Polychrome
Art terminology and color method / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors."[1] The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors.
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When looking at artworks and architecture from antiquity and the European Middle Ages, people tend to believe that they were monochrome. In reality, the pre-Renaissance past was full of colour, and all the Greco-Roman sculptures and Gothic cathedrals, that are now white, beige, or grey, were initially painted in bright colours. As André Malraux stated, "Athens was never white but her statues, bereft of color, have conditioned the artistic sensibilities of Europe... the whole past has reached us colorless."[2] Polychrome was and is a practice not limited only to the Western world. Non-Western artworks, like Chinese temples, Oceanian Uli figures, or Maya ceramic vases, were also decorated with colours.
Similarly to the ancient art of other regions, Ancient Near Eastern art was polychrome, bright colours being often present. Many sculptures no longer have their original colouring today, but there are still examples that keep it. One of the best is the Ishtar Gate, the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed in c.575 BC by the order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city. Its colours are as rich as they were back in the day because of the fact that the walls were made of glazed brick.
Many Ancient Near Eastern sculptures were painted too. Although they are grey today, all the Assyrian reliefs that decorated royal palaces were painted in highly saturated colours.
- Assyrian tile with a guilloche border from the North-West Palace at Nimrud (now in modern Iraq), 883-859 BC, glazed earthenware, British Museum, London[3]
- Reconstruction of a hall from an Assyrian palace, by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1849
- Assyrian panel with color projected on it, showing how it looked initially, in the Pergamon Museum. The color disappeared in many millennia and was damaged by the excessive cleaning of artifacts that took place in the 19th century
Thanks to the dry climate of Egypt, the original colours of many ancient sculptures in round, reliefs, paintings, and various objects were well preserved. Some of the best preserved examples of ancient Egyptian architecture were the tombs, covered inside with sculpted reliefs painted in bright colours or just frescos. Egyptian artists primarily worked in black, red, yellow, brown, blue, and green pigments. These colours were derived from ground minerals, synthetic materials (Egyptian blue, Egyptian green, and frits used to make glass and ceramic glazes), and carbon-based blacks (soot and charcoal). Most of the minerals were available from local supplies, like iron-oxide pigments (red ochre, yellow ochre, and umber); white derived from the calcium carbonate found in Egypt's extensive limestone hills; and blue and green from azurite and malachite.
Besides their decorative effect, colours were also used for their symbolic associations. Colours on sculptures, coffins, and architecture had both aesthetic and symbolic qualities. Ancient Egyptians saw black as the colour of the fertile alluvial soil, and so associated it with fertility and regeneration. Black was also associated with the afterlife, and was the colour of funerary deities like Anubis. White was the colour of purity, while green and blue were associated with vegetation and rejuvenation. Because of this, Osiris was often shown with green skin, and the faces of coffins from the 26th Dynasty were often green. Red, orange, and yellow were associated with the sun. Red was also the colour of the deserts, and hence associated with Seth and the forces of destruction.[5][6]
Later, during the 19th century, expeditions took place that had the purpose of cataloging the art and culture of ancient Egypt. Description de l'Égypte is a series of early 19th century publications full of illustrations of monuments and artifacts of Ancient Egypt. Most are black-and-white, but some are colourful, so they can show the polychromy from the past. In some cases, only a few traces of paint remained on the walls, pillars and sculptures, but the illustrators attempted successfully at showing the buildings' original state in their pictures.[7]
- Model paddling boat, c.1981-1975 BC, wood, paint, plaster, linen twine and linen fabric, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Colossal statue of Tutankhamun, c.1355-1315 BC, painted quartzite, Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Egypt
- Composite papyrus capital, c.380–343 BC, polychrome sandstone, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Fragment of the sarcophagus of Djedthothiuefankh, 332-305 BC, wood and colourful glass, Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
- Statuette of Anubis, 332-30 BC, plastered and painted wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Winged sun on a cavetto at the Medinet Habu temple complex, Egypt, unknown architect, unknown date
- Intact interior of the Ramesseum, Egypt, illustration from Description de l'Égypte, unknown illustrator, 1809
- Egyptian patterns, motifs and capitals, unknown illustrator, published by L. Prang & Co., 1874
- Egyptian motifs from L'Ornement Polychrome, by Albert Racinet, 1888
- Various examples of Ancient Egyptian polychrome capitals, unknown illustrator, 19th century
- Various examples of Ancient Egyptian corniches, unknown illustrator, 19th century
Some very early polychrome pottery has been excavated on Minoan Crete such as at the Bronze Age site of Phaistos.[9] In ancient Greece sculptures were painted in strong colors. The paint was frequently limited to parts depicting clothing, hair, and so on, with the skin left in the natural color of the stone. But it could cover sculptures in their totality. The painting of Greek sculpture should not merely be seen as an enhancement of their sculpted form but has the characteristics of a distinct style of art. For example, the pedimental sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina have recently[when?] been demonstrated to have been painted with bold and elaborate patterns, depicting, amongst other details, patterned clothing. The polychrome of stone statues was paralleled by the use of materials to distinguish skin, clothing, and other details in chryselephantine sculptures, and by the use of metals to depict lips, nipples, etc., on high-quality bronzes like the Riace bronzes.
