The Modern Invention of Ancient White Marble | Portrait Bust of Caligula | Spotlight

Archaeologists Vinzenz and Ulrike Koch Brinkmann have spent the last 40 years dedicated to the study of polychromy-or “many colors” in Greek-in ancient sculpture. Once a fringe area of study, their research combats the misconception of white purity in ancient Greece and Rome. They reflect on the marble bust of Caligula and how the reconstruction of its former color can help us better understand history.
Explore more perspectives on Caligula: www.metmuseum.org/perspective...
Learn more about the exhibition "Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color": www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions...
The Spotlight series features new perspectives on a single work from The Met collection each month. Familiar and celebrated works serve as the focal point for dialogue-posing questions, building understanding, and conveying how the presence of the work in the Museum has altered, limited, or enhanced the work’s interpretation. The series explores different ways of knowing, and relates to themes beyond art and museums through the expertise and personal experience of invited guests.
Explore more of Spotlight: www.metmuseum.org/perspective...
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© 2022 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[@sarahk8053]

I took a polychromy class with Ulrike Koch Brinkmann a couple of years ago during my archaeology BA and she was such an amazing teacher. Very passionate about the subject.

[@stevechappell7804]

Ulrike is one of my favorite people. She's extremely generous with her time and her knowledge. My reconstruction work is better for her encouragement and information.

[@torieodain]

Would watch an entire documentary about this.

[@golgumbazguide...4113]

Welcome to golgumbaz, bijapur, South, india

[@ankos314]

There is this from the exhibition in Frankfurt last year: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIGTiI1jaJ2naqc

[@JerseyFerdinand]

What was the name of the documentary?

[@piccalillipit9211]

DEFINITELY...!!!

[@torieodain]

@@JerseyFerdinand Would. Not watched 😗

[@scottn322]

I remember when I learned that the statues had all actually been painted vibrant colors, the thought that struck me was that the modern white marble statues are like the ghosts of that ancient world, still haunting us today.

[@autumnmiller9807]

It would be amazing to see painted reproductions alongside the originals, perhaps with some interpretation!

[@jeffreyhenion4818]

The Acropolis Museum in Athens has several examples of painted casts next to the original sculpture.

[@nadiabouchier]

@@jeffreyhenion4818 cool

[@abyrupus]

Many museums are using a projector and light to cast colors on the originals.

[@metmuseum]

You can visit these reproductions and more in "Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color" at The Met through March 2023! Visit the link in the description for more information.

[@Loisaidalisa]

@@metmuseum I cannot wait for a visit home to see this. Wonderful video! Thank you.

[@whtyc]

The museum should do a show with some of these approximations next to the unpainted originals. Would be very cool to see

[@sergeantbigmac]

I was actually expecting them to do that at the end of the video, to show the recreations next to the originals in a special exhibit. Maybe its not what the viewing (paying public wants to see)

[@samueljaramillo4221]

I’ve been to the Met many times in the past thirty years and never get tired of it. The museum is so massive I’ve yet to see it all.

[@tomfurgas2844]

They are always adding to and changing the exhibitions, so most likely you never will exhaust your enjoyment and appreciation of The Met.

[@somewhereupthere785]

I think the beauty of a carved white marble statue is unparalleled. It will look different at sunrise, midday and sunset.

[@abdullah.a.nahyan]

Yes, YOU THINK, not the ancients!

[@hyacinthlynch843]

You're right, it does.

[@TheRio02]

Please make an extended full version of this series. Absolutely fascinating 💛

[@tommunyon2874]

I painted a ceramic nativity set that my wife produced in her ceramics class (approximately 1/6th scale). I left the colors in their full, bright shades without fake antique shading. I felt that the three-dimensional forms should take care of naturally producing the shading of the garment folds, and etc. I find it interesting how many have trouble viewing the figures without the artificial shading/aging.

[@acertainredpanda1115]

I love both the monochrome and painted statues. The monochrome statues have a kind of serene aesthetic about them, and they have played an important part in art history. But the painted ones look so vibrant and stunning and are like the original artist intended. Especially the reproductions displayed here look stunning.

[@robertschooner1812]

The MET is amazing I highly recommend any and all to visit the MET, and also the Cloister. Quite a bit of dark ages cabela'sism sculptures paintings tapestries etc. The architectural design of The cloister is in a beautiful Italian villa. The building itself along with the MET is in itself a work of art. And just walking into the MET gives the individual a sense of promenance. And the people and security that work there are impeccable! And I would also suggest a MoMA, and or the Guggenheim, that is one of the most fabulous things of New York is its museums!

