Sculptural polychromy

Amidst the expected, punning advertisements for data companies lining the drive into San Francisco, one passes a lone cultural billboard depicting Klimt’s The Virgin (1913). The image advertises Klimt & Rodin: An Artistic Encounter at the Legion of Honor. Below the image of entwined pale, female flesh against a tapestry of vibrant color are the words: “Gives off seriously sexual vibes,” excerpted from a review in San Francisco Magazine. Klimt & Rodin showcases the two male artists’ interest in depicting the white female subject, an art historical mainstay since the splash of Praxiteles’s naked Aphrodite of Knidos. Vibrant colors and gilt dominates the non-figural spaces of Klimt’s canvases, but not the subjects’ bodies, which are rendered in light flesh tones, highlighted with pale yellows and pinks. Rodin’s sculptures, in contrast, are hewn from monochrome materials—marble, bronze, clay—with no surface treatments. If the “seriously sexual vibes” advertised on the billboard come from the expected space of white female (and feminized) subjectivity, the “artistic encounter” on display is one of medium—of painting’s uncontested polychrome in contrast to the insistent monochrome of modern sculpture.

This book presents a new study of Greek large-scale bronze statuary of the late Archaic and Classical periods. It examines the discovery, origin, style, date, artistic attribution, identification, and interpretation of the surviving bronzes, and focuses in particular on their technical features and casting techniques. It contains over 170 plates of photographs and drawings to illustrate its discussion.

It also places the development of the casting techniques in connection with the stylistic evolution in Greek free-standing sculpture. During the Classical period, artists preferred bronze to marble when creating their contrapposto figures. Indisputably, bronze gave particular freedom to artists in creating three-dimensional figures. In addition, the evolution in style encouraged the development of the uses of bronze to serve the new needs and tendencies in sculpture during the late Archaic and especially the Classical period. Through the examination of how technical matters affect style, this book presents fresh interpretations of these important monuments of Greek art and offers a new approach in the field of Greek free-standing bronze sculpture.

The material evidence for the wax finish on ancient marble statues, known as ganosis, is scarce and controversial, although Greek and Latin sources describe the recipes and cultural value of this treatment. The surface treatment of a colossal Roman head from the Roman theatre of Dougga (Tunisia), dated to the end of the second century CE, is studied by a multi-analytical protocol (video-microscope, cross section, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry of one sample). The results of this physico-chemical analysis and the comparison with ancient recipes, prove the use of ganosis on a Roman statue and explore, for the first time, the application of the recipes described in ancient sources. This result shows the potential of the Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry analysis, detecting at the same time organic and inorganic materials and their stratigraphy, to study the ancient recipes.

