True Colors of Ancient Greek and Roman Statues

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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