Look Again!

No doubt you've seen many Greek and Roman statues, either in museums or in textbooks. But German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann wants you to take another look. Why? You'll be amazed!


Herr Brinkmann and his spouse, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, have created full scale plaster copies of numerous ancient statues. Then, based on painstaking research, they painted them to make the copies resemble how the statues appeared in ancient Greece. That's right. The two maintain that in ancient times statues were painted colorfully. Over time, the hues washed away leaving us today with statues of just white marble.

Some contest their conclusions. But no one can argue that the effect isn't dramatic. Take a look at the example below from an exhibit sponsored by the Glyptothek museum in Munich. What a difference!


The museum put together an international exhibition called Bunte Götter (“Colored Gods”), to showcase the work in 2004. The exhibition appeared in Istanbul in 2006 and in Athens in 2007. Portions have been shown at Harvard University and at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California.

The replica in the picture below is juxtaposed against a display of statues arranged like action figures. The scene is the Glypothek museum which specializes in Greek and Roman statues. (That's the original archer in the background. It dates back to 490 B.C.) The same painted statue appeared in the July 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine which contained a feature article on this subject by Matthew Gurewitsch. ("True Colors"--go to: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors.html)

What an amazing new perspective!

Exhibition photos from: http://www.stmwfk.bayern.de/kunst/museen/kalender_2005/kw_42.html