Summary: | One would not know it to look at those that survive today, but Greek sculptures were designed to dazzle and awe with their bright colours. This superbly illustrated discussion of the colours of archaic and early classical sculptures looks at these works of art with new eyes. Colour photographs present fragments still exhibiting something of their original colour, while special UV-Fluorescent photographs detect colours no longer visible to the eye. These detailed photographs, which reveal clues for paint and other types of decoration, are supported in some cases by full colour reconstruction drawings. The catalogue of 359 scuptures (arranged by museum) is preceded by a discussion of the types of evidence for the use of colour, the production of colours, the colours used for different parts of sculptures and the extent to which the subject matter (man, woman or mythological or divine being) influenced the colour. The book concludes with a reconstruction of the colours that would have been seen on the buildings and monuments of the Athenian Acropolis. German text.
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