The Color of life: polychromy in sculpture from antiquity to the present

Abstract

This is the first comprehensive examination of an historical range of sculptors' use of polychromy to enliven figural works. Ever since antiquity, sculptors have used coloured materials and tints to give a lifelike quality to three-dimensional portraits and statues, yet the term 'sculpture' tends to evoke images of white marble.This is the first comprehensive study to examine a broad historical range of sculptors' use of polychromy to enliven figural works. This important volume presents five essays on polychromy in Classical Greece through contemporary sculpture, along with individual discussions of over forty extraordinary works, from Old Kingdom Egypt to the present day, including sculptures whose polychromy has only recently been discovered, analysed, or reconstructed through advanced technical evaluation.