Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:53:35.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Polychromy in Africa Proconsularis: investigating Roman statues using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Noémie Kopczynski ,
Laurence de Viguerie ,
Elisabetta Neri ,
Nesrine Nasr ,
Philippe Walter ,
Fathi Bejaoui  and
François Baratte
Noémie Kopczynski
Affiliation:
UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, Centre d'Antiquité Classique et Tardive, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France
Laurence de Viguerie
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, UMR 8220, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France CNRS, UMR 8220, Laboratoire d'archéologie moléculaire et structurale (LAMS), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
Elisabetta Neri*
Affiliation:
UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, Centre d'Antiquité Classique et Tardive, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, UMR 8220, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France CNRS, UMR 8220, Laboratoire d'archéologie moléculaire et structurale (LAMS), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
Nesrine Nasr
Affiliation:
Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunis (INP), Musée National de Carthage, place de l'UNESCO, Tunis 2016, Tunisia
Philippe Walter
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, UMR 8220, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France CNRS, UMR 8220, Laboratoire d'archéologie moléculaire et structurale (LAMS), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
Fathi Bejaoui
Affiliation:
Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunis (INP), Ministère de la Culture, 4 place du Château, Tunis 1008, Tunisia
François Baratte
Affiliation:
UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, Centre d'Antiquité Classique et Tardive, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: elisabetta.neri@unicatt.it)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Colour was a key feature of Greek and Roman sculpture, but due to the current bare-marble appearance of many such statues, it is now frequently overlooked. This is illustrated here by the first study of polychromy in Roman statues from the province of Africa Proconsularis. Five sculptural fragments dating to the second and third centuries AD were examined using techniques including XRF analysis, and a variety of pigments were detected. The differing colour schemes presented by each of the pieces are here assessed, and consideration is given to the technical process by which they were coloured, the significance of their decoration and the potential for applying similar approaches in future studies of ancient statuary.