The multidisciplinary study of the subject originated from a conservation treatment conducted in situ from 2006 to 2011 and has developed gradually and across the board over the course of almost ten years. The initial complexity in how the existing composition of the altar was understood and interpreted has extended, in almost the same way, deep into the cathedral history, touching upon the question of the first architectural design for the sanctuary at the time the Roman mausoleum was being transformed into a church dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This long period has been reconstructed by observation and the recording of historical traces on the diverse kinds of materials in the sanctuary, the technological and chronological analyses of them, as well as by consulting published sources and works by many authors who researched individual aspects of this subject. Finally, the collected material was structured chronologically into a timeline of the altar’s construction and historical development, in the extent possible at this stage. This article is a follow up to an earlier one by the same author. The 2014 article discussed the historical development of the east niche with the altar and of the sanctuary with
the wooden choir through a multidisciplinary analysis of traces on the materials. These were the starting point and basis for the research, therefore proofs for the proposed chronology of development of the ensemble. It was envisaged for the articles to together form a basis of technical and historical data that would be further questioned, redefined and supplemented with new discoveries. The research continues according to the same model, encompassing technological analyses of the wooden material, structure, carving and polychromy of the backrests of the Romanesque choir stalls that are presently located in the cathedral choir. Also under way is the research of the monumental Romanesque doors whose original phase, along with their historical alterations, is first brought into connection with the Romanesque character of the sanctuary and then, through all subsequent phases of it
development, with the contemporary challenges of protection and presentation.
keywords: Split Cathedral, high altar, historical development, sanctuary, Diocletian‘s Mausoleum, niche, stipes, ciborium, wooden vault, Mateo Ponzoni, conservation treatment.
Multidisciplinarna studija o temi naslova počela je u sklopu konzervatorsko-restauratorskog zahvata koji je izveden in situ 2006.-2011. godine, a razvijala se postupno i slojevito gotovo deset godina. Polazna kompleksnost shvaćanja i daljnjeg objašnjenja današnje kompozicije oltara seže duboko u povijest katedrale, dotičući i pitanje prvog arhitektonskog koncepta svetišta u vrijeme pretvorbe antičkog mauzoleja u crkvu posvećenu Uznesenju Blažene Djevice Marije. To dugo razdoblje rekonstruirano je promatranjem i bilježenjem povijesnih tragova na raznorodnim materijalima u svetištu, njihovim tehnološkim i kronološkim analizama, kao i obradom do sada otkrivenih povijesnih izvora i radova niza autora koji su istraživali pojedine aspekte povezane s tom temom. Naposljetku je prikupljeni materijal strukturiran kronološki kao prikaz konstrukcije oltara i njegova povijesnog razvoja, opsežan onoliko koliko je to moguće u ovom trenutku. Članak je nastavak prethodnoga rada iste autorice iz 2014. godine, u kojem je obrađen povijesni razvoj istočne niše s oltarom i svetišta s drvenim korom, i to multidisciplinarnom obradom tragova na materijalima koji su bili polazište i uporište istraživanja, dakle dokazi predložene kronologije razvoja cjeline. Zamišljeno je da zajedno tvore bazu tehničkih i povijesnih podataka koja će se preispitivati, redefinirati i dopunjavati na temelju novih otkrića. Istraživanje se nastavlja prema istom modelu, obuhvaćajući tehnološke analize drvene građe, konstrukcije, obrade i polikromije naslona romaničkih sjedala koja su danas u koru katedrale, te monumentalne romaničke vratnice, čija se izvorna faza i povijesne preinake dovode u vezu najprije s romaničkim izgledom svetišta, a onda u svim kasnijim fazama njegova razvoja, do suvremenih izazova očuvanja i prezentacije. Unutar preoblikovane i danas prolazne istočne niše antičkog mauzoleja, na mramornoj plohi dvoboj-ne podne obloge iz 1866. godine, na površini od nepunih 25 m 2 oblika kvadrata (473 x 473 cm), smještena je jedna od intrigantnijih zagonetki naše kulturno-povijesne baštine. Cjelovita kompozicija glavnog oltara splitske katedrale, datirana u pretposljednje desetljeće 17. stoljeća (sl. 1, 2). Tu stilski homogenu cjelinu, najvećim dijelom intaktne konstrukcije, desetljećima je u nizu navrata proučavao Kruno Prijatelj koji je uz prve opće analize 14 slika u nju ugrađenih te rekonstrukcije opusa slikara, objasnio oltar na temelju nekoliko ključnih povijesnih zapisa koje je objelodanio te je u završnoj sintezi o splitskoj katedrali zaključke iznio u kraćem odlomku. 1 Iako oltarnu kom-poziciju kronološkim redom razlaže na pet segmenata: slike Matea Ponzonija, ploču Jerolima Natalisa, menzu, drveni ciborij i svod, ali shvaćajući da se nijedan od njih ne može izgraditi prije sljedećeg kao ni nakon prethodnog, pa onda ne i tim redoslijedom-rješenje pronalazi u sužavanju datacijskog okvira unutar kojega je ona finalizirana.

