The Ancients loved color! Finding out about this is pretty great but I’m so used to white marbled statues it just doesn’t seem right to see them colored. I have seen so many exhibitions of Greek and Roman statues but I never never never even imagined any old sculpture being in color.
For centuries, we’ve assumed that the clean, white surfaces of ancient Greek sculptures were the standard of beauty; during the Renaissance, artists strove to emulate this simple aesthetic in their own art. Even today, we expect truly beautiful classical and ancient art to be pure and unadorned – but Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann have spent over two decades proving us wrong.
Peplos Kore
The research method
Their research has involved using several high-tech methods to uncover the true intended appearances of ancient artwork. It’s amazing what technology can accomplish. The archaeologists aren’t the first to notice that ancient sculptures featured bits of color, but they are the first to use extensive scientific methods to reveal the colors. Their arsenal included X-ray fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet analysis, among other methods.
I wonder if they used shading and highlighting. Just because we can only find traces of colors, doesn’t mean they couldn’t tint them.
So why do these ancient Greek and Roman sculptures appear white to us now?
Quite simply, it’s due to the fact that they have faded and become weathered over the centuries. The paint has worn off, leaving the aged statues with the familiar blank white appearance we’ve become accustomed to. To give a tangible feeling of the originals, the husband-and-wife Brinkmann team have recreated some of these aged statues and painted them in the colors they would have borne in their glory days. The Brinkmanns’ statues have been traveling the world as a popular museum exhibit since 2003.
Athena Lemnia
Paris of Troy
Historically, color has always been seen as a status symbol, and our collective tastes have definitely changed over the centuries.
Seeing these classic statues recreated in vivid colors seems gaudy and almost obscene to us today because we expect ancient Greek statuary to bear that dignified blank white look. But when they were created, bright colors helped to give detail and depth to the sculptures. According to the artists and art lovers of that time, bare statues were ugly and unsightly.
Lion from Loutraki
“If people say, ‘What kitsch,’ it annoys me but I’m not surprised,” says Brinkmann, who, with his wife, archaeologist Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, colored this reconstruction of the c.550 B.C., “Lion from Loutraki.” Its stunning blue-colored mane is not unique on ancient monuments. Lions often sat atop tombs in ancient Greece, where ornamental details such as the animals’ tuffs of hair and facial markings were painted in bright colors that accented their fur.
Augustus of Prima Porta
While to our modern eye, the bright colors of Greek and Roman statues scream ‘tacky,’ to the ancients who painted them, it was ‘expensive!’
Back in the day, slaves wore rough cloth, like undyed and unbleached icky tan colors. The well-to-do wore ‘inexpensive’ colors, and the extremely wealthy wore ‘royal’ colors. 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 colors on statuary and decor. It was a status symbol. Dyes, pigments, and paints have become so inexpensive that we’ve become a bit jaded.
Apollo
Aphaiatemplet Aigina
Alexander Sarcophagus
The “Alexander Sarcophagus” (c. 320 B.C.), was found in the royal necropolis of the Phoenician city of Sidon. But it was named for the illustrious Macedonian ruler, Alexander the Great, depicted in the battle against the Persians in this painted replica. Alexander’s sleeved tunic suggests his conquests have thrust him into the new role of Eastern King, but his lion-skin cap ties him to the mythical hero, Herakles, and alludes to divine descent.
Emperor Caligula
Garish, gaudy, tacky or…..awesome? I am so confused.
via: gajitz, smithsonianmag
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28 comments
The only reason anyone would think they are garish, gaudy or tacky as the original would be if he or she has had their esthetic senses corrupted by 700 years of erroneous bunk.
Wight as fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
Wonderful!!
The statue of Athena Lemnia colorful is amazing.
Reblogged this on Leona's Blog of Shadows and commented:
This isn’t related to books or writing but great info with fascinating photos. The statues in my book are also painted in bright colors just like the ancient times!
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Fascinating!
It gives you a whole new perspective on Greek civilization! Lusty and vigorous and full of life rather than cool, introverted, and “classical”!
Yes, from style of Egyptians many centuries before. Statues and building colored. Must have been a continuing public works project of artists to keep things gleaming.
Wow! This blew my mind! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Interesting. My church, when I was growing up, had a traditional sanctuary with white marble statues. Underneath the sanctuary was a grotto church that had waterfalls, stone, and statues in color. I always loved the atmosphere there compared to the traditional. The bright colors on these statues take a little getting used to, but I suppose, in the correct context, they were aesthetically pleasing.
