Факеки Грация Мария
Университет Урбино, Италия
Maybe no other aspect of the art of antiquity is as little understood as the polychrome painting of temples and sculptures. Since these works relied on colouring to achieve their intended effect, its absence is a very significant loss. The Middle Ages continued and strengthened the relationship between form and colour, stressing the unity among architecture, sculpture, painting, and finding in colour an important element of identity. Sculptors and architects of modern times have been greatly inspired by the art of antiquity, yet in their ignorance of ancient polychromy (which was already lost to them) they have in fact created something entirely new, namely unpainted sculptures and architecture. So, long before Neoclassicism, a phenomenon had begun that gradually led to a taste for white architecture and white sculptures, which influenced even contemporary aesthetics (Le Corbusier, the Bauhaus, the “Five White Architects” etc.).
However, it is possible for us to understand the colour of ancient monuments. This may be achieved both by analysing the pigments found on medieval monuments to realize how (what materials and techniques were used) and why (what was their function) colour was an important part of ancient monuments, and by researching some little known ‘evidence’ (architecture, sculptures, paintings, drawings), created in modern Europe for artistic purposes or for study, where there is a strong relationship between classical form and colour.
My intention is to examine that ‘evidence’ and try to connect the data, then to discuss if and how the recent virtual reconstructions (also in 3D) of ancient monuments are useful instruments that enable us to identify the colour of antiquity and lead to richer (and more accurate) interpretations of the past.