Photo from Stiftung Archaeologie
Stark white marble temples and statues. That’s what the scupltors of the Renaissance saw, and copied. And that’s the visual language that informed the architects of our nation’s capitol. But what if the original sources were not at all like everyone imagined? What if the ancient Greeks and Romans actually painted their works of art in riots of vibrant color?
That’s apparently what they did, according to the research of Vinzenz Brinkmann, an archaeologist who has been studying the hidden colord of the Greeks and Romans. Apparently, the organic and mineral pigments used by the original artists wore off with age. Later cleaning by well-meaning archaeologists and collectors further removed any evidence of the original colors.
Imagine the Parthenon or the Coliseum painted in dazzling reds and blues. Had the pigments lasted, would Michelangelo have been inspired to render David in full color? Would the White House have been painted in the colors of the Rainbow flag?
- Read about the research at Stiftung Archaeologie (German)
- Learn about recent exhibition: Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity
Via the Color + Design Blog
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