[@lh3540]

they should do a digital projection overlay on the main collection pieces

[@rishabhthakkar8658]

This is so interesting!

[@boredgrass]

I once visited Ephesus and Delos. What a thrilling imagination:Envisioning them in these colours!

[@thehistorybuff1883]

Love this video, wish I could see the exhibit in real life. Thank you!

[@huntrrams]

This is amazing

[@somerandomname3124]

1:40 Shout out to Kremer Pigments. Gotta be one of my favorite pigment shops of all time.

[@derrickmarais]

Is there maybe a touch of the uncanny valley involved?

[@leilaskye8143]

Would watch the whole video

[@cristiancrigu5372]

Everything becomes so minoan with colors!

[@TheBritalianJob]

My problem with modern painted reconstructions is how they paint the marble like a child who is painting by numbers. The more archaic statues were PERHAPS like this, but we know from preserved wall frescoes from Greco-Roman antiquity that were painted in incredibly complex, with depth and shading, much like a renaissance masterpiece. Modern reproductions should match this skill level that painters clearly had, instead of making cartoons out of their reconstructions, at least if the statues were contemporaries of these skilfully painted wall frescoes.

[@BlueBeetle1939]

The problem is they only know the base colors for sure so guessing anything beyond that would be poor archeology I agree is looks strange I think they should do a version with the colors we know it had vs a full reproduction in an collaboration between historians and artists

[@RakkiOfficial]

@king doms I agree with you, they should (if they had time, money and so forth for it) also label them accordingly with "what colours we could find out they used" and "a version of what they could probably have looked like - an educated guess"

[@grandsome1]

Well there's the problem that most people are exposed to the reproduction in 2D images under artificial lighting, these basic colour probability create a whole other effect under sun or torch light and 3D vision.

[@grandsome1]

@Destiny Depends on the shade, technique and the extent of the trade network in a region. Some are easier to make vibrant than others, and every artists had their own secret often very expensive palette.

[@Monstrick1]

Sadly, but people working in museums and doing restorative works usually are not artist themselves, or have just basic understanding of the concepts. They are mostly historians and technicians. It is barbaric for them to even claim to have any expertise in the subject, let alone trying to recreate it.

[@larkmurry7808]

Merci, Vinzenz and Ulrike! Delicious...

[@johnmanole4779]

I personally like the white marble ones.

[@NolanFriedline]

Fascinating, thank you.

[@ericswain4177]

Wonderfully presented !

[@blancavelasquez9859]

i still love the old White marble look idc

[@whiskyfake]

Wish to know more about polychromy and how scientists reviving it.

[@TheCasimir94]

Absolutely love the idea of being able to see sculptures how they were intended! I still think the white is more beautiful but i want to be able to see the artists true vision

[@readhistory2023]

They look like cheap store manikins when they're painted. Loosing the paint was improvement.

[@4OTrue]

@@readhistory2023 They look cheap because they're not shaded, the historians and archealogists don't shade them because we don't have a way to know how they would have shaded or mixed the colors, we only know the base colors.

[@valroniclehre193]

I like the white better.

[@Space_Trucker]

Absolutely loved this video!

[@antonioacosta568]

Wonderful content. Thank you

[@naturalcambion3747]

Many of the medieval churches were painted in what would be considered garish colors. The simple and monochrome colors that are preferred in recent times seem to fulfill a need for simplicity and purpose.

[@wodanwandelaar593]

well obviously they werent considered garish otherwise they would not make them

[@mikeifyouplease]

Since they are not certain about the exact color or fine shading of the final (and missing) over-coats of paint, why not try coloring some of these Ancient statues based on Ancient texts and painting them as beautiful and realistically as the Ancients would have themselves wanted and would have been striving to achieve in their time?

[@k.t.5405]

min 4:10 Thank you Prof. Brinkmann 😊

[@woltews]

I would want to know what you are 100% sure of and what you are guessing about - ie we know it was blue but do we know it was a blue chequerboard in this orientation and with the non blue spaces being yellow ?

[@u.mazzeru3327]

Excellent video!

[@HeWhistlesTunes]

The best way to organize these statues. Does the Face match the Columns?

[@davidbrewer9030]

The same thing for Gothic sculptures on cathedrals which were painted.

