Gods In Color

It’s difficult not to be taken aback by the infusion of hues in “Gods in Color,” one of the latest exhibits to fill the rooms of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, running from Sept. 22, 2007 to Jan. 20, 2008. The presupposed norm of white marble sculptures representing the purity of ancient Greece and Rome is washed away by the brilliant, bold, and rich colors that are now bestowed on replicas of these sculptures.

EVERYDAY PEOPLE

Obviously, color is pivotal in experiencing this collection, making “Gods in Color” a refreshing and thought-provoking look at Greek and Roman sculpture. The sculptures are exuberant and unmasked, attacking the eye with their unexpected brightness and intensity.

Through the use of “raking light”—lighting a surface from the side and illuminating various sketches on the sculpture and the weathering pattern of the stone—as well as using photography under ultraviolet light, archaeologists were able to trace the remaining pigment residues on the sculptures, and so recreate the appropriate colors that adorned these pieces of art.

The exhibit is separated into three time periods: Greek sculptures from the archaic and classical period (c. 600 B.C.E — c. 330 B.C.E), sculptures from the Hellenistic period (c. 330 B.C.E — c.31 B.C.E), and sculptures from the Near East, Egypt, and the prehistoric era of the Greek Cycladic Islands.

The faded sculptures are placed next to their colored counterparts. This stark contrast between the typical white marble statues and the color-renovated versions forces viewers to break their own pre-established mold of what is considered usual and unusual in ancient art.

Now in color, the sculptures are brought closer to the reality that we encounter everyday, where blue and brown eyes, red lips, flushed cheeks, and colored garments are not only presumed but utterly normal.

WHOLE NEW CONTEXTS

Adding color to two models of the same sculpture brings to attention details that were lost through the wearing of time. For example, the famous “‘Peplos’ Kore,” (c. 530 B.C.E.), a Greek statue of a young girl, can tell two different stories. In one version, her garment is painted to look like a peplos (a traditional dress worn by daughters of Athenian aristocracy). In another version, her garment is decorated with various animals and monsters, indicating the dress to be a traditional thependytes—a garment appropriate for a goddess.

The exhibit also features three models, placed side by side, of “Torso of a Warrior” where the statue from the Athenian Acropolis first appears to be nude and carved out of white stone. However, in the second and third replica of the sculpture, color reveals a lower edge of a cuirass and patterns of interlocking leaves, indicating that the figure is in fact dressed for battle.

Although color surrounds us, injecting color in the world of ancient Greek art is startling and unexpected, and this shock to our traditional conceptions is what “Gods in Color” captures.