Posted on Jul 12, 2022
We know Greek statues weren't white. Now you can see them in color.
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https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/ [login to see] /we-know-greek-statues-werent-white-now-you-can-see-them-in-color
Walk through the Greek sculpture galleries of most museums and you'll see pedestal after pedestal of white, marble statues with sightless eyes. That's just how Ancient Greek sculpture was, right?
Nope.
A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York scatters recreations of what these statues ACTUALLY looked like throughout its galleries: they're painted in garish colors with multiple patterns.
"For some, it will be a shock," said Max Hollein, the director of the museum. "But one has to understand that our current, whitewashed idea of Greek and Roman antiquity is wrong. It's false."
Walk through the Greek sculpture galleries of most museums and you'll see pedestal after pedestal of white, marble statues with sightless eyes. That's just how Ancient Greek sculpture was, right?
Nope.
A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York scatters recreations of what these statues ACTUALLY looked like throughout its galleries: they're painted in garish colors with multiple patterns.
"For some, it will be a shock," said Max Hollein, the director of the museum. "But one has to understand that our current, whitewashed idea of Greek and Roman antiquity is wrong. It's false."
We know Greek statues weren't white. Now you can see them in color.
Posted from npr.org
Museums
Ancient History
Greece
New York City
Art
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The Greeks learned artistic techniques from Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia. "At the final point in this evolution, they learned how to deceive the human eye," Brinkmann said. "We know from written sources that bronze sculptures of this period were perceived as super-realistic, Often people reached those statues in Greek sanctuaries and didn't know exactly — is this talking to me? Will this stand up? Or is it just bronze?"...
..."The Greeks learned artistic techniques from Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia. "At the final point in this evolution, they learned how to deceive the human eye," Brinkmann said. "We know from written sources that bronze sculptures of this period were perceived as super-realistic, Often people reached those statues in Greek sanctuaries and didn't know exactly — is this talking to me? Will this stand up? Or is it just bronze?"...
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