Loco Rumola, young historiancould probably walk through the Greek and Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art blindfolded without knocking over a statue or sending an Athenian vase into the air.
Rumora remembered her trail through these ancient and famous halls ten years ago as a college intern, but when she returned this month, there were unfamiliar faces around every corner. It is flashy in comparison to the magnificent marble masterpieces that have impressed the public for over a century.
“My reaction was one of amazing showdowns,” Rumora said.FrasicleiaLarge brown eyes, a crown of lotus buds, and an auburn dress with embossed flowers.Chroma: Ancient Sculpture of Color” recalls how the Greeks and Romans painted sculpture, a practice called polychromy.
Rumola, who is now pursuing a PhD in art history at the University of Chicago, discovered these colorful copies existed among the original artifacts. “Whether they fill the gap depends on whether you consider the original statue to be missing in the first place,” he said.
For The Met Curators Behind “”saturation,” Such perplexity does not give pause, but conviction. The exhibition, which the museum called “groundbreaking”, dates from 2700 B.C. It is a vision of ancient sculpture up to the 3rd century AD. A career in reconstructing ancient lost colors through scientific investigation. Their project also coincides with recent academic efforts to correct the misconception that classical sculptures are usually made of unpainted white marble. myth of whiteness Adopted by some far-right organizations symbol of white supremacya more moderate conservative group claims to protect the cultural heritage of Western civilization.
“Brinkmann’s reconstructions are very exciting and interesting because they push the boundaries,” said Sarah Lepinski, curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-curator of Chroma. Sean Hemingway said. “Antiquities play a role in broadening our understanding of modern society.”
But some historians worry that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has elevated the increasingly ubiquitous Brinkmann replica to an iconic status that is becoming the default expression of ancient polychromy. The debate now involves more than disagreements about pigments and the scientific method. Some scholars see reconstruction as a larger debate about who can define the past.
According to University of Iowa historian Sarah E. Bond: widely written Regarding the polychrome discussion. “Why not let people choose to reconstruct, to show them that uncertainty is part of the historical method?”
Uncertainty is a scary word in academia. Some scholars are concerned that acknowledging their own limitations may alienate the public and undermine the authority of their institutions. But polychromatic experts extrapolating data from the few surviving examples of painted artifacts don’t have complete confidence. .
Vinzenz Brinkmann is the first to admit that the reconstruction needs to be revisited, as he and his wife did in 2019, almost a decade after completing the 6th-century BC painted replica. prize.Frasicleia— when they went back and added the gold plating and jewels that now grace Met replicas.
“What we do is formulate a proposal, and we ask the audience to read between the lines,” said Brinkmann, noting that more than 100 researchers have been involved in all of the couple’s projects over the decades. “Everything is considered the result of a process.”
The process has evolved since the Brinkmans started rebuilding as college students in the 1980s. Ludwig Maximilian University At one of Europe’s leading research institutes in Munich, Germany, researchers identified pigment traces by studying their “shadows,” microscopic surface changes that reveal paint. In recent years, technological advances have made their methodology more precise. According to Mr. and Mrs. Brinkman, using tools such as portable X-ray fluorescence and UV-Vis spectroscopy, he collects more than 500 measurements from one sculpture.
Due to its enduring lifetime, the Brinkmann replica has attained celebrity status, surpassing the authentic artifact.Their reconstruction is shown as the definitive representation of the past Wikipedia article And in big-budget video games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, takes place in ancient Greece. Much of its popularity can be attributed to the traveling exhibition of Mr. and Mrs. Brinkmann.gods of colorhas been presented since 2003 in venues such as the Vatican Museums, Harvard Museums and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.