[@jackoneill8719]

White is beautiful

[@guystudios]

Nope

[@HeWhistlesTunes]

Art is the fascination of ‘How to Aquire Wealth’

[@hiddenhist]

I actually entirely agree that many of the restored sculptures can look quite tacky and gaudy. But, well, so do many things in our modern culture. While I think we can assume that some sculptures were painted with far more naturalism in mind, I think we can do so while also accepting that the aesthetic we today consider gaudy might have simply been expected in the Roman era. It wouldn't at all be unique.

[@guystudios]

@@yeshummingbird very true!

[@AI-xs4fp]

It makes sense it was so tacky in the past but it doesn't make it better. At least it makes today's interpretation of white sculpture actually modern.

[@TrungTran-yg3uv]

Yo Caligula was hot

[@joelcole8950]

MORE!

[@dankshadows]

Why is the paint so flat/matte? The sculptures no longer look like marble.

[@1alayzzia]

So basically because they had nowhere near the technology we have today they must have been doing it for ideology? They sculpted in such life like detail but painted it like they were using crayons? In the ancient world they had much greater limitations on pigmentation and used layering a great deal. The remnants that are clinging to the sculptures today or that can be detected today could be base coats. Could they not cross reference descriptions of the statues themselves to get an idea or at least a clearer idea of how they were painted? The benefit of viewing a sculpture monochromatically is that you can see the detail of the sculpting more clearly.

[@phatato]

I personally like the unpainted ones more, the history is obviously important and you should know what the originals look like, but something about the void and blankness of the unpainted ones is so beautiful. In art/music/other forms of creativity, once in a while a reinterpretation is more interesting than the original, or you unintentionally come across something more interesting by accident.

[@lesussie2237]

These sculptures are in museums, not art galleries. The point of repainting them is for accuracy. Whether or not they're beautiful is up to you

[@warrenwalker8170]

duplicate them and paint them what's the hold up - both are nice

[@TealCheetah]

More on this subject, please

[@cambryn]

I wish the people recreating painted statues, especially from the Hellenistic and Roman eras, would take the time to shade them the way they would be shaded at the time.

[@guystudios]

@@yeshummingbird facts

[@orakulooo]

Sculptures were not shaded, because they are 3D already. The shades would form naturally under torchlight.

[@albertoarredondoart]

There is a documentary from the BBC on this “The History of Art in 3 Colors: White”.

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

If only, they would produce a picture of how the statue may have looked besides each one would be fantastic for people to understand how the original people saw their world, where we only see white stones.

[@thornil2231]

The cathedrals used to look like Disneyland or the fair haunted house... actually they were Disneyland. The more bombastic the better.

[@westvirginiaglutenfreepepp7006]

This is one of those historical facts we would call "unrealistic" if presented in fiction.

[@AT-AT-AT-AT]

his white guilt shows at 4:10

[@gingerkitty1425]

Caligula looks like Joffrey

[@McQueenPaul]

Interesting. I would not have guessed that marble statues had been painted. The ones I have mainly seen have been in the V & A in London, and they look mostly pristine.

[@royalbloodedledgend]

I think the unpainted ones look more elegantly honest. I’ve always felt painted sculptures look tacky.

[@thornil2231]

it's not about you honey...

[@rochelle2758]

In Western culture we’ve all been trained to feel that way. It’s fine to have a personal aesthetic preference, but this is about understanding who the Greeks and Romans actually were and what choices they made historically.

[@sbel6626]

@@rochelle2758 you can separate aesthetics from history. It’s okay to find the white versions more visually appealing while acknowledging that they’re basically a modern invention

[@royalbloodedledgend]

@@sbel6626 agreed

[@Ntyler01mil]

I think it's because they always paint them with flat, solid colors. I'm not sure how accurate that is. The Greeks and Romans produced fairly naturalistic frescoes and panel paintings with modeled coloring to evoke light and shadow, and the qualities of human skin; i.e. flushed cheeks, dark circles under the eyes, natural variation, etc. I find it difficult to believe that when it came to the final step with these elaborate sculptures, that they just applied flat colors with absolutely no variation.

[@alanbarnett718]

And we never do get to see Caligula colourised...

[@amyhannam8825]

You know who has an amazing set of skills painting 3D models of people? Wargame miniature painters. A collab would a) be delightfully unexpected b) properly begin to explore/rediscover the possibilities of this art form

[@ThecatofCheshire]

I wonder what other archeologists believe about this exhibition....

