The highly nuanced surface polishes evident on marble sculptures from the later Greek and Roman periods were integral to their material and polychrome aesthetics in antiquity. This paper reconsiders these polishes (L. politura, -ae) that remain often summarily described and little examined. Aspects of the textual, archaeological, and physical evidence for polishes on marble sculpture are critically commented upon and post-antique assumptions about the techniques and intended viewing of polished marble surfaces are critiqued. The polishes on marble statuary may be profitably compared to other translucent painted media, including the ancient tradition of painted glass, exemplified by the little-known Paris Plate, and the larger, diverse range of translucent stone sculpture in antiquity. These comparisons form a basis for rethinking common assumptions about polished white marble, its relative status in antiquity, and the craft specialization of ancient sculptors.
Examination and scientific analysis have elucidated the well-preserved figural painting on a collection of limestone funerary stelai and loculus slabs from Alexandria, Egypt, dating from the late 4th to 3rd centuries B.C. This paper presents new information about the preparation, design, and technique of these paintings, which display a lead white ground preparation, both incised and black preliminary drawing, and a masterful elaborate multi-layered painting process to build up color. The paintings' generally bright colorful palette employs a wide range of pigments attested elsewhere in the classical Greek palette, and features, notably, the extensive use of mimetite, a geologically rare yellow lead arsenate mineral, uncommon in Greek and Roman painting and unknown in earlier Pharaonic painting traditions.
This paper presents an initial report on the extant polychromy on the remarkable series of Roman marble state relief sculptures excavated at a newly discovered Tetrarchic imperial building complex in Nicomedia (Turkey). The reliefs, featuring imperial and other diverse subject matters, retain extensive ancient coloration. A brief discussion of the history of the discovery and excavations surrounding these reliefs and the current Tübitak Archaeological Project is followed with a discussion of their polychromy. Preliminary observations about the painting technique, the range of colors and the palette of pigments and patterning are presented, before focusing on the use of color in the dress of the imperial costumes of the emperors. These exceptional painted state reliefs afford key new insights into the nexus of art, color-coding, sculpture, and court ritual in later Roman culture.
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