pictures
of Velasquez. When a local manufacturer desired to present that
monarch's second bride, Mariana of Austria, with some silk
stockings the offer was indignantly rejected by the Court
Chamberlain: "The Queen of Spain has no legs!" Philip V.'s, queen
was thrown from her horse and dragged by the feet; no one
ventured to interfere until two gentlemen bravely rescued her and
then fled, dreading punishment by the king: they were, however,
graciously pardoned. Reinach ("Pieds Pudiques," _Cultes, Mythes
et Religions_, pp. 105-110) brings together several passages from
the Countess D'Aulnoy's account of the Madrid Court in the
seventeenth century and from other sources, showing how careful
Spanish ladies were as regards their feet, and how jealous
Spanish husbands were in this matter. At this time, when Spanish
influence was considerable, the fashion of Spain seems to have