Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job


"Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1192368443.068430.242290@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Another example of judging a society and culture by the remnants we
have found, not realizing that the bold works of statues and buildings
were not always gleaming white marble but painted like the boldest of
op art. Classical art was apparently not white bare and austere but
gaudy and even in bad taste.

Would have been a good post if you'd left out your subjective viewpoint
at the end.




October 14, 2007
Close Reading
That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
By MILES UNGER

THE 18th-century scholar Johann Winckelmann coined the memorable
phrase "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" to describe the qualities
he admired in ancient Greek and Roman statues, which in his time were
thought to have been created in gleaming white marble or unadorned
bronze. So ingrained was this notion of austere, monochromatic ancient
sculpture that it came as a shock when in the 19th century newly
unearthed masterpieces showed traces of their original pigment.

The spare, unadorned forms associated with the word classical - and
imitated by centuries of artists - were actually an accident of time
that obscured their original, often garish coloring and gilded
accessories.

One of the signal moments in this rediscovery was the excavation of
the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island Aegina in 1811. Obvious on
the pediment sculptures, depicting mythical battle scenes, were traces
of red paint used to mimic oozing blood, as well as peg holes that
once held the warriors' bristling arsenal. There's nothing like a bit
of gore to dispel any notion of "quiet grandeur," or a quiver full of
gold-tipped arrows to mock the idea of "noble simplicity."

The archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann and a team of investigators have
subjected numerous ancient statues to a thorough examination, using
both chemical analysis and observation under raking and ultraviolet
light. This has allowed them to recreate what the works must have
looked like when they first emerged from the studio more than 2,000
years ago.

"Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity," an
exhibition at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum, displays more than a
dozen reconstructions of Greek and Roman sculptures based on their
work. Even for those who knew that the ancients tinted their statues,
the effect is startling. Placed alongside original works from the
Sackler's collection, these reconstructions seem bright and brassy,
vulgar and almost childlike in their high-key color and frilly detail.

The figure of the Trojan archer (about 490-480 B.C.) depicted here
came from the Temple of Aphaia and probably represents Paris, son of
King Priam of Troy. His abduction of Helen precipitated the Trojan
War, and it was Paris who killed Achilles, the greatest of the Greek
warriors, by shooting an arrow into his unprotected heel. As an archer
who slays his enemies from a distance rather than in hand-to-hand
combat, Paris is viewed as something less than heroic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/arts/design/14unge.html?ref=arts

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/14/arts/20071014_CLOSE_GRAPHIC.html



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Relevant Pages

  • Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
    ... not realizing that the bold works of statues and buildings ... op art. ... thought to have been created in gleaming white marble or unadorned ... the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island Aegina in 1811. ...
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  • Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
    ... not realizing that the bold works of statues and buildings ... That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job ... thought to have been created in gleaming white marble or unadorned ... the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island Aegina in 1811. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
    ... That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a ... he admired in ancient Greek and Roman ... statues, ...
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  • Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
    ... not realizing that the bold works of statues and buildings ... That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job ... thought to have been created in gleaming white marble or unadorned ... the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island Aegina in 1811. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job
    ... not realizing that the bold works of statues and buildings ... That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job ... So ingrained was this notion of austere, monochromatic ancient ... the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island Aegina in 1811. ...
    (sci.archaeology)