Keywords

TunisiaRoman Africastatuespolychromypigmentsvisual aestheticX-ray fluorescence
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 355 , February 2017 , pp. 139 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbe, M.B. 2010. Recent research on the painting and gilding of Roman marble statuary at Aphrodisias, in Brinkmann, V. (ed.) Circumlitio: the polchromy of antique and mediaeval sculpture: 277–89. Munich: Hirmer.Google Scholar
Baratte, F. & Chaisemartin, N. (ed.). 2015. Roman sculpture in North Africa, in Friedland, E.A., Sobocinski, M. Grunow & Gazda, E.K. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of Roman sculpture: 504–21. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, M. 2009. The importance of color on ancient marble sculpture. Art History 32: 427–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.2009.00666.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brecoulaki, H. 2006. La peinture funéraire de Macédoine. Emplois et fonctions de la couleur, IVe–IIes. av. J. C. Paris: De Boccard.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, V., Hollein, M. & Primavesi, O. (ed.). 2010. Circumlitio: the polychromy of antique and mediaeval sculpture. Munich: Hirmer.Google Scholar
Buisson, N., Burlot, D., Eristov, H., Eveno, M. & Sarkis, N.. 2014. The Tomb of the Three Brothers in Palmyra: the use of mimetite, a rare yellow pigment, in a rich decoration. Archaeometry 57: 1025–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caseau, B. 2014. La sort de la statuaire à la fin de l'Antiquité. Techné 40: 107–13.Google Scholar
Chaisemartin, N. (ed.) 1987. Les sculptures romaines de Sousse et des sites environnants. Rome: L'École française de Rome.Google Scholar
Courtois, L. & Velde, B.. 1981. Analyses de terres cuites et de céramiques à la microsonde, in P. Aupert & A. Hermary, Rapport sur les travaux de l’École française d'Athènes à Amathonte en 1980. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénistique 105: 1032–34.Google Scholar
Fermo, P., Andreaoli, M., Piazzalunga, A. & De Vos, M.. 2013. A multi analytical approach for the study of the pigments used in wall paintings from a building complex on the Caelian Hill (Rome). Applied Physics A 113: 1109–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7754-8 Google Scholar
Frazier, F. & Froidefond, C. (ed.). 1990. Plutarque. Œuvres morales (Tome V, 1ère partie): 20–22. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Gauckler, P. 1897. Catalogue du musée Alaoui. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Gros, P. (ed.) 2015. Vitruve. De l'architecture. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Jockey, P. (ed.). 2011. Les arts de la couleur en Grèce ancienne . . . et ailleurs (Actes du Colloque international organisé à l’École française d'Athènes, 23–25 avril 2009) (Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique supplément n° 135). Athènes: École française d'Athènes.Google Scholar
Jockey, P. 2013. Le mythe de la Grèce blanche. Histoire d'un rêve occidental. Paris: Belin.Google Scholar
Jockey, P. & Bourgeois, B.. 2005. Les dorures des marbres grecs: nouvelle enquête sur la sculpture hellénistique de Délos. Journal des Savants 2: 253–316.Google Scholar
Kakoulli, I. 2002. Late Classical and Hellenistic painting techniques and materials: review of technical literature. Reviews in Conservation 3: 56–67.Google Scholar
Kakoulli, I. 2009. Egyptian blue in Greek painting between 2500 and 50 BC, in Freestone, I., Rehren, Th. & Shortland, A. (ed.) From mine to microscope: advances in study of ancient technology: 101–12. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Liverani, P. 2004. I colori del bianco. Policromia nella scultura antica. Roma: De Luca.Google Scholar
Liverani, P. 2014. Per una storia del colore. La scultura policroma romana, un bilancio e qualche prospettiva, in Liverani, P. & Santamaria, U. (ed.) Diversamente bianco. La policromia della scultura romana: 9–32. Roma: Quasar.Google Scholar
Liverani, P. & Santamaria, U. (ed.). 2014. Diversamente bianco. La policromia della scultura romana. Roma: Quasar.Google Scholar
Mastrotheodoros, G., Beltsios, K.G. & Zacharias, N.. 2010. Assessment of the production of antiquity pigments through experimental treatment of ochres and other iron based precursors. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 10: 37–59.Google Scholar
Mendel, G. 1909. Catalogue des monuments grecs, romains et byzantins du Musée Impérial Ottoman de Brousse. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 33: 315–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1909.3216 Google Scholar
Merlin, A., Lantier, R. & Al Alawi, M.. 1922. Catalogue du musée Alaoui, 2e supplément. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Østergaard, J.S. 2008. Emerging colors: Roman sculptural polychromy revived, in Panzanelli, R., Schmidt, E.D. & Lapatin, K. (ed.) The color of life, the polychromy of sculpture, from antiquity to the present: 40–62. Los Angeles (CA): J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute.Google Scholar
Ozanam, A.M. & Bompaire, J. (ed.). 2008. Lucien. Portraits de philosophes. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Piovesan, R., Maritan, L. & Neguer, J.. 2014. Characterising the unique polychrome sinopia under the Lod Mosaic, Israel: pigments and painting technique. Journal of Archaeological Science 46: 68–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.02.032 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Primavesi, O. 2010. Artemis, her shrine, and her smile: Winckelmann's discovery of ancient Greek polychromy, in Brinkmann, V., Hollein, M. & Primavesi, O. (ed.) Circumlitio: the polychromy of antique and mediaeval sculpture: 24–77. Munich: Hirmer.Google Scholar
Quoniam, P. 1948. Sculptures trouvées à Oudna (Tunisie). Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire 60: 35–54.Google Scholar
Rosing, M.T. & Østergaard, J.S.. 2009. Preliminary results from geochemical analysis of pigments on ancient Greek & Roman marble sculptures, in Tracking colour: the polychromy of Greek and Roman sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, preliminary report 1: 41–47. Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.Google Scholar
Rouveret, A. & Walter, P.. 1998. Les stèles alexandrines du Musée du Louvre: apport des analyses techniques à l'histoire de la couleur dans les peintures hellénistiques. Revue Archéologique 1: 216–20.Google Scholar
Rouveret, A. 2004. Peintures grecques antiques: la collection hellénistique du musée du Louvres. Paris: Fayard-Louvre.Google Scholar
Rouveret, A. 2007. Couleurs et matières dans les peintures hellénistiques du musée du Louvre, in Descamps-Lequime, S. (ed.) Peinture et couleur dans le monde grec antique: 121–31. Paris: Musée du Louvre.Google Scholar
Rouveret, A., Dubel, S. & Naas, V. (ed.). 2006. Couleur et matières dans l'Antiquité. Textes, techniques et pratiques. Paris: Rue d'Ulm.Google Scholar
Sargent, M.L. & Hoberg Therkildsen, R.. 2010. Research on ancient sculptural polychromy with focus on a 2nd-century C.E. marble Amazon, in Tracking colour: the polychromy of Greek and Roman sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, preliminary report 2: 27–49. Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.Google Scholar
Schmitt, S. (ed.). 2013. Pline l'Ancien. Histoire Naturelle. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Solé, V.A., Cotte, M., Papillon, E., Susini, J. & Walter, P.. 2007. A multiplatform code for the analysis of energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectra. Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy 62: 63–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2006.12.002 Google Scholar
Spadavecchia, J., Alberic, M., Apchain, E., Fontan, E. & Reiche, I.. 2014. One-step synthesis of collagen hybrid gold nanoparticles and formation on Egyptian-like gold-plated archaeological ivory. Angewandte Chemie 126: 8503–506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ange.201403567 Google Scholar
Tissot, I., Troalen, L.G., Manso, M., Ponting, M., Radtke, M., Reinholze, U., Barreiro, M.A., Shaw, I., Carvalho, M.L. & Guerra, M.F.. 2015. A multi-analytical approach to gold in Ancient Egypt: studies on provenance and corrosion. Spectrochimica Acta B 108: 75–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treu, G. 1889. Bemalter Marmokopf im British Museum. Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 4: 18–24.Google Scholar
Verri, G., Opper, T. & Deviese, T.. 2010. The ‘Treu Head’: a case study in Roman sculptural polychromy. The British Museum Research Bulletin 4: 39–54.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Kopczynski supplementary material

Figures S1-S3

Download Kopczynski supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 389.3 KB