A COLOURFUL PAST: THE RENDERING OF GARMENTS IN ANCIENT GRAECO-ROMAN SCULPTURE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 18/11/2020

In the ancient Mediterranean area, the textiles have usually disappeared from the archaeological record, which means that our knowledge of their original colours is limited and to a large extent based on secondary sources. Besides the literary and epigraphic evidence and knowledge of ancient dyes, one of our most important sources is iconography. When dealing with the Graeco-Roman period, this presents a double challenge, since the original colours of art and architecture due to their fragile nature usually – like
the textiles - have disappeared. Nevertheless, a few traces of the original colours of these artworks are sometimes preserved and careful scientific examinations of the original polychromy can therefore provide valuable information to increase our knowledge of the depictions of ancient Graeco-Roman garments. The present contribution presents the investigations of the polychromy of a number of Graeco-Roman marble sculptures, carried out by the interdisciplinary research team at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark. These investigations were performed with different scientific methods including visible induced luminescence (VIL), ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The research team has proved the existence of the often rich and varied colours and decoration of a


Author(s): Broens, Cecilie (Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek)