Sculpture show of a different color

A Trojan archer is one of 20 reconstructions on display in "Gods in Color" at Harvard's Sackler Museum. (Courtesy stiftung archäologie, munich)

CAMBRIDGE - Imagine gussying up Michelangelo's David with rosy cheeks and brown hair.

It would be sacrilege. Michelangelo's concern was liberating the human form from stone. He took his cue from the sculptures of classical antiquity, which set aesthetic standards we still cherish. And they were pristine and unadorned. Right?

Not at all. Most ancient Greek and Roman sculptures were painted. Bright ochre, vermilion, and lime green adorned their clothing; browns and blues went into their hair and eyes; some of the bronze busts had gems inlaid in their eyes. "Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity" at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum deals a thrilling blow to a popular notion - indeed, a paradigm of beauty and purity - of monochromatic ancient sculpture. Setting polychrome reconstructions alongside original sculptures, it's a carnival of color, parading wild patterns and gaudy tones. The traveling show originated at Munich's Glyptothek and makes its first US stop here.

None of this is truly news. Specialists have long known that pigments adorned ancient sculptures. Ancient Greek literature refers to sculptors working in tandem with painters. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a vase depicting a man applying paint to a statue of Herakles; it dates to 360-350 BC. Contemporaneous Egyptian works were clearly painted.

When archeologists in the 19th century excavated many ancient Greek ruins, pigments were evident on several unearthed pieces. Scholars and artists at the time set to re-creating them in full color. In 1891, the Museum of Fine Arts mounted a show on the subject.

But after the early years of the 20th century, general interest declined. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Harvard's curator of ancient art, says the painting on classical sculptures "has been studied by so few people. The biggest obstacle has been our own preconceptions." And even though we may know intellectually that ancient statues were painted, the brilliantly toned reconstructions in "Gods in Color," with their riotous patterns and alert gazes, are a shock to behold.

Reconstructions in such detail are possible now in part thanks to advances in technology. German researcher Vinzenz Brinkmann has spearheaded this work for the past 25 years. In addition to his trusty flashlight, which reveals unexpected finds on the surfaces of sculptures, he employs ultraviolet light, which shows ghosts of paint patterns. He and his team deploy even more high-tech tools such as polarized light microscopy and X-ray fluorescence to examine the pigments. They then use 3D scanners to create plaster and synthetic marble reconstructions, which Brinkmann has painted by hand using the same kinds of mineral pigments classical painters would have mixed themselves.

It's hard to tell how accurately they reproduce the original colors. Often, upper layers of pigment eroded and left only the first layer. "It's standard to find red in the hair or iris," says Ebbinghaus. "But it's unlikely that so many Greeks had red hair, and even less likely that they had red eyes."

Brinkmann makes educated guesses, based on pigment analysis, literary references, and the coloring on ceramic relics, which have been better preserved than ancient sculptures. The earlier the statue, the simpler the pigmentation, says Ebbinghaus. As time went on, classical artists began to mix pigments and add layers of color to skin and clothing.

In all, there are 20 reconstructions in "Gods in Color," each as dramatic and telling as the next. It's a good selection, ranging from the earlier, stiffer Archaic Era (600-480 BC) through the increasingly realistic and dramatic sculptures of the Classical (480-330) and Hellenistic (330-31 BC) eras in Greece and pieces of the Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, the color research opens much of the work up to new interpretations.

An Archaic Era sculpture of a young woman excavated from the Acropolis in 1886 had blue, green, and red traces. Archeologists called it "Peplos Kore" (530 BC). Korae were statues of girls, perhaps the daughters of Athenian aristocrats; peplos is the name of a 5th century BC garment.

Close examination revealed that neither peplos nor kore is likely a correct appellation. Brinkmann found tiny depictions of animals across the middle and near the feet, typical of an animal-frieze garment generally worn by gods and priests, but not of a peplos. This is probably no girl; it may well be Athena herself, or possibly the archer goddess Artemis.

Two reconstructions of "Peplos Kore" are on view. One fills in only the known reds and greens in her hair, eyes, and clothing. For the other, Brinkmann speculated about some tones: Red hair and eyes have been overlaid with dark ochre to make brown; the garment is painted ochre, and she's been given a warm ivory skin tone.

"Gods in Color" dramatically illustrates the power of color in composition and storytelling. It makes sense that architectural sculptures, sometimes perched below a roofline, should need color to be read from a distance. Reconstructions of the pediment sculptures of the Aphaia Temple on the Greek island of Aegina (circa 490-475 BC) are a spectacle. In the west gable tableau, Greek and Trojan warriors and archers go to battle, in the center of which a regal Athena stands. The Trojan archer Paris, who sparked the Trojan War when he made off with Helen, kneels at one end, taking aim.

Brinkmann used a flashlight, shined from the side, to illuminate the details in Paris's fantastic costume. A UV light revealed an intricate diamond pattern on his leggings, exquisitely and realistically painted so that it stretched and compressed with the archer's legs. The detail is miraculous; Brinkmann's team was even able to determine the direction of Paris's gaze. Another archer, in Greek costume - short armor with rectilinear designs, bare legs, and a helmet - makes a vivid contrast to his Trojan counterpart.

Other reconstructions include a scene on the Alexander Sarcophagus (320 BC) depicting a battle between Greeks and Persians. The Greek warriors appear nude, the better to show off their beauty. The Persians wear brightly decorated long pants, skirts, and coats.

The despotic Roman emperor Caligula appears appropriately young and almost fey, with gold eyes and brown hair, in a reconstruction of a statue (39-41 AD) made late in his reign.

Harvard has supplemented the exhibit with works from its own collection, including prehistoric sculptures (2500-2400 BC) from the Greek Cycladic islands, which still bear patterns of red dots. A painted reconstruction of a Persian relief of the god Ahura Mazda (486-460 BC) doesn't pack the punch of the Greek and Roman pieces, though.

It's grounding to see true antiquities beside Brinkmann's reconstructions, which have such comic-book pizzazz they seem almost unbelievable. While many questions remain about painted classical sculptures, "Gods in Color" makes boldly clear that history is not what we have pictured. The ideal forms of physical beauty and realism have not changed. They're just a lot more colorful than many of us ever imagined.