IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR ON ANCIENT MARBLE SCULPTURE 1 Detail of the painted Prima Porta Augustus. Photo: Wolfram Martini, with permission from Munich Staatliche Antikensammlung und Glyptothek. & ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS 2009 THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR ON ANCIENT MARBLE SCULPTURE MARK BRADLEY When the white marble head of an Amazon was discovered at Herculaneum in March 2006 with delicate colours clearly preserved on the hair, eyes and eyela- shes, the news came as little surprise to the world of archaeology and art history (plate 2). Several venues around Europe, including museums in Munich, Rome and Copenhagen, had already hosted a bold and striking exhibition of painted Greco-Roman casts, sometimes set alongside their white marble originals, representing not an arbitrary reconstructive imagination but many years of intensive scientific and archaeological research. Following more than two hundred years of research into painted marble, museums are now highly cautious about cleaning the surfaces of their sculpture collections, and most serious reconstructions of Greco-Roman architecture and sculpture are prepared to integrate elements alongside their gleaming white marbles. Nevertheless, the colourful discovery at Herculaneum was reported in several mainstream European newspapers, demonstrating the enduring potential for paint on clas- sical sculpture to surprise or shock the public, and the continuing need to inte- grate colour properly into the classical aesthetic. Winckelmann’s long-lived dogma about pure white classical art still has its supporters.1 And yet, while most discussions include a stock footnote to the effect that ancient sculpture was coloured, paint is seldom taken into account in art- historical studies of ancient marble sculpture.2 In spite of the striking aesthetic differences between the original Prima Porta statue of Augustus and its painted reconstruction (plates 3 and 4; see also plate 1), for example, the significance of its colours has still not been integrated into serious discussions of its art-historical importance or its artistic composition. The choice of marble for ancient sculpture and the ramifications of the stone’s natural colour have received some attention, but the difference that the application of coloured coatings might have made to individual pieces remains on the whole underexplored.3 This is partly a result of the disappearance of paint traces from the majority of surviving pieces of sculpture, and partly to the degree of guesswork involved in reconstructing the original state of pieces even where some traces remain. However, recent work by Vinzenz Brinkmann and other archaeologists and art historians in Europe has drawn attention back to the importance of colour on ancient sculpture, as well as the possibilities granted by new scientific methods for more accurate and DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2009.00666.x ART HISTORY . ISSN 0141–6790 . VOL 32 NO 3 . JUNE 2009 pp 427-457 & Association of Art Historians 2009. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 427 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR ON ANCIENT MARBLE SCULPTURE complete reconstructions than were previously thought possible. Through the use of ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared reflection and raking light, paint traces largely invisible to the naked eye (and the ‘ghosts’ left by paint traces on the stone) can be detected. Furthermore, electronic databases allow us to detect patterns in the use of pigments on different sculptural types and decorative features.4 We are now in a stronger position than ever before to enrich our appreciation and under- standing of ancient sculptural polychromy. This paper aims to complement the pioneering technical and reconstructive work that has recently been carried out by approaching the subject from the perspective of the cultural history of colour and perception in the ancient world. Although it will review material and find- ings from Archaic and Classical Greek and 2 Head of an Amazon, from a life-size statue Hellenistic periods, this study will concen- discovered near the Nonius Balbus Basilica trate on the art and literature of imperial at Herculaneum, c. CE 60. Marble. Hercula- Rome, which at the present time is under- 5 neum: Antiquarium, SAP 8702. Photo: represented in this field. The recent Riccardo Giordano/ Herculaneum Conser- exhibitions of painted Greek and Roman vation Project. Published with the kind casts at more than ten international permission of the Soprintendenza Speciale venues and the publication of Brinkmann’s per i Beni Culturali di Napoli e Pompei - key study Die Polychromie der archaischen und Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita` Culturali. fruhklassischen. Skulptur (2003) make this an opportune moment to review the question of what