How do you dress Death, Vice, Guilt, Hope?

If you're a Spanish costume designer interpreting these characters from the allegorical religious plays of Pedro Calderón de la Barca -- and yes, Death, Vice, Guilt and Hope prance on stage, as do Charity, Faith and Rage -- you clothe them with so much imagination that the costumes become works of art.

Death wears a crown of black feathers and bat-like wings.

Charity, surprisingly, is cloaked in a red dress in the big-hipped style of 18th century nobility, a simple wreath of green leaves and tiny flowers adorning her head.

Rage's headgear is made of the same black feathers as that of Death, only it is taller, much taller. Rage is dressed in a red tunic similar to that of a warrior (or is it a court jester or the Joker?), and the fabric is so soft it's almost flimsy.

''Dressing Calderón's allegorical plays in which the characters are concepts is always a challenge for designers,'' says Andrés Peláez, director of Spain's Museo Nacional del Teatro (National Theater Museum) and curator of the spectacular exhibit A Hundred Years Dressing Calderón at Miami's Freedom Tower.

The display of 40 costumes, created by some of the best designers in Spanish theater and sewn by Sastrería Cornejo, Madrid's legendary tailors of extravagant productions, has turned the second floor of the venerable, historic tower into a sort of haunted mansion.

Some of the costumes are downright spooky -- a mourning Doña Angela from the play The Phantom Lady, her head covered by a black veil; a faceless bishop in a hand-painted white frock; a spectral, white Joan of Arc look-alike.

And then, there's the way the costumed mannequins are lined up, poised as if they are ghosts from another era about to waltz when no one's looking.

''Ooh, I get goose bumps when I remember when they were putting the exhibit together, and all these mannequins were on the floor in pieces,'' says Cova Najera, spokeswoman for the Spanish Cultural Center in Miami, co-sponsor of the exhibit with Miami Dade College's Gallery System, the International Hispanic Theatre Festival and the Spanish government's cultural agency, SEACEX.

The phantasmal vibe is not accidental. All of this is from another era.

Calderón (1600-1681) is the Shakespeare of Spain. He wrote more than 110 comedies and about 70 allegorical plays. He and Lope de Vega were the two greatest dramatists of Spanish literature's Golden Age.

Calderón's allegorical religious plays -- written in florid, Old Castilian verse -- first traveled to the New World in the 16th century, following the path of the conquistadores to Cuba, Mexico and Peru. They were staged to help convert the indigenous populations to the values of Christianity.

But what made them endure beyond conquest was their universal appeal and the adaptability of their storylines, and for the next several centuries. Modernized versions were staged before packed theaters in Argentina, Puerto Rico, Panama and other countries in the Americas as recently as 2000.

Now organizers of A Hundred Years Dressing Calderón are hoping U.S. audiences can enjoy learning about Spain's rich theatrical tradition with an exhibit that bridges the language gap.

''For an audience unfamiliar with the world of Calderón and the Golden Age of Spanish letters, the best way to understand is through the wardrobe,'' Pelaéz says. ``Costumes are visual.''

And they're beautiful.

A character named The World from the play Baroque Feast, The Great Market of the World is dressed in a flowing, floor-length cape with hand-painted ocean waves, a costume fit for a prince. It was designed by Miguel Narros for a 1992 staging by Spain's National Classical Theatre Company.

The oldest costumes in the exhibit are from a 1942 staging of The Phantom Lady, in which the widowed Doña Angela, who is kept sequestered at home in mourning black by her traditional patrician brothers, yearns to break free and love again. Also notable are the courtly costumes belonging to a 1946 production of Life is a dream, a play about hidden identities that is set in Poland and written in verse and features Segismund, a prince who is locked away at birth because of an oracle's prediction that he would become a ruthless ruler.

The costumes are owned by Spain's Museo Nacional del Teatro, in the town of Almagro in the La Mancha region (of Don Quixote fame). Earlier this year, they traveled to Havana. They are in Miami as part of the XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival, subtitled this year, ``A Tribute to Spain.''

The festival, which last weekend featured Calderón's allegorical play The Divine Philothea performed by Spain's Pedro María Sánchez Company, runs through Sunday .

''The exhibit A Hundred Years Dressing Calderón has made history in Miami,'' says festival director Mario Ernesto Sánchez. ``I have been trying through Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival to achieve this for several years. . . . Miami deserves this and more.''

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