"Gods in Color" Exhibition at Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco

A quite unique exhibition titled Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World (October 28, 2017 – January 7, 2018), in San Francisco's Legion of Honor Museum, allowed viewers to explore classical sculpture "restored" in their original vibrant colors.

According to the exhibit, some ancient artifacts still retained their original colors, while some colors were determined through chemical analyses to identify numerous preserved elements of bronze polychromy. "Ancient sculpture and architecture from Greece and Rome will be revealed as intended—garishly colorful, richly ornamented, and full of life—along with original sculpture from the Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome..."

To the thoroughly conditioned modern eyes, the idealized beauty of antiquities of purity, was wildly disrupted by bursts of bright and gaudy colors, if not violated. To be fair, when sculptures were yanked out of their natural settings, pure ones were easily to appreciate than multicolored ones, which might be more in harmony with sumptuous and brilliant settings of the origins.




















Reconstruction of a lion, 2012 (c 550BC)


Torso of Hermes 2nd C., Recon. B of the Cuirassed Torso, 2005 (c 470BC), Herakles








Alexander Sarcophagus








Figurine, 2nd C BC, Figurine, 2nd-1st C BC, Figurine of Eros, 3rd C BC, Figurine, 3rd or 2nd C BC


Red-figure volute krater, c 330-320 BC


Funerary lekythos with a young woman, c 375BC - Gods in Color (l) & DSCN0043 _ Grave stele of Poseides and his wife, c 275BC (r)







The exhibition also included a collection of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian antiquities, illustrating a range of painted colors, which are still visible on some of the artifacts.


Relief from the tomb of Mentuemhat, C 660BC


Relief of a gift bearer, c 490-470BC


Winged genius, 883-859BC


Egypto-Roman painted linen burial shroud (l) & Lion-shaped rhyton (libation vessel), c 1900-1800BC (r)

At the end of the show, samples of intensely colored pigments employed by the ancient people concluded this fascinating exhibition.



Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Exhilarating Exhibition - Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia at Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco
- My Favorite Paintings at Museum of Legion of Honor, San Francisco
- Birth of Impressionism at De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Venetian Masterpieces from Vienna at De Young Museum
- Post-Impressionism Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, De Young Museum, San Francisco 2010-11
- Get Ready for the Treasures from Musée d’Orsay