difference it makes to think of ancient sculpture in colour rather than in monochrome. How does colour alter the visual dynamics of the Parthenon frieze? What does a painted Prima Porta Augustus achieve that a white version does not? If Trajan’s column was painted, does that change the way it was viewed? How does (or how should) colour transform our aesthetic of ancient art? Answers to these challenging questions can be reached by integrating the principles of pigment distribution (which colours are used to define which features?) and literary ekphrasis (how does an ancient viewer describe a painted object?). This article will first review some of the most significant pieces of sculpture on which significant paint traces have survived, and consider in indi- vidual cases the basic functions of coloured coatings and patinas. By integrating visual material with literary evidence, it will then assess the significance of sculptural polychromy under four headings: visibility, finish, realism and trompe- l’oeil. Finally, as a ‘pilot’ for the application of these interpretative guidelines to a single piece of ancient sculpture, the article will revisit the Prima Porta Augustus and consider some of the ways in which polychromy can enrich our under- standing and interpretation of this key piece of Roman art. 428 & ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS 2009 THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR ON ANCIENT MARBLE SCULPTURE 3 (left) The Prima Porta statue of Augustus, c. CE 15. Parian marble, height 204 cm. Rome: Vatican Museums (inv. 2290). Photo: Vatican Museums. 4 (right) The painted plaster reconstruction of the Prima Porta statue of Augustus, 2002–3. Rome: Vatican Museums (inv. 36858). Photo: Vatican Museums. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE Painted marble is a controversial subject which has elicited little agreement since it was first raised in the early nineteenth century. It is now generally accepted that most – and perhaps all – Greco-Roman marble sculpture and architecture (like its Egyptian and Near-Eastern counterparts) received some form of supple- mentary coating to modify and enhance its surfaces, which also manipulated the colour.6 This surface treatment is now recognized to be integral to the overall effect of the sculpture. In particular, it has been observed that the draped parts of statues, their eyes, eyelashes, lips, hair and accessories received coats of colour, and it is likely that the remaining areas were also treated so that the appearance of the stone was modified.7 The backgrounds of grave reliefs and architectural friezes were normally brightly coloured, and details in the foreground were frequently picked out with colour and metal attachments.8 Evidence of the gilding of specific features of marble sculpture, both statuary and relief sculp- ture, to produce the effect of metal accoutrements as well as to distinguish certain features of heroic figures survives from as early as the fifth century BCE through to the end of antiquity.9 In addition to gilding, there is widespread evidence for the completion of marble sculpture with features in bronze, lead, stucco or wooden accessories: weapons, armour, sceptres, hair, beards and jewellery in these materials were added to a wide range of sculpture from all & ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS 2009 429 THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR ON ANCIENT MARBLE SCULPTURE 5 Laurence Alma-Tadema, Pheidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon, 1868, showing Pheidias unveiling the bold colours of the frieze to his (much more subdued and paler-skinned) guests. Oil on canvas, 72.3 Â 109.2 cm. Birmingham: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. Photo: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. periods. Eyes were normally painted directly on to the marble, but they could also be inlaid using enamel, ivory, glass, coloured marbles or gems, sometimes kept in place with bronze eyelashes.10 Early imperial Rome also saw the proliferation of complex and sophisticated combinations of polychrome marbles in order to produce realistic coloristic effects, with white marbles used to render skin, darker stones for the hair and textured marbles for the clothes: even for these pieces, one should probably expect further embellishment by means of coatings and patinas for the skin and paint for the lips and eyes.11 Nor did applications of colour simply modify carved details already marked out on the stone: often paint alone was employed to render and differentiate detail on smooth surfaces.12 Marble was symptomatic of a wide range of sculptural materials that were treated and embellished to produce subtle and realistic effects of colour. The surfaces of sculpture in limestone, sandstone or porous volcanic stones were often covered with plaster or stucco, and it is generally accepted that these coverings were painted