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Crispina

Colorizing ancient portrait busts

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Today I was looking at a site that posted historical photographs that had been colorized. Facinating. I thought something similar was posted on UNRV once showing Roman portrait busts of certain emperors painted in life-like colors.

 

I know it is widely thought that most were painted garishly but there have been sculputres found that indicate otherwise right? I recall a large sculptured head found underwater(?) not too long ago.

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This post dealt with recoloring of Caligula from residual paint particles:

 

 

http://www.unrv.com/forum/topic/16060-caligula-statue-how-accurate/

 

 

guy also known as gaius



 

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As an interesting aside, someone presented this video and asked about the accuracy:

http://www.openculture.com/2012/03/rome_reborn_-_a_digital_model_of_ancient_rome.html

My reply was as follows:

Great video and I support anything that promotes the study of Ancient Rome. That said...where's the color? Ancient Roman buildings and statues were brightly colored with jarringly garish deep reds and golden yellows, for example. Not the drab "washed out" appearance depicted in the above video.

Even the great HBO series "Rome" understated the rich color of Ancient Rome (but at least captures some of the flavor).

Portrayal of Rome from the HBO series "Rome:"





guy also known as gaius Edited by guy

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Hi, Crispina. I have one of Commodus. For technical reasons I can't post here, but I'm sure I got it Googling 'Commodus' and going to images. If you struggle, feel free to PM me.

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Some of the issue we have is the general impression, mainly from Pompeii and Herculaneum the only places where complete wall decorations survive, of deep vibrant but somewhat garish colours.

 

It is only in the last few years that some scientific studies have been made on the pigments used in Roman paints with the realisation that those garish colour schemes may in be part down to the effects of the volcano with colour changes having occurred due to the intense heat of the eruption. 

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