An early example of polychrome decoration was found in the Parthenon atop the Acropolis of Athens. By the time European antiquarianism took off in the 18th century, however, the paint that had been on classical buildings had completely weathered off. Thus, the antiquarians' and architects' first impressions of these ruins were that classical beauty was expressed only through shape and composition, lacking in robust colors, and it was that impression which informed neoclassical architecture. However, some classicists such as Jacques Ignace Hittorff noticed traces of paint on classical architecture and this slowly came to be accepted. Such acceptance was later accelerated by observation of minute color traces by microscopic and other means, enabling less tentative reconstructions than Hittorff and his contemporaries had been able to produce. An example of classical Greek architectural polychrome may be seen in the full size replica of the Parthenon exhibited in Nashville, Tennessee, US.
- Traces of paint depicting embroidered patterns on the peplos of an Archaic kore, c.530 BC, marble, Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece
- Polychrome on the Peplos Kore, c.530 BC, Parian marble, Acropolis Museum
- Peplos Kore color reconstruction
- Reconstructed color scheme on a Trojan archer from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina
- Amathus Sarcophagus, c.475-450 BC, limestone, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Hades and Persephone, c.340 BC, pigments on marble, Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, Vergina, Greece[11]
- Greek statue of a woman with blue and gilt garment from Tanagra, 325–300 BC, gilt and painted terracotta, Antikensammlung Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Greek figurine of a beautifully dressed young woman, 3rd of 2nd century BC, terracotta with kaolin and traces of polychromy, Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, Germany[14]
- Roman mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite, c.70 BC, mosaic, Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite, Herculaneum Archaeological Park, Ercolano, Italy[15]
- Roman shield, mid 3rd century, painted wood and hide, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA[16]
- Reconstruction of the Temple of Empedocles at Selinunte, Sicily, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, 1830 (published in 1851)[17]
- Ornaments of the Temple of Empedocles at Selinunte, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, 1846 (published in 1851)
- Reconstructed elevation of the main facade of the Temple T at Selinunte, Sicily, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, before 1859
Chinese art is known for the use of vibrant colours. Neolithic Chinese ceramic vessels, like those produced by the Yangshao culture, show the use of black and red pigments. Later, tomb and religious sculptures appear as a consequence of the spread of Buddhism. The deities most common in Chinese Buddhist sculpture are forms of the Buddha and the bodhisattva Guanyin. Traces of gold and bright colours in which sculptures were painted still give an idea of their effect. During the Han and Tang dynasties, polychrome ceramic figurines of servants, entertainers, tenants, and soldiers were placed in the tombs of people from upper-class. These figurines were mass-produced in moulds. Although Chinese porcelain is best known as being blue-and-white, many colorful ceramic vases and figures were produced during the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the same two dynasties, cloisonné vessels that use copper wires (cloisons) and bright enamel were also manufactured.
Similarly to what was happening in China, the introduction of Buddhism in Japan in 538 (or perhaps 552 AD) lead to the production of polychrome Japanese Buddhist sculptures. Japanese religious imagery had until then consisted of disposable clay figures used to convey prayers to the spirit world.[18]
- Tang dynasty mural of architecture from Mogao Grottoes.
- Guanyin of the southern seas (Chinese), 11th-12th centuries, painted and gilded wood, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA[19]
- Scholar oficial (Chinese), 618-907 AD, painted and glazed ceramic, Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an, China[20]
- The Guanyian Pavilion of the Dule Monastery, Jixian, China, unknown architect, 984
- Ming dynasty caihua decorations on Hall of Amitābha at Longxing Temple.
- Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the main building of the Temple of Heaven, Beijing, unknown architect, 1703–1790
- Song Dynasty "Wucai Caihua" (Five Coloured Painting)-dougong decorations guide as detailed on the Yingzao Fashi
- Chinese motifs from L'Ornement Polychrome, by Albert Racinet, 1888
- Chinese and Japanese cloisonné motifs from L'Ornement Polychrome
- Japanese cloisonné motifs from L'Ornement Polychrome
Throughout medieval Europe religious sculptures in wood and other media were often brightly painted or colored, as were the interiors of church buildings. These were often destroyed or whitewashed during iconoclast phases of the Protestant Reformation or in other unrest such as the French Revolution, though some have survived in museums such as the V&A, Musée de Cluny, and Louvre. The exteriors of churches were painted as well, but little has survived. Exposure to the elements and changing tastes and religious approval over time acted against their preservation. The "Majesty Portal" of the Collegiate church of Toro is the most extensive remaining example, due to the construction of a chapel which enclosed and protected it from the elements just a century after it was completed.[22]
- Romanesque - Last Judgement tympanum, Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France, early 12th century[23]
- Gothic - Ekkehard and Uta, attributed to the Master of Namburg, 1245–1260, limestone and polychromy, Naumburg Cathedral, Naumburg, Germany[26]
- Gothic - Reliquary altarpiece with Saint Ursula, c.1325, gilded and painted wood, Abteikirche Marienstatt, Streithausen, Germany[27]
- Gothic - Portal at the Collegiate Church of Toro
- Gothic - Bust of the Virgin, c.1390-1395, terracotta with paint, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Gothic - Irene, daughter of Cratin, painting a sculpture of the Virgin Mary, France, 1401-1402. Detail from Giovanni Bocaccio's De Claris mulieribus (Concerning famous women), 1403 edition, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
- Gothic - Enthroned Virgin, c. 1490-1500, limewood with gesso, paint and gilding, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Portal of the Burgos Cathedral, Burgos, Spain, unknown architect, unknown date