The Color Controversy in Britain: John Gibson and Tinted Venus “fixed and contemplative” viewing “unstable and dynamic” viewing (Potts 42) (Potts 42) Medici Venus (c. 200 BCE) Canova, Venere Italica (completed in 1811) Marble, 1.53 m Marble, 1.72 m Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Palazzo Pitti Medici Venus (c. 200 BCE) Canova Marble, 1.53 m Venere Italica (completed in 1811) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Marble, 1.72 m John Gibson Palazzo Pitti Tinted Venus (c.1851) Marble tinted with encaustic H: 175cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK John Gibson John Gibson Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) Tinted Venus (c.1851) Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 Marble tinted with encaustic White marble H: 174 cm H: 175cm Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK Reconstruction of lost monumental statue of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece, made by Greek sculptor Phidias in 5th century BC Reconstruction: Quatremère de Quincy (French scholar, 1755-1849), Le Jupiter olympien, ou l'Art de la sculpture antique considéré sous un nouveau point de vue (1814) Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) Le Jupiter olympien, ou l'Art de la sculpture antique considéré sous un nouveau point de vue (1814) : on the lost monumental statue of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece Restitution de la Minerve en or et ivoire de Phidias au Parthénon (1825) Toreutic method: the piecemeal amalgam of materials—ivory, bronze, copper, silver, gold, metal alloys, precious stones, ebony and other woods favoured by generations of classical artists. Chryselephantine sculpture: made out of gold and ivory Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792-1867) Temple T in Selinonte (Sicily) dating from the 6th century BC, restored elevation of the main façade Before 1859 Graphite, pen and black ink, watercolor, 61 x 99.2 cm Musée d'Orsay The Prima Porta statue of Augustus, c. 15 AD. Parian marble, height 204 cm. Rome, Vatican Museums The Prima Porta statue of Augustus, c. 15 AD. The modern painted plaster Parian marble, height 204 cm. Rome, Vatican reconstruction of the Prima Porta Museums statue of Augustus, 2002–3 Rome, Vatican Museums Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) Restitution de la Minerve en or et ivoire de Phidias au Parthénon (1825) Pierre-Charles Simart Minerva (1855) Chateau duc Luynes, Dampierre Bronze and marble Crystal Palace Exhibition The Greek Court (1851) “The colouring of this court, with its blue, red and yellow surfaces, blazoned with gold, produces an excellent effect. It is the object of the decorators to give to the whole of the architectural specimens in the Crystal Palace, those colours which there is reason to know, or to believe, they originally possessed; to restore them, in fact, as far as possible to their pristine state, in order that the imagination of the spectator may be safely conducted back in contemplation to the artistic characteristics of distant and distinctive ages.” “Greek Court” at the International Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, with colored Parthenon frieze in the background John Gibson Tinted Venus at the International Exhibition of 1862 in the Pavilion designed by Owen Jones John Gibson Queen Victoria with Justice and Clemency (1855) Medici Venus (c. 200 BCE) Canova Marble, 1.53 m Venere Italica (completed in 1811) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Marble, 1.72 m John Gibson Palazzo Pitti Tinted Venus (c.1851) Marble tinted with encaustic H: 175cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK Medici Venus (c. 200 BCE) Canova Marble, 1.53 m Venere Italica (completed in 1811) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Marble, 1.72 m John Gibson Palazzo Pitti Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 White marble Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK John Gibson, Venus Victorious (c.1833-7) At the “Court of English and German Sculpture,” Crystal Palace, 1851 John Gibson Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 White marble Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK John Gibson John Gibson Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) Tinted Venus (c.1851) Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 Marble tinted with encaustic White marble H: 174 cm H: 175cm Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK The characteristic neoclassical nude in white marble, drained of all psychological implications with its surface smoothed and polished to a bland perfection, fairly represents the limits of sculpture’s expressive range throughout the first half of the nineteenth century and beyond. (Susan Beattie, “The New Sculpture: Aspects of a