During a cultural anthropology class in college in the early 1970s, I learned that primitive people, and peasants worldwide, like bright painted colors which is why you see houses in Mexico painted bright yellows, blues, etc. As that view is not politically correct, it is likely no longer taught in college.
Indeed and this really has nothing to do with being primitive. It has everything to do with being starved for color.
Barns are normally painted red because farmers living in a sea of green are visually starved for red. People need color.
The ancients who had the time and resources to decorate their items and public places with color were the sophisticates of their era.
Have you ever stood in the nave of a a Gothic cathedral? It was a shock to me when studies uncovered the fact that those stone interiors had been painted!
When I was in Jr College the art teacher told us of the painted Greek statues. She said they probably looked like the Mexican Santos statues, very gaudy.
But then that was 1971.