Recognition of polychromy has been cyclical since the collapse of the Mediterranean empire hundreds of years ago. Johann Joachim Winkelmann, perhaps the most influential art historian since Giorgio Vasari in the Renaissance, published the concept of whiteness in ancient marble sculpture in 1764 in two of his books on the topic. I spread it. Historian Nell Ervin Painter wrote in his 2010 book:white history“Color in sculpture came to signify savagery, because they thought the lofty ancient Greeks were too sophisticated to color their art.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s unique study of ancient polychromy flourished under its third director. Edward RobinsonWitnessing archaeologists excavating sculptures bearing traces of paint from the Acropolis of Athens, influential paper As a result, the agency started getting more artifacts with pigmentation remnants.
one purchase ancient marble sphinx Brinkmann has recoloring For display using 3D printing technology, it is the result of collaboration with four departments of the MET, including scientific research and object preservation.
The reimagined sphinx has golden feathers on red and blue wings. A golden choker adorns the neck. It was clear in the research. But the Brinkmanns had to guess the final crown of this creature that archaeologists never found. They went with a gold wire curving to the right, a pattern found on Greek pottery illustrations.
according to Mark Abbe An art historian at the University of Georgia, he argues that the revival of ancient color in public discourse has been driven by the spread of globalization, the growing awareness of racism, and the use of color photography within academic textbooks, which were once printed only in black and white. Consistent with use. .
It also helped that the Met Museum was headed by an early supporter of the Brinkmann family.
In 2007, Max Hollein, then in charge of the Liebieghaus Sculpture Museum in Frankfurt, hired Vinzenz Brinkmann to head the museum’s antiquities and Asian departments. A reconstruction was seen a year later. In 2017, Hollein said,gods of colorAt San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum, he oversaw as curator and chief executive of the museum, and shortly after becoming curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019, eased the path for reconstruction to move to New York. .
Speaking on the phone, Hollein praised Brinkmann for his calculated risk-taking and called him a pioneer in continuously modifying replicas as more information became available. The second generation wasn’t at the level of sophistication that we see today.” I think it has tremendous educational value. “
Even among the lesser scholars, Brinkmann replicas are revered. “For our generation, the Brinkmann family has created a body of objects that we can relate to,” said Millet Geifmann, a professor of ancient art at Yale University.
However, of the 10 scholars interviewed for this article, more than half said the Brinkmanns chose overly bright hues and took a heavy-handed approach to their paintings that made the reconstructions look flashy. said to be taking One criticism is that the pair ignored the elements of lighting and fading that artists at the time expected in their work.
“Think of the Greek sun,” Geifmann said. Imagine the blue roofs of New England. They are not the same because the natural light is different. “
Art reviews of the exhibition have been mixed.Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott I have written The reconstruction “lacked the supposed authenticity of the truly ancient” but was “disturbing in all the right ways.” I am asking.”
Historians and antiquities experts have noted that the Brinkmann family chose to forego marble in the reconstruction in favor of gypsum and crystalline plastic. Marble tends to shine from behind the painted surface, while other materials tend to absorb pigmentation. The couple argue that the alternative is more cost-effective and has more impact on their audience.
Vinzenz Brinkmann said he conducted an experiment in 2008 in which he presented several critics (whom he called “tasteful guardians”) with two recreations made by the couple. rice field. Paramythion stone monument (380-370 BC): One was of high quality Tassian marble and the other of synthetic marble. When asked to choose the best replica, “They all failed and I chose synthetic marble,” he said.
“Everyone said the marble looked like Styrofoam,” added Brinkmann.
Mr. and Mrs. Brinkmann used a drill in high-quality marble and called in a craftsman with a chisel to hand carve it. Inevitably, they changed their character.
History is in some sense irreversible. “The best experimental reconstructions evoke a strong sense of the past, and the worst reconstructions create something that never was,” said art historian Abbe. “I think Brinkmann’s reconstructions are very suggestive of the characteristic, colorful and material-based aesthetics of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.”
As Met director Hollein put it, “It’s an iterative process to get closer and closer to the truth.” He added, “You’ll never get to the absolute truth.”