I think it’s awesome that these ancient sculptures were painted in vibrant colors! I hope that the Brinkmanns’ statues find their way to Southeast Asia. 🙂
They are beautiful in their starkness
Shruthi
http://nyambura.co
All these statuses should be at their home..
All these statues are reproductions. Nothing is stopping you or me or anyone from making reproductions.
Something quite awfully new …
The women in those times were portrayed as healthy and strong. They didn’t have bird legs where their thighs were as thin as their shins.
I am 99% sure these were originally painted in an artistic way, with many shades, pleasant to the eye… Here they just mapped some colors on some zones, they look ridiculous this way 😀
I THINK YOUR RIGHT ON I BELIEVE IN ANCIENT TEXTS THERE IS MENTIONED THAT FAMOUS SCULPTORS HAD THEIR OWN PERSONAL PAINTERS THAT WERE VALUED FOR THERE GREAT SKILL THIS WOULD BE CONSISTENT WITH THE HIGH SKILLS OF THE SCULPTURE OF THIS PERIOD
Reblogged this on Adventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess.
Reblogged this on | truthaholics and commented:
“Historically, colour has always been seen as a status symbol, and our collective tastes have definitely changed over the centuries. Seeing these classic statues recreated in vivid colors seems gaudy and almost obscene to us today because we expect ancient Greek statuary to bear that dignified blank white look. But when they were created, bright colors helped to give detail and depth to the sculptures. According to the artists and art lovers of that time, bare statues were ugly and unsightly.”
Really. ..so these ancients could sculpt pure beauty but couldn’t paint much better than a 5 yo? And I’m not referring to the color choice which I also find sceptical.
There’s nothing wrong with a little skepticism, but these colors have been discovered scientifically – they’re not a wild guess. You’re just uncomfortable with them because you’re not used to seeing these colors applied to statues that we’ve always seen as dirty white. And yet we’re perfectly comfortable with seeing plaster saints and Jesus in all their colorful glory. If you’d only seen Christian imagery in bare plaster, you’d be freaked out by colorful Jesus (and if only the Europeans would give him his rightful Semitic dark skin, instead of making him blond, fair skinned and blue eyed – color has a political side as well). There are certainly examples of statues that retain visible colors, such as the beautiful ones in the Getty Museum. And for those of us who have traveled to Egypt and seen bright color still adhering to ancient temples and statues, this all really shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Getty actually had an exhibition a few years ago about how spectroscopy and other scientific tools have been discovering the original colors. Also, the British Museum has a permanent exhibit about this next to the ‘Elgin Marbles’ aka the Parthenon Marbles. Bright, beautiful and amazing – the entablature marbles come to life when painted.
YES! I think the replicas are inaccurate. With the techniques they used and the wear of the statues they would only be able to detect the very first layer of color, all layers painted on top of that would have worn of.
I think that is why many of the replicas have a red eyeline. The red of the inside of the eyelid would have been painted first and on top of that would come the dark eyelashes. As they are painted on top of the red paint the eyelashes don’t leave any traces on the stone when they wear of.
Some of the replicas are painted with pure white skin, but that might have just been a base coat to get an even start as marble can have some unevenness in color. Or maybe they wanted to paint the skin tones with a paint that did not adhere as good to naked marble.
I have a very hard time to believe that the statues were painted with flat colors like that especially when you take in to the skill level of the sculpting. Also you have to compare to other painted works such as the bust of Nefertiti that to this day have a very beautiful and nuanced paint job.
Any teenage girl quickly learns that if you paint your face with only one flat shade you will look very lifeless. A natural face is not perfectly even colored. The shade is darker where the sun hits harder (like on the forehead, cheeks, nose bridge) and lighter in shadowed places (around the eyes, below the nose, lip and chin). To think that artists that could create such wonderful sculptures were unable utilize some shades is almost insulting.
Amazing and kind of unsettling….the colors seem wrong!
Since the statues were originally painted, and it is said the ancients liked them painted, how often were they repainted? If only once, how long would that paint have lasted? The Parthenon may have been painted as bright as a merry-go-round originally, but was it ever repainted? How many ancients would have seen it in its gaudy glory before all the paint wore off?
Beautifully written on ancient colors.