Colour in Late Antique Art: an Aesthetic Exploration of Polychromy (original) (raw)
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Journal of Art Historiography, 2011
The polychromy of medieval sculpture in Northern Europe is addressed in five of the articles in Circumlitio, which together form an important part of the editors’ project to bring the study of the coloured surfaces of sculpture out of the realm of technical reports and into the mainstream of sculptural scholarship. The five articles comprise surveys of techniques and materials (Harald Theiss) and of the field in general (Stefan Roller), and case studies of a major monument, Sluter’s Well of Moses at the Chartreuse de Champmol (Susie Nash), the raw material of the dyestuff madder (Dieter Köcher) and the reconstruction of the polychromed surface of a fourteenth century St George at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum,in Nuremberg (Arnulf von Ulmann). In his review, the author discusses some of the historiography of polychromy, examining in particular the treatment of Italian sculpture, whose study is not the focus of Circumlitio, giving context to the essays at hand within the wider field.
Pamela Gallicchio, 2017
The Colors of Time: polychromy versus monochromy in painting (XV) Reality is polychrome and diversified, therefore which expressive possibilities are available to the painter in order to clearly tell a story through images? My paper aims to investigate the modes of artistic expression used by painters to figuratively render the idea of Time. The painters indeed created narrative strategies by using monochrome painting, which was their advantage. In many examples, the idea of Time is represented by the deliberate opposition between polychromy and monochromy. In a sacred painting the monochrome detail makes evident the different level of temporal and conceptual reality, therefore sacred time is polychrome and profane time is monochrome. My paper will investigate the features of these narrative strategies in selected Italian and Flemish paintings (XV century, works by Mantegna, Bellini, van Eyck, van der Weyden), by considering their similarities and above all their differences.
'The importance of colour on ancient marble sculpture'
This article explores the significance of paint and pigment traces for understanding the aesthetics and artistic composition of ancient marble architectural and statuary sculpture. It complements the pioneering technical and reconstructive work that has recently been carried out into classical polychrome sculpture by approaching the subject from the perspective of the cultural history of colour and perception in the ancient world. The study concentrates in particular on the art of imperial Rome, which at the present time is under-represented in the field. By integrating visual material with literary evidence, it first reviews some of the most important pieces of sculpture on which paint traces have survived and then assesses the significance of sculptural polychromy under four headings: visibility, finish, realism and trompe-l'oeil. Finally, it considers some of the ways in which polychromy can enrich our understanding and interpretation of the Prima Porta statue of Augustus.
White in Medieval Sculpture Polychromy – Iconography, Reception, Restoration
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2019
This paper investigates various aspects of the polychromy of the Landsberg Madonna by Hans Multscher. First, partially polychromed ivory and marble sculptures are taken into consideration as possible models for the Landsberg Madonna’s specific polychromy. This study demonstrates that the material of these sculptures is meaningful in terms of both iconography and medieval color theory. It argues that the Landsberg Madonna imitates these materials by transforming their different white hues into polychromy, and that by doing so, white receives qualities of color. Finally, it shows that the 1961 – 1967 restoration of this sculpture followed an idealistic concept of unpainted pure substrate material, which disguises more than reveals the special status of the work’s original polychromy.
When Colour tells a Story. The Polychromy of Hellenistic Sculpture and Terracottas
In: V. Brinkmann – O. Primavesi – M. Hollein (Hrsg.), Circumlitio. The Polychromy of Antique and Medieval Sculpture (München 2010) 240-257.
When we look at ancient sculpture we often find ourselves in front of a masterpiece in white, fine-crystalline marble. We prize its luminous whiteness, which draws our gaze to it, and its form, on which we are able to concentrate all the better because of the work’s monochromy. As this contribution will show, the creation of Hellenistic sculpture did not involve form alone, but included the provision of further detail by means of polychrome additions. These additions enrich the object and provide the viewer with more information. In other words, colour tells a story. To give insight into this practice, a definition of what is meant by polychromy and a description of the polychrome appearance of Hellenistic sculptures and smallscale terracottas will be provided in the following. The focus will then turn to two examples that shed light on the function of the polychrome additions.