Palabras clave: Retablo de Santa María de los Sastres, Catedral de Tarragona; Montaje; Policromía; Investigación previa para la conservación-restauración.
Keywords: Altarpiece of Santa María de los Sastres, Tarragona Cathedral, assembly, polychromy, previous investigation for works of conservation-restoration.
Resumen:
El Retablo de Sastres se restauró en 2012 por el taller MVarte  y para ello fue necesario su desmontaje y nuevo montaje de sus elementos: los plafones cuadrangulares de cada escena, la Virgen, los dos segmentos del pináculo y el banco o predela. Se retiraron añadidos que modificaban sus dimensiones y se recolocó, lo que además modificó su lectura iconográfica. En el presente artículo explicamos los criterios que seguimos y las investigaciones que nos dieron las claves para  recuperar el montaje original.
Abstract:
The Santa Maria de Sastres altarpiece was restored in 2012 by the workshop MVarte (Emma Zahonero and Jesus Mendiola) and it was necessary to disassemble and reassemble its elements: the quadrangular panels of each scene, the Virgin, the two segments of the Pinnacle and the predella. We removed additions, that modified its dimensions, and repositioned it, which also modified its iconographic reading. In this article we explain the criteria that we followed and the investigations that gave us the keys to recover the original assembly.

The present article explores mainly three aspects. First, the complete analysis of the remaining 13th century polychromy of the Royal portal of the cathedral of Bordeaux. Second, the reconstruction of the initial colouring of the tympanum and the archivolts. And third, it examines the fonctions the medieval artist assigned to polychromy and the role it played for a better understanding of the sculptural program. It clearly comes out that polychromy on a medieval portal is not a more or less arbitrary adding to the sculpture, but an integral part of its artistic conception.

Las encarnaciones de la escultura policromada barroca sevillana. Fuentes y proceso constructivo. En este trabajo se efectúa una investigación sobre los métodos, procesos y materiales empleados en la manufacturación, puesta en práctica y tratamiento superficial de las encarnaciones barrocas sevillana. Para ello se contrastarán datos provenientes de diversas fuentes, desde las tradicionales, sobre todo de los tratados y diccionarios del momento, a las informaciones derivadas de los estudios científicos-técnicos y de las restauraciones que, en las dos últimas décadas se han llevado a cabo, en esculturas barrocas sevillanas significativas con una metodología científica; complementándose este análisis con el estudio de su características plásticas; en particular, con los efectos empleados en su ejecución y con su tratamiento superficial, mate o a pulimento. Por último, y dado que estás esculturas suelen estar sometidas a un uso constante, ligada a la función cultual que, mayoritariamente siguen desempeñando, se dedica un apartado concreto a reseñar las principales alteraciones que se producen en éstas áreas tan importantes de las obras

Alabaster has many proverbial qualities, as evident in Shakespeare's 'smooth as monumental alabaster' (Othello, V, ii). Tomb monuments are a prominent feature in Kim Woods’ new monograph 'Cut in Alabaster' (2018) on the uses of this translucent material in the period 1350 to 1550. Yet the scope of this book is much wider, both thematically and geographically.  With the increased interest in materiality, this is a welcome – and impressive – addition to the literature on medieval sculpture and on alabaster in particular.

The Royal portal of the cathedral of Bordeaux. Rediscovery of a masterpiece.
Inaccessible behind iron grids during several decades and blackened by pollution, the Royal portal of the cathedral of Bordeaux has recently been restored and reopened to the public. This restoration led to a genuine rediscovery: a masterpiece of 13th century sculpture in Europe. Moreover, the remains of the ancient polychromy still preserved allow us to reconstruct and to analyse the initial coloured appearance of the portal – an aspect that is still poorly known for French monumental sculpture of this period.
This publication gives an overview of the researches undertook recently on the occasion of restoration carried out between 2011 and 2014. It contains contributions written by art historians, archaeologists, staff in charge of the restoration (Monuments historiques) and a specialist of communication science. Their results renew entirely our vision not only of the portal’s sculpture, its iconography and its stylistic treatment, but also of its architectural framing and its initial colouring. They embrace the history of the Royal portal from the Middle Ages up to the 21th century.

