Surprise! Classical Sculptures Were Actually Brightly Painted!

When you imagine ancient Greece, you probably imagine stark, white, marble columns and white, marble statues with vacant, pupilless eyes standing in majestic poses. In actuality, however, ancient Greek statues were originally painted with bright, primary colors. The only reason why they appear white today is because all of the paint has flaked off.

So how do we know they were originally brightly painted? Well, first off, some statues actually still have traces of the original pigment on them. For example:

ABOVE: Two ancient Greek statues showing traces of their original pigments.

Second off, references to painted statues abound throughout Greek literature. For example, in Helene of Troy by Euripides, Helene laments:

“My life and fortunes are a monstrosity,
Partly because of Hera, partly because of my beauty.
If only I could shed my beauty and assume an uglier aspect
The way you would wipe color off a statue.“

The reason why ancient statues appear to not have any pupils or irises is because the pupils and irises were originally painted on. When the paint all flaked away, all that was left were the empty eyes, blank and lifeless.

ABOVE: Reconstruction of ancient Roman marble head depicting Emperor Caligula. Believe it or not, this is what Greek and Roman statues would have originally looked like.

The reason why so many classical sculptures are in such awkward poses is because these statues were originally depicted holding objects such spears, scepters, tridents, shields, and even hand mirrors. Unfortunately, because these items were often made of precious metals, they were all later stolen or removed, leaving only the statue itself standing there awkwardly looking like it was supposed to be holding something.

ABOVE: The famed Augustus of Prima Porta, one of the best-preserved Roman statues, shown next to an image of a modern partial reconstruction of what it would have originally looked like. (The whole statue would have actually been painted; no white marble surface would been left showing.) Notice that the reconstruction is holding a scepter in its left hand.

The Greeks and Romans did not just paint their statues; they also painted their temples and public buildings. Indeed, even the glorious Parthenon itself was originally bedecked with bright, primary colors.

In fact, the Greeks adorned their temples so decadently that in his Life of Perikles, the biographer Ploutarchos records that some people were compelled to protest, “…we are gilding and bedizening our city, which, for all the world like a wanton woman, adds to her wardrobe precious stones and costly statues and temples worth their millions.”

The Greeks were very fond of color and they used it to decorate every aspect of their lives. Contrary to popular belief, ancient Greek clothing was actually brightly colored, much like their statues. The only reason why they are so often portrayed in white robes is because that is what their statues look like, but their statues are only white because the original paint has all flaked off.

ABOVE: A late nineteenth-century illustration showing various types of ancient Greek clothing. Take note of the many brightly-colored fabrics.

The only reason why so few people know about this information is because, during the late nineteenth century, scholars stubbornly refused to admit that ancient sculptures could have possibly been painted. These scholars went to great lengths to deny this fact, even going so far as to intentionally ignore or dismiss evidence that should have otherwise been obvious give-aways.

The most notable of all these scholars was the German art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who claimed that “… since white is the color that reflects the most rays of light, and thus is most easily perceived, a beautiful body will be all the more beautiful the whiter it is.” Unsurprisingly, many experts suspect that his motivations for this steadfast refusal to acknowledge the truth were probably racist. Winckelmann was so obstinately insistent that Greek sculptures must have been white that even when he saw Greek statues with traces of pigment on them with his own eyes, he attempted to explain the sculptures away, insisting that they simply could not be Greek and that they must have actually been Etruscan.

Although even Winckelmann himself later came to admit that some Greek sculptures must have been painted, this stubborn denialism of Greek polychromy held out for more than a century, even among educated scholars who should have known better. It has only been in the past few decades that scholars have begun to freely admit that ancient Greek and Roman sculptures were indeed painted.

SOURCES
Abbe, Mark B. “Polychromy of Roman Marble Sculpture.” metmuseum.org. April 2007, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prms/hd_prms.htm. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Gurewitsch, Matthew. “True Colors.” smithsonianmag.com. July 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors-17888/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Haven, Cynthia. “Stanford’s ‘Painted Ladies’: Cantor exhibition shows how the ancient world used color – and how science reveals the faded past.” news.stanford.edu. 17 March 2011, news.stanford.edu/pr/2011/pr-cantor-painted-ladies-031711.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Neuenfeld, Nicole. “The Coloring of Ancient Sculptures.” edoc.hu-berlin.de/conferences/q-kolleg-2013/neuenfeld-nicole-67/PDF/neuenfeld.pdf.
Ploutarchos of Chaironeia. The Life of Perikles.
IMAGE CREDITS
All images used in this article were retrieved from Wikimedia Commons. The image of the statue of the woman with the parasol and the late nineteenth century illustration of ancient Greek clothing are both in the public domain. The images of head of Caligula and the cult figure of the Kriophoros are both licensed by attribution. Attribution: Giovanni Dall’Orto (for both works). The image of the statue of the Trojan archer is license under CC BY-SA 2.5. Attribution: Marsyas. The image of the Augustus of Prima Porta is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0. Attribution: Till Niermann. The statue of the modern reconstruction of the Augustus of Prima Porta is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Attribution: Tomk2ski.