[@SenorTucano]

Well that was a waste of time

[@wilfriedholscher7029]

I still like the White

[@malcontender6319]

4:13 Surprised it took them this long. Brainlets.

[@reinapiratayquepaha]

It is a well documented fact of history, sacowea

[@steezyfpv7620]

🤔

[@mountain-roots]

Got your 👃 nose

[@simongregory3114]

Nice little woke bits in there. The mediterranean peoples, with their midtone skin, liked to leave the marble white because their skin was that colour? Was that a token nod to what you must say, or you believe that?

[@reinapiratayquepaha]

Maybe learn some history

[@simongregory3114]

@@reinapiratayquepaha Can you point me to something specific that could back up the insinuation that leaving white marble 'white' indicates white supremacy? Any more than painting the statues a colour approximating the mediterranean skin colour would have done? I'm always keen to learn some more history.

[@guystudios]

Cringe

[@SockAccount111]

@@simongregory3114 notice how they won't answer lol

[@ramkitty]

speculate much .. perhaps polychromy was considered idoltry or white was better representative of the purity of form of the divine spirit that guided the artist.

[@malcontender6319]

I can tell by your properly constructed and well reasoned answer that you aren't a leftist. And yeah, it's true: their ulterior agenda is out on display here.

[@theidioticbgilson1466]

they litterally were painted, this isn't a debate, the paint has faided but has left chemical residue, ancient authors talk about the colour of the statues

[@ramkitty]

@@theidioticbgilson1466 less so in the renaisance. the presentor fed into a biased speculation retroprojecting modern thinking on past. Greek/ roman were heavy with gaudy polychromy.

[@varalderfreyr8438]

@@theidioticbgilson1466 Yes, but for Christians maybe it was preferred to not have them painted, so that it isn't an object of worship.

[@theidioticbgilson1466]

@@varalderfreyr8438 please provide a source that classical christians removed paint from statues, monks kept reacords of everything, if they didn't reacord this practice then it's implausable

[@ShootinShark]

This is utterly nonsensical. It doesn't matter if the paint has worn off these statues, the figures depicted in them are still racially-White.

[@AbstractSloth]

Where did they claim otherwise?

[@guystudios]

Not in every case.

[@SockAccount111]

@@guystudios 99.9% of them would have been caucasoid, not even up for debate

[@AniBanerjee1]

You just have to try finding beauty in other cultures if you love colors.

[@andersliljevall2946]

I hope that they are now NOT beginning to "restore" all ancient sculpture

[@aditjulianna8]

👍

[@maximilian3544]

Some of those paintjobs look downright amateurish, compared to what they probably looked like irl.

[@martinfernandez882]

I disagree. Could you timestamp a downright amateurish paintjob? The paint patterns and colors are very archeologically informed. I literally have seen with my own eyes in the Metropolitan these little checker/zig zag motifs on their most famous Greek sphinx sculpture.

[@sundromos9456]

@@martinfernandez882 Can you timestamp a Van Gogh? Just curious how that works. And what value a timestamp offers to aesthetic assessment?

[@thomaslai1381]

@@sundromos9456 what they meant was within the video, indicate the point in time (say, at 1:14) which presents a close up of what Maximilian considers to be an inferior paint job. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the restoration; possibly the feeling of amateurishness in the restored reproductions is due to a feeling of garishness about the colours, or the fact that they simply flout our Classicist-conditioned expectation of bleached Classical statuary.

[@milliechalk8398]

I remember the outrage decades ago when a Saudi prince painted the marble sculptures all around his Beverly Hills mansion. Guess he knew what we didn't.

[@men_del12]

Wait, what did he do? Who was his name?

[@drmodestoesq]

Because the Wahhabi aren't allowed to have graven images?

[@user-ix1rp9ff3p]

@@drmodestoesq not just Wahhabi, basically Islam because Islam doesn't understand beauty, only a zealous obsession with their intolerant religion

[@matenzo]

Ewwww the colour versions look so cringe

[@rowanwax]

Wish they had shown more of the approximate painted statues instead of the bare ones. I have seen so many of those already… I only see pieces of painted statues: I am starving.

