“A Whiter Shade of Pale: Relative and Absolute White in Roman Sculpture and Architecture,” in S. Clerbois & M. Droth eds., Revival and Invention: sculpture through its material histories, (New York: Peter Lang, 2011): 31-62 (original) (raw)
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Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome
(Cambridge Classical Studies), 2009
The study of colour has become familiar territory in recent anthropology, linguistics, art history and archaeology. Classicists, however, have traditionally subordinated the study of colour to form. By drawing together evidence from contemporary philosophers, elegists, epic writers, historians and satirists, Mark Bradley reinstates colour as an essential informative unit for the classification and evaluation of the Roman world. He also demonstrates that the questions of what colour was and how it functioned – as well as how it could be misused and misunderstood – were topics of intellectual debate in early imperial Rome. Suggesting strategies for interpreting Roman expressions of colour in Latin texts, Dr Bradley offers new approaches to understanding the relationship between perception and knowledge in Roman elite thought. In doing so, he highlights the fundamental role that colour performed in the realms of communication and information, and its intellectual contribution to contemporary discussions of society, politics and morality. Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome was nominated and longlisted for the 2011 Warwick Prize for Writing.
'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.
In the last decade or so there has been steadily growing interest in determining the original appearance of ancient polychromed sculpture and architectural decoration. As a result, there have been a number of collaborative efforts on the part of scholars of classical antiquity, scientists, and digital computer artists. Technological advances in the testing of marble surfaces to detect even the most microscopic traces of ancient pigments or gilding have advanced our knowledge of ancient polychromy considerably. The interest in ancient polychromed marble is also evident in the increased number of papers and posters presented at our ASMOSIA conferences in recent years, expanding and complementing our study of the use of colored stones for ancient sculpture and architecture. The examination of ancient polychromy has resulted in a number of traveling museum exhibitions on this subject, with ancient sculptures still bearing traces of color being displayed next to painted plaster casts of the same objects. For the general public, long used to the purity of 18th and 19th century neo-classical white marble sculpture and modern plaster replicas of ancient sculpture, the display of such painted casts in these shows has come as a shocking surprise. In my paper, I shall not only consider some of problems and questions involved in the study and recreation of ancient polychomatic sculptures but also question the wisdom of using painted plaster casts for didactic purposes, especially in public museum exhibitions. I shall discuss as well some of the recent attempts, including my own, to colorize a marble portrait of Caligula in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, a work that -- along with polychromed marble copies -- has been one of the more interesting objects displayed in these traveling exhibitions on colorized ancient sculpture.
A Cultural History of Color in Antiquity: Power and Identity
A Cultural History Of Color in Antiquity, 2021
Generally, in Greece we do not find the same degree of explicit visualization of color to indicate power as we do in, for example, ancient Rome. But even though Greek methods of utilizing color were simpler and carried fewer overt signs of rank and status than Roman usage, this does not mean that the use of color in Greek antiquity was less significant. 1 Greek color carried "an equal range of meanings, but … these were less formalized, or unified, as we would indeed expect from this diverse culture" (Cleland et al. 2007: 181). Our eyes have been instructed by red-and black-figured pottery, and by neoclassical statuary, but there is extensive evidence that there was a "range of colors and hues," especially in Greek clothing (Lee 2015: 93). Color is not straightforward. Greek ways of looking at color have caused much scholarly ink to be spilled over the years, including spirited debate as to whether the Greeks were color-blind (they were not). 2 Michael Clarke raises several important issues about ancient perceptions of color. For instance, we in the modern era organize our color vocabulary on the basis of "the full spectral range of strong bold colors" because color is presented to us "overwhelmingly at bright saturated values on flat static surfaces" (Clarke 2004: 132). 3 But in the ancient world, such bold vivid color would only be experienced occasionally, "such as the plumage of birds or a few rare and expensive fabric dyes" (132). 4 Other scholars have raised equally important questions about the role color played in Greek society: how did the Greeks experience or evaluate color, for instance? How do we account for the fact that there are many ancient color
Archaeolοgy of Colour / Introduction
Archaeology of Colour. Technical Art History Studies in Greek and Roman Painting and Polychromy, 2023
Ancient polychromy speaks a language of “the visible” and “the invisible”, through signs of pigments, brushstrokes and forms. Another reminder of our classical past, colour is an inherent component of artistic creation, inspiration and imagination. New sophisticated technologies, as well as the development of interdisciplinary studies over these past decades, have stimulated the collection and evaluation of numerous scientific data from in-situ investigation of polychrome and painted documents, and have challenged our understanding of the complexity and function of ancient painting materials and techniques. The present volume is another contribution to the ongoing exploration of the rich history of colour in the classical world; an exploration which builds on previous knowledge and opens up new horizons for a more extended understanding of the aesthetics and meaning of Greek and Roman art. It includes fifteen papers that move from Archaic and Classical Greece to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and deal with colour on monumental architecture, marble statues and reliefs, wooden and terracotta statuettes, stone sarcophagi, paintings on stone and plaster, and pigments as raw materials.
Red-Painted Stones in Roman Architecture
The presence of red paint on the surfaces of some travertine and Lapis Albanus blocks has rarely been noticed and never investigated. Yet it deserves consideration since it preserves evidence of an unknown building technique that involved the use of red ocher and binders such as burnt gypsum, which was employed in the city of Rome from the late first to early third centuries C.E. I present evidence for the presence of red-painted blocks in Rome and investigate the composition of the red paint. I also comment on what has previously been reported about the subject and argue that the function of the red layer was to certify that the architect and/or the contractor had approved the painted surfaces.
A. Haug - A. Hielscher (Eds.), Materiality in Roman Art and Architecture Aesthetics, Semantics and Function, 2021
Because of their materiality, coloured marble columns played an important role in the architecture of the Late Republic and Early Imperial period, both as structural elements and as integral decorative features. The necessity and cost of importing these marbles, as well as the complex processing of the columns, made them a sign of prestige in both the surviving written sources and archaeological remains, and the most expensive element in architecture during the relevant periods. Two approaches have generally been employed to define the functions and aesthetics of coloured marble columns in architecture of these periods: the first approach analyses the roles of columns contextually, with regard to their technical and decorative properties. The second approach draws conclusions about the use and semantics of coloured marble columns through cross-genre comparisons which are then also compared to ancient texts. The uses considered appropriate in each context are significant factors in the choice of marble and indicators of social rank, as mentioned by ancient authors. The aesthetic and semantic properties of each kind of marble depend on its materiality, its display in architecture and its appropriate use, the perception of which was key for the ancient viewers' evaluation. The number of coloured marble columns employed (alongside imitations produced in stucco) must have been considerably higher than we can observe in the archaeological record of the Late Republic, with the result that marble architecture and architecture imitating marble coexisted in townscapes and were thus perceived to be part of a common decorative system.