Whitewashed History: The Misunderstood Fact of Art in Classics

In consideration of historical heroes from ancient times, white marble statues often come into the mind of the audience first. This has resulted in racist ideologies such as white purity to become pervasive. However, as technology reconstructions have advanced and with surviving pieces, it is clear that artworks in the ancient world were often decorated with color. This article will demonstrate some examples of such works – through examination of both surviving pieces as well as with the aid of these new technological advancements – to diversify modern understanding of ancient works.

Allow us to begin around the 4th century BCE with the Etruscans. Found on the walls of a sarcophagus, the imagery of a Greek soldier battling an Amazonian quadriga is prominently featured with blazing red shields and reigns. The background is painted a light pink, adding all the more frenzy to the battle scene. [1]

Amazon quadriga battling Greek soldiers. Detail from the Sarcophagus of the Amazons from Tarquinia. Etruscan painting, 375 BCE.

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Flora found in the Villa Arianna

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

As we move on through time to the 1st century, we continue to see find color within artpieces. Found in Villa Arianna at Stabiae, a wall painting features the figure of a woman clothed in blue and yellow. Her hair has been tied up into a bun, crowned with a golden crown decorated with a few white blooms. In one arm was a bouquet, and with her other hand, she picked yet two more cream-colored flowers to add to the bouquet. The background has been painted a grassy green, adding more dimension to the image. With the addition of details such as the yellow of her bracelet, the young girl was brought to life on the walls of what was once a wealthy Roman Villa. [2]

Between the 1st and 2nd centuries, we continue to find statues with vivid coloring. Currently located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is the torso of a centaur (a mythological beast with the torso of a man and the body of a horse) crafted from rosso antico marble. [3] Though only the torso of the statue remains, scholars believe that the body of the centaur would have used another marble with different coloration, signifying yet another way for color to have been conveyed in the ancient world. [4]

Rosso Antico Torso of a Centaur

Photo Courtesy of the Met

But more important than demonstrating to the public the extent of color usage within the ancient world is discussing how color is twisted in the modern age. In particular, the alt-right’s (misinformed) belief that Graeco-Roman statues’white color promote their idea of white purity. This idea of white purity has escalated to become tied to synonymous with simply “Classics” or “Rome”. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported sightings at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, of SPQR flags flying, and of elements of SPQR in their poster for the rally. [5]

Poster for the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” Rally

Photo Courtesy of Splcenter.org

Websites such as altright.com (which boasts on their front pages a post titled “Why Anti-racism is Nothing but a Lie”) highlight this racism, containing content discussing Roman history , with a feature of Cicero, a symbol of Roman elitist culture, as a white marble statue in the background. [6]

Photo Courtesy of Altright.com, a truly entertaining website.

Athena Varvakeion, small Roman replica of the Athena Parthenos by Phidias

By Unknown, Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

(A photo of the Athena Parthenos in the MFA was unable to be retrieved for this website. Please visit the MFA website to see for yourself!)

Fortunately, several museums are making the effort to restore artworks to their former glory. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), for example, boasts a statue of Athena Parthenos. [7] Unfortunately, due to time and weathering, she is shown at first glance to be stark white. Recently, however, the MFA published a video that reveals the true colors of Athena. Though visible color has been stripped by exposure to two millennia of natural elements, trace elements of substances used for color remain on the surface of the statue. Through chemical testing, conservators were able to determine the color composition of the statue and, hence, return Athena to her former colors in a 3D model. Dressed in a fine gown colored a dark red, she stands tall with a blue and gold breastplate. Red and slightly curly hair flows down to her shoulders. It is apparent that she has a brown unibrow above her piercing blue-gray eyes.

The MET has also joined the effort to restore the color of ancient art. Chroma: Ancient Sculptures in Color –an art exhibition held from 2022-2023 – sought to reconstruct pieces such as an Archaic Grecian Sphinx. Each art piece within the exhibition is brought to life with a mix of vibrant reds and blues. [8]

Nevertheless, more work is needed to alter the public’s perspective. As further proof of the vibrantness of the ancient world surfaces, and with more projects such as Chroma or Athena being undertaken, hope is on the horizon.

Notes

[1] Sailko. "Sarcofago Delle Amazzoni." Wikimedia Commons. Last modified July 28, 2008. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcofago_delle_amazzoni,_lato_3,_03.JPG.

[2] ArchaiOptix. "Flora Barefooted Walking into the Depth." Wikimedia Commons. Last modified October 7, 2018. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_painting_-_Flora_-_Stabiae_(villa_di_Arianna)_-_Napoli_MAN_8834.jpg.

[3] Roman. "Rosso Antico Torso of a Centaur." The Met Museum. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248143.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Hatewatch Staff. "Flags and Symbols by Far-Right Groups in Charlottesville." The Southern Poverty Law Center. Last modified August 12, 2017. Accessed December 26, 2023. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/12/flags-and-other-symbols-used-far-right-groups-charlottesville.

[6] AltRight.com. Last modified October 13, 2017. Accessed December 26, 2023. https://altright.com/2017/10/13/honoring-our-history-episode-12-roman-republic-part-iii/.

[7] "Athena Reveals Her True Colors." Video. MFA Boston & Black Math. Accessed December 26, 2023. https://www.mfa.org/video/athena-reveals-her-true-colors.

[8] The Met Museum. "Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color." The Met Museum. Accessed December 26, 2023. https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/chroma.