I've always really liked this painting by Picasso, of a woman wearing a mantilla (La Salchichona, 1917). This weekend while in Spain, I was lucky enough to see quite a few real life mantilla's in action, as the small village where I was staying, a couple of hours from Madrid, held a procession in honour of Corpus Christi. The village set up several little altars around the place, where the parade would stop off and the priest would do his bit. The ground around the altars were covered with grass and herbs that smelled very strongly in the dry heat. People hung their best tablecloths out the window to celebrate (the area in which we were staying is famous for its embriodery). Everyone dressed up to the nines - women with very high espadrilles wedges and men with slicked hair, chinos and suede shoes.