Este estudio del retablo de la Inmaculada Concepción de Santa Prisca, en Taxco, tiene un enfoque que, sin desdeñar aspectos tradicionalmente considerados por la historiografía del arte, como los aspectos formales, estilísticos e iconográficos, subraya la importancia esencial del conocimiento de su sistema constructivo. El estudio del sistema constructivo de este y otros retablos novohispanos, que va más allá del tradicional tema de los soportes, permite proponer criterios para su clasificación. El estudio aborda el análisis de los materiales empleados en aparejos y policromías, y amplía la visión de la circulación de los conocimientos, técnicas y materiales en la Nueva España a mediados del siglo XVIII entre ensambladores, entalladores, pintores y doradores.
La identificación de los materiales y las técnicas constructivas, evaluados estadísticamente, permitió corroborar que las diferencias en la jerarquía simbólica de los personajes representados, establecidas mediante factores a la vista de todos por su localización y dimensiones, condicionó el tratamiento técnico (número de capas de aparejo o el empleo de temples u óleos) dado a las obras y la selección de los materiales (valor económico de los pigmentos) utilizados.
Este trabajo muestra que la policromía del retablo de la Inmaculada Concepción forma parte de un plan general que incluye efectos lumínicos, formales y estructurales. Se trata de la aplicación de policromías, no sólo por el "gusto de colorear", sino a partir de un profundo conocimiento de sus cualidades ópticas y del aprovechamiento de los efectos que se logran entre ellas para favorecer la lectura y la transmisión del mensaje religioso y social.
Lo anterior pone en evidencia que los artífices novohispanos tenían una visión integral y no compartimentada de su quehacer.

Ph.D. thesis published in two volumes; the main thesis and the acompanying appendices. Academic advisors: Jane Fejfer and Jan Stubbe Østergaard.
Available for download at The Royal Library. National Library of Denmark and Copenhagen: http://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/157036944/Ph.d._2016_Skovmoeller.PDF

The church of St. Peter the Great was built within the walls of the part of the city which also got its name from the church. It was the citiy's oldest cathedral, corroborated by the archbishop's palace adjacent to it until the middle of the 14th century, as well as its location within the walls of the first phase of expansion of the city walls. Only fragments of interlace sculpture are what remains of the once representative architecture and sculpture of the pre-romanesque church of St. Peter. However, by thorough analysis from all aspects the fragment lives, because a property of the fragment is to conserve a vital trait of the whole, a part of the basic meaning. By inspection of available pre-romanesque interlace fragments with preserved traces of polychromy several conclusions can be noted. The pigments are on a base of lime or with mixed lime binders. Basic tones predominate among colours, mostly cold or dark for painting the background and warm or bright colours for painting the very ornament. On certain fragments consolidation of the polychrome layer is necessary. In the colour of individual motifs lie the answers to their meaning, their symbolic.

In Roman culture not always the colour of the marbles was the unique characterizing element: with a few exception their names allude to their geographical provenance and the texture and brilliance was also very important. Only in later times the colour acquired dominance.
The most characterized marble is the imperial porphyry: in later times this symbology was used in an ecclesiastical context, but with the end of the Egyptian quarries byzantine emperors had to prefer different marbles and we have a preference for the green marbles. White marbles had also an important meaning but in later times several author used the term “Parian” to designate different stones for their white and brilliant colour. Some late texts try to play with the meaning of the colour but a symbolic system properly speaking never existed.

This study investigates the similarities between ancient polychrome painting and textile dyes with regard to the organic colourants used for the depiction of garments on Egyptian mummy portraits from the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. The mummy portraits were analysed with two non-invasive photographic methods: UV-induced fluorescence photography (UVF) and visible-induced luminescence (VIL). The analysis demonstrates that shellfish purple was often imitated in textile dying as well as in painting by using madder and madder lake respectively. In textile dying, madder red was tinted bluish using indigo or woad. Madder lake is sometimes mixed with Egyptian blue in order to obtain the purple hue on the mummy portraits. However, in some cases it is unknown which blue pigment was used to create the purple colour. Yet, other studies have confirmed that indigo, derived from the indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria), was often employed in such portraits. Therefore, in instances where there is no or only little evidence of Egyptian blue in the purple colour, indigo may have been used instead in the mixtures of textile dyes. The present examination has identified an overlap in the raw materials used for colouring textiles and for paint in antiquity. In some instances, the corresponding pigment was used for depicting garments, in this case madder lake for rendering madder-dyed textiles. These results contribute important knowledge concerning how colours were depicted and the significance of whether pigments derived from the same source as dyes, and towards a deeper understanding of the craftsmen’s traditions.

