Tracing the colours of Hermogenes’ temple of Artemis: architectural surface analysis in the Antikensammlung Berlin

Abstract

The temple of Artemis at Magnesia on the Maeander (Western Turkey) is a milestone of Hellenistic architecture. Its architect, Hermogenes of Priene, was famously praised as an innovator already in Antiquity. While we know a good deal on the temple’s architecture, its accentuation with colour remains unknown. A collaborative research project in the Antikensammlung Berlin has now investigated three large marble fragments of the temple’s exterior façade for the remains of colour coatings. Using multiple methods of microscopic and physico-chemical analysis, it was possible, for the first time, to provide an insight into the temple’s exterior colour accentuations. It seems that the façade featured a colour scheme, in which white and yellow-brown hues played a key role, the latter probably for the painterly imitation of freshly cast or gilded bronze applications. Painted shading and colour highlights, applied with a careful consideration for spatial context and light conditions, completed the design. This is the first such evidence on a monumental temple façade. Remarkably, the applied design departs from the traditional colour triad of white, blue and red that was applied on many previous and contemporary temple facades throughout the Classical World. It imitates, however, a tradition of metal decoration that was a hallmark of sacred architecture.