Nineteenth-Century English Renaissance,” 21) John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) Marble tinted with encaustic H: 175cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) John Gibson Tinted Venus (1851) John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL: “Gibson made me in Rome” John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL John Gibson Tinted Venus (c.1851) DETAIL Gibson [referring to Tinted Venus] “This repetition I kept in hand for five years, working on the marble whenever I felt disposed, and referring often to nature. Thus it became, I may say, the most carefully laboured work I ever executed.” John Gibson John Gibson Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) Tinted Venus (c.1851) Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 White marble Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK John Gibson Venus Plaster (1.72 m.) Bequeathed by John Gibson, R.A., 1866 John Gibson Venus Plaster (1.72 m.). DETAIL John Gibson John Gibson Venus Tinted Venus (c. 1851) Plaster (1.72 m.). DETAIL DETAIL John Gibson: “I chose a standing position, as most favorable for the figure, and for the display of long, flowing lines. As to the action I had often remarked that ladies when holding a fan or any light object generally place their hands in repose in front of the person. Thus I made my Venus stand, with the golden apple, which she holds quietly in her left hand. From her left arm hangs her garment reaching to the ground, but this is not merely a piece of drapery, it is the tunic-mantle worn by the Greek ladies, which I cut out for the purpose. It is so arranged as to cover modestly the figure, not placed as if purposely to conceal, but falling John Gibson Venus Verticordia (Venus, Turner of Hearts) (c.1833-7) accidentally.” Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1838 White marble Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK John Gibson: “The expression I endeavoured to give my Venus was that spiritual elevation of character. When this replica for Mr. Preston was finished I took the liberty to decorate it in a fashion unprecedented in modern times. I tinted the flesh like warm ivory — scarcely red — the eyes blue, the hair blond, and the net which contains the hair golden. (…) The blue fillets encircling the head are edged with gold, and she has gold earrings. Her armlet is also of gold, and the apple in her hand, which has a Greek inscription on it " To the most beautiful." The drapery is left the white colour of the marble — the border ornament is pink and blue. At her feet is a tortoise, on the back of which is inscribed in Greek " Gibson made me at Rome." When all my labour was complete I often sat down quietly and alone before my work, meditating upon it and consulting my own simple feelings. I endeavoured to keep myself free from self-delusion as to the effect of the colouring. I said to myself “ Here is a little nearer approach to life — it is therefore more impressive — yes — yes indeed she seems an ethereal being with her blue eyes fixed upon me!" At moments I forgot that I was gazing at my own production ; there I sat before her, long and often .” ” John Gibson: “I am convinced that the Greek taste was right in colouring their sculpture. The warm glow is agreeable to the eye, and so is the variety obtained by it. The flesh is of one tone, the hair of another ; the colouring of the eyes gives animation, and the ornaments on the drapery are distinctly seen. All these are great advantages. The moderns, being less refined than the Greeks in matters of art, are from long and stupid custom reconciled to the white statue. The flesh is white, the hair is white, the eyes are white, and the drapery white — this monotonous cold object is out of harmony with everything that surrounds it. It is not necessary that I should here give quotations from classical authors alluding to the polychromatic practice. All these are published and well known — as also the fact that fragments of fine Greek art have been found with traces of colour. Those who think that the Greeks did not colour sculpture in their high period of art are grossly mistaken. The Greek public were accustomed to see sculpture in gold and ivory, with the eyes of coloured glass, and of precious stones. A cold white statue would therefore have appeared incomplete to that people.” The Art-Journal 1 July 1862 “[T]inting, as thus illustrated, is, to our thinking, most unsatisfactory. It has either been carried too far or not far enough; it is neither flesh nor marble. ... As a mere attempt at identity, it fails to do what is done effectually in wax; and, from the quality of the marble, especially observable in the Venus, the veins, as shown through the coloured surface, are particularly unsightly, not to say repulsive.” J.