When we look at ancient sculpture we often find ourselves in front of a masterpiece in white, fine-crystalline marble. We prize its luminous whiteness, which draws our gaze to it, and its form, on which we are able to concentrate all the better because of the work’s monochromy. As this contribution will show, the creation of Hellenistic sculpture did not involve form alone, but included the provision of further detail by means of polychrome additions. These additions enrich the object and provide the viewer with more information. In other words, colour tells a story. To give insight into this practice, a definition of what is meant by polychromy and a description of the polychrome appearance of Hellenistic sculptures and smallscale terracottas will be provided in the following. The focus will then turn to two examples that shed light on the function of the polychrome additions.

Alcune statue conservate presso il Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli sono state fondamentali per riflettere sulla policromia della scultura antica. Nella seconda metà del’700 Johann Joachim Winckelmann, osservando le tracce di pigmentazione sulla statua di Diana arcaistica rinvenuta a Pompei, formulò le prime osservazioni moderne sull'uso e il significato del colore nell'antichità. Queste riflessioni divennero la più solida base teorica del nuovo sentimento dell’antico che si diffonderà in Europa, pur avendo le grandi imprese di scavo archeologico ottocentesche (Olimpia, Delfi, Pompei, Ercolano, Roma) permesso di scoprire architetture, opere d’arte e oggetti con tracce evidenti dell’originaria policromia; nell'immaginario collettivo e nel senso comune il mondo antico appare così ancora acromo. La policromia dei reperti scultorei nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico di Napoli, rinvenimenti dall'area vesuviana e collezione Farnese, è un dato in parte poco noto e non indagato sistematicamente. Ad una ricchezza di testimonianze scultoree con tracce di policromia si contrappone la mancanza di una riflessione sui dati ricavabili dalle analisi autoptiche, dai documenti d’archivio, dalle relazioni di scavo e dalla tradizione antiquaria. Il contributo vuole raccogliere le testimonianze relative all'originaria colorazione delle sculture rinvenute nell'aria vesuviana, recuperando i rapporti con i colori dei contesti in cui erano collocate (spazi affrescati, rivestimenti marmorei, colori della natura); analogamente saranno raccolti i poco noti dati sul colore delle sculture antiche della collezione Farnese, la più notevole collezione di antichità al mondo, nata nel periodo rinascimentale su volontà di Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549). L’indagine fornirà la prima base, quindi, per una valutazione sistematica della presenza del colore nelle statue delle raccolte napoletane, con il fine di recuperare indizi e riferimenti unici e imprescindibili per ricostruire nella sua integrità la cultura antica.

