Closing soon: Met’s Chroma, revealing colorful truth of ancient sculpture

Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, reconstruction of marble finial in the form of a sphinx (detail), 2022. 3D print in polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gilded copper, gilded tin, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung (Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project), Frankfurt am Main; original: Greece, marble, circa 530 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, reconstruction of marble finial in the form of a sphinx (detail), 2022. 3D print in polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gilded copper, gilded tin, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung (Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project), Frankfurt am Main; original: Greece, marble, circa 530 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, reconstruction of marble finial in the form of a sphinx (detail), 2022. 3D print in polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gilded copper, gilded tin, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung (Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project), Frankfurt am Main; original: Greece, marble, circa 530 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK – Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture was once colorful, vibrantly painted, and richly adorned with detailed ornamentation. On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 26, Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color reveals the colorful backstory of polychromy — meaning “many colors” in Greek — and presents new discoveries of surviving ancient color on artworks in the Met’s world-class collection. Exploring the artistic practices and materials used in ancient polychromy, the exhibition highlights cutting-edge scientific methods used to identify ancient color and examines how color helped convey meaning in antiquity, and how ancient polychromy has been viewed and understood in later periods.

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