Posted on 08/20/2010 12:31:24 PM PDT by James C. Bennett
Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be that's required to see them the way they were thousands of years ago.
Although it seems impossible to think that anything could be left to discover after thousands of years of wind, sun, sand, and art students, finding the long lost patterns on a piece of ancient Greek sculpture can be as easy as shining a lamp on it. A technique called ‘raking light' has been used to analyze art for a long time. A lamp is positioned carefully enough that the path of the light is almost parallel to the surface of the object. When used on paintings, this makes brushstrokes, grit, and dust obvious. On statues, the effect is more subtle. Brush-strokes are impossible to see, but because different paints wear off at different rates, the stone is raised in some places – protected from erosion by its cap of paint – and lowered in others. Elaborate patterns become visible.
Ultraviolet is also used to discern patterns. UV light makes many organic compounds fluoresce. Art dealers use UV lights to check if art has been touched up, since older paints have a lot of organic compounds and modern paints have relatively little. On ancient Greek statues, tiny fragments of pigment still left on the surface glow bright, illuminating more detailed patterns.
Once the pattern is mapped, there is still the problem of figuring out which paint colors to use. A series of dark blues will create a very different effect than gold and pink. Even if enough pigment is left over so that the naked eye can make out a color, a few thousand years can really change a statue's complexion. There's no reason to think that color seen today would be anything like the hues the statues were originally painted.
There is a way around this dilemma. The colors may fade over time, but the original materials – plant and animal-derived pigments, crushed stones or shells – still look the same today as they did thousands of years ago. This can also be discovered using light.
Infrared and X-ray spectroscopy can help researches understand what the paints are made of, and how they looked all that time ago. Spectroscopy relies on the fact that atoms are picky when it comes to what kind of incoming energy they absorb. Certain materials will only accept certain wavelengths of light. Everything else they reflect. Spectroscopes send out a variety of wavelengths, like scouts into a foreign land. Inevitably, a few of these scouts do not come back. By noting which wavelengths are absorbed, scientists can determine what materials the substance is made of. Infrared helps determine organic compounds. X-rays, because of their higher energy level, don't stop for anything less than the heavier elements, like rocks and minerals. Together, researchers can determine approximately what color a millennia-old statue was painted.
The color? Always something tacky.
Via Harvard, Colour Lovers, Tate, The Smithsonian, Colorado University, and Carleton.
Top two images are reconstructions created by Vinzenz Brinkmann.
GGG ping!
The picture in post #5 seems to something from a very primitive group that took pride in creating terrifying face masks.
IMO, the statues look better w/o the paint.
One wonders what was left of the original colors by the time of the Roman Empire and their admiration of all things Greek during the classical period.
Did Pliny or any of the Roman commentators ever mention the colors on the statues.
Next they are going to tell us that the Venus de Milo was painted like a harlot and her two missing arms had one hand holding up two fingers for the price and the other hand featured a crooked finger giving the “Come here, Sailor” sign.
Heck, this was true in the Middle Ages in Europe, too. The uncolored stone statues you see around the doorways to medieaval churches were actually painted in very vivid colors, and there was often painting on the walls, too. You can actually still see faint staining on the stone on some of them.
Sure would hate to be arrowed by somebody who looks that fruity.
Ha, looks like a cheap mexican restrauant in south Texas.
To the gaudy that was Greece
And the fugly that was Rome ...
Spray some Windex on it.
Thanks. Loved the pics.
Now we need the ultraviolet light of modern American Conservatism to restore the original limited government hues that were once so clear to everyone in our Constitution.
Not sure if this is still held to be true...just thought it was worth mentioning.
That’s interesting, and probably true — the ability to *perceive* something, involves much more than the ability to *sense* it. I doubt that the retinas of the ancients’ eyes were any different than those of modern man — but, how they filtered and processed visual information could have been quite different.
I'm guessing this is before they discovered the strategic value of camo...
Chuy’s.
Whew. What a relief!
You called?
Have made a note to give you a post in the morning.
Hint: Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
Google it if you get some free time! Read the reviews on Amazon!
It's a paradigm changer!
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Thanks James C. Bennett for the topic and ping! I think I'd tried to convince some other FReeper in my passive-aggressive way to post this article, or one very like it, but they didn't do it. Now I know who to bug. ;') |
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