"From the σκέπαρνον to the claw chisel - work traces on limestone, marl, and marble fragments from the archaic Didymaion (and Archaic sculptures)"
An ensemble of about 650 worked architectural stone fragments dating to the middle of the 6th century B.C. (c. 570/560–540/530 B.C.) are ascribable to the archaic Apollo temple at Didyma and its altar. About 80–85 % of these fragments are of limestone and lime marl, and only 15–20 % of marble. For economic reasons the different local stone materials had been extracted in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary as well as in the nearby marble quarries of Heracleia at Latmus and Myus. They were used side by side in the same building, just like in the case of second dipteros in the Heraion of Samos (›Polycratic temple‹) and the Apollo temple V at Delphi (›Alcmaeonid temple‹).
Initially, the design, the materials, as well as the technique of the Apollo temple at Didyma had been much influenced by the first dipteros on Samos (›Theodoros temple‹), as its construction had begun with limestone and lime marl materials. But from about 560/550 B.C., two marble temples, the lower temple at Myus and the older Artemision at Ephesos, then became the models. After a plan modification, the Didymaion and its naiskos thus received magnificent marble facades with Ionic column bases of the Ephesian type as well as Ionic volute capitals.
Compared to the fragments of the other archaic dipteroi, the worked pieces from the Apollo temple are numerous and well-preserved and display a wide range of different work traces at their surfaces, especially at the anathyroses of the inside contact faces. From the quarries to the construction site at the temple, the first building phase, or the so-called ›limestone phase‹, is marked by a predominant use of an all-round one-hand tool, being an adze or hatchet called the σκέπαρνον, and more frequent also by that of a pickaxe or point. The second building phase referred to as the ›marble phase‹ is characterized by the predominant use of the pick and the point, and still occasionally by the meanwhile more hardened σκέπαρνον, as well as by a comparatively late, fine claw chisel after about 540/530 B.C. However, the beginning of the construction at around 570/560 B.C. also reveals a temporary and experimental application of a roughly toothed tool used for the dressing of the limestone foundation blocks, which probably consisted of a toothed adze or hatchet similar to a ›toothed σκέπαρνον‹. Traces of this tool, possibly representing an earlier version of the later claw chisel, have also been recorded at the Heraion of Samos about 580 B.C.

This thesis examines the perception of polychromy in Greek sculptures over different periods by using archaeological and art historical data. To examine the usage of polychromy in Antiquity, ancient sources and technological methods have been assessed. The aim of this research is to understand the perception of color in the Greek period and to pinpoint the time of when this perception changed looking at a timespan from the Renaissance to the present. This studied identified possible motivations for the use of color in Greek sculptures: visibility, realism, meaning, completion, and tradition. It also revealed possible reasons for the rejection of color in the Renaissance and subsequent periods were also understood: contempt towards the Middle Ages, admiration for Antiquity, and establishment of a new tradition.

In the eighteenth century, sculptors such as Antonio Canova often experimented with polychromy, using wax or grind water to subtly tint their figures’ flesh. In this article, I examine viewers’ discomfort with these surface treatments. I argue that viewers reacted negatively to the colored surface of works such as Hebe and Penitent Magdalene because they found it to be deceptive. First, encaustic treatments mellowed the marble surface, giving modern works the appearance of antiquities. Second, the “reality effect” created by color threatened sculpture’s status as high art. Finally, hyper-realism also suggested that the sculpture’s surface was exactly that—that is to say, only a surface, a shell that contained the messy reality of the body. The polychrome surface therefore oscillated between ancient and modern, flesh and stone, penetrable and impenetrable and raised larger aesthetic, philosophical and scientific issues.

Incised slabs are commonly regarded as minor monuments, lacking visual impact and chosen by patrons only when they could not afford more conspicuous monumental types. This paper challenges this assumption, presenting extensive material and documentary evidence concerning the use of polychromy and applied decoration on incised slabs, and examines how this affected the way in which these monuments were perceived by their intended audience. With such decoration, incised slabs would have been eye-catching, even positioned on the floor, and would therefore have fulfilled their primary function of attracting the attention and the prayers of the faithful.

Esta monografía afronta el conocimiento y la conservación
de las encarnaciones polícromas con un claro enfoque investigador, como se deduce del tratamiento de los datos aportados y de los contenidos en los que se estructura. Con rigurosidad y objetividad, se analizan aspectos tan esenciales como su tecnología operativa –haciendo hincapié en su materialidad y su modus operandi–, las causas que generan su deterioro y los indicadores de alteración asociados, los métodos científicos más indicados para su estudio y los criterios y la praxis operativa que han de guiar una correcta
intervención. La finalidad de estas páginas no es la
de constituir un manual cerrado, sino la de proporcionar
al lector pautas metodológicas que den respuestas a la
mayoría de los interrogantes que sobre estas encarnaciones le surjan, de manera que le resultará muy útil para su desarrollo profesional. Asimismo, por afinidad con otras áreas, muchos de los contenidos expuestos son extrapolables al resto de la escultura.

