
Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity (2008) - walterbell
http://archive.archaeology.org/0801/trenches/colorgods.html
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walterbell
The posted article doesn't have much context, but it's the only source I found
with images of the ultravoiolet photographs which justify the colored
patterns. More context and photos in this Smithsonian review:
[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-
colors-17888...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-
colors-17888/?all)

A comment on the social status of color, [http://moco-
choco.com/2014/04/18/true-colors-of-ancient-gree...](http://moco-
choco.com/2014/04/18/true-colors-of-ancient-greek-and-roman-statues/)

 _" While to our modern eye, the bright colours scream ‘tacky,’ to the
ancients who painted them, it was ‘expensive!’ Back in the day, slaves wore
roughcloth, like undyed and unbleached icky tan colors. The well-to-do wore
‘inexpensive’ colours, and the extremely wealthy wore ‘royal’ colours. There
were even laws about it, a very wealthy merchant without a noble title might
be able to afford purples and blues, but could be put to death for wearing
them. Same goes for statues, only the very rich could waste colours on
statuary and decor. It was a status symbol. Dyes, pigments, and paints have
become so inexpensive that we’ve become a bit jaded."_

For offline archiving, a PDF with photos of the exhibits shown at Harvard:
[http://harvardmag.com/pdf/2007/11-pdfs/1107-32.pdf](http://harvardmag.com/pdf/2007/11-pdfs/1107-32.pdf)

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gokhan
Some info on Alexander Sarcophagus in Istanbul Archeology Museum:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sarcophagus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sarcophagus)

Wikipedia image shows some color traces:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sarcophagus#mediaview...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sarcophagus#mediaviewer/File:Alexander_Sarcophagus_Battle_of_Ussus.jpg)

~~~
walterbell
Found a comment by Gregory Meeker about "underpainting", which used to be on
the Smithsonian article [1] [2]:

 _" It’s reasonable to assume that the painting on the figures was at least as
sophisticated as the figures themselves. By the time of the Alexander
Sarcophagus the subtlety of the sculpture has far outstripped the colors
identified and applied by Brinkmann. This does not mean that Brinkmann has
left the path of accurate reconstruction; it may mean that his ultimate goal
is impossibly distant. The colors he has identified on later pieces are
clearly just underpainting for a far more realistic final finish. This was the
process used in Renaissance oil paintings of equivalent visual sophistication.
The assumption that the painting was as sophisticated as the figures is an
extremely conservative one. The artistic and manual skills required for
realistic sculpting are far greater than those required for life-like painting
of a finished figure. And the painting task was a relaxed one, far more
amenable to messing around until the artist got it right. So painting was
easier, less risky and, because of weathering, constantly in demand. It is
reasonable to conclude that until sculpting reached its zenith, painting of
figures was substantially more sophisticated than the figures themselves. With
luck, Brinkmann will eventually find a piece with all the layers intact."_

[1] [http://100swallows.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/greek-statues-
we...](http://100swallows.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/greek-statues-were-
painted/)

[2]
[http://www.simorgh.de/objects/091008_1/](http://www.simorgh.de/objects/091008_1/)

~~~
Luc
Thanks, this really does seem much more reasonable than the 'painting by
numbers' style in the posted article.

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andrewl
The statues on the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art are painted in
the old style:

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pediment,_Philly_Art_...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pediment,_Philly_Art_Museum_\(1\).jpg)

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pediment,_Philly_Art_...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pediment,_Philly_Art_Museum_\(2\).jpg)

I like it.

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chimeracoder
This isn't a particularly new revelation as the article makes it seem (the
article is dated 2008, but I remember learning about this when I was in school
even earlier than that).

That said, it's rather interesting how many people - even very educated people
- are unaware of this fact. I've heard art critics refer to the color as a
sign of the 'pristine' and 'pure' aspects of Greco-Roman[0] art, completely
ignoring the fact that they were actually painted with incredibly bright
colors 2000 years ago.

(Of course, one can make a somewhat postmodern argument that the piece of art
with the colors as they appear today should be evaluated in its own right,
independently of what it was 2000 years ago, but I don't think that's what
they were going for).

[0] Another fun fact - we actually have very few Greek art (statues) to study.
Most of our knowledge of Greek sculpture comes from Roman reproductions, along
with a few pieces that were hidden in tombs, etc. for centuries and forgotten.
The Greeks, unlike the Romans, made a lot of statues in metals, and these were
subsequently melted down for the materials[1]. The Romans produced original
art, but they also produced mass reproductions of Greek art (marble, and other
materials) - this is largely what we study today.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_sculpture#Materi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_sculpture#Materials)

~~~
walterbell
It sounds like the international museum road show with full-size painted
replicas did a great job of popularizing the scholarly knowledge. If only
there were educational museums for media/software studies and computer
security!

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krylon
I went on a field trip to Greece in School, where I saw a lot of ancient ruins
of temples that had also been painted when "in use". While the landscape was
just breathtaking (and the ancient Greeks had a knack for putting their
temples in beautiful places), I was always a little sad to be shown the ruins
without a clue what those places must have looked like back in their prime.

I know it is not easy, but I so wished to just once see the ruins of a temple
next to a reconstruction of what archaeologists think it must have looked like
back when.

So I think this is a really cool idea.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Agreed :-) But see the comment down thread about under painting - what we see
here is fairly child like poster colours painting - all that can be justified
from the scarce evidence. But it is hard to imaging the sophistacted sculptors
leaving the painting to less subtle hands. So the reconstruction we could
prove today is probably a laughable copy of the reality - after all they would
have all the colours of the Greek landscape to inspire them!

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _But it is hard to imagin[e] the sophistacted sculptors leaving the painting
> to less subtle hands._ //

It is hard to imagine. But there could be other reasons to use garish and
unnatural colours, perhaps the colours were akin to pythagorean forms - they
could represent perfect colours, seen as more godly or regal.

You can see a similar sort of thing in some sectors of [UK] society today.
People paint on makeup that makes them look orange-y or an unnatural
flat/monotone brown and that is seen - in limited circles - as the epitome of
beauty. Consider Geisha as another example, flat white with shocking red lips,
how unnatural.

This brings to mind reflections I've read on how important it is to not assume
that just because something seems obvious or the best method available in the
period with the technology available that it should be the case. Occam's Razor
be damned, humans often complicate things beyond their need and those
complications aren't often unrefined in some way.

It is fun to imagine marbles as life-size, lifelike figures, lacquered to give
a living shine and perhaps dressed in fine vestments and perfumed; the uncanny
valley of yesteryear.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
We can say two things for sure - we do not currently know enough to have
evidence of how they were painted, that these statues cross vast amounts of
time, technology and fashion - and that so both of us could easily be right
...

~~~
walterbell
Speaking of unpredictable fashion and color, how about
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normcore](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normcore)
:)

