LaHi presents: Seriously Trivial Some sculptures from the Greek and Roman times were coloured with b
LaHi presents: Seriously Trivial Some sculptures from the Greek and Roman times were coloured with bright hues. These pigments, however, faded away with exposure to light and time. Some painted statues had their colours scrubbed off by restorers. A leading archaeologist and art historian in the 18th century, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, even claimed that the white, bare sculptures were purer. “The whiter the body is, the more beautiful it is as well,” he wrote. “Color contributes to beauty, but it is not beauty. Color should have a minor part in the consideration of beauty, because it is not [color] but structure that constitutes its essence.” In 2003, however, a pair of married German archaeologists, Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, were able to display their discoveries in the presence of different pigments in 20 classical sculptures after nearly two decades of research. Sources: Gurewitsch, Matthew. “True Colors.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 July 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors-17888/?all. Accessed 10 Sept. 2017. Walsh, Colleen, et al. “Colorizing classic statues returns them to antiquity.” Harvard Gazette, 1 Oct. 2007, news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/colorizing-classic-statues-returns-them-to-antiquity/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2017. Poster by Nic Calilung -- source link
#art history#ancient history#classical art#classical sculpture#historical trivia#seriously trivial