Methodological observations about the reconstruction of ancient sculptural polychromy on the basis of the comparison between different reconstructions of the Prima Porta Augustus with preliminary report about the results of a new examination of the statue with VIL technology.

Polychromy of Hellenistic Sculptures (and Terracotta Figurines).

Die Polychromie antiker Skulpturen stellt auf dem internationalen Parkett der Altertumswissenschaftler ein sich rege entwickelndes und stetig wachsendes Forschungsgebiet dar. Hellenistische Skulpturen blieben in diesem Rahmen jedoch bislang ein Desiderat, welchem mit dieser Publikation Folge geleistet wird. Schon längst ist bekannt, dass antike Skulpturen polychrom gestaltet waren. Ihre steinernen, tönernen oder hölzernen Körper waren farbig gefasst und wurden mit Attributen aus anderen Materialien ergänzt. Basierend auf einer Untersuchung von mehr als einhundert hellenistischen Skulpturen mit modernen Techniken und Methoden zeigt die Studie, wie Statuen dieser Zeit mit ihrer polychromen Gestaltung aussahen. Eine erstmalige Hinzunahme von Vergleichsbeispielen anderer Gattungen, insbesondere von Terrakotten, unterstützt die Auswertung. Darüber hinaus geht die Arbeit der Frage nach, welche Informationen den Statuenkörpern durch ihre Bemalung und Anstückungen aus anderen Materialien hinzugefügt wurden. Hierbei handelt es sich um signifikante Botschaften, die dem heutigen Betrachter bislang unbekannt waren und zum Teil zu verfälschten Interpretationen der Skulpturen führten. In weiteren Kapiteln widmet sich die Arbeit den ausführenden Handwerkern, der Pflege, Instandhaltung und den Reparaturmaßnahmen der polychromen Gestaltung. Eine zusätzliche Bereicherung erfährt die Studie durch die Erweiterung der Betrachtung auf neu übersetzte literarische Quellen und inschriftlich überlieferte Rechenschaftsberichte über die Ausgaben delischer Heiligtümer. Die breitgefächerten Fragestellungen werden von einem ausführlichen Katalog und einem umfangreichen Abbildungsteil in Farbe begleitet.

The study "Cinnabar - the Colour of Kings and Gods" by Rositsa Manova, Ph.D., is a
valuable resource for researchers and teachers in the field of cultural heritage. It is the first
attempt at asking questions and formulating answers that have remained in the background for
a long time regarding the use of materials, techniques and technologies in cult painting.
Colour systems in the art and mythology of the ancient peoples, in contrast to today's
perception, are less emotionally oriented, but are always semantically loaded. Just like signs,
colours are semantically neutral, they acquire a symbolic meaning, i.e., their meaning is
specified in context of a given tradition. To some extent the meaning of each colour is
universal. However, the specific observations and analyses have revealed that in different
peoples, despite the common emotional base, each colour acquires a different, sometimes
even the opposite semantics. Still, the mechanisms of semanticizing of the colour signs, the
coloronyms, are the same. Of course, it is not only signs but also meanings that can migrate
from one traditional system to another if it contains the premises needed for their
comprehension. The author is aware of this peculiarity of signs and based on it she studies one
of the basic (and most ancient) colours - cinnabar. "Due to its unique qualities, beauty and
intensity, cinnabar has become a sacred colour of many peoples. It embraces the beliefs in the
afterlife and the divine beginning of life. Probably this is where the idea of its royal character
comes from.” Of course, it could be emphasized that the association with blood as a carrier of
life has played an important part in the semanticizing of this coloronym (this is done by an
appropriate addition of the important association with the sun and fire, which are always red).
Gold itself is also considered as red as the sun and fire. That is why it is necessarily included
in the symbolic system of the colour, i.e., it stands in for it in metal code. Not only the Turks,
but all peoples mark the cardinal directions (as well as the seasons) additionally by a specific
colour, as K. Levi-Strauss successfully notes.
The study is structured very well: it starts with the preliminary “technological” data on
cinnabar and its names in different cultures and continues with a focused study of the
semantics of the colour in different peoples. This is especially helpful for the purposes of the
publication because it provides detailed information, i.e., arguments of the researcher’s
thought. Especially valuable are the analyzes of the Revival painters’ manuals (ερμηνεία), as
in them the technology of painting of that time is clearly understood, and it correlates
cinnabar with relevant parts of the body or of clothing. One of the varieties of this colour is
purple, which since ancient times is considered royal. For the Thracians it had the same
meaning - let’s just remember that the bones of Rhesus were transported from Troas to
Amphipolis in a purple cloak, and in such were wrapped the bones of Macedonian rulers, as
the burials show. The author rightly devotes much attention to the technology of obtaining
cinnabar, its distribution and application techniques in the ancient cultures. The information
here is extensive and important for future research on other colours, too.
The specific analysis of the colour system of the Thracian tombs must also be recognized.
The author even offers a program for technological study of some of them, which would be
very useful, and the already done research proves the importance of the exact sciences in the
interdisciplinary study of Thracian past. Manova's statement about the semantic value of
"decoration" of the tombs is methodologically correct and therefore is useful for training:
"The decoration of the cult tombs and facilities is subject to certain ideas and functions,
symbols and signs that complement each other in certain dependencies. It should not be seen
as a stand-alone artistic element, independent of the environment in which it is located, but as
part of the spirituality and government of the Thracians".

