Commentary Par XXIV 26

Daniello (DDP Daniello.Par.XXIV.22-27) is apparently the only reader of this canto to think of the context offered this scene by the weaving contest between Athena and Arachne.  He does so in order to place the painterly technique (the representation of folds in a garment) referred to here in an Ovidian context (Metam. VI.61-66).  Jacopo della Lana (DDP Lana.Par.XXIV.26-27) was the first to make the now common observation that this verse describes the way a painter would depict the folds in a garment, by using darker colors for them.