User:Athinaios/sandbox/Gods in Color

Archer from the western pediment of the Temple of Aphaia on Aigina; reconstruction, color variant A; as exhibited in Athens

Juxtaposition of the colored reconstruction and the weathered original of a bronze head in the Munich exhibition

Colored Gods (original title in German: Bunte Götter – Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur (painted gods – the polychromy of ancient sculpture) is a travelling exhibition of varying form and extent that has been shown in multiple cities worldwide. Its subject is ancient polychromy, i.e. the original, brightly painted, appearance of ancient sculpture and architecture.

Concept

The exhibition is based on the result of research on ancient polychromy, conducted especially by the Classical archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann since the early 1980s, based on earlier works by Volkmar von Graeve. Working together with Raimund Wünsche, the director of the Glyptothek at Munich, Brinkmann developed the concept for the exhibition, culminating in the original Munich show in 2003. It displayed copies of ancient sculpture in their recostructed painted appearance that had been produced during his studies, as well as new reconstructions created expecially for the exhibition, in conjunction with the originals or comparable ancient sculptures. Soon, it began to travel to other cities in Germany and beyond.

Since 2007, the exhibition and underlying resear]]ch receive support from a foundation created by the government of Bavaria, as well as private donations. After the original German catalogue produced for the 2003 Munich exhibition, new editions were issued for the 2008 showing in Frankfurt and the 2010 one in Berlin. An English catalogue was published for the 2008 showing in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University. In 2007 the Colored Gods formed part of the exhibition Color of Life – Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present at the J. Paul Getty Museum at Los Angeles, with contributions in the respective catalogue.

Dates

The Peplos Kore in various reconstructions at the Athens exhibit

So far, the exhibit has been shown in the following locations :

1. 16 December 2003 – 29 February 2004: Glyptothek, Munich
2. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
3. Vatican Museums, Rome
4. 11 August – 20 November 2005: Skulpturhalle, Basel
5. 2 December 2005 – 26 March 2006: Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam
6. 2006: Archaeological Museum, Istanbul
7. 9 January – 24 March 2007: as Πολύχρωμοι Θεοί/Polychromoi Theoi, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
8. 4 April – 1 July 2007: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
9. 22 September 2007 – 20 January 2008: as Gods in Color. Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts)
10. 6 March – 23 June 2008: Part of exhibition Color of Life – Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
11. 8 October 2008 – 15 February 2009: Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main
12. 6 March – 1 June 2009: Antikensammlung, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel
13. 18 December 2009 – 18 April 2010: Museum, Madrid
14. 13 July – 3 October 2010: Antikensammlung in the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin
15. 9 October 2010 – 30 January 2011: as White Lies, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm
16. 6 March – 31 July 2011: Georg-August-Universität, Archaeological Institute, Göttingen
17. 29 October 2011 – 20 May 2012: Heidelberg University
18. 28 June 2012 – : Kunstsammlungen, Ruhr University Bochum
19. 13 November 2012 – : Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Catalogues

• Vinzenz Brinkmann, Raimund Wünsche (eds.): Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur. Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, München 2004. ISBN 3-933200-08-3. [1. Ausstellungskatalog]
• Vinzenz Brinkmann, Andreas Scholl (eds.): Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur. Hirmer, München, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7774-2781-2 [3. Ausstellungskatalog]

Weblinks

• Stiftung Archäologie/Bavarian Archaeology Foundation
• Bunte Götter – German website on the exhibit