[@christopherbastas934]

With today's woke politics, nothing could go wrong with this idea. 🍿

[@jackalope07]

🤡

[@theidioticbgilson1466]

ah yes, the art of saying too much whilst saying nothing at all

[@guystudios]

Cringe

[@Genetherapy3232]

So is he saying that all the sculptures were colorful? Cause he never actually says it…. Lol

[@Pan_Galactic_Gargle_Blaster]

These modern renditions of the paint are a joke. The flat, solid colours are horrendous, unrealistic and embarrassing. Do you seriously think the people capable of carving these with such fine attention to the details of the human body would not paint them with similar focus on gradients, shading and skin tones?

[@readhistory2023]

Ever see a painted Greek/Roman statue? They look like cheap store manikins. Loosing the paint was improvement.

[@user-ix1rp9ff3p]

nope

[@cjbrod5067]

agree

[@s.r.7602]

Perhaps, but its a lie and distorts are view of how thr ancient world truly looked like.

[@golDroger88]

If the Rennaissance artists decided that they wanted to express their art through monochrome statues who are you today to say they were wrong? That's a very egocentric approach, you probably shouldn't work in art conservation.

[@charlesbeaudelair8331]

Ah... positivist science... one of the great achievements of western civilization... Refreshing.

[@indfnt5590]

Incredible he brought up the whitening of Europe. People wore mixtures to appear more white and pale. It definitely had an effect.

[@fashioningtheself]

My one critique is that these two scholars only make an oblique reference to "supremacy," completing sidestepping the issue of race. I suspect that the valorization of antique white marble was coeval with the development of early ideas of race. Nevertheless, kudos to Vinzenz and Ulrike Koch Brinkmann for their decades-long research on this important topic.

[@annawakitsch]

Perhaps they're hesitant to be more explicit because the actual skin tones of the reconstructions shown would seem to discredit that theory more than support it.

[@samanthachurch]

It's possible, but it's also much more likely that it was in someway a religious nod to something or other because the reformation was taking place and the concerns of the day were highly religious.

[@sundromos9456]

Bingo (that means you're onto something...). Maybe.

[@mandisaw]

They/he does explain the reason for hesitation - it's not their area of expertise. Certainly cultural historians are better equipped to put Renaissance [and 19th/20th] mores in context for modern audiences.

[@lotfibouhedjeur]

I know, but, yuck!

[@ImaginaryMdA]

This is so wild, it feels like such a big lie.

[@annawakitsch]

Interesting that my mildly critical comment was apparently censored, while obvious spam comments remain. Taking note.

[@annawakitsch]

Well, at least the spam gibberish has finally been removed from the comments along with my original comment which was quickly censored. Too bad the Met can't also edit the video to put in more of these nice archeologists' very interesting research instead of emphasizing the political gibberish, which he even generously admits is not their area of expertise, right after he says at 04:57 "I *would like to believe* that there is some sort of connection to ideological tendencies of the 20th century, totalitarian mindsets and so forth.” 😳 So.. you're actually *hoping* that your predecessors had evil motives for appreciating those sculptures whose existing state was bare marble or dark-patinated bronze, instead of repainting everything a light pinkish-beige with eyeliner and helmet-hair? "The whole issue is... suppressed" because of "totalitarian mindsets...." You mean like the way a major cultural institution censors comments that diverge from the narrative it’s pushing?

[@user-fd8fe9hk9q]

What was your original comment?

[@sundromos9456]

@@annawakitsch Bravo.

[@sundromos9456]

Or Brava. !

[@ShinyAvalon]

I was very disappointed when I saw _Gladiator_ and the statues in the Coliseum were plain white. It's been known for ages that they were painted; I expected better from Ridley Scott.

[@whototeru]

Almost dangerous?

[@aidanM92]

Great, I can't wait for Michelangelo's David to be painted to look like George Floyd...

[@PepeNuclear]

WE

[@photographedemode]

Vinzenz Brinkmann, his speculation on why White Marble became the norm in the 18th century and up to the 20th century, incredibly boring politically correct spin on history 👎

[@danielvaladez197]

He had to bing racism to this... how predictable.

[@madeline569]

Literally whitewashed 😂

[@TheGrifhinx]

So nice to see the world not prioritizing white for once

[@loicrodriguez2532]

???

[@rntablette9388]

a woke view of the world ? even if this explanation is a fake ?

[@NickManEA]

what are you on about? greeks are white people

[@TheGrifhinx]

@@NickManEA under what classification?

[@malcontender6319]

*Rolls eyes*

[@CarlEuegene]

But the items were bleached after they were stolen. 🙄 this is annoying.

[@RF24]

White is beautiful

[@boobio1]

his white guilt shows at 4:10