Colorful gods - the colourfulness of ancient sculpture

Archer from the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina; Reconstruction, color variant A; Exhibition in Athens

Comparison of the colored reconstruction and the original in its modern state of preservation; in the Munich exhibition

Colorful gods - The colors of ancient sculpture is the title of a traveling exhibition that is dedicated to ancient polychromy , the colored version of ancient sculptures and architectural components. Different in type and scope, it has been shown in different locations around the world since 2003.

Conception

The peploskore in various reconstruction versions in the exhibition in Athens

The exhibition is based on the research that the classical archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann carried out on ancient polychromy since the mid-1960s, building on the work of Volkmar von Graeve . Together with Raimund Wünsche , the director of the Munich Glyptothek , Brinkmann conceived an exhibition on ancient polychromy in 2003. In addition to copies of ancient works of art that had already been reconstructed in the course of the research work, new works created for the exhibition in connection with their ancient originals or comparable ancient works of art were shown. Soon after, the exhibition was shown in other cities as well. At the instigation of the Bavarian State Government, the Archeology Foundation was set up in 2005 to promote further research and the organization of further exhibitions. Leibniz Prize winner Oliver Primavesi has also been supporting further research with his prize money since 2007 .

A first catalog was written in 2003 for the exhibition in Munich, followed in 2008 by a second, revised version for presentation in Frankfurt's Liebieghaus , whose curator Brinkmann had become the previous year. A third, expanded catalog was created in 2010 on the occasion of the exhibition in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin . A catalog in English has been published for the exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University . In Los Angeles , the exhibition was part of the exhibition Color of Life - Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present at the J. Paul Getty Museum , and contributions were also made to the catalog. For the exhibition Color de los dioses. Policromía en la antigüedad clásica y mesoamericana en Bellas Artes in Mexico City 2016/17, Mesoamerican sculptures were also included in the exhibition concept.

The color copies have been in the possession of the Frankfurt Liebighaus since 2016.

Events

So far the exhibition has been shown in the following locations:

from to Place of issue place comment December 16, 2003 February 29, 2004 Glyptothek Munich Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Copenhagen Vatican Museums Rome August 11, 2005 November 20, 2005 Sculpture Hall Basel Basel December 2, 2005 March 26, 2006 Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam 2006 2006 Istanbul Archaeological Museum Istanbul January 9, 2007 March 24, 2007 National Archaeological Museum Athens as Polychromoi Theoi April 4, 2007 July 1, 2007 Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg September 22, 2007 January 20, 2008 Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts as Gods in Color. Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity March 6, 2008 June 23, 2008 J. Paul Getty Museum los Angeles Part of the exhibition Color of Life - Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present October 8, 2008 February 15, 2009 Liebieghaus Frankfurt am Main March 6, 2009 June 1, 2009 Antique collection in the Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe kassel December 18, 2009 April 18, 2010 Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid Madrid July 13, 2010 October 3, 2010 Antique collection in the Pergamon Museum Berlin October 9, 2010 January 30, 2011 Medelhavsmuseet Stockholm as White Lies March 6, 2011 July 31, 2011 Georg August University , Archaeological Institute Goettingen October 29, 2011 May 20, 2012 Antikensammlung of the University of Heidelberg Heidelberg June 28, 2012 October 28, 2012 Art collections of the Ruhr University Bochum Bochum November 13, 2012 17th March 2013 Art History Museum Vienna April 11, 2014 August 10, 2014 Museum of the University of Tübingen Tübingen January 22, 2015 June 14, 2015 Ashmolean Museum Oxford as Gods In Color: Painted Sculpture in Antiquity October 11, 2016 January 8, 2017 Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico city as Color de los dioses. Policromía en la antigüedad clásica y mesoamericana en Bellas Artes October 28, 2017 January 7, 2018 Legion of Honor San Francisco January 30, 2020 August 30, 2020 Liebieghaus Frankfurt am Main as Gold Edition ; Exhibition for the 40th anniversary of polychromy research in Germany Catalogs Vinzenz Brinkmann , Raimund Wünsche (editor): Colorful gods. The colors of ancient sculpture . Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-933200-08-3 . (1st exhibition catalog) Vinzenz Brinkmann, Raimund Wünsche (editor): Gods in color. Painted sculpture of classical antiquity. Exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums in cooperation with Staatliche Antikensammlung and Glyptothek Munich, Archeology Foundation Munich, September 22, 2007 - January 20, 2008. Biering & Brinkmann, Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-930609- 54-3 . Vinzenz Brinkmann, Raimund Wünsche (editor): Colorful gods. The colors of ancient sculpture. An exhibition of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in cooperation with the Staatliche Antikensammlungen and Glyptothek Munich and the Archeology Foundation and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, April 4 to July 1, 2007. 4th, expanded and revised edition. Hamburg 2007. ISBN 3-923859-71-6 . Vinzenz Brinkmann (editor): Colorful gods. The colors of ancient sculptures. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main 2008. ISBN 978-3-98097-016-7 . (2nd exhibition catalog) - Catalog for the exhibition October 8, 2008 - February 15, 2009. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Andreas Scholl : Colorful gods. The colors of ancient sculpture. Hirmer, Munich, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7774-2781-2 (3rd exhibition catalog) - catalog for the exhibition in Berlin, Pergamon Museum July 13, 2010 - October 3, 2010 Vinzenz Brinkmann, Oliver Primavesi , Max Hollein : Circumlitio. The Polychromy of Antique and Medieval Sculpture. 2010. Sabine Haag , Vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann: Colorful gods. The colors of ancient sculpture . Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna 2012. ISBN 978-3-99020-031-5 Vinzenz Brinkmann, Miguel Fernández Félix and others (editors): El Color de los dioses. Policromía en la Antigüedad clásica y Mesoamerica. Exhibition catalog Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 2016. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Renée Dreyfus, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann (editors): Gods in Color. Polychromy in the Ancient World. Exhibition catalog Legion of Honor, San Francisco 2017. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann (editor): Colorful Gods - Golden Edition. The colors of antiquity. Exhibition catalog, Prestel, Frankfurt 2019, ISBN 978-3-7913-5936-6 . Web links Commons : Colorful Gods  - Collection of images, videos and audio files Archeology Foundation Colorful gods - the colorful world of the ancient Greeks Digitorial - Colorful Gods Citizen of the world based in Frankfurt “Colorful Gods” - a successful Frankfurt project is conquering the Internet Individual evidence ↑ Homepage Liebieghaus Homepage Liebieghaus ↑ Hem. Retrieved June 2, 2020 (Swedish).  ↑ Georg-August University of Göttingen - Public Relations: Colorful Gods - The colors of ancient sculpture - Georg August University of Göttingen. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .  ^ Antique museum and collection of casts. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .  ↑ "Colorful Gods" in the RUB art collections ↑ Colorful Gods The color of ancient sculpture. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .  ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   ↑ Gods In Color: Painted Sculpture in Antiquity | University of Oxford. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .  ↑ EL COLOR DE LOS DIOSES: POLICROMÍA EN LA antigüedad CLÁSICA Y MESOAMÉRICA. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .  ^ WORLD: "Gods in Color": Colorful gods show in San Francisco . In: THE WORLD . November 4, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed June 2, 2020]). ↑ Colorful Gods - Golden Edition. The colors of antiquity. In: OPUS culture magazine. January 16, 2020, accessed on June 2, 2020 (German).