Ancient colour revealed on the Parthenon Sculptures

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/a/ancient_colour_on_parthenon.aspx

by huxley • 11 years ago

42 21 11 years ago

sebkomianos4• 11 years ago

" It has often been assumed that they, like other Classical objects in the Museum, were once painted with colour, but until recently no firm evidence had ever been found."

Really, British Museum?!

* British damage to Elgin marbles 'irreparable' - http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/nov/12/helenasmith

* Cleaning scandal at the British Museum - http://www.parthenon.newmentor.net/cleaning.htm

(there is even a whole section on the museum's website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/stateme...)

Also: http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/hi...

And while on the matter, I've yet to understand why the Parthenon marbles are still not returned where they belong: in Parthenon.

ridgeguy• 11 years ago

Thanks for these, they're informative and interesting.

As to the Parthenon marbles, yeah, I agree with you. It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed. Even a couple of centuries after Elgin did his deed, it matters.

sebkomianos4• 11 years ago

I wonder why my comment is getting downvoted though. :/

wtbob• 11 years ago

It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed.

It wasn't a theft, but a duly-authorised removal. What's more, had the Earl of Elgin not removed them, they might have bee destroyed along with so much else a few years later during the Greek Revolution.

onewaystreet• 11 years ago

The damage was done in the 1930s.

jkot• 11 years ago

Parthenon is a construction site right now. Also air pollution in Athens is not so good for marble. Remove the cranes, cut heating oil tax, and we will talk about it ;-)

kenOfYugen2• 11 years ago

You sir lack to see beyond the obvious. Please refrain from talking in an insulting and ignorant way about the most important symbol of Greek cultural heritage.

mjn2• 11 years ago

Fwiw the remaining sculptures in Greece aren't left outdoors at the actual Parthenon site either, in order to protect them from damage (though they are nearby). The Acropolis Museum [1] stores 5 of the 6 Erechtheion caryatids (the 6th is in London), as well as the portions of the Parthenon frieze that weren't removed by Lord Elgin. On the acropolis itself, the Erechtheion has replica caryatids, while the Parthenon is "bare" with no frieze or pediment.

The museum is arranged with the intent to display the complete set of pieces, with blank space deliberately left for the missing items, so in terms of technical housing I don't think there's a problem (this was part of the political motivation for building the new museum, to have a credible facility for the sculptures to be returned to). The caryatids are currently arranged as a set of six, but with one spot empty, and the frieze is laid out as a full-sized display of the entire frieze, with the pieces that the museum possesses inserted into their correct place, and plaster casts used as placeholders for the missing parts.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_Museum

acqq• 11 years ago

And compare these "successes" in achieving whiter then white with what the German researchers, especially Brinkmann, achieved (obviously thanks to not scrubbing all the traces of the color from the sculptures):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods_in_Color

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinzenz_Brinkmann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UsYHo5iarM

http://www.in-greece.de/griechenland/foto/15445-stele-der-pa...

nitrogen3• 11 years ago

And while on the matter, I've yet to understand why the Parthenon marbles are still not returned where they belong: in Parthenon.

Could someone help me understand why this matters? Why worry about events centuries past when there's so much to worry about in the future?

kenOfYugen2• 11 years ago

Events centuries past is what we call history :) When a nation has outlived the centuries creating a vast cultural background, people tend to care about its importance. [1], [2], [3]

To answer your question straight, the reason the return of the Parthenon marbles matters, is morality. [4]

One cannot appreciate the significance of such creations to the fullest when they are taken out of context.

[1] http://www.parthenonuk.com/ [2] http://www.parthenoninternational.org/ [3] http://www.marblesreunited.org.uk/ [4] http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/12/23/the-british-...

wyclif• 11 years ago

I hate it when sites like this don't date articles. It is a trend that I think is unhelpful.

Ancient colour revealed on the Parthenon Sculptures

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