The phoenix—a mythical bird that cyclically regenerates, symbolizing everlasting life, renewal, and the sun—was often used in revival styles in combination with other neoclassical motifs. An early-nineteenth-century blue-and-white textile draws upon this Greco-Roman imagery, as does McQueen’s long white dress with confronting birds beaded on a sheer back panel. Although show notes for the collection describe them as phoenixes, this motif has also been interpreted as the swan, a bird that likewise features prominently in classical mythology.

Gladiators, who fought in arenas as entertainment, inspired this silver look with a short, pleated skirt and belt, quilted with confronting hippocamps, Hellenistic seahorses who pulled Neptune’s chariot. Artists revived this mythological creature—a symbol of both the sea and the netherworld—during the Renaissance, as seen in a wine cistern illustrating scenes of the water god and his seahorse. A decorative and expertly constructed golden Neptune rides a hippocamp made in part of an exotic curling turban shell.

McQueen’s diaphanously draped green dress recalls the sleeves and torso of a belted Ionian chiton. Further revealing the body, a shaped sheer band of net along the waist and hips, encrusted with beads and crystals, resembles the lower portion of the molded cuirass (lorica) worn by the Roman military to protect their torsos. A similar bodice is depicted in Jacques-Antoine Beaufort’s The Oath of Brutus, on view on the adjacent, in which it is worn under a red cloak (or chlamys).

McQueen’s Fall/Winter 2010–11 collection Untitled (Angels and Demons) presented luxurious fabrics drawn from art of the Northern Renaissance, a favorite period of the designer’s and a touchstone throughout his career. In this dress, photographs of three Hieronymus Bosch paintings—The Temptations of Saint Anthony, The Last Judgment, and The Garden of Earthly Delights—were digitally composited and woven in jacquard.