The current study is the first comprehensive investigation of the polychromy of Palmyrene funerary portraits. It presents the technical examinations of six portraits (ca. 150–250 CE) from the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, illustrating the marvellous splendour of the cultural heritage of ancient Palmyra. The six portraits were examined with various analytical methods, including microscopy, ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence imaging and visible light-induced infrared luminescence imaging, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Finally, two samples were collected for liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to obtain the aminoacid sequence information. Various pigments were detected in the polychromy including lapis lazuli, pyromorphite, mimetite, yellow ochre, red ochre, a red lake, lead carbonate, zinc oxide, bone black,
and charcoal black. The proteinaceous binding medium was identified as collagen-based and possibly also keratin-based animal glue. The examinations of the Palmyrene portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek have proven that these artefacts, despite their current uniform, white appearance, originally presented themselves in a wealth of colours. This is illustrated by the digital reconstructions carried out of two of the examined portraits, which show how the original painting of these portraits would have given them an entirely different expression from what we see today.

Few instances of material evidence for ancient colour restorations have been documented over the last 20 years, during which time the scientific approach to the study of polychromy has been defined. This article presents eight new cases of ancient restoration of colour from the Roman Imperial Age. By combining observations in visible and UV light and video microscopy with a micro-stratigraphic approach, MA-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and contextual archaeological data, we have observed evidence which could suggest an aesthetic change in the use of colour between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE: from polychrome and multitone effects to the use of monochromatic, flat, and uniform colour finishes

На основата на интердисциплинарен метод на изследване са
разгледани основните характеристики на цветовете в украсата на
статуите от храма, определени са наименованията на използваните
минерални пигменти, източниците на тяхното добиване, географското
и хронологическото им разпространение. За целта се опираме върху
три групи източници.

Reflectance and luminescence imaging in the ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) regions are relatively straightforward non-invasive, non-contact investigative techniques that can provide spatial information on the presence of original and non-original materials on museum objects and in situ. For most of these so-called multispectral techniques, imaging is normally conducted with the aid of a tripod in a darkened environment and using continuous radiation sources such as tungsten halogen, LED or mercury lamps. In some circumstances, particularly when working on site or in historic buildings, it is not possible to black out the working environment, to use a tripod or to transport (or have access to) the appropriate radiation source. Xenon flashtubes are very compact radiation sources that produce rapid bursts of intense radiation in the UV, visible and IR ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. If appropriately filtered, it is possible to use xenon flashtubes as a single radiation source for all the commonly encountered types of imaging in the UV, visible and IR portions of the spectrum. In addition, the intense radiation emitted by these sources allows luminescence images to be acquired in the presence of considerable ambient light, under conditions that have previously proved challenging when making luminescence images in situ.