Re: That Classic White Sculpture Once Had a Paint Job

Alan Crozier ytrede sig i <IpsQi.11296$ZA.7371@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> med
dette:

"Horace LaBadie" <hwlabadiejr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:hwlabadiejr-2A50BF.12215414102007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <w8qQi.11285$ZA.7204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Alan Crozier" <name1.name2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"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.




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


I saw this exhibition when it was in Copenhagen in 2004. Very
interesting. My wife thought the sculptures were rather tasteless in
their bright colours. When you are used to the idea that classical
sculpture means pure marble it can come as a shock. The Greeks would
have asked Michelangelo when he was going to finish his David - by
painting it.

There was a good book to accompany the Danish exhibition
http://eshop-glyptoteket.dk/product.asp?product=1754

I see it has been translated for the Harvard exhibition.

Alan

One of the better examples of polychrome statuary on the ancient model
can be found on the facade of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

<http://www.pipeline.com/~pix04/pix/2003-11-14-13-18-05_a-pix.jpg>
<http://flickr.com/photos/benhelleman/49497551/>

<http://www.philamuseum.org/information/45-229-25.html>

"Of special interest on the exterior of the building is the group of
polychrome terracotta sculptures in the tympanum of the pediment on
the
North Wing, which was designed by sculptor C. Paul Jennewein and
installed in 1933. This marked the Museum as the first major building
in
over 2,000 years to adapt polychromy in this manner. In ancient Greek
architecture, however, the architectural ornament and sculpture in
terracotta and stone were painted with perishable pigments, while
those
of the Museum are of ceramic glazes. The completed tympanum
encompasses
ten free-standing figures, mythological Greek gods and goddesses
signifying sacred and profane love. Executed in brilliant colors and
gold glazes, the tympanum is seventy-feet wide at its base above the
supporting columns, rising to twelve feet in height at the center. It
is
an outstanding example of ceramic art in color."


Thanks. I didn't know about that.

I can't remember ever seeing any films where ancient Rome is
reconstructed and the marble is painted in bright colours. Am I right in
thinking that Hollywood prefers the idea of pure, unpainted marble?

You have obviously missed the Rome tv-series then:
<http://www.hbo.com/rome/behind/rome_revealed/rome.html>

Wikipedia have a lot of info about the series, and this site have links
to each of the episodes, with discussions of inaccuracies and errors:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_%28TV_series%29>.

This however is not a true Hollywood production, though HBO was
involved.
--
Allan Stig Kiilerich Frederiksen
"When you try to change a mans paradigm, you must keep in mind that he
can hear you only through the filter of the paradigm he holds